Why Kelis Doesn't Try To Be A Feminist

Kelis Rogers is an original. The R&B maverick, now a qualified chef, promoted her (metaphoric) soul-funk-electro album Food by operating a food truck at SXSW. It's become media legend. “It was really fun!” she enthuses.

A few years ago the Harlemite nearly quit the music industry, jaded by its politics – hence her decision to enrol in Le Cordon Bleu and develop a sauce line, Feast, and cookery show, Saucy & Sweet. Yet making Food was re-affirming, with the currently LA-based musician teaming with the improbable Dave Sitek, TV On The Radio's guitarist. Kelis is newly indie, too, having signed to London's Ninja Tune. “Every record is liberating, to a degree – you're releasing something that was inside for however long,” she says. “[But] working with Dave was amazing. He's a great musician and he's become a great friend. So it was an all-round necessary and good time for me.”

Kelis doesn't follow boring PR guidelines. She'll challenge interviewers, often with a husky laugh. Indeed, she disputes the (admittedly reductive) description of Sitek as an 'indie-rock' producer. Curiously, Food harks back sonically to her cult 1999 debut Kaleidoscope, which The Neptunes helmed. Kelis' latest single Friday Fish Fry is gritty blues-rock – not far from Caught Out There.

The 34-year-old has always been a big name everywhere but the US. Large-scale success came only with 2003's Tasty, thanks to Milkshake. But a disillusioned Kelis subsequently left Jive. She was then briefly affiliated with will.i.am's fold, presenting 2010's post-EDM Flesh Tone. Rogers is non-committal about what old songs she'll perform with her band here. “It depends on the night, but I'm a live performer, for sure – that's definitely where you see me the best.”

There's been talk of Rogers resurrecting a trip hop album she abandoned post-Flesh Tone – she cut material with London dubstepper Skream. “I was travelling and working so much that it kind of felt like a lot of stop and go – which is not the best for me when writing a record,” she says. “I think just a lot of time went by – and I just was over it. I don't think I'll ever release it. I'm very much an in-the-moment-type of creator and so I don't really dwell on the stuff that I did before. Once I'm done with it, I'm done.” Rogers epitomises the modern mogul mother but she's disinclined to identify herself as a feminist. “I don't think about it much, to be honest – I think that's kinda what makes me a feminist at heart,” she explains. “It's like me trying to be black – it doesn't make any sense. I am black. So I don't have to try to be a feminist – I'm a woman, so there goes that.”