Generous, true, fierce, and bursting with potential: Introducing mita.
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One of my favourite quotes comes from Winston Churchill, who, in his memoir, My Early Life, 1874-1904, wrote: “You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was meant to be wooed and won by youth.” It’s a quote that (almost) fits Calgary-based songwriter Mita Adesanya—who performs and records as mita—to a T.
Soul, her recently released debut EP is a collection of generous songcraft, true-to-self soul searching, and fierce talent. “I see songwriting as an opportunity to be introspective, honest and perhaps a bit vulnerable,” she recently shared with me, “I think that approach results in music that has universal, relatable subject matter.” The four songs on Soul explore themes around “…being more than what people see, a face in a crowd, a person among people.”
She wastes no time diving right into that exploration with “Soul”, a sincere, succinct, and sophisticated piano-led ballad about seeing past superficiality to a person’s heart and soul. “I Kill Fireflies” is an earnest hymn that acknowledges our imperfections and shortcomings as essential components of our humanity. Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, “You Used To Feel” finds mita capturing a raw and unadorned performance with layers of emotional depth built on a simple melody. Closer “Pretty” highlights just how adept mita is musically: a classic pop-song heartbeat sits at the core of a glistening, ambient arrangement that triumphantly declares “One day all my ugly will be something beautiful”. News flash, mita: that one day is now.
mita started writing songs in her native Nigeria at a young age before moving to Calgary three years ago. What’s most endearing about mita and her music is her sincerity and youthful earnestness. “I don’t have much of a musical history apart from just knowing I love it and enjoy singing,” she says when asked about her musical journey so far. The road ahead of her is long, and fraught with potential missteps and mistakes as Mr. Churchill says, but Soul is near-perfect in the here and now. It’s generous, true, and fierce, and bursting with potential.
