YolanDa Brown – Favourite Things

Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and past times that make them who they are.

YolanDa Brown is a saxophonist, composer, broadcaster and philanthropist. The double MOBO award winner has toured with The Temptations and Billy Ocean and as part of Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. Brown is also the star of the CBeebies programme YolanDa’s Band Jam – a live music show where she invites guests to play with her band to a live audience. Her latest album, YolanDa’s Band Jam, is out now on all digital platforms and her free music lessons are available here, to help with lockdown home-schooling.

These are a few of her favourite things…

Family

As a musician, always being on the road touring can be so hectic; airports and venues are all you see. I had a baby in January of last year, so it has been quite nice having this enforced maternity leave due to Covid-19. I have two beautiful daughters, my husband and a large extended family and I think being with family is so important. We have been doing a lot of video calls with family from Nigeria, the States, friends in India during lockdown– it has been lovely to just sit down for a moment and have a long conversation. Christmas in our household is usually, at the very least, twenty-six people sat around the table. This year, it was just the four of us at home. But we had a three-hour Zoom call because we missed each other so much.

Driving

As a child or teenager, if you had asked me as a what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said a formula one racing driver. I loved the go-karts, and in my twenties, I did a track day and got to drive a single-seater car as well as all the fast cars. From then on, I was even more hooked. I knew it might never be a career, but I still wanted to pursue it and bit by bit worked towards my racing life. When I am not on the track, I just love driving, be it on the motorway, cross country, or just locally. In the very early days, I used to drive the tour bus. I drove to Scotland on the Temptations tour once and remember pulling up to a venue and all of The Temptation bandmembers were stood outside shaking their heads at my all-male band for letting me drive. But I wouldn’t let any of them drive! Nowadays, I drive a Volvo XC-90…

The sea and its beaches

My parents are originally from Jamaica and there is something very connecting about being near the sea. Wherever we go when we are touring; I always try and make sure I get to the beach and get to enjoy the feeling of the sea. I went on a fantastic scuba diving trip with my husband on our honeymoon; when you have experiences like that and get to see the vastness of the planet we live on it, it makes you feel so small but also makes you want to make the most of your life. I like the silence too; I find it comforting. My favourite beach has to be Carlisle Bay in Antigua, I have some amazing memories there.

Stationery

When people talk about retail therapy, they probably mean clothes or makeup. For me, it’s pens and notebooks. I love the feel of new stationery, using nice pens in different colours and I love to gift people notebooks too. I think it is the idea of new beginnings. When you open a fresh notebook and hear the spine crack, it represents a chance to start again. I recently found a starter kit for a bullet journal; it has opened a whole new stationery world. I love the idea of being able to customise your daily ideas and plans.

Food

Being of Jamaican heritage, I love the comfort of Caribbean soul food, flying fish, curried goat, jerk chicken. I love how food brings people together. About ten years ago, I started a restaurant with my manager at the time and a fellow artist we were working with called Black Grange Music Venue in London. We served a mix of Caribbean and Nigerian food and I loved seeing the cuisines come together. Seeing people come to the restaurant to enjoy the ambience and meet friends was amazing too. We heard stories of people meeting there and ten years later getting married. Food is so powerful.