Between her recently released debut EP, a second EP in the works, and two tours, the 27-year-old is being pulled in many directions. But she’s also enjoying the emotionally ambiguous position she’s currently in – it’s what characterizes much of her work. Boyd, who’s a part of Infinity Song, a pop rock sibling quintet that debuted in 2015, confesses that she’s nervous about striking out on her own as a solo artist.
The demands are high: Her debut Miss Michigan tour just finished its US leg this past August and she will continue on throughout Europe in the fall, with a stop in London in November. She said that in comparison to Infinity Song’s sound, which can be characterized by guitar-driven melodies full of romanticism. But her moodier sound could not be more different from the family band’s more optimistic tunes.
Nevertheless, the young singer is quick to say that the balance between the two lanes has been “pretty easy”. The challenge so far has been trusting herself to explore different sounds in an industry where Black women’s artistry is often flattened into categories. The alternative and indie rock artist Santigold spoke about the industry’s narrow view of “Black music” during her 2022 Tiny Desk performance, and the Grammy award-winning artist SZA once said that her own music was only categorized as R&B because she’s Black.
Being Black, female and gifted is often accompanied with being misunderstood–a consequence that Boyd has learned early on in her career. Her musical origins began with her father, John Boyd, who started multiple choirs in Michigan, where the family is from, so that the younger people of their community would have an activity after school. By the time Momo was seven, her family relocated from the midwest to the north-east.
While going to school in the Bronx, Boyd recalled, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl said to the singer: “Where you from? You talk like a white girl.” The comment made Boyd acutely aware of the cultural shift from her slower, midwestern roots to a faster, city life. The suspicion that she was cosplaying whiteness would resurface years later when she released her debut single, American Love Song.
Boyd’s melancholic, haunting voice about an ill-fated romance in American Love Song has made some listeners call her the Black Lana Del Rey, which Boyd considers a compliment. As the seventh of nine children who, Boyd said, didn’t get much attention growing up, she spent a lot of her formative years experiencing anxiety and temperamental attitudes. She decided to channel those feelings from childhood into her music.
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