A Three-Minute Dive Into the Mind of Musician and Composer Aseda Safoa

[SEATTLE, Wash.] — Ghanaian-American composer, singer-songwriter, and pianist Aseda Bekoe-Sakyi headlined her first show Sep. 11 at Conor Byrne. Aseda, whose artist’s name is Aseda Safoa, has been immersed in music since she was four years old. With the release of her new song “One-Sided,” Bekoe-Sakyi is reclaiming the stage after a four year break.

The interview has been edited for style and clarity. 

The Click: Tell me a little bit about your first two songs: “The Feeling” and “Hopeless (Romantic).”

Bekoe-Sakyi: The first song I released I wrote about a crush that I had and I sang it at a talent show at [Seattle Pacific University]. A lot of people after that talent show were like, “You should put this out. I want to listen to it all the time”… I just love that process so much that I wanted to keep on writing and recording. That’s kind of how it started. [And] after the first time it was like I caught the bug, and I wanted to keep doing it.

So the next year, “Hopeless (Romantic)” is about the same person. But it’s not as happy as the first one. So I guess it’s kind of like they’re sister songs in a way. So that song was going to be a part of a project I was working on again for school, but also just for myself, and it ended up not turning out the way I wanted [it] to. So it’s kind of in the archives now. But hopeless (romantic) was the song that survived; my favorite one from the group of six I wrote for it. 

The Click: Tell me about your newest song, “One-Sided,” and why you took a small musical break over the past few years?

Bekoe-Sakyi: Starting with “One-Sided,” I’d always wanted to continue to put out music, but just realistically, it’s a huge financial endeavor, and I knew that my production skills only went so far. So, I needed to find someone to collaborate with who would help me make the music what I really wanted it to be. Those years [between song releases] were coming up with what I wanted the songs to be about; figuring out what I wanted the project to say about me, essentially, and then finding someone who I could work with creatively who I trusted. 

Singing and writing music is very vulnerable, so I didn’t want to work with just anybody. So I ended up working with Adam [Haagenson], who worked with me at The INN, and is a really talented producer and artist himself. We started working on music together, and, back in 2024, we started writing together, and then I kind of went from there. 

Collaborating with people has taught me so much more about being an independent artist and what it takes to really promote your music. 

The Click: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard your music?

Bekoe-Sakyi: I feel like it’s a mixture of all of my influences. So there’s some pop in there and there’s some R&B… If you think about all the facets of pop, it’s probably more on the indie side. There’s even sometimes some gospel elements, there’s some rock elements. I loved music growing up, so I listened to everything. So I think my music kind of encapsulates that. There’s a lot of words, so I would think of artists like Adele. Adele writes a lot of words and she’s very soulful in her voice too. I don’t think I could put it into one genre because it just goes all over the place. 

The Click: Any future lineups that you can disclose?

Bekoe-Sakyi: I have one officially on the books coming up in February. I’m going to be opening with the band Good Enough. We’re going to be opening for Veronica North. It’ll be in Fremont [Seattle] at Hidden Hall. [It’s a] newer venue in Fremont, so it’ll be cool to be one of the first couple [of] artists to play there.