To Make Her Debut Album, ‘After Midnight,’ Gyakie First Had to Find Inner Peace

Growing up the daughter of Ghanaian highlife legend Nana Acheampong, the demands of exposure are a position that Gyakie understands all too well and one she is constantly trying to balance.

One of the ways the singer is able to maintain that sense of balance is by reaching back to the past, to time periods when everything was simpler and life had a softer edge around it.

“I feel like I discovered some peace of mind from back in the days,” Gyakie explains, considering her words and allowing herself time to mull over each sentence, so that when she releases them, they carry a charming ring of someone who is reflexively honest. “Anytime I'm wearing some vintage outfit, it’s because at that time, life was really peaceful. When I put them on, I feel at peace, and it takes me back because everything right now in the world is just not fun anymore.”

This reaching back to the past and into moments of wonder also forms the backbone of her brilliantly delivered debut album, After Midnight.

In a world barreling towards hyper-division along various lines and a disorienting surveillance culture that has worsened with the penetration of social media, Gyakie is in constant pursuit of life beyond the screen. A life that’s trimmed with contentment and a staggering self-awareness. This debut serves as a perfect repository for this pursuit.

After Midnight is a thrilling project featuring a blend of R&B, soul, and Afropop stringed together with clever lyrics — roving the rough but also tender plains of love, desire, and contemporary romance. The album took nearly three years to complete and began with a conversation Gyakie had with her manager about moving on to a much larger project following a slew of hit singles and two EPs. But the making of the album, Gyakie says, was a task whose heft she hadn’t anticipated.

“It’s sincerely a lot of work,” the 25-year-old says. “Just looking at how much work needs to be put into a body of work, anybody that sees an artist that has an album should really give them their flowers because to work on an album is not a joke.”

With the album now out in the world, Gyakie understands that the work has only just begun. “Another door just got unlocked. The moment this album got submitted, that is how it felt,” she admits. “And you keep opening, and another door is locked. You have to do it again and find another key and open that one. And you keep going and going. But the good part is you are not going behind. You are going forward.”

A correspondence

There is something delightfully motivational about Gyakie. To speak to her is to feel as though one has reconnected with an old friend you grew up with, except they once disappeared and have now returned much wiser, less crippled by the uncertainties of being young and wanting.

As an artist, Gyakie finds her biggest collaborators in her fans. The die-hards through whose eyes she can articulate her deepest desires. As she calculates it, she is in communication with them through her music just as they are through their interpretation of, and attachment to, her work.

“As an artist, you need to also know your fans,” she explains. “You also need to study them and know what they like. And what they like is literally what you like because what you like is what they ended up liking that they become a part of.”

From what she has observed, her core audience is drawn to her the most when she talks about love.

“They love the Gyakie that speaks about heartbreaks. They love the Gyakie that really communicates with her emotions. Those people are like my disciples. Those people are the ones that will enter rooms and get new people to love Gyakie’s music. When the songs come out, you meet fans, they tell you, ‘I love this particular song because it got me through a heartbreak.’”

But Gyakie isn’t merely feeding the machine; her audiences are an apt reflection of her own personal taste. “I also enjoy talking about love. I enjoy making songs that really motivate people. Anything that would trigger something in your emotions that is what I love doing. So, when I make those kinds of songs, and they love it, it’s what connects me and my people basically.”

Her creative process is one she says is borne from this newly acquired sense of peace. “I am really rooting for everybody to hit this space mentally because I want to believe I have found peace of mind. I want to believe I have found something that was really going to make my brain rest or my mind feel at peace, and that is when I came to understand life.”

On storytelling

Growing up as the daughter of a music legend has often left Gyakie with questions of establishing her own voice and legacy. In this project, she manages to achieve a complete severance from that legacy. Instead, Gyakie establishes a voice that is clearly informed by her rich musical background and lineage, but one that is also fully hers. It’s a voice that’s globalist in its taste yet incredibly sharp in its perspective.

On an experimental level, Gyakie — an avid student of Nina Simone and Etta James — carries the listener through a lilting wave of emotions. In this project, her voice is as powerful as her pen. Take the interlude “After midnight” for instance, where Gyakie’s voice snakes up, climbing heights and demonstrating incredible range over soft piano keys. It’s nothing like Gyakie as many know her, but it’s also aptly representative of where she is right now.

The album’s list of collaborations is also deeply layered and reflective of the varied tastes that define Gyakie’s musicality. Alongside a range of genres, there are collaborations with artists of vastly different disciplines. On “Damn U,” she teams up with American singer 6lack for a gushing song of love and sacrifice, complete with bare guitar strings and a stirring hook. In “Harmatta,n” featuring Shatta Wale, Gyakie delivers her most unforgettable work yet. Sexy and driven by a commanding self-assured energy, the song sits within the hard-edged corners of the project. Another incredibly standout collaboration comes from Headie One in “I’m Not Taken” — a strong, moving, narrative-driven declaration of commitment.

Other collaborations in the album come from Young Jonn, Omar Sterling, and Kojey Radical.

When it boils down to it, Gyakie knows exactly what she wants her listeners to take from this project.

“I want them to take away motivation. If someone is listening to the album and their heart's broken, I want them to have a shift. Whether it made them bring out the pain more to reduce it from within,” she says. “There's a gospel song on there I want it to cause healing. All the positive love songs there, too I would love to see couples that are married… use it to flirt with each other. There's songs on there too for dancing. So, motivation, healing, happiness, love, and comfort is really what I want them to grasp from the album.”