Corinne Bailey Rae: Leeds singer-songwriter on Black Rainbows and Mercury Prize nomination

The expansive, 17,000 square foot space homes a unique collection of literature, photographs and artefacts that unlock pieces of black history which would otherwise go undocumented.

“I really like to read and I like libraries, but being in a hallowed library in that way and it being a black library, that was a first experience for me,” says singer Corinne Bailey Rae, 45, as she reflects on her first encounter with the Stony Island Arts Bank. “All of these books were about black stuff and I couldn’t believe. I didn’t realise the volume of literature that’s been made on those subjects, so even that was just incredible to see.”

The Leeds-born artist first dug through the trove of information on a tour in 2017, but she continued to ponder over the stories she had read and the images she had seen while on tour. It fuelled her to write poetry about how the material had connected with her, but she felt drawn to go back to dive into the collection further.

Eventually, she embarked on a two-week residency at the bank and what she learnt and experienced in those days went on to become the inspiration for her fourth studio album Black Rainbows. Alongside critical acclaim, the record secured Bailey Rae her second Mercury Prize nomination earlier this year.

“Just being around the culture of the Bank, being around the objects, having time to read, having time to sit with things, having time to pick up a guitar, I felt all of this historic stuff was very present,” she recalls over a video call.

“It was of now, especially with all the incidents that were happening just outside the Arts Bank.”

While studying the past, the singer remained conscious of the present violence and discrimination black communities are facing. The death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was fatally shot in 2014 by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, while he was playing with a pellet gun, felt particularly poignant as a gazebo where the incident occurred has been reconstructed outside the Arts Bank as a memorial.

Her emotional response to these stories seeped through into the writing of her 10-track record. Erasure is a particularly arresting track with its searing electric guitar riffs and gritty vocals which convey an anger at how many black stories and black childhoods have been erased.

A section within the collection which explores how black children have been “sexualised and demonised and criminalised” within history, and how this has affected how society perceives them, particularly stood out to Bailey Rae. As well as a picture of a black girl looking captivated as she watched the punk band Bad Brains performing in a black housing project in Washington.

“I thought what would it have done to me as a black teenager starting my indie band to have seen that image, or more images like that,” the singer says. “To just see this permission and history of punk music in black space and by black performers, that would have really changed a lot of things for me.”

Using these stories as a basis also allowed Bailey Rae to create more freely.

“So much of the feeling was freedom, sort of musically and personally,” she says. “It wasn’t me mining my emotions, background, relationships. It was me channelling these stories. These objects had a presence and they were telling me a thing.

“So I was just writing it down because I decided it was a side project, I wasn’t thinking: ‘Is this hooky? Could this be a single? Is this three minutes long? Can we relate to this? Is this melodic?’ All the things that bogged me down historically in music making, especially on my third album, with how so many people really wanting to be to win.”

Bailey Rae cut through early in her career with her chart-topping eponymous debut album in 2006, which featured the feel-good megahit Put Your Records On. The track garnered her Grammy nominations for song of the year and record of the year and also secured her a best new artist nod. Her follow-up, 2010’s The Sea, was critically acclaimed and landed her a Mercury Prize nomination, while her third album, 2016’s The Heart Speaks In Whispers, was also warmly welcomed.

After a seven-year wait, Black Rainbows was eagerly awaited by fans of the artists. Alongside the raving critically reviews, the record was announced as one of the dozen records to be shortlisted for the 2024 Mercury Prize.

She says: “Having been a judge on the prize before, I know how it works. This year, 250 records were submitted so it’s a lot of listening for the judges and their work is just to argue records onto the shortlist. So the thought that people have been arguing for Black Rainbows… it just makes me feel really happy for the album.”

She has been recognised alongside a host of rising female stars including Charli XCX, Irish singer CMAT, south Londoner Cat Burns and producer-singer Nia Archives as well as fresh bands like Leeds’s own English Teacher, and The Last Dinner Party. Bailey Rae says being amongst a diverse group of nominees feels “really good” after she has been the only woman of colour in the room for industry events on a number of occasions over the years.

“I think I’ve noticed a real change in the landscape in terms of music executives,” she muses.

“It wasn’t unusual for me to be in a room with like 15 men, it wasn’t unusual for them all to be white, it wasn’t unusual for them all to be older than me.

“And now I feel when you go to those dinners and you look at those seats, I think record labels have just been more aware that they need to be more representative of the people who buy the music, and, of course, the people who make the music as well.”

Black Rainbows is out now.