“It’s a bit of trial and error, and it’s about weighing the scales to be like, okay, this is what I love, and this is what I feel like I want the world to hear, but sometimes you’ve just got to wait a little bit and work on your craft a bit more. When you’re intentional in that sense, and you’re just sitting back and thinking, ‘What can I work on more so that I can showcase it,’ I’m happy with my work at the end of the day.”

With Aqyila’s level of talent, though, she’s also been learning to realize that sometimes perfection has already arrived after only a single take. There’s no better time to capture the magic of the pure, unfiltered emotion that she wants to be able to infuse her songs with than when she’s feeling it most acutely. In fact, there are a couple tracks on the finished album that are actually Aqyila’s original demo vocals.

“I used to think, ‘When I go back in the studio to actually cut the song, I’ve got to re-sing it, so that way I can just do it more perfectly,’” she says. “I’ve realized sometimes it loses the feeling when I’m re-singing, I’m like, ‘I don’t feel the same way.’ Sometimes it’s good to just leave it as is and just let everything take care of itself.”

For a student of the game when it comes to ‘90s R&B and more gospel-tinged soulful tracks, striking stack harmonies and emotive vocals are things that come naturally to her. If you go to her social media feeds, you’ll probably find her gushing about acts like FLO or Jhene Aiko, who inhabit similar spaces of classic R&B stylings.

“I always talk about bringing back the begging and pleading and love. R&B has always been about being authentic when it comes to love. I feel like nowadays, people are a bit more reserved,” she says. “Now it’s much cooler to hide your emotions and be nonchalant. I cannot do the nonchalant thing. I’m very chalant! In ‘Wolf’ I’m like, ‘You pissed me off!’ I’m very much straight forward, not cutting around. I feel like old school R&B definitely told a story too.”

The aforementioned track has found Aqyila making a slew of TikToks demanding “emotional damage compensation” for a failed relationship that she invested a little too much time, energy, and raw feeling into for it to end so abruptly. She initially just meant the term as a joke, until a quick Google search prior to our conversation informed her that it’s a real legal process, so you might catch Aqyila down at the courthouse in the next couple weeks.

“Too many times you think ‘This is the one, this is the one,’ and it is definitely not the one! You’re like ‘Okay, how much am I getting paid for this now?’” she says. “You cried wolf so many times, and I’m not going to believe you at this point. You’re pushing my boundaries by thinking that you’re going to keep getting away with more lies. I’ve got my guard up now. I’m still going to allow love to come in, but at the same time, I’m just not as easy to manipulate.”

Despite Aqyila’s “chalant-ness,” she does close the album off with a song uncharacteristically titled “Unbothered.” Aqyila isn’t so much unbothered in the sense that she’s emotionless, however – it’s more like she’s able to realize when things are past the point of no return, no longer a place for the many emotions she keeps inside to be expended.

Aqyila has often described the therapeutic element of songwriting as one of the major draws to her following it as a career path. For all of the emotional damage that she went through to get these songs recorded, she hopes that she can both reach fans that have gone through the same thing at the same time as lifting the weight off of her own shoulders.

“Even as a kid, I would use it as a form of expression to just alleviate any sad feelings. When I write it out, or sing it out, I no longer think about it anymore. Sometimes you need a listening ear, but maybe at that time you don’t really have a listening ear, so it’s like, I’m just going to express myself to myself, and make a song about it in a catchy way so I don’t cry,” she says. “It worked out great, because now I connect with so many people.”

Aqyila’s favourite set of lyrics from Falling Into Place is “I had a vision, a premonition. I was hoping and wishing for redemption. You see, my intuition, it never misses and it gives my soul a mission.” While recording these lyrics, she describes a bit of a revelation that despite all of the outside noise – both personal and professional at times – everything’s happening just like she imagined from a young age.

“At that moment, this reminded me why I do music,” she says. “As an artist, you start to feel super overwhelmed after a while. It reminded me that not only am I on the right track, but I knew this day would come where I would be able to just share my music with the world. And although it’s a bit scary when it’s happening, I’m excited.”