While touring and doing session work for other artistes in the last two years, Sherieta Lewis meticulously crafted songs for a sound she has branded Exotique Soul. That soulful blend can be heard on Conversations in Key , her first EP, which was released last Friday by Ghetto Youths International.

The seven-song project is co-produced by her and keyboardist Sean Diedrick. Both of them are members of Damian “Junior Gong” Marley’s band.

“The concept for Conversations in Key wasn’t at all clear at the beginning. It was mostly me writing and building random tracks and demos, some from as far back as 2015. Then I met up with bandmate Sean in 2016 while on tour with Damian Marley, and thanks to his expertise, a number of the tracks were updated, and I was able to find a thread of songs that worked together. From those songs, I found the title of the project,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Lewis wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on Conversations in Key. They include the ballad Can we Stay (with Chevaughn) and Woman2Woman, a ‘the-other-woman’ number, which features Racquel Jones.

Though she has been recording for 10 years, most of Lewis’ work has been in the background. She has done countless sessions as a harmony singer on hit songs by Nesbeth ( My Dream), Tarrus Riley ( Gimme Likkle One Drop) and Agent Sasco ( Winning Right Now). Her vocals can also be heard on Marley’s Reach Home Safe and Slave Mill.

She has also toured with Riley, Diana King, Duane Stephenson and Gentleman.

On Conversations in Key, Lewis presents Exotique Soul, which she describes as an “unbridled, unrestrained, confident female energy, expressed through a mix of my preferred genres — soul, R&B and reggae/dancehall, and any other genre I feel best expresses what a song is saying”.

Growing up in Kingston, Lewis developed an appreciation for different sounds early. That appreciation was enhanced while she attended the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts where she did Popular Music Studies. She left before graduating.

Her eclectic tastes include the jazz phrasings of Ella Fitzgerald and Anita Baker, the neo-soul of India. Arie, and the reggae beats of Junior Gong and Beres Hammond.

“I take many notes from Beres Hammond’s warm performance style and storytelling abilities. Damian Marley’s music inspires me to think creatively about how I pen my lyrics. India.Arie’s conviction in terms of who she is and what she expresses creatively, in the face of this very external and materialistic industry, is a constant reminder to me to be true to myself,” she said.