Ekkah are the 70s-inspired pop duo made up of bffl’s Rebekah Pennington and Bex Wilson whose songs are aimed to 'get you onto the dance floor, whether you’re alone or with your friends.' With a friendship spanning over a decade, the duo serve as exemplary to the power of girls when united through the mutual support, encouragement and belief that transformed their musical dreams into a reality. Though their influences span a broad spectrum of genres, the prominence of funk and disco can be felt in not just their sound, but their undeniable energy too; each live show is more of an all-inclusive party rather than just a performance, where you need only Ekkah’s own mantra of a P.M.A (positive mental attitude) to get involved.
Watch the video to their track Can't Give It Up below and discover five senses from Ekkah's world.
Our main focus when we're writing our music is to transport people into a good place, like in San Junipero.
To just dance, have fun and forget about the hard times. That's what funk and disco used to do for people in the 70's, get everyone together and spend the whole night dancing and being whoever you wanted to be. It's a really important era that we admire and take a lot from and we hope to inspire this same feeling in our listeners. We always want to create a fun vibe on stage so when writing, we listen to bands like Earth, Wind and Fire, Chic, Sister Sledge and The Whispers.
Femininity to us is feeling empowered wherever we are and whoever we are at each stage in our lives.
To be yourself, to feel strong, sexy, and awake. We feel this through our music and through looking out for each other. For us, one of the most integral parts of being female is support for one another which in turn builds upon self-belief - your inner confidence and strength. When we first started talking about making Ekkah a reality we'd listen to Niki & the Doves album because it made us feel like anything was possible, which is true when you really think about it.
Amelia Earhart is someone who greatly inspires us.
She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, at a time when she would have faced a lot of criticism and doubt. She overcame this and went on to become a beacon of light for women who believed they could do anything. Both of our mothers have been strong and important role models in our lives too - when things feel hard, chances are your mother has been through it before. They raised us and saw our personalities develop which can be a great help when asking for advice on how to deal with certain things life hurls at you.
When we heard Meryl Streep quote her friend Carrie Fisher's words "turn your broken heart into art" it really ran deep within us.
We look to the hard times people have had in their life journeys and how they kept a positive mental attitude to get to where they wanted to go. We also look to one another a lot. To have your closest friend on such an interesting journey breeds creativity, so if one of us isn’t feeling something, chances are the other will be and so we have the ability to draw each others feelings out. It's important to remember that inspiration is unlimited, it can be found anywhere and everywhere, in both the good and bad experiences.
For us, music has always been able to highlight an inexplicable sense.
That feeling you get when you catch eye contact with your friend, you know exactly what they're thinking but you don't know why. We've both been friends for so many years that we're now masters at communicating without talking and this sense definitely enhances our creativity when we're writing and performing together. We base a lot of our creativity on listening to others and one another, so each others stories and experiences often provide inspiration for our songs.