Reshma is a conceptual artist who uses abstract satire in both audio and visual artforms to comment on the lives and loves of the human race in this realm and beyond. We asked her to offer up her life in 10 songs and here’s what she delivered:
The moment I heard there was a chance I could make new friends by sharing my life in 10 songs, I grabbed it. I wasn’t at all put off by the self-indulgence of the exercise. On the contrary, I need this to balance out all the chaos online and in our real lives, across this mad world. To put my nervous energies into this musical journey across time and space is a blessing. I feel like I’ve been cold, grubby, and starving for months – then just got offered a chocolate bar and a hot bubble bath. Thank you Joyzine!
Right, my life in 10 songs…
#1: The Sea Part 1 by Colossus, 2025
This trip down memory lane begins a little nuts, with a song that has been in my life for as long as I can remember, even though it only just got released, ha-ha. I remember prior to hearing this song, I wasn’t at all interested in what my favourite writer Alex Mazey refers to as ‘Sad Boy Aesthetics’ – yet here I was hooked up to witness the complete collapse of a man. John Clay of London blues punk duo Colossus deconstructs and ultimately destroys himself with such stunning style and grace. I could listen to this song on repeat daily. The first person to guess correctly why this song was in my life prior to its release wins a free digital download of the new Colossus album ‘The Sea’. CRYPTIC CLUE: The answer is in the question and all around your new friend.
#2: The Beautiful Ones by Prince, 1984
OK so, the first time I watched ‘Purple Rain’ I started with a feeling that it was a tad awkward. Actually, I wasn’t sure what to feel… that is until the mad scene that you’re about to watch, if you decide to press play on the video. I was put in a trance by this performance, wondering if anyone could ever truly love, need, and want like how “The Kid” expressed this as a potent possibility. Raw, unhinged, palpable, even through a television – the prince of passion is how I began to see Prince – who, in my world was in fact King. The king of creativity, the king of inspiration, and the king of dedication to ART – all hail King Prince!
#3: Money by The Beatles, 1963
Now to the complete opposite of passion – Money! This song’s story is a perfect capitalist storm, in fact; this song gets me every time! Written by Berry Gordy, Janie Bradford, and Barrett Strong – who sang the first recording, and what was actually the first hit for Motown. Angered that his name had quietly been removed from the credits three years after its release, Strong filed a lawsuit for writing royalties – too right! Sadly, his bid was unsuccessful, and no one except the musicians present will ever know the truth. However, The Beatles, who formed that same year, used this song to audition. They eventually recorded it for their second studio album. Woohoo!
#4: Nadia by Nitin Sawhney, 1999
My friend lent me the Beyond Skin album not long after its release. She told me to play it backwards, so I did. The final track is ‘Oppenheimer’ quoting the Bhagavad Gita, “Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds” – this freaked me out. Luckily, I made it down to track 6 and my God, I’m so glad I did. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. Humanity’s entire history and trajectory in 5 minutes and 5 seconds… I was never the same after hearing that haunting “alap”. For anyone interested, an “alap” in Indian classical music is a slow, improvised melody that establishes a song’s mood and key notes before the rhythm section is introduced. In this case, kickass drum and bass. Thanks Mama (she’s Indian)!
#5: We Live Here by Bob Vylan, 2020
Topflight creative commentary on race remains rare and as precarious as ever. With Bob Vylan of 2025 in and out of the papers (you know what I mean), it’s a challenge to speak about Bob Vylan of 2020 and prior. It’s a different world now, of course. So, I will focus on the halfway point, which is the insane performance of this song at Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival in 2023. I was living in Scotland at the time, and Bob Vylan arrived and transformed the air. I haven’t experienced in real time an artist transition from the moment before they were heavily in the public eye to suddenly not being able to imagine a world without them. Bob Vylan’s work matters in ways that still isn’t fully understood. You’ll see.
#6: Cherish by Jodeci, 1991
I’m under no illusion that Joyzine readers would be aware of the beautiful 90’s R&B nutjob that is DeVante Swing, who in a teen dream, I once vowed to marry. He was one of the craziest risk-taking producer’s the world had ever seen. I remember the first time I heard his work; I was a child visiting a friend’s house. Upon arrival, we were walking down the hallway from the front door to the sitting room and we heard this sound coming out of her older sister’s bedroom. I was like, “Oh my God, what is this?” I swear, we had to sneak into her bedroom later to nick the CD and play it quietly in their parents’ room upstairs. It was a bonding experience. We became loyal Jodeci fans, ready to grow big enough to attend their live concerts whenever they were on British soil, and we did. Interestingly, I didn’t discover until adulthood that ‘Cherish’ was a cover of a bizarre 1960’s sunshine pop band called The Association.
#7: When Midnight Sighs by P.M. Dawn, 1991
My older brother’s favourite song when he was living at home. I couldn’t understand why at the time, but I later inherited his tape of The Bliss Album…? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence), when he was downsizing his belongings to move to New York for a fab new job, and I finally appreciated what was a lyrical marvel with a gradual build-up of dreamy beats. I love that it was through this song I learned my very serious tech genius brother could have been a rapper if he wanted to, ha-ha, and that we both enjoyed deconstructing song lyrics. Listening to P.M. Dawn is also entwined with fond childhood memories of the dance troupe that performed in the intervals of The Real McCoy comedy sketch show on BBC 2 in the early 90s. They were called ‘Danserious’, hee hee – and they loved P.M. Dawn tracks too!
#8: Enjoy by Tekno, 2020
The most life-affirming highlife song I have ever heard; and all highlife is life-affirming, but this is actually the highest highlife I have heard in a highlife song, ever. This song is certainly part of the current afrobeats genre, which incorporates highlife, calypso, dancehall, and hip hop to name only a few influences. The drums, guitar melody, brass interjections, and lyrics all neatly fit into traditional highlife convention – which I adore (I’m half Nigerian). The video too actually, with its satirical commentary on youth, fame, and cancel culture. Well, at least that’s what I got from it. Tekno has never talked us through it, as far as I know. So in that case, who knows? Do you know? Let me know.
#9: Human Nature by Michael Jackson, 1982
Music made me feel safe because my parents only played music when they were happy. This song holds the earliest sad memory for me. I remember not knowing why this song made me feel sad and what sadness even was. Like many people, I was born into a home that owned the Thriller album. My baby brother and I would scratch up vinyl so much that records had to eventually be kept away from us. ‘Human Nature’ was the third song on Side B – the favourite side. After tiring ourselves out air-guitaring to ‘Beat It’ and then attempting to moonwalk to ‘Billie Jean’ – ‘Human Nature’ was the boring soundtrack to the wind down session that got switched off halfway through. I was too sad to explain why I wanted to see it through to the end, so we never did. Still, when I hear it now, in my mind’s eye, I see my now grown up singer-songwriter baby brother still cheat-moonwalking in Papa’s smooth-soled cowboy boots!
#10: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, 1985
Speaking of cheeky chappies and mixed messages – this is the song that helped me understand how a descending chord progression evokes a complex emotional response. I’m happy and sad and happy and sad and happy and sad – stop it! Is this simply nostalgia or is it more? There will never be resolution with this confusingly upbeat melody, lyrics that still make me shudder, and a flawless performance from a lovely bunch of blokes! All’s well that ends well…. or is it? That last minute guitar solo might say otherwise.
Deep sigh… and regretfully, that concludes my life in 10 songs. Obviously, it’s not my entire life – I’d need a thousand songs, like you, I’m sure. But you know, it’s a few bit’s from my life. Mostly messy bits. I wish I could get to know your messy bits too! Get in touch with me on Twitter or YouTube if you’d like to be friends or to enter the competition to win ‘The Sea’ by Colossus. For now, thank you so much for reading this.
P.S. This is an old photograph of me with my parents and brothers.
Article by Reshma Eyafé: Instagram / LinkTree
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List
❤️