Platinum-selling artist Shakka announces his highly anticipated debut album Road Trip To Venus, due for release on 24th September. Marking the news in style, he has also revealed new single ‘Doin’ Time’ featuring West London singer-songwriter Imani Williams, out today.
An infectious modern pop jam, ‘Doin’ Time’ sees Shakka and Imani showcase their impassioned, pitch-perfect vocals amidst a smooth, seductive R&B production. Composed of personal moments shared between Shakka and the lady in his life, the accompanying official video perfectly captures the intimacy and vulnerability communicated on the track. It follows ‘Solo’, Shakka’s recent collaboration with Grammy-nominated rapper GoldLink.
Both tracks are taken from his forthcoming debut album Road Trip To Venus due out on 24th September, a project that has been 10 years in the making and which Shakka produced the majority of himself. At the heart of the LP, Shakka is exploring the interconnectedness of love and masculinity, and the multi-dimensional nature of what it means to be a man, beyond the definition that pop culture projects it to be. It toys with the idea of men being from Mars, and women being from Venus, and is a journey towards the source of what love should be like for a guy in the 21st century.
Talking about ‘Doin’ Time’, Shakka explains: “It’s about taking ownership of being flawed in love. This is saying that you messed up, but with your whole chest. It’s about humanising the people who end up falling for someone else whilst still in a relationship and about what goes through the mind of someone who finds themselves in such an illicit situation.”
He continues: “Banx & Ranx produced this record (we’ve done many songs together), and it stayed in an old folder for almost two years. The first demo had different lyrics, I then started writing what is now ‘Doin Time’ over the instrumental with the talented singer-songwriter Sinead Harnett. Despite knowing each other for over five years, this song was the first time we’d ever written together. The song was just a vibe, but with wheels and an engine by this point.
“Not too long afterwards, Imani’s team reached out and asked me to write with her for her next project. At one of our sessions I asked her to feature on the record, she instantly clicked with it and we knocked out the second verse in a few hours. She’s a beast ha!”
A collaboration between two of the finest pop talents on the UK scene, ‘Doin’ Time’ is an expertly refined love song that gives a taste of what we can expect from Shakka’s full length offering in September.
TOUR DATES
5th OCT – Live @ Manchester Gorilla
6th OCT – Live @ Birmingham O2 Academy 2
8th OCT – Live @ London Shepherds Bush Empire
