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Yola on the ‘Gig Energy’ of Playing Persephone in Broadway’s ‘Hadestown,’ and Why She’s Taking a Turn in Her Music Career to Do Things Her Way


The singer-actor Yola talks about taking on the role of Persephone in Broadway's 'Hadestown,' her new single 'Future Enemies,' and coming 'My Way' EP.

But the EP, “My Way,” finally has a firm release date, on Nov. 15, and has been preceded by a single, “Future Enemies,” that presages new directions Yola is taking now that she says she is assuming greater control of her musical destiny. Recording now for S-Curve after an initial solo stint with Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye, Yola is picking a lane that is less Americana and more soul — specifically, a hybrid of the genres she came up being a part of in her early career in Britain — although fans she’s already turned into lifetime converts won’t likely be daunted by any gear-shifting. There’s something super fun about catching the movement of the turntable, and that interplay with me and Hades, played by the epic Phillip Boykin, who is an opera singer and classically trained vocalist of many, many octave range and can sing bass to metzo without really that much challenge.

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