Savannah Ré is moving differently these days—and it’s not just because her highly anticipated project Formed finally has a release date.
When I hopped on a call with the Toronto-born R&B artist, I didn’t want to go straight into music or career milestones. Instead, I asked her something simple: How are you really?
I don’t know if it’s all creatives, but it’s always a roller coaster with me,” she laughed. “But right now, I’m just feeling accomplished. We finished the project. It’s got a release date. So, I’m feeling like I can breathe a little bit.”
For anyone who’s been watching Savannah rise in the R&B world since her 2020 debut EP, Opia, it’s clear she has always been intentional with her work. Never one to drop music for the hell of it, Savannah is intentional with her art.
Now, for the first time in her career, she’s doing it on her terms. After years of navigating the music industry under a label, Savannah has stepped away to go fully independent. “I’m independent now,” she shared. “And on this journey, my independent journey, I really try to make sure that this whole ‘rushed’ element doesn’t exist for me anymore. When it comes to the music, I just don’t subscribe.”
It’s refreshing, but not surprising. Savannah looks back on her time as a signed artist with gratitude but complete transparency. “When you’re signed, you have deadlines, you have hard dates, and a bunch of people telling you what you gotta sound like, what’s a hit, what’s not,” she said. “At some point, you have to push the noise out. I’ll do anything for my music, but I will never compromise it.
Her song “Nine Lives” is the first single from her upcoming album and a testament to that personal boundary.
She jokingly (but not really) referred to the grind of being indie as “ghetto,” but she wears the struggle like a badge of honor. The song is both an anthem and a diary entry celebrating her bounce-backs, from the low points to everything in between. Soft guitar riffs play as she sings about surviving it all and still showing up for herself no matter what. “I’ve been everything, and none of it’s killed me,” she explained. “It’s literally saying, there are so many versions of me. So many lives I’ve lived.”
The song fosters a darker, more assertive tone than what listeners may be used to from her. Immediately, you can recognize the clarity in her voice and tell that that isn’t just another R&B release. It’s the start of a new chapter defined by self-trust and freedom.
When asked if the song was inspired by a specific moment, she didn’t sugarcoat it. “It’s both. People think things are linear. Like, oh, you get married, get the awards, and suddenly life is perfect. That’s not real. I might be married now, but girl, I’ve had my legs up in a Honda too! You might see this version of me, but it’s important that I show the lows too.”
Being independent comes with its fair share of sacrifices, but it’s also given her complete creative freedom to create the next chapter of her story. One of those creative outlets? Collaborating with her husband and longtime collaborator, Johann ‘Yogi the Producer’ Deterville.
The music video for “Nine Lives” was directed and executive-produced by Savannah and Yogi under their production company, Matrimony Records. But the couple’s bond was built long before romance came into the picture. They started as friends with a passion for making music. Over time, that passion unknowingly evolved into a deeper partnership that felt natural in and outside of the studio.
For Savannah, he’s one of the few things keeping her sane throughout this particular journey in her life. He helps bring her visions to life while serving as a grounding force as she navigates the unpredictability of it all. Together, they’ve grown artistically, learning and shaping their sound.
“I was able to learn more about myself and what I like as a singer songwriter, and he was able to learn what he likes as a producer working with one artist… I’ve heard people talk about working with your spouse, and you, whatever. And a lot of people say how hard it is. So, I think I was expecting it to be hard, and it’s literally the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
Another key collaborator who’s helped Savannah tap into her true artistic identity is Leon Thomas. The multitalented artist and producer co-wrote her 2024 single “Sex With My Ex,” which was featured by Drake on his 100Gigs website. At the time, the track was still unfinished when Drake discovered it through Boi-1da, who was the first person to sign Savannah years back.
The production also draws inspiration from SZA’s Grammy-winning hit “Snooze,” another song Leon contributed to. “Working with Leon… he just gets it,” she shared. “He knows I’m not trying to chase trends. We really focused on creating something timeless.”
Now, her new project Formed is set to release on May 14, and it feels like a turning point. Savannah revealed that while Opia gave a peek into her heart, the Formed album feels like a real introduction to who she is as a woman, artist, and person. “People who listen deeply to my music? They basically have read my diary,” she laughed. “But I haven’t truly been able to show me. I haven’t headlined yet. I haven’t had a chance to really sit with my supporters. This next era? I want to change that.”
Savannah doesn’t use social media much but admitted she’s working on finding a balance between sharing more of herself online while not “forcing it.” Because, in the end, it’s all about trusting her timing. And while she’s still figuring it out like the rest of us, one thing’s clear: she’s doing it at her own pace, and the music, as always, will speak for itself.
As Savannah prepares to roll out her next project, where she’s going feels exciting. If you’ve been a fan since Opia, you’ll feel the growth immediately. And if Formed is your introduction, you’re stepping in at just the right time because you’ll be getting the most powerful version of her yet.
The Knockturnal: So, first, I want to ask how you are. How have you been doing lately? What have you been up to, and all that?
Savannah Ré: That’s a nice question. I am okay. I’m good. I don’t know if it’s all creatives, but it’s always a roller coaster with me. But right now, I’m just feeling accomplished. You know, we finished the project. It’s got a release date. So, I’m feeling like I can breathe a little bit. But thank you for asking.
The Knockturnal: I always like to ask, but it could be something in the air for creatives. Could be. I know personally, I’ve been going through a lot of mental blocks. Which makes it, you know, a thousand times harder to do our jobs. But gotta find inspiration somewhere. That’s what I’ve been trying to do lately. It’s like trying to find inspiration anywhere and everywhere.
Savannah Ré: Yeah, it’s in everything. But we move so fast now, and the world moves so fast now, it’s so easy to miss. It’s like, even that, off of that point, I’ve been trying to celebrate each small thing. The small things add up to the big things.
The Knockturnal: And it’s hard to care about the small things because they’re small, but they do make a difference looking back.
Savannah Ré: That’s also how you win every day. That’s how you keep your positivity high. Because if you’re looking at all these small things, those will sustain you more than the awards. Not to say that they’re not great. The first question is, “OK, what next?” But if we’re seeing the beauty in everything every day, then every day has those moments. And every day can feel like that.
I think that’s the chase with all of us. Like, I don’t know. I don’t know the answer, but I think it’s interesting that a lot of people are at the same point and just trying to dig deep and figure out there’s more to life, you know.
The Knockturnal: Speaking of focusing and slowing down, do you still knit?
Savannah Ré: Girl, now you’re calling me out. But yes, you know what’s crazy? I just bought new needles early this year. And I used them once, and I’ve just been so busy. But I brought them literally because of what we’re talking about, like the slowdown. When knitting, you zone out, and there aren’t 79 things running through your mind. I need to go pick them back up.
The Knockturnal: I know you’re that way with your music as well. You don’t just drop music every other month. You’re very intentional about what and when you create. And you said you don’t like to feel forced or rushed into something, when it’s time, then it’s the time. Has there ever been a moment when you felt pressure to compromise that?
Savannah Ré: Yeah, I think for me… I do what I want to do anyway. I’m now independent, but my career up until this project, essentially, I was signed. Unfortunately, when you’re signed, you have deadlines. You have like hard, hard dates and a bunch of people telling you this is left, right, what you gotta do, what you gotta be, what you gotta sound like, what works, no, this is not a hit.
At some point, you have to push the noise out. I’ll do anything for my music, for my passions, but I will never compromise my music or my passions. If you’re telling me to rush and I’m not ready, or I don’t feel the music is ready, there’s nothing you could do to get me to drop music. About [my art], I am like a crazy person. So I feel like a lot of times in my life I’m being rushed, and you know, on this journey and my independent journey, I try to make sure that that’s not the case.
The Knockturnal: I wanted to ask you about that, because the more I learned about the music industry, I understand both sides. I understand why some artists sign and why some artists don’t. But for you, what pushed you to be like, not only do I need to do this on my own, but I genuinely believe that I can do this on my own?
Savannah Ré: Honestly, I was blessed. I started with Yogi the Producer, who’s my husband as well. And then we were essentially both scooped up by Boi-1da, you know, and he was so incredible. And I learned so many things from him. For me, that was the formative part of my career, and how I started my first project. That EP was [worked on] by both of them. That’s when I think I was able to soak it in and have the most success within a label system.
Boi-1da actually left the deal in like 2022 or 2023. And at that time, I was like, okay, cool. So we’re moving on. And they were like, no, you’re staying. So I was like, Oh, okay. Okay, cool, we can make something work, but it’s different, right? When you don’t have the person you signed with at a label, it’s completely different, you know? It felt like it was best for me to do it myself.
I feel like a lot of the things that people don’t know [about me] are throughout most of my career as a major artist, 99.9% of things were done by me. When it comes to creative direction or directing, I should have had more directing credits, even on the music videos I’ve put out, because I’m behind all of them.
The Knockturnal: I saw you directed the “Nine Lives” music video.
Savannah Ré: I’ve been doing that for years, but there are so many opinions. I felt like some of my creative energy got lost in that. It’s you against 50 people that know the business, and it’s easy to butt heads or for your creative vision to get lost. So for me, when it came time [to go independent], I was like, you know what, I have the confidence to do this. We parted ways amicably. I will say, independence has its challenges.
The Knockturnal: Listen, I’ve heard some stories. I know everybody’s different, but I feel like the consensus when it comes to [the challenges of] being independent is the financial aspect.
Savannah Ré: It’s the ghetto. But anything you get done feels so much greater because you know you’re getting it out of the mud, literally. So, being able to do what we’re doing—like, you know, our indie label produced that “Nine Lives” video. We produced the “Glory” visualizer. We produced the “Sex With My Ex” visualizer.
We did everything in-house as far as mixing, mastering, and recording. You have a larger sense of pride, you know? Because I’ve always written my music, I’ve always been a part of my music all the way across, but now I own this. I own myself right now for the first time in my career. So it’s ghetto as hell, but it’s so fulfilling at the same time.
The Knockturnal: I definitely understand. OK, so you’re dropping a new project soon. I know you’ve said in past interviews that you felt like your fans don’t know who you are.
Savannah Ré: Yeah.
The Knockturnal: So, you want your next era to show more of who you are. If someone were to ask you, “Who is Savannah Ré, really?” what would your honest answer be?
Savannah Ré: That’s a great question. Honestly, it’s interesting because the people who listen deeply to my music have damn near been in my diary. They know a lot about me, but don’t physically know me, you know? And I think my music is a good snapshot, but people have not met me as me. I haven’t gotten to do a headlining tour yet. I haven’t gotten to go out and touch my supporters and sit down and break bread—none of that yet. But I’m very honest. I’m very unapologetic. I’m all the things, and that’s what “Nine Lives” is about. It’s a snapshot of all these versions that make up who I am. I’ve been everything. And none of it killed me.
The Knockturnal: Have you seen that old Vine of the young girl saying, “I’m a bad bitch, you can’t kill me!”
Savannah Ré: Yeah, so the gag is we actually had that meme—that video—on the song. She’s like, “I’m a bad bitch, you can’t kill me.” But that is how—that embodies the song. That’s what I’m saying. That’s literally what I’m saying.
The Knockturnal: I love “Nine Lives,” specifically the acoustic guitar melody in the background. I love that part of it. But like you said, an anthem for anyone who’s had to bounce back again and again. Is this song reflective of a specific low point that you overcame, or is it more of a celebration of you being able to reinvent yourself? Or is it both?
Savannah Ré: It’s both. Honestly, when we say low points, people think that things are linear. And as women, especially, we think we failed if things don’t go exactly how we want them to. We all have these things for ourselves—”Oh, I gotta be married, I gotta have a baby, I gotta do all these things by this time.”
To me, that doesn’t exist. Those are the only things that we put on ourselves. That level of fake perfection is the world right now. Everything is a highlight reel. Nobody is showing those lows. So I would hate for people to be looking at me and be like, “My gosh, she got all these awards, she’s happily married—that must mean she’s got it figured out.” And it’s like no girl. No, no, no, no, no.
I might be married now, but I’ve also been legs up in a Honda. I might be these things now, but I really have lived all of these lives, and I’m still here, and there’s still more to go. So it’s both. It’s the triumphant stuff like, “Yeah, I’m here now,” but it’s also acknowledging, “Yo, I’ve had these low points.” And I’m not ashamed. You cannot shame me for the things that made me who I am now.
The Knockturnal: Interestingly, you brought up social media specifically because of the instant gratification that we get from social media, like you said—people only really see the results. They don’t really see what it takes to get there. And it’s interesting that you brought that up because I know you’re not a huge fan of using social media, though I wish you were because it would be great to see more of those things from you.
Savannah Ré: I’m trying to figure out ways that don’t feel so overly invasive. And I think some people are like really, really good at it that I’m like trying to emulate because I want to show more of like the process and those ebbs and flows, and that some days are back to back and other days are just not. The creativity is kind of on and off.
Before this, I didn’t make music for a year. I was like, nope, I’m not in a good space mentally. I’m not in a good space physically. And I just didn’t. And at first, it wasn’t a choice—nothing was coming. And then I had to listen and slow down, you know?
With Opia, we filmed a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. We did a lot of that for [Formed] as well. So, I’m slowly going to feed it to the streets, you know, like some vlog-style stuff, because you’re right. All of us artists and stuff to show these things.
The Knockturnal: I want to talk a little more about your creative process. So you’re a singer, a songwriter, but you’re also a producer—or vocal producer. What’s the difference?
Savannah Ré: Songwriting usually can be melody/or lyric and/or both. Some songwriters will straight up tell you, “Hey, I’m lyrics.” Some will say, “Hey, I’m just melody. Like I’ll find the right melody pocket.” I do both. I would say equally. So, I top lyrics and melody stuff equally.
Vocal production is like everything else you hear in the song. It’s the performance of the song, the harmonies, the layers, but the vocal producer can also produce the artist as they’re singing. I love vocal producing.
The Knockturnal: When do you know when a song is truly finished?
Savannah Ré: I think you don’t. I just go off of feelings. But as a perfectionist, your brain will tell you it’s never done. Now I will trust my husband to be like, “Girl, I’m not doing another mix. This is mix number 32. Leave me alone.” And then I’m like, okay, this is it.
The Knockturnal: What is it like working with your husband? Because I’ve seen a lot of—in the industry, I think it’s pretty common to see a lot of boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-and-wife partner duos. And you know, that can sometimes be a slippery slope, but it seems like it’s working out for you.
Savannah Ré: Yeah, I think it works so well because we are friends first. So we met in a work environment. I met him as an engineer. He met me as a songwriter. And at the time that we met, too, we were both just so hungry. Like we were sleeping at the studio because we didn’t have the money to go back and forth. No blankets, like sleeping back-to-back type things, because it was platonic at that time.
Everybody around us could see that we were gonna end up together before we did. Everybody was like, “You two are gonna end up together.” We were just like, “No.” A year and a half later—married. But you know.
The Knockturnal: What do you feel like is the most powerful thing you’ve discovered about creating with someone that you love?
Savannah Ré: The ease of it. Before him, there was never quite the same synergy. I hate when people say like, “What is your sound?” because creating a sound also comes from having a frequent collaborator.
I was able to learn more about myself and what I like as a singer-songwriter and he was able to learn what he likes as a producer working with one artist. I think I was expecting it to be hard and it’s literally the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
The Knockturnal: You’ve gotten a few co-signs throughout your career, one being from Drake, when he sampled “Sew With My Ex”, which was unreleased at the time. I also saw that Leon Thomas is credited as a co-producer and co-writer. Were you guys together in the studio?
Savannah Ré: Yeah, we made it together.
The Knockturnal: What was that like working with him in the studio?
Savannah Ré: He’s incredible. He’s literally the chillest guy ever, and I was already such a fan. So when we got in there, I was like, bro, I’m tweaking, and he was like, “Girl, you better chill out, it’s just me,” like, you know, that’s so cool. It was at a Sony [writing] camp—they had flown US artists and writers to Toronto.
Then Boi-1da had a room, and he and Yogi brought us all in—So Yogi sampled the original song that Drake had in the 100 gigs.
The Knockturnal: Was there anything Leon brought to the table, creatively, that surprised you?
Savannah Ré: Yeah, he’s a monster. Like anything in the studio—any instrument in there—he could just pick up, start playing it. He uses his voice like an instrument. I’m definitely no stranger to harmonies—I feel like I can do my big one—but he built a big part of the beat with his voice. It’s only his vocals, which is like what you hear in [SZA’s] Snooze.
The Knockturnal: Anything else that we can look forward to from you?
Savannah Ré: Nine Lives is out now. The project is called Formed. We just landed on Formed. Hopefully, a tour soon.
The Knockturnal: [Formed] feels like a completion in a way.
Savannah Ré: That’s what it is. It needed to be formed in a way.
