'You are made to feel different from a young age.' Singer Erica Cody on racism at home

She's a rising star on the Irish r'n'b scene - and Erica Cody is destined for great things

Erica Cody

For someone whose industry has been in freefall since mid-March, Erica Cody has not been resting on her laurels. 

The 24-year-old Irish singer-songwriter and R&B star was poised to release new music last March, her first since her EP Leoness gained widespread acclaim in 2019, which had itself built on the success of her debut, Addicted in 2017. 

She put in impressive performances at Longitude and Electric Picnic, as well as supporting Jessie J and En Vogue.

This latest project was meant to be her follow up. 

“We planned to release in March and then the lockdown happened, followed by everything with Black Lives Matter and that just needed my full attention. It put things into perspective.” 

As a black Irish woman, she had experienced racism her whole life. But when the killing of George Floyd during an arrest by Minneapolis police became the touch paper for protest and outrage against systemic racism in the US, she felt now was the time to face what even for those closest to her was an ugly truth about racism closer to home. 

“It’s not just a few knocks and bruises as a child,” she explains. “You are made to feel different from a young age. And then I began learning about my own family history and there is just so much that goes with it.” 

Her father, originally from South Carolina but moved here in the early 90s, wanted to protect her from it, but it wasn’t possible to shut it out completely. In the US, her own great-grandfather was shot and killed by a white policeman at a baseball game where he was an umpire. Her third cousin was shot and killed by the police 12 years ago.

Erica Cody

It was all part of a bigger narrative for Cody, whose Leoness EP featured the song, 'Where U Really From', and gave rise to the singers D.T.M.H (Don’t Touch My Hair) project last year. The mantra behind it was to highlight the everyday casual approach to the othering that happens societally, and that with a more diverse population and culture a new sense of Irishness needed to be embraced and owned. With the mantra "don't touch my hair, don't touch my story", Cody aimed to highlight just how unconscious bias worked.

It was something that pierced right through to her own closest friends and community. 

“It’s time for people to listen, and to speak up about their experiences,” she says. “And it works both ways. It’s not up to black people to educate white people.” 

Even among her peers, the reignition of the Black Lives Movement forced them to face their own bias too. “For the people around me who would never have spoken about racism it was a wake up too,” she explains. 

I know they see me for me but what I wanted is for them to see me for who I am. You need to see colour for what it is, and for the struggles that I’ve gone through. It’s part of me. 

As a young artist and woman of colour, she bravely grabbed the opportunity to make her voice heard. She spoke out at the Black Lives Matter rally in Dublin in early June, and posted openly about the experience of racism on her own social media, as well as writing a passionate piece on the subject in this paper. But it came at a price. 

“I’m not gonna lie,” she says frankly, “I definitely had my mental health issues this year. I had to come off social media for a couple of weeks and really learn how to take care of my mind.” 

She had struggled with anxiety in the past, and the intensity of the BLM experience caused old pain to resurface. 

“My anxiety was crippling. I couldn’t get out of my house, it was pretty bad.” Suffering from severe panic attacks, what the activism had also unearthed was a kind of post- traumatic stress from the kind of regularised bullying and discrimination she endured growing up. 

“It was a kind of almost PTSD attacks from relived trauma of when I was a child. It all started resurfacing. But it also gave me time to appreciate the little things in life. There was too much going on to write about it, I really just took that time to sit with myself and journal.” 

It is a self-care tool she learned early on. Growing up in Dublin, her mum, who is from Dublin, and her dad, were both music fanatics. The house was a filled with a mix of Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, with Cody adding her own 90s twist with the likes of TLC, Alicia Keyes and Boyz 2 Men. 

Erica Cody

She started writing poetry at seven before she got her first guitar and began to experiment with songwriting. At ten, her mum was diagnosed with cancer, something that was a life-changing experience. 

“I started journaling to deal with it. Mum being sick put things into perspective. You just learn from a really young age having gone through a couple of hardships that they only really serve to build you up. From a young age, I had a tough life lesson. But at the time it was kind of hard to make sense of it. I just saw this strong powerful woman who nothing could tear down.” 

Thankfully, her mum fully recovered, and while Cody continued to blossom as a songwriter and fledgling performer, attending the Billy Barry school and learning piano, she was also deeply committed to her other love, basketball. 

Her father was a professional player and she inherited that passion and skill. Most of her early life was spent in the car, going to and from training and matches, always accompanied by a rotating playlist of her favourite songs. 

“Basketball was always my outlet and music was my therapy,” she explains. “I trained five nights a week and competed quite heavily from about 14 to age 20. I was constantly juggling basketball and music.” 

She had already started gigging at 15 with a support slot with Whizzkid. “From that moment, I just knew, this is where I feel totally myself and totally at home.” 

But while her heart was becoming increasingly drawn to music and performing, she was still playing basketball at the highest level. Already performing and producing her own material, as well as posting videos to YouTube she gathered a manager and a following. She received a scholarship to Dublin’s music college BIMM, which in turn opened a whole community of artists and performers who she felt a natural kindred with.

Somehow she was still also managing to play basketball at the highest level she could reach. Then fate intervened. A serious ankle injury during her first year in college meant she was forced to make a choice. 

“It was a blessing in disguise,” she says now. “I was trying to do everything, playing and going to gigs, and still training all the time. So when the injury happened I just thought, it’s time to put your big girl pants on. I wanted to do the two things, but I just couldn’t.” 

She freely admits though that it took something that dramatic to stop her in her tracks.

“If that injury didn’t happen I’d still be doing both if I’m perfectly honest!” 

Graduating from BIMM two years ago, she quickly assimilated into the thriving Irish music scene alongside other raw talents such as Soulé, Stephanie Rainey, Wyvern Lingo, Tolü Makay and Pillow Queens. 

“There is an amazing vitality in the Irish music scene right now,” she offers, something she says is supported by a real sense of camaraderie. That sense of community and togetherness was nowhere more evident than on the recent collaboration Women in Harmony which saw many of those up and coming artists combine forces with established acts like Lisa Hannigan, Imelda May and Moya Brennan to record The Cranberries song 'Dreams' in aid of Safe Ireland, which provides support for women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

Erica Cody

“It’s been so overwhelming. From this little project that started with a direct message and then phonecall to a gathering of all these amazing women together. You can’t say anything negative about that.” Brought together with a common cause, the resulting collaboration has been a bonding experience for everyone involved. 

“We are all very passionate,” says Cody, “and we wanted to do something for the greater good. When you do something like that, it’s incredible.

Meeting up for the first time for a performance on RTÉ’s Late Late Show was really moving.

“When we all saw each other for the first time, you just felt like you knew everyone forever.” There is no competition, says Cody, between the artists, and no sense of rivalry to detract to what has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. 

We are all better together. We are all just trying to do the best we can. It’s a really beautiful project.

Since its release, 'Dreams' has already become the most downloaded song in the Irish charts this year. And to date, proceeds from the record has raised over €200,000 for the charity. Not bad for a lockdown project dealing with over 35 artists and musicians spread across several different continents. The need has never been greater too, with many of the kind of supports having had to be scaled back, despite heightened demand.

It is indicative too of how things have moved on for women in the music industry. Now a powerful force in their own right, Women in Harmony showed just how much talent and diversity there currently is among women performers in Ireland. “I think being a woman in music has taken a shift,” offers Cody. “Being a woman, in general, has its struggles. Having to constantly prove yourself that you are just as good at the job. But I think people are starting to realise that we are just as good. It doesn’t have to come down to our gender.”

For now, Cody is refocusing on new music and future projects, with a sense of purpose that came from the enforced reset. “I think everyone needed that pause of lockdown. I think it’s at a point now I’m starting to feel like myself again and start thinking about putting music out again.” Her aim first and foremost is to be happy and healthy. 

“I think I’m back at that place now where I’ve got my urge back and I'm ready to take on big things again.” The ultimate dream she says is to become a better songwriter, to have hit records, “to play those arenas, those award shows”.

She is cautious though not to get weighed down with comparison. “What I’ve learned,” she offers, “is that everyone’s story is so different, especially when they are artists. That person could handle something that I perhaps couldn’t. Keeping their head down, and staying focused, that’s one thing all the people I admire have in common. But you are not meant to have the same journey as those people. Your journey is your own.”

Erica Cody’s new single, Calculated, is out now