The Glasshouse

Frankie: Just before we start, I’d love it if you could give me a sound that you really associate with the North East.

Rivkala: Good question. Yeah, sound of the North East. It’s hard to find a musical sound because I feel like it’s so diverse in terms of genres and vibes here, so I’m gonna go natural and the sound of the waves at Tynemouth Beach. Which, that’s a big sound of the North East for me.

Frankie: Hello and welcome to Music Lives Here, the brand new podcast from The Glasshouse which celebrates the eclectic and endlessly versatile music scene here in Newcastle and Gateshead. I’m Frankie Jobling, and in each episode it’s my pleasure to invite artists from all genres to share the storeys behind their relationship with music and their connection to the North East. This episode is a special one for me. Not only is it the first episode of the series, but I also get to chat with a friend of mine. From Manchester but based in Newcastle, she’s an award-winning neo-soul jazzy singer-songwriter who resists any kind of definition – Rivkala.

So we’re on the concourse at The Glasshouse. It’s a Monday afternoon and we’ve got the whole place to ourselves. We’re looking out at a sunny Newcastle out the windows. Welcome to the Music Lives Here podcast.

Rivkala: Thank you so much for having me, what a treat.

Frankie: We’re very excited to have you here. To start us off, since we’ve got the building to ourselves, is there anywhere that you’d like to show us that is special to you here?

Rivkala: Great question. There’s a lot of spaces that are quite special to me here, but I would love to go to Room 19 downstairs because that’s where my Summer Studios was and I have a lot of fun memories.

Frankie: Perfect! Let’s head. So you’ve brought us to Room 19. I was wondering if you could describe the room to us and let us know why it means so much to you.

Rivkala: So it’s a lovely big room, which I love to have space to frolic. There’s like floor-to-ceiling windows that then look out over the town. So on a sunny day you still get that like access to outside. There’s a grand piano, there’s mirrors on the back wall, but this was where me and the band were hanging out for Summer Studios, god, like 2 years ago now. That’s a bit— oop, don’t like that. And it’s also the new room that I’m teaching Love Your Voice classes in.

Frankie: Just for our listeners, could you explain what Love Your Voice is?

Rivkala: Yes, it is a course that runs at The Glasshouse every term for singers to come if they have no experience, if they have loads of experience, they’re getting back into singing, maybe they sang a lot as a kid, or they just want to come and express themselves. We sing all sorts of different music, loads of different genres, talk about technique, talk about placement, all fun singing things, and yeah, just take some time to enjoy ourselves and connect to music and express.

Frankie: It sounds like you’ve got such a lush, deep connection with this building, and I’d love to chat about it some more.

Rivkala is no ordinary musician. She takes to the stage in great button eyelashes, a prim pencil moustache, and a 1920s flapper-cum-cabaret-cum-businesswoman wardrobe. And her music is just as impossible to pin down as any one thing. Winner of the Youth Music Awards Music Video Award for Chess and part of Youth Music’s Next Gen programme, she released her debut EP, ‘Crushed Velvet’ in 2025 to widespread acclaim. Since then, she’s performed solo at the BBC Proms, collaborated with jazz heavyweights the Joe Webb Trio and Theo Croker, and has been described as pushing neo-soul to new heights, with worldbuilding that holds a mirror up to the performativity in all of us. Born Rivkah, a Hebrew name meaning ‘to connect,’ she’s added the Yiddish term of endearment, ‘la,’ to make it her own. And connection, it turns out, is exactly what she’s here to do. I am so ready to get started. So we’ve wandered down the corridor and we’ve found a nice quiet space to get into the podcast.

Frankie: So welcome to Music Lives Here. I think the last time I saw you might have been on the dance floor of Zerox!

Rivkala: Yeah, classic.

Frankie: So from dance floor to podcast, we’ll just get straight into it if that’s all right.

Rivkala: Let’s do it.

Frankie: So there’s a musical quality even to the way that you describe your sound and you’ve said that you think about your songs as having a 20th century palette with a 21st century lyrical input, which I really love. Could you tell me more about that?

Rivkala: Yeah, of course. I think all the music that has inspired me growing up, even music that is made in the 21st century, is like made with strong 20th century influences. I’m thinking about people like Amy Winehouse or people like Erykah Badu. And yeah, like I think so many of the artists that I grew up listening to were jazz and soul rooted, funk, disco, definitely a pre-mobile phone era of like the role that music played in gathering people together, in being something that like to experience fully you had to go and see it live or at least have the nice crackle of a vinyl. But lyrically, I mean, yeah, I’m writing from a lot of my own experiences and perspectives, but actually to be fair, a lot of the themes are not time specific. Even my song Chess is about creepy men in bars, but they’ve existed forever. And I actually purposefully, there’s like lots of different women’s names throughout the song and I purposefully made one of them my Nana’s name because this is a problem that I’ve been facing, my friends have been facing, my mum’s generation, my Nana’s generation, you know? So I guess I might use some terms that aren’t necessarily strictly 20th century, but a lot of the themes feel kind of universal.

Frankie: So if we can just dig a little deeper there, what does music mean to you?

Rivkala: Ooft, what does it mean to me? So many things. It’s release, it’s expression, whether that’s like a really vulnerable, raw ballad or like a thumping, fall to the floor, like incredible soulful house track where it’s just like I need to shake and release. I think either way it’s release and it’s connection. Connection to myself, connection to other people, like thinking about all the other people who’ve listened to this, thinking about the artists who created it, thinking about like when I make music myself, it’s kind of an outstretched hand towards the world in a lot of ways. So yeah, release and connection.

Frankie: Yeah, I would agree with that. Definitely, it’s super healing to make and to listen to. And what does music mean to you here in The Glasshouse?

Rivkala: Oh, I’ve had loads of really exciting career moments here in lots of different ways, and I feel like it’s such an iconic building in the North East and does such cool things for, you know, bringing in music of all different genres and bringing in people from so many different communities and community focus with that education focus. But, you know, played The first time we played The Proms was here. MOBO Fringe was here. I’ve just started teaching here and feel really excited about that kind of education path within my music career. So yeah, I think it’s just— I’ve seen so many friends’ gigs here, seen some just like really fun— saw The Brand New Heavies here recently. That was really sick. Yeah. Oh, I also played when we opened for Postmodern Jukebox. That was crazy and playing Sage 1. But it’s also, it’s like, even though it’s this kind of prestigious place, it still feels quite cosy and accessible. Like it’s not a very intimidating building and especially downstairs with the rehearsal rooms and practise spaces.

Frankie: And I think you mentioned it before, like this place has helped you grow and all those career moments that you mentioned have helped you grow and now you can kind of encapsulate that and give it back to people in teaching, which I think is really special. We’ll circle back to The Glasshouse in a little while because I want to hear more about that. But before, I wanna hear more about you. So I thought we could talk about your inspirations and motivations.

Rivkala: Yeah, for sure.

Frankie: Rivkala grew up in Manchester in a household full of music. Her mam was playing Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Ella Fitzgerald, and Amy Winehouse, while her dad had Smokey Robinson and 10cc on. Her brother was blasting Red Hot Chilli Peppers. At bar mitzvahs, she says she was the kid spending all night on the dance floor to Earth Wind and Fire. Beyond that, she also grew up doing musical theatre, and she’s not shy about saying she loves the camp of it, which is so obvious when you see her live. She’s incredible. Running underneath all of that is the music of her Jewish heritage, klezmer, Eastern European Jewish folk music, which she weaves into her sound through clarinet and violin. There’s a lot there, and I want to know how all of that gets into the room when she performs. I was going to ask where it all started for you, because you studied at Newcastle Uni, politics and sociology, and then ended up as one of the biggest players in the neo-soul scene. So what was the pull from politics and sociology to music?

Rivkala: So I think it’s really interesting because I’ve always been creative and always made things, always written songs and doodled. I was doing illustration things for a little bit and kind of was sort of a little bit lost and a little bit figuring out where— how best to express what was always in me, because also equally so the kind of political social commentary analysis side of things has also always been a huge part of who I am. And I think for a long time growing up, I just didn’t think— I didn’t see what a creative career looked like. I didn’t know it was possible. I didn’t think I was good enough. And it wasn’t until in my final year of uni, I met a bunch of musicians, and suddenly we’ve saw this life that I was like, wait, that, that’s what I want to be doing. And so built up a bit more confidence, actually chatted to you who gave me my first gig.

Frankie: I remember!

Rivkala: It was, was it Lindisfarne Festival? Yeah, I came up after your set because I was just blown away and I was like, God, she is doing exactly what I want to be doing and it’s so inspiring to see and she’s so brilliant and just like owning that stage.

And was, yeah, chatting to you about like the music I’ve been writing and you put me on at the Cumberland. It was you, me, Georgia May.

Frankie: Yeah.

Rivkala: And that was so exciting. And I’ve been so lucky to meet so many brilliant people in the North East who have really, you know, championed me and believed in me when I was a bit nervous to myself. And so yeah, it was after university I did the Generator First Notes course, and that was another really affirming thing of having kind of external people be like, yeah, you could do this if you wanted to. If you like commit to this, you absolutely can make your dreams possible.

Frankie: So lyrically, how does your politics and sociology degree play a part in what you write about?

Rivkala: Lots of ways, but like I don’t think it’s super conscious necessarily. Like I’m not like writing a song like, okay, I’m going to like squeeze in this bit of theory and like put that in there and sugarcoat that medicine. It’s more just that it’s— studying those things massively have shaped my worldview and my understanding of power and its distributions. One of my sociology modules was about regulating sexuality and about the different ways that sexuality is policed and different bodies are policed and we explored a lot about sex work and understanding it as work, as labour, and how so often the people who legislate around it have no experience in it. So I’m writing this song that sort of explores the different points of view around sex work from like women’s points of view, from solicitors’ points of view. So that’s like one of the more storytelling-y ones, and then ‘Vultures,’ I guess, was very critical of kind of wealth hoarding away from public resources like education and healthcare and my frustrations around that. But equally it comes into like songs about heartbreak and the ways that like heteronormative scripts can play out and learned behaviours can negatively impact everyone.

Rivkala: It kind of weaves through everything, but I’m never trying to make it like a lecture. I think I’ve made these sounds these songs sound really like dry and boring and I’m always trying to like make it also a bit funny and have some wordplay and be satirical because that’s always what lands better and it’s just more fun to write and to hear.

Frankie: I don’t think it sounds boring at all. I think it sounds clever and interesting and unique. To talk a bit about your musical tastes that come through, especially on your debut EP Crushed Velvet, I know you use sounds and inspirations from your Jewish heritage too. Could you tell me a little bit more about the intro track on your EP?

Rivkala: Yeah, I would love to. So I really loved making that track because that was one that we wrote in the studio together, me, Ben, and Luke. And I brought in this klezmer tune called Rivkala that is this story about this Jewish girl who works in this shop and is like sweeping floors. And this rich, wealthy Polish guy comes in and he’s like, oh my God, you are so fit, I want to sweep you away. And one condition though, you are gonna have to like join my church and not go to synagogue. And that’s the kind of tragic love story. And I was like, okay, love this. The fact that it’s called Rivkala, which is my artist name, which is my Hebrew Yiddish name, Rivkah. She’s one of the matriarchs. When you add -lah on the end of a name in Yiddish, it makes it like a term of endearment, like ito in Spanish. So yeah, connecting from that, and then we interpolated the melody and I sort of retold that story that is in the original text the way that I would tell that story. And then there’s woven in bits of dialogue, and a lot of that was just found sound from recording rehearsal rooms, and then the bits of chat that I forgot to stop recording at the end of a song or at the beginning of a song.

And then I would just like be at home and just sneakily like put my phone on record. So got family and friends and wanted to create this atmosphere of interaction, people, conversation, community, bringing the clarinet, bringing the different modes that are in klezmer music to set the scene. But then it’s also the kind of neo-soul groove and beat, so it like pulls in all these different things that have shaped me into who I am and make a collage.

Frankie: I was gonna say it’s like real world building. It’s really, really cool.

Rivkala: Thanks.

Frankie: So just to shift to your process for a minute then, because you’ve talked about all the little things you were doing there, like found sound and bringing in all your influences. You live with ADHD and you’ve talked about how you often write best when your brain’s occupied by something else. I think the quote is catching the music sideways. Could you tell us a little bit more about what your creative process looks like then?

Rivkala: For sure. Also, you’ve done fantastic research, so kudos. Yeah, so my creative process, I mean, it varies a lot from song to song. I kind of see the whole songwriting process as like a bit of a birthing process, like I’m this vessel for something that needs to be released, and sometimes that labour is easy and sometimes it’s a bit more painful and time-consuming, but often song ideas, seedlings, come to me when I’m doing other things. So the lyric and the melody often come as one, and I’ll try and capture that and just sort of chew the idea a lot. And then once I have that, I can usually hear the chords in my head, and so I’ll then go and sit at the piano and play around with stuff. And at that point, things might change as well. Like, maybe what I thought the chord would be, I end up liking something else better. And sit with it, find parts that feel interesting, that make sense. Currently, I’m sat on a silly amount of songs that are in that stage, nearing, nearing 100 or something of songs that are finished to that level of kind of the singer-songwriter version.

Rivkala: And then I either take it to the band or to my producers and figure out kind of a bigger picture of things with references and develop different parts. Sometimes I’ll have already written some of the part ideas, like some of the bass lines or some of the horn lines, but also my like horn section and bass player is like, they’re all amazing. So like, it’s very much I’ll come with the beginnings of an idea and then they turn it into something way cooler. Yeah, so I guess that’s kind of where things happen. And sometimes at those stages, I’ll also have the visual ideas of what storeys are happening alongside it. But sometimes things can really morph. Like, I would have thought a song was a certain vibe, and then hearing it fleshed out more, I’m like, oh no, actually needs to be pulled back, or it needs to be way heavier, or— yeah. But that’s always just like so fun. It feels like puzzle solving.

Frankie: I was literally gonna say that, yeah.

Rivkala: Yeah, I’m sure you can relate because like, what’s your process like?

Frankie: Pretty similar, like little ideas that just kind of come to you and then they’ll be recorded just in my notes or in my voice notes and then just like sometimes I’ll just leave them for a bit and then I’ll come back to them and a lot of the time all the random little ideas piece together anyway because it’s obviously all just subconscious stuff and then similar to you, like very kind of that first part’s very just me solo and then the next part’s very collaborative and I’m like, okay, someone help me bring this to life. For sure. There’s a Quentin Tarantino quote which I love and I use it a lot in my songwriting groups and I don’t like, I don’t necessarily think I believe in a god, maybe more something bigger but Quentin Tarantino says that the pen is an antenna to God. So when you’ve got that, like, signal, you’ve just gotta go, go, go.

Rivkala: Yeah, for real, for sure.

Frankie: You’re listening to Music Lives Here, recorded on location at The Glasshouse. I’m with neo-soul artist and Youth Music Award winner Rivkala, who’s telling me why this city and this space means so much to her.

Frankie: So I’m gonna move us on to, you’ve mentioned Summer Studios, and I think that one of my favourite videos of you is from a Summer Studios session in 2024. You perform in Lonely Shade of Blue.

Rivkala: Yeah!

Frankie: And that’s far from your only connection to the venue. You’ve mentioned briefly the MOBO Fringe, you’ve mentioned the Proms. I wonder if you could just tell me more about how your musical journey is intertwined with this beautiful venue?

Rivkala: Yeah, so the first time we played here was Proms, I think, and that was magical. It was on the concourse, and my parents came up from Manchester, which was so cute. And yeah, I think the combination of it being like BBC Proms and The Glasshouse was just like, I can’t believe this is real life. That was like super exciting and helped kind of spur me on with a lot of motivation to keep going, keep working hard at stuff. And similarly with supporting Post Modern Jukebox and the MOBO Fringe, and that’s always been with really exciting other artists on the lineup, people like SwanNek, people like Knats, who I just, yeah, have a lot of time for both those bands. Yeah, I feel like it’s been a space where I’ve got to kind of do things that I dreamed of and then also keep growing what my dreams are, like seeing live music here, supporting friends here, supporting, you know, bands that I just love, and then getting the chance to like also, be in the same dressing rooms that someone else has been in before and be in the same environments and kind of be, oh, this is doable and possible and I’m doing it and it’s like happening.

So yeah, I think it’s motivating.

Frankie: Definitely. It’s like a bucket list to play here, isn’t it? A bucket list gig. So to zoom out from The Glasshouse for a moment to the North East more generally, we both know what it’s like navigating the local circuit. Chess launched at The Grove.

Rivkala: Yes.

Frankie: You’ve been in and out of Cobalt and The Cluny. And you filmed All I Should Expect and Vultures at Prohibition Bar in Newcastle.

Rivkala: Yeah, and Chess. All of them.

Frankie: Oh, nice.

Rivkala: All three, yeah.

Frankie: So—

Rivkala: Rest in peace, Prohibition.

Frankie: I know. It’s now defunct. Sad times. Could you tell us a little bit about what the scene is like here for an emerging artist?

Rivkala: For sure. The great thing about Newcastle is that it’s a really intimate scene, and so you can get the lay of the land pretty quickly. And get to know people pretty quickly. Like, if you just show up to other people’s gigs, you’ll see a lot of the same faces in the crowd. If you come to the jams, I think that’s been a thing that has really like helped me to feel very connected to community and like has helped me to grow a lot as well as like an artist, as an improviser. I think everyone’s very friendly. That’s what’s lush about the North full stop, but especially in the North East. And so if you just kind of have the courage to put yourself out in the spaces, go to gigs, go to jams, then you meet lovely people and usually everyone wants to help and will give you lots of direction or advice on how to put on your own gigs or where to find people to work with and what programmes you could get involved with. So in, yeah, that kind of side of the fact that like there’s not that much to learn, you just need to get out and ask people and then opportunity will come, has been, yeah, has been really exciting and a great place to kind of find my footing.

Frankie: That’s lush. It’s a really encouraging music scene, I think, which is nice compared to maybe these other places where it might be more of a competitive feeling.

Rivkala: Definitely. And I think also because it’s smaller, like there’s not as many artists in your genre, that has also meant that I’ve become really good friends with people in different scenes that are like— it’s not cliquey. It’s not like, okay, all the like indie or like post-punk people just hang out and all the like jazz people hang out. There’s a lot of cross-pollination, which is as it should be, I think, musically. And yeah, as like a songwriter as well, it’s like I’m thinking about Melanie Baker, who’s like a songwriter that I adore and just think the world of. And like, our genres are very, very different, but we’re like good mates because she’s like, you know, the scene’s not very big and there’s other mutual artist friends as well. And so like, maybe in a different city our paths wouldn’t cross so much, but I’m glad that they do. And like, that’s just one example.

Frankie: That’s lush. Is there something special about the audiences in the North East?

Rivkala: Definitely. I think people are very engaged here and very present. I feel like I’ve been very lucky to have real listeners, people who like want to chat to you after the gig about that specific lyric or that riff or those different ideas, and that feels like such a gift. And, you know, being on a stage and asking for people’s attention and time and money, you know, in tickets, is like not something that I take lightly. I feel like it’s a really important thing to treat with immense respect and to offer something great. But it’s interesting that that’s not just an experience I’ve had. Like, I was speaking to a band recently that just played Cobalt, TC and the Groove Family, and they were like, this is our favourite venue to play in the country because the audiences here are so engaged and present. And maybe because we’re a bit further out, people don’t take for granted when people come perform here. But yeah, I think I really, really love playing to audiences here.

Frankie: And the audiences really love you. You always put on such a good show. And something speaking of that, something that I find really interesting about your work is the gloriously camp and beautiful way that you’ve carved out such a unique sound. And not just musically as well, but your style of things that you wear on stage, all of your visuals. Could you describe that to listeners who might not know what that looks like?

Rivkala: Yes, absolutely. So the first project world is all set in this cabaret bar, and so that’s the kind of aesthetic pool that we are drinking from. It’s showgirls and kind of that like dapper like suit. I, I— what I think maybe you’re getting at is also I like to play a lot with gender. It’s what I’m doing lyrically. I’m sort of poking fun and commenting on a lot of things, but I’m as inspired by drag as I am by theatre and musical theatre and that kind of camp exaggeration of gender performance, taking it to its most extreme as a way of highlighting how we’re all doing drag every day. We are all performing, playing pretend and putting on our parents’ shoes and walking around and trying to figure it out. I think juxtaposing my giant spider lashes with a little pencil moustache, be like, yeah, both of these are fake. Both of these are performances. And it’s all silly and ridiculous and we can laugh at it. And that kind of approach to— I sort of see performance as like, it’s my job to act as the vessel for this, to fully embody, as an actor would, this idea, this concept, this emotion, and allow audiences to sort of project into that.

So that we can all go on this idea journey together. There was a point where I was having a bit of a crisis. I was like, am I just like a massive narcissist because I want to perform? Like, is there something wrong with me and my brain that I’m just like, everyone stop what you’re doing and look at me for a minute? And I think it’s healthy to reflect on that at times because there’s absolutely a degree of that in, in what all performers do. But then I was like, okay, but why do I feel like that about myself and I don’t feel like that towards any other performers, any other artists that I’m inspired by, and shifting to see that role as a facilitation role, as like, okay, I want us all to think about these ideas together, and so it’s my job to shepherd us through that journey and to embody these ideas and to bring it as much to life as possible. And that’s why it’s so three-dimensional for me, because it’s not just sonic, it’s it’s a visual medium as well. If people are in a room and they’re looking at a stage, they are visually experiencing something too.

And that’s everything from the way that I move to the way that I dress, the way that I’m doing my makeup and my hair. I just love dressing up.

Frankie: Just sounds like the whole package, really. Do you have any advice for artists starting out in the North East and Gateshead who might want to trace your footsteps in discovering their own signature sound and style?

Rivkala: I’d say try not to rush it because— and also try lots of things on in the same way of playing dress-up. Like, try out different things. Don’t expect yourself to land on the thing immediately because as much as I’m saying this, I’m also like, okay, and now for this next project, how do I want to change it and find something new and interesting for myself? But in terms of finding your— sorry, I’m doing air quotes and then realise it is a podcast— finding like your sound or your style, experiment, try things on. There’s kind of 3 main voices in my head that exist. There’s the creator, the editor, and the marketer, and they’re all important, but they can’t do each other’s jobs. And try and be aware if you’re editing before you’ve let the creator have their go. Don’t shut down your own ideas before they’ve even happened. And the most important voice to listen to is the one in your gut. Like, does it feel good to you? Never mind what is the expected thing or what other people are doing, but if it feels in alignment with what feels good to you, what feels real to you.

Frankie: Yeah, completely. I think it’s a lot of work we all eventually have to undo. What am I— what’s expected of me, or what do I think I need to do and what do I want to do and what feels like me. And untangling the two is a big old process, but it’s very empowering.

Rivkala: Yes, that’s such a good way of putting it, the untangling of those two. I really resonate with that, and it’s something that like I’m still working on very much so on like a daily basis.

Frankie: Me too, me too. On the topic of advice, my final question for you today is Is there one thing that comes to mind in terms of something that really helped you when you were starting out?

Rivkala: Mm, yeah, I think like, say what you want and ask for help. Like, you don’t need to have every stage of the path figured out. Wherever you’re at right now, is it that you want to play live? Then go to some live shows and speak to the artist and say, “I really want to do what you’re doing,” and they might be able to help you, um, because that’s literally what happened with us. And like, just introduce yourself in spaces with what you want and what you’re trying to do and ask other people those same questions of what they’re up to. And I think lead with that honest curiosity and that’ll head down an exciting path, I hope.

Frankie: Great advice. Well, thank you so much for that chat. It was really lush to speak to you. All your answers are so lovely, so thank you.

Rivkala: Thanks, babes. Yeah, I always love to yap with a fellow songwriter, hear about what you’re up to as well. Yeah, this has been so much fun. Thanks for having me.

Frankie: I really enjoyed that, and I’m sure you did too. If you have a second, it would mean the world if you could give us a like or a share or tell your friends, and a subscribe as well so you never miss an episode. Music Lives Here is brought to you by The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, a home for music lovers with gigs, concerts, and classes every week in Gateshead Quays, out in communities across the North East, and online. Anyone can join us in creating and celebrating outstanding music. Music lives and grows here.

I’m Frankie Jobling, the producer is Jacob Dabb, and executive producers are Debbie Kilbride and Jo Rowntree. The gorgeous music behind me was composed by Chad Rogers. This has been a Loftus Media production, and until next time, gan canny.