The inaugural edition of SoccerBible Volumes, our new special edition print publication, is over 300 pages jam packed with a spoiling of talent, but as always its not just restricted to the artists from the pitch. Helping form the eclectic mix of personalities that manifests as the new football culture, we caught up with singer songwriter and huge football fan, Sasha Keable.
Such soul and spirit. Sasha Keable has a sound that both warms and cools the mind. A real force of positivity, her journey through music has been one of beautiful evolution while her connection to football is powerfully pure. An acute line of sight that has seen both industries from behind the scenes, it’s with the excitement of new music and a summer of liberation that this supremo will shine once more.
So before we get into football, what was your upbringing like musically? Was it a creative household?
I wouldn't necessarily say it was super-creative. My dad and my mum are both really into music but no one was really pushing me to do creative shit, I just kind of fell into it on my own. My dad played guitar and I would sing with him, I guess that's pretty creative. I always think if you are from a creative household your parents are creative or whatever.
Who was around that influenced your tastes then?
I guess my dad a lot. My dad was really into Metal when I was a kid and Hip Hop. He would play a lot of, I think The Chronic was my first album that I knew word for word apparently. Then my mum would listen to a lot of Colombian music, she listens to Budjen Ados and Cumbia, which is classical Columbian music and then my older sister was really into R&B. She would play a lot of R&B, Pretty Ricky, Aallyah so that's where that came from. Then my uncle was the one that showed me proper soul music like Donny Hathaway. I remember hearing Donny Hathaway for the first time and being blown away, how is this coming from this person? That’s still my music that I have clung on to. That's the music I love more than anything and I take most of my inspiration from. My step dad showed me all about Dance and House music because he was really into that.
An amazing melting pot. With your mum being from Colombia, how blessed do you feel to have been able to experience different cultures from early on in your life?
Massively. Even to be able to experience that at first hand throughout my whole life, not just as a music point of view, from a life point of view. It is another world, Colombia, to hear anyway. So being exposed to that my whole life was just sick. I think it really shows you who you are and I’m really lucky. I mean Colombian music is hard as well, culturally amazing.
World Cups, the Euros: I’m like 'get me to the pub, let me just watch every game!'"
What about that relationship with London? How proud are you to live and be part of the city?
Proud is an understatement. I love London. It is a melting pot in itself, you are exposed to so many different things, so many cultures, it's wicked, just a sick place to grow up and live.
What is it like, in your words, to grow up in London and how prevalent is football for anyone?
I think growing up in London is just different. I feel like people in London are just different to the whole world. Maybe that’s really stupid of me to say but I do just think you are a very different person to everyone else if you grow up in London.
It's a very English thing to be into football anyway so no matter where you turn you will always be exposed to football. I played football and before I wanted to be a singer I wanted to be a footballer. I was going to move to America to do the whole thing, then I thought I would do singing instead.
I was exposed to football a lot growing up because my step dad worked as head of sports science for Blackburn Rovers. Then he moved to Chelsea and was head of sports science at Chelsea, he moved with Carlo Ancelotti to PSG, then he unfortunately died when he lived in Paris. I was always at games. We ate, lived and breathed football. It was constant at our house, so it was a massive part of my life it always has been.
Can you remember that first touch point? The first time it came into your life?
I used to be a Liverpool supporter when I was a kid, I was a proper tomboy. I just loved being around boys and I really fancied Michael Owen. My mum was with my stepdad and he became really interested in my Sunday league, coming and coaching us all. It was always a massive part of my life, it was what I did. I would train twice a week and then play on Sundays. Everyone would get together, obviously not us, but the adults would have a drink and still be kicking the ball about.
There wasn't that mass representation in terms of actually being able to turn it into a career back then, but like you say, in America…
No and that's why I wanted to go to America, because of Bend It Like Beckham, I was like “Ok, sweet, that's what I need to do.” That's why I wanted to go to America because that's where they make the money.
What about football shirts, were you into them as a kid?
We didn't have the money to get new kits all the time, but I had an England shirt that I used to wear to absolute death. I never actually had a Liverpool shirt, I just used to wear an England shirt or Colombia shirt. That was just my two kits, I wasn't too into teams. But once my step dad started working for Chelsea then I was a Chelsea supporter, this just feels right. I felt like I found my home. Then I started buying Chelsea tops when I got older and now I’ve got fucking so many footbal shirts, I need to chill!
They are quite an extension of someone's personality, in that you wear so outwardly. It's like a statement when someone walks in with a football shirt. Can you see them being worked more into your wardrobe? They have moved away a little bit from the 90’s...
They definitely have shifted a bit. I still don't know if I would wear a football shirt just out, if there wasn't a game going on. I wouldn't wear my Chelsea shirt out. I have a vintage 1994 Colombia shirt that I would probably work into my wardrobe somewhere because this is just a sick shirt.
Last year I had a football shirt party for my birthday, everyone had to wear a football shirt. I had a dress made, I bought an old England football kit, I actually had the exact same kit when I was a kid. It was a 1999 England kit with the blue lines across it, I don't know if you remember it, I got an old Chelsea shirt with Ashley Cole on the back of it. I got an old Colombia shirt, another old Chelsea shirt and I got my friend to make a dress of them. It was sick, it was so good. It was just good to see everyone in their football shirts repping their team or their dads team, it was so fun.
That's ideal festival attire. You need to get that back out. What was it like with your step-dad seeing the behind the scenes side of football?
It was a big insight, there was always gossip going on between players and my step dad would obviously tell us. I mean you see how much work goes into it behind the scenes and how much the staff actually put up with. It's a fickle world, one day they all got fired from Chelsea him and Carlo were like “What the fuck are we going to do?” Then PSG came up and Carlo asked “Do you want to come with me” and you see a whole team can get fired just because a manager has been taken off, because people don't want to work with people under the previous manager, so it was really interesting.
We have loads of friends that work in football, we are still close to the Ancelotti family, it’s just the weirdest world it really is the strangest world to grow up in. Especially because we are not making bank, like the players, my step dad worked 14 hour days pretty much everyday. He was really humble and kept it chill, he definitely could have made more money if he was a bit arse-licky but he wasnt like that.
I had an England shirt that I used to wear to absolute death. I just used to wear an England shirt or Colombia shirt – that was my two kits."
What about Cheslea then, are they your team?
Yeah they are definitely my team now 100 percent. We had my step dads wake underneath Stamford Bridge. Chelsea paid for the whole funeral because he was a massive part of the team and loads of players came to his funeral, it was really nice.
The women's football team has become a bit more of a powerhouse and that whole side of the game is growing massively. It must excite you to see stuff like that changing massively?
It's so nice to see women actually being praised for their accomplishments in football. The England women's team always does better than the men's, it's about time women had their time to shine in football. That they are taken just as seriously as the men and given just as much fucking pay, its a joke.
Let’s talk about community … Music has a beautiful way of bringing people together in the same way as football does, is that something that you obviously love about both worlds, being able to bring people together like that?
You feel the same camaraderie at a football game that you feel at a gig. You are all there to see the same person as you do at a match. Everyone is just in this moment together. For me, even when I was younger, we had a playlist that we used to play on the way to matches every week without a doubt. We had four girls in the back of the car singing these tunes and there's so many songs that I relate to football, very directly and to that part of my life.
What was the biggest banger on that playlist?
“I like the way you shake your hair, I like the way you move.” (Bodyrockers – I Like The Way You Move) This is more because of Bend It Like Beckham, (Singing Basement Jaxx – Do your thing) but there's bare bangers. I need to remember all of them and make the same playlist again. It was definitely burnt onto a CD and just chucked out at some point.
Do you like the idea that your music can help people escape or change someone’s mood? That's a nice thing you are able to do and give people.
Yeah 100 percent That's why we do it, as an escape. When I’m really down I will put on a tune and it will instantly lift me out of my mood a bit and I can get the kitchen cleaned, I can wash my bedsheets, get in the shower when I'm really down or depressed. It's just a sick way to get your mind off of what is actually going on in your life, or give you an extra boost to be able to get some shit done.
For me that's why I love making music because if I can do that for someone else thats fucking mad. People message me all the time, as if my tune has actually done that for you? Because I rely on that so heavily from other tunes my own tunes don't do that to me. It's nice to know I am able to provide that for other people, from doing something that just comes naturally to me.
How does it feel to be able to release music, a couple of years on from the last track. What the last couple of years have been like?
This whole project was supposed to come out last year, it's already a year delayed. Im just fucking happy we are able to release music. We can’t tour it, we can't play shows and that's the best part of the job for me. I'm happy that with Spotify we can still release music and people can still listen to it, I'm glad I’ve still got a fucking career to be honest, its been fucking hard. Now that we are back in the swing of it and releasing stuff again, it feels like we never left.
Have you had to deal with that early on in your career? That doubt and insecurity?
Oh my god yeah. There was a four year period where I didn't release music because it wasn't for me, not going to do it. I just can't deal with all this bullshit, I went through so much shit with labels and managers. I feel I've wanted to give up music more times than I can count. I'm really happy that I didn't and I kept going. But everyone was doubting themselves especially during covid, it was so hard to see where your place was in the world. I just felt so useless, I wasn't good for anything, so to be able to be out of that and actually releasing, thank god I didn't let my head get the better of me.
By releasing a track and getting back into the swing of things has it given you your identity back a bit?
This is my place in the world, making music. When we can play live shows again then I will feel a lot better about everything, just let me play live, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. But we will get there eventually I'm sure.
The England women's team always does better than the men's, it's about time women had their time to shine in football."
What is the dream? What is your equivalent of a Wembley cup final?
Brixton Academy. When I play Brixton Academy I will fucking ball my eyes out – on stage! I will be in my area playing this venue that I have seen so many people in. That will be crazy.
In a summary, how are you going to boss 2021? Does it feel like you have all this pent up energy?
I'm just ready to go, I'm like a racehorse and the gates are about to open. Let's do this. I'm just ready to be active and get so much shit done. I really want to do some collaborations this year, I need to start writing again for the next project. There's a lot that need to be done. When we can just see people and just go out, I need to go out and get some inspiration of what to write. There's no writing coming from me sitting in my yard all day doing fuck all.
What about the summer – the Euros – have you got good memories of watching England and those summer tournaments?
World Cups, the Euros, I’m like "get me to the pub, let me just watch every game". I just love chatting to people and I just love football like that, that's why I love football. To sit in a pub and have a great time with your friends. Even with people you don't know and hug people you don't know when you score. It's just great, I love it.
How big a party would you have if England did alright this summer?
Oh my god massive, it would be curtains.
Styling by Jake Hunte
Hair by Beth Kucic
MUA Luz Giraldo
Pick up a copy of SoccerBible 'Volumes' – Summer ‘21 ‘Utopia’ Edition exclusively at prodirectsoccer.com
