Hawa B, real name Nadia Hawa Baldé, is about to release her debut album, better sad than sorry (out Nov. 8 via Duprince). It’s the final mark of a trilogy of projects featuring the word “sad” in the title, each one finding her seamlessly mixing alternative rock with dark R&B, jazz, and soul. To commemorate her album launch, RANGE has asked her to share some of her favourite musical inspirations at one of our favourite vinyl emporiums in the city. 

Baldé spots her first album pick almost immediately, drawn to a vibrant cover with a colour palette matching her red outfit. It’s a cover of a nude woman in a motorcycle helmet, covering her upper and lower torso with long fingernails. This is the deluxe version of Motomami, the third album of Spanish art-pop singer, Rosalía. 

“I love this album, especially the song order,” Baldé says, turning over the album. “I get very bored easily with music and she moves through many different sounds and it keeps my attention.” The first pick makes sense; Hawa B’s music is very evocative, if not a bit, in her own words, “ADHD,” hopscotching between genres within a four-minute song like “Ntitled.”

“OK, now I think we go to jazz,” Baldé says. We move to the front of the store and she begins flipping through the “Fs” in the ragtime, bop, free jazz, swing, and vocal jazz sections. 

After a few minutes, she looks up and says “I’m looking for Ella.” An Aux 33 Tours employee rushes over and starts flipping with her. They find Ella in Berlin, featuring the “Mack the Knife” and “Summertime” live Berlin outtakes. After the employee searches across the room, he informs us that it’s the only Ella Fitzgerald in the store. “That’s kind of sad, she should have her own section,” Baldé says out loud. But we both agree that “Summertime” is a great song.  

Growing up, Baldé started singing lessons at age eight and eventually studied jazz performance at University. “I learned a bunch of Ella in school and so many singers get kind of geeky when they scat sing, but Ella, she made it her own and didn’t give a damn. She taught me that jazz is punk.”

Another singer who has been with Baldé since day one is the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Within Aux 33 Tours’ large soul record section, Baldé finds the classic 1968 pressing of Lady Soul. “Aretha is connected to all of the big singers of today,” she says. “Fun fact, but Whitney Houston’s mother is singing backup on some of these songs.”

As she flips her long braided hair behind her head, we move into the alternative rock section of the store. “Now, something a bit more weird,” she says, grabbing The Smile’s Wall of Eyes. “I think the Radiohead guys are still making some of the most interesting music right now. I remember listening to the song ‘Bending Hectic’ for the first time and just being lost in the journey.” Radiohead’s production has always been a major influence on Baldé, urging her to go a bit further with her own sound. She produces all of her own music on Ableton before bringing it to her band to play. “Again, I get bored quite easily, so I need to be able to break out of the box.”

We walk out of Aux 33 Tours into the frigid Montreal air, onward down the street to Mont-Royal Hot Dog. Baldé orders two hot dogs, one loaded with onions and another with mustard and ketchup. She grabs both dogs and walks to the restaurant bar, posing with both as if holding up two delicious trophies. As she moves between poses, a few onions fall to the floor. “I’m a mess,” she laughs.

Every customer and employee starts to notice, curious about what we are doing as we sit down at a booth. I overhear two older customers saying we must be filming a TV show. This quaint hot dog diner might sound like a strange place for a photoshoot, but for Hawa B, it’s pretty on-brand. Much like her music, her social media presence is quite abnormal, featuring photo shoots in toilet stalls, bathrooms, and the supermarket. “I just love dressing over the top in very normal places,” she says. “I guess my music is kind of like that too, I’ll throw in an experimental string section after a jazzy soul beat or something.”

Yes, no one does it like Hawa B.