Getting To Know FLO, The UK R&B Outfit Co-Signed By Missy & SZA

Three months after the release of their debut single, “Cardboard Box”—produced by British pop mastermind MNEK—London-based outfit FLO have released their first body of work in The Lead. With their angelic harmonies and ‘90s and early ‘00s influences from music to fashion, Renée, 19, Stella, 20, and Jorja, 20, are now walking the path carved out by a long lineage of R&B and pop girl-group greats.

Behind the harmonious vocals and unbreakable chemistry are three young Black women coming from different walks of life before their journeys amalgamated. After moving from Mozambique to the UK at the age of 5, Stella grew her passion for the creative arts while attending Sylvia Young Theatre School. Having also attended the same school, Renée was able to bond with Stella over their mutual love for singing, before later uniting to form FLO. Meanwhile, Jorja was embarking on her own musical journey until meeting the other two members at an audition later on. From this point on, the story of FLO began and a winding road of experiences lay ahead.

Months before releasing their own music, viral videos showcasing their pitch-perfect covers of soulful favourites, such as “Insecure” by Jazmine Sullivan and Summer Walker’s “Insane”, would circulate TikTok, accumulating thousands of views. But it was a single viral tweet stating “the UK girl groups are coming hard”, accompanied by a clip of their clean-cut visuals to “Cardboard Box”, that introduced many to the world of FLO. In fact, they have already developed a cult following online (fan pages aplenty) and received major co-signs from the likes of Missy Elliott, SZA, the Sugababes, Brandy and Victoria Monet.

Fresh off releasing their 5-track debut project, The Lead, we caught up with Jorja, Stella and Renée over Zoom to talk about the journey leading up to the forming of FLO, finding their voices in label boardrooms, their music-making processes, and more. 

“In a way, we’re all quite similar. We’ve had similar experiences growing up, all primarily being raised by our mums. When you have similar experiences, it’s really easy to get along with each other.”—Renée

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuUzZ7yz6AI&w=750&h=415]

COMPLEX: Hi, ladies! Big fan of your work. Your official debut single, “Cardboard Box”, dropped in April of this year and it went viral from a single tweet. How has life been since its release?

Renée: It feels good because, before that, we didn’t have an actual piece of music to show for ourselves so it feels good to have our music out there. We’re officially artists now.

Jorja: And it’s been received so well! That makes the wait worth it.

Why did you choose “Cardboard Box” to be the song that introduced the world to FLO?

Renée: Everyone was actually quite against us releasing “Cardboard Box”, just because it was…

Jorja: —really ambitious.

Renée: Yeah, it was very ambitious of us as our first song, and MNEK as a producer. We didn’t know what the reception was going to be. Our label wanted to play it safe but we wanted to be true to ourselves. “Cardboard Box” was the best first song for us to release because it’s a really nice introduction to FLO. It’s got the R&B melodies but it’s still a bit easy on the ears so that everyone can listen to it and enjoy. I think it was the perfect introduction.

Stella: And it definitely paid off [laughs].

Pop hit-maker MNEK produced the song—how did you guys cross paths with him?

Stella: Our manager knew him from another management company and put us in our first session with him. It’s just been amazing, and he’s so talented. He makes all of our songs sound so elevated. It’s really special working with him.

Jorja, you performed a cover of MNEK’s “Wrote A Song About You” on a CBBC talent show in 2017. How did it feel when you had that full circle moment when working with him?

Jorja: It feels really good to be close to one of your idols because, outside of music, he gives us life advice. We don’t just strictly work with him professionally; he’s our friend as well. It’s really amazing having someone you look up to but also appreciates you and your music around. Like, imagine Beyoncé telling you that she actually loves you and that you’re really talented…

How did the three of you meet, and was there instant chemistry in the studio or was that something you had to work towards?

Jorja: I met the girls for the first time at an audition for a group our label was putting together. Renée and Stella went to school with each other but I knew about them via social media. I think because of that, we gravitated towards each other and formed more of a connection than we did with the other girls at the audition. The connection was already there, and the chemistry just followed that.

Renée: I think, in a way, we’re all quite similar. We’ve had similar experiences growing up, all primarily being raised by our mums. When you have similar experiences, it’s really easy to get along with each other. None of us have sisters, we all have brothers, so we’re like the sisters we never had.

You were building your relationship as a group, developing your sound and style, two years prior to releasing your debut single. What was the most important thing you learned during that time?

Stella: Probably having patience, and that not everything goes where you want it to go. But as much as it was frustrating in ways, I think that we got closer because we were all going through the same thing. So I think it was for the best.

Jorja: For me, I learned to not be afraid to speak up. Even the process of us picking the tracklist for our EP, it’s changed like four times. The songs we’re putting out now are not the songs we were planning on putting out six months ago. So all of that comes from being really honest with yourself, if it feels right, and whether it makes sense. We have to put out a song that we love and have confidence in, otherwise it’s not going to translate the way we want it to. It’s our music and it’s personal to us, so we have every right to have an opinion on it.

I can imagine that’s been a useful but frustrating experience, especially since you’ve developed a solid following that have been wanting you to release music and are really vocal about that.

Stella: I think it’s nice that they want us to put out music, and we want to put out music as well. But I think that we did have to keep in mind that it’s important it comes out right, and it’s something we’re happy with.

Renée: Yeah, it has to be ready.

Jorja: And the strategy has to be there because we want to have the best outcome, even if we want to give people as much music as they want.

Was music something you always wanted to be involved in?

Renée: For me, I definitely enjoyed anything creative. I went to Sylvia Young to pursue acting initially, then dancing, until I decided I was going to focus on singing. So it’s always been there, but I was never really set on anything until that point; I just knew I wanted to do something creative.

Jorja: In the beginning, I wanted to be a vet and then I decided it was going to be too much hard work—like, the bad kind of hard work, not the fun kind of hard work. And, oh, and I can’t put an animal down. I could never do that. I also wanted to do athletics, as my mum was an athlete, but then I discovered I wanted to do singing and you can’t really do both. If you want to be at the top of your career path, you have to pick one and dedicate your whole life to that. So I chose singing over athletics because I’m not going to the gym! [Laughs]

Stella: Singing was always one of the things I love. For a while, I wanted to be a 100 metre sprinter, but that didn’t last very long. Then I wanted to be a teacher, because that’s what my mum does, but nothing made me passionate the way music does—even if it was just listening to it. Singing was the passion that was the most consistent.

“Musically, we have a little family now. So, like, MNEK, Kabba, Ryan Ashley, Jamal Woon, they’re all involved in the whole EP. It’s been so good and they really get us.”—Stella