Ebubé Talks ‘A Mile in My Mind’ EP

Ebubé spends a lot of time in his head. “I think I’m someone [who] thinks a lot; I’m too in my mind sometimes,” he says over Zoom. The British-Nigerian singer, whose second solo EP, A Mile In My Mind, is out now, is reflecting in his Substack newsletter, where he publishes essays that contemplate everything from analysis paralysis to finding meaning amid dread.

“Something that helps me is just journaling. I thought also that in the same vein as singing and me writing in the form of poetry, which is what the songs are, journaling could also help other people; that’s the reason why I just started posting them,” he says. “The topics I would write those essays on come from me having to — I’ve had to question a lot, especially in these last two years.”

Ebubé gained recognition as a founding member of the R&B group No Guidnce. The quartet released their debut EP, Is It A Crime? in June 2023, which included their viral title track, and followed up that fall with their Spicy EP.

In June 2024, Ebubé posted a letter on social media announcing his departure from No Guidnce. “After 3 amazing years with No Guidnce, I will not be continuing as a part of the group,” he wrote. “As our key visions for the group no longer aligned, and after lots of discussion with the boys and management, a decision was made in the group’s interest that I should leave.”

Born and raised in South London, Ebubé spent his early years studying classical music. He started learning piano at age three, and by age six, he picked up the violin. “My first look at the music world was from a classical lens. At the same time, my mom sang in church, so we’d be listening to Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, and Jonathan McReynolds in the car, and then I was going to practice and sing Beethoven and Mozart,” he says. Despite his early musical training, academics remained the priority.

Before Ebubé joined No Guidnce, he was on track to go to school for medicine in France. “It was one of the dreams of mine also to be a doctor,” he says. “I did quite a few internships — or work experience, as we called it in London — in hospitals. Academics was always important to me and my mom too [because] she’s a teacher. From a young age, that was my main thing. Music subsidized my academics.”

While music has always been present in Ebubé’s life, he never imagined that it would be his profession. “I didn’t see that as a possibility. I thought the music industry’s too gate-kept,” he shares, until a “mysterious” DM came his way. “It was on April Fool’s Day, so I didn’t believe it, but it was the label that put the group together. They were contacting me, saying, ‘We’re interested in you signing a record deal.’ Within a few days, I met the boys and it was really an amazing time.”

Even though Ebubé didn’t plan his departure, he made the most of the situation by taking a leap of faith into a solo career. He concluded 2024 with his first pair of solo tracks, “New Chapter, Hello” and “For You, Love.” The latter song appears on his debut EP, Slow Jam Szn, released in May 2025. Regarding the latter project, he said, “I wanted to bring back slow, sensual but meaningful R&B.”

A Mile In My Mind expands on the foundation of Slow Jam Szn. The former includes the singles “Coming Home,” “Eres Mi Sol” and “Mr. Postman.” Ebubé produced the majority of the project, with contributions from Ashton Sellars, 2stnmrks and Joe Gosling.

You were previously a member of No Guidnce and parted ways in 2024. I saw a Q&A you did where you mentioned that you didn’t want to leave. Given that you closed the year with two solo tracks, was this a transition you had anticipated and prepared for?

Those two songs were after the fact. Even during the group, on off days, I made stuff at home to practice my craft. A lot of the songs that have come out were songs I made years ago in my bedroom. It was not necessarily anticipated in terms of starting afresh. Once the new situation arrived, it was a bit of a scramble to: “OK, what am I going to do? What’s my sound now? Who am I going to write with? I didn’t know this was going to happen.” I was in the studio almost every day for months that summer, trying to figure it out. I knew I didn’t want to wait too long. If I was going to do this on my own, I wanted to do it pretty quickly.

What was the reason behind the departure?

I think it was down to creative misalignment. I feel like my voice was already different in the sense that I was having to do a lot to fit in with the style of music. I didn’t really do R&B before I was in the group, so it was a big learning curve. Also, my voice — it felt difficult to sing as high. I had to train myself to have a much wider range. So that’s why it feels like I came out straight away, and my sound was so distinct. But yeah, I think we weren’t aligned on certain creative opinions.

In 2025, you released your EP Slow Jam Szn. How would you connect that project to A Mile In My Mind?

Funnily enough, a lot of this new EP was already done by the time I dropped Slow Jam Szn. Early on in my solo career, I wanted to experiment with the sound and not stay stuck on one because I wasn’t sure of my sound. That’s why the title is A Mile in My Mind. It’s not just lyrically a look into my mind, but also sonically, how scattered it can be, hopefully in an organized way. There’s a progression in terms of influences. In between the two, I got obsessed with Stevie Wonder and soul, infusing that into my music with songs like “Eres Mi Sol,” “Pressures” and “Mr. Postman.” I’m still experimenting, especially with these two EPs. When I started, I knew I was going to do two EPs, so I made music for that. This is the continuation of the first experiment.

Getting into A Mile in My Mind, I want to start with an instant standout: “Driving You Home.” What went into making that song?

I went to one of my producer’s friend’s house in Holland. Most of the songs I start with the chords, so I just picked up the guitar and we started figuring out some chords. That one was influenced by the story of somebody else. It’s about the person you are with, who has been telling other people they’re not in a relationship, meanwhile they were. So I made that flip into, “I’m driving you back to your house [and] not coming back. This is the last drive home.” At the time of making it, I didn’t realize I really liked it as much as I did afterwards. It really fits in with the theme of the EP. A Mile In My Mind is about the journey of love and it has its bends. A lot of the songs are journey-related, like “Driving You Home,” “Coming Home” and “A Mile in My Mind.”

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Speaking of the title track, what was special about the song that made you want to name the project after it?

Lyrically, it encapsulated almost everything I’ve been trying to say in all the other previous love songs, which is if only you could come into my own brain to see how much I feel about you — despite what you might think or what this world might make you think I’m supposed to feel about you — just take a look into my mind and you’ll see how I do feel. That’s kind of that topic I had been writing on other songs. I had been attempting to get that angle, but “A Mile In My Mind” felt lyrically and conceptually very strong.

What was your mindset when writing “Make You Feel Beautiful”?

Sonically, I was influenced by Brandy, Usher and ‘90s R&B. There’s the stigmas of what R&B needs to be in terms of sexualizing or what you need to lyrically say in the songs in order to break the air, which, in a sense, this song does, but it’s not actually speaking about that. It’s more so I want to, with a lot of my music, be uplifting to women and positive in the sense that you don’t want someone to just tell you that you are beautiful in your looks, but also for you to actually feel it and for you to feel beautiful in how you are. That’s the main crux of the song and what I want the message to be.

Did you stumble across any roadblocks when making A Mile In My Mind?

The most challenging thing for me has been not trying to write about the same thing all the time. For example, I’m in a happy relationship. So at times it’s been difficult for me to channel the feeling of being hurt. The problem I have is when I sing a heartbreak song, for example, it just hits different. I feel it even I feel like I’ve just gone from heartbreak. So it felt ashamed to not have other aspects rather than just lovey-dovey all the time.

You’ve mentioned experimenting with your sound across these releases. Now that you have two solo projects under your belt, where do you feel you are artistically and sonically?

It’s almost a sense of there are two worlds I can live in sonically. There’s the “Lay With Me” sound, which is heavily influenced by Brandy, in terms of vocal production, and Usher. I’ve done that specifically on Slow Jam Szn and half of this new project. Then there’s the other musical live instruments, soul-influenced thing I have going on. Not everything goes in these two buckets, but that’s how they live in my brain. I’m trying to push myself as far as possible. Maybe when I’m making the next project, I’m going to realize there’s something else I want to try that works best. What’s most important is I feel like, lyrically and sonically, I know my process. I’m always going to experiment, but I’m very intrigued to see how people respond to this EP, which will help me understand what my fan base actually likes. And not necessarily just do that, but it will be helpful to see what people resonate with, because we will also have a slight business brain about this.

How do you want A Mile In My Mind to resonate with people?

I want to inspire people to experiment too and have the bravery to try things, be introspective within their own minds too and not be afraid of their thoughts. I feel like we try to drown out our thoughts now. Sometimes it’s hard to even sit in silence. I think it’s important that people are introspective, vulnerable and can feel free to speak out those thoughts that they didn’t feel that they could before.

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Stream Ebubé’s A Mile In My Mind EP.