Wanjiru Waweru, Jadetimes Staff
W. Waweru is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Entertainment News
FLO’s singles continued promoting music, where is the full-length studio album? When will the entire pop market begin in motion, will it be improved? Well, the group spent their quality time putting their debut album on hold for a very long.
The majority idea was the British-R&B trio powerhouse supposed to release their debut studio album in 2023 on the following success of "Cardboard Box", “a coolheaded, close-harmony kiss-off that has been streamed more than 54 million times on Spotify.” On the following Extended Play (EP) release, “The Lead”, and an outstanding live performance schedule that established their latest single “Check”, FLO received a Brit Award for “Best Rising Star”; they had an opportunity to collaborate with Stormzy, and Missy Elliott with the release songs “Fly Girl”, and “Hide & Seek [Remix]”.
The three singer-songwriting group members — Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer, and Stella Quarema – became unhappy about their album tracks. They did not want to seek anything that was like the packet on the modern pop market. However, the tour date arrangements were meant to extend more audience, they dedicated themselves to risk themselves, investing in what fans would expect a little longer, and seeking time to progress their songwriting skills, finding new collaborations. They finally completed their album, The group’s debut studio album, “Access All Areas" was released on November 15, 2024 via Island Records.
We just kept on making music — and we kept on making better music,” Downer stated in a video interview from backstage at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre in Charlotte, North Carolina, where FLO participated in Kehlani’s Crash World Tour as an Opening Act. According to The New York Times, “They were casual before the sound check; slinky costumes, and glossy styling would come later in the day.”
“Access All Areas” impacts American girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls, Destiny’s Child, and TLC where their music defines these three strong African-British Women, who are currently in their early 20s, who have experienced their entire lives.
“Back then, the standards were much higher,” Quaresma stated. “Nowadays if you’ve got followers, you can be a singer. People can see that we’re really inspired by the real singers and the real artists. I think people are craving that.”
However, FLO has the tenacity to determine their unique vocal ability or sound to redefine themselves. “The melodies will always be nostalgic, because you’re a product of your environment,” Douglas stated. “But we definitely have to be mindful of what’s more current at the moment.”
In the beginning, Douglas extended, and the group reviewed a positive response they became “nostalgic” as consequently, they were on the right track. However, their perspective adapted. “I have no problem being compared to Destiny’s Child and TLC and SWV and Sugababes,” Douglas said. “But I want to be in that place where other people are compared to us.”
In FLO’s songs, the three women all receive quality time singing lead and harmonizing their vocals, intertwining as they appear as a united nation. “We’re all three very strong individuals,” Downer said. “We all want to sing. We all want to have our own moment to showcase our personal style. But yeah, it really just works itself out.”
From scratch, the group started a high-standard project. In 2019, FLO’s manager, Rob Harrison, and their record label, Island Records, set to develop an R&B girl group that would receive and upgrade the sound and confidence of girl groups from the era of 1990s and 2000s, respectively. Due to the popularity and commercial success of K-pop, American, and British R&B artists have spent years as solo acts while promoting their music instead of forming a band. “A girl group was missing from the industry,” Douglas stated.
The record label auditioned three teenage R&B singers looking individual and combining chemistry, following it “basically found us all on Instragram,” Downer stated.
The three members of FLO became well-prepared. They had matured in “an era professional pop training, youth talent competitions and social-media self-promotion.” Quaresma recalled that during her early experience in Elementary School in Devon England, she found an opportunity to become a pop star. “I was 12 and I was like ‘Mom, I’m behind my schedule,’” Quaresma stated. “‘Everyone in London is already starting their careers. I’m behind them all, I’ve got to do something.’ So every day after school, I went to dance class, and worked on singing.”
Quaresma and Downer met at the Sylvia Young Theater School in London, England, where it included International Pop Stars: Rita Ora, Amy Winehouse, and Emma Bunton also known as Baby Spice from the Spice Girls. Douglas was only 14 years old when she earned a talent show program on CBBC, the BBC’s channel for children, and she kept on progress to promote songs online. Downer and Douglas became friends and followed each other on Instagram. They had a chance to meet in person during the audition for FLO.
According to the New York Times, “Part of the audition process assigned singers to work up cover versions as a group. Downer, Douglas and Quaresma quickly found that their tastes aligned; they arranged a mash-up of Frank Ocean and Jazmine Sullivan.”
Once they reached the final cut, FLO started to progress the self-invention. The typical girl-group stereotype of Svengali music producers controlling young inexperience, and naïve singers was not suitable for them. They came out with hard work, they participated in two years of studying in the preparation of music performance: songwriting, recording, costumes, and choreography – before discovering FLO.
“We were like, ‘We want boot camp,’” Downer stated. “We want to be ready, we want to rehearse and practice. We started doing sessions: learning each other’s voices, and learning about our blend and how we were going to be unique as a girl group. Figuring out what we all liked, what we could bond over.” Downer reported they wrote a lot of songs, and looking forward to publishing prior to the official release. “But looking back, the development time was very necessary because we were very young.”
They found a collaborator who could help them to improvise their sound the English songwriter and producer Uzoechi Osisioma Emenike otherwise known as MNEK, who has previously collaborated with Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, and Madonna. MNEK participated in a phone interview. “They were all like 16, 17, and just figuring it out and learning how to be a group and learning how to harmonize together and how to write together.”
FLO made songwriting sessions via Zoom during the enormous rise of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The group strongly suggested combining all together in one studio. “It’s just all about conversation,” Quaresma said. “You know, what we’re going through. Sometimes we’re not even going through it, we just want to write a story, make something up. Then we’ll do melodies — either on the mic or on the phone or in the room. And then we write to those melodies.”
Putting their debut studio album on was not a personal decision to be taken moderately. FLO continued.
“They really care about their craft,” MNEK said. “In the 1990s they would have released an album they weren’t really happy with — and got dropped. The girls did have the luxury of just being, like, ‘This album isn’t right. We need to improve it. We care about this album and we don’t feel that we have to release music that is subpar — because we haven’t yet.’ They’re all really involved and nothing’s coming out unless they’re happy with it. They are very strong-willed women and they have good instincts.”
While their early work depended on British producers, FLO provided American collaborators for “Access All Areas” , a strategy to experiment that could expand their fans. The lyrics on Access All Areas allow us to extend the bedroom for affection, balancing self-assurance, and vulnerability, independence, and physical intimacy. (The Song Title does not focus the backstage pass.) “...’Access All Areas’ is a lot more positive, because that reflects where we’re all in our lives,” said Douglas.
The latest album appeared a spontaneous hard-rock track – mimicking entitled “I’m Just a Girl”--- that represents anyone underdetermined FLO’s driven or achievement: “How many Black girls do you see on center stage now?” FLO sing.
“I think authority is the magic key to FLO,” Douglas stated. “It’s just making sure that we always say what we’re thinking. We don’t believe in beating around bushes. And then always making sure our voices are heard. That is one thing that we’ve done from the start, and it’s definitely something that we’ll continue to do.”
Douglas smiled. “It got us this far.”
