From the joyful musical roots of her Ghanaian heritage, to the raw storytelling of singers like Lauryn Hill that first piqued her interest as a teen, to the supportive South London community that she’s found a home in more recent years, there’s one thing that connects the musical jigsaw of 24-year-old Nectar Woode: honesty. “I like things where, when you strip it down, someone is genuinely trying to convey an emotion with their music. With West African music, you can hear that so clearly with the rhythm and the songwriting, and then I do like my indie side – with Joni Mitchell that quality is so obvious too,” she explains. “I remember so vividly the moment I wanted to be a songwriter as my profession. I was 15 and there was a video on YouTube of Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged, and it’s just her with an acoustic guitar, chatting. I just watched it and cried.”