It wasn’t until about two years ago that Skye started craving that feeling of freedom that Tumblr once offered back. She knew that it would impact the quality of her music too. It’s why she ultimately decided to leave her label and become an independent artist. “I see so much now that I never saw before,” she tells me in hindsight. “I’m a lot more involved in business decisions and in the creative [of my music],” she says. For years, Skye’s songs were written by other songwriters or she would spend her time collaborating with them, but rarely did she develop a song on her own. Ultraviolet, her debut album released under Roc Nation is 2018, and her earlier EPs, Everyday Living and Emotionally Unavailable under Atlantic were comprised of music created under other’s creative direction. “When you’re in the label system and you yourself don’t really know where you want to go [musically], they just stick you with so many different people,” she explains. “That confused me, because I was like, wait, I have to tell my story to all these people? How am I supposed to build a connection?” She continues, “Being at a label, sometimes it’s all thought out for you. But now, it’s like, alright, how are we going to make this happen?” She now has control of her career trajectory and her art, and feels empowered by taking on that responsibility. 

With her latest body of work, making Space & Time happen wasn’t really a question of how, as much as it just did. As it was for most of us, life came to a screeching halt as COVID-19 spread worldwide in early 2020. Skye’s first independent album, Bare With Me, released in June 2020 but without the option to tour, she took to Instagram with a plan to start sharing covers of songs by artists she loved. The first was Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” with a friend.

Much to her surprise, one of her dream collaborators popped up in her DMs: Timbaland. “First, I was freaking out because I’ve always wanted to work with him. I knew that at some point in my life, I would, I just didn’t know that it would be like this.” Timbaland, the famed producer responsible for tracks like Missy Elliott’s “Work It” and “Get Ur Freak On,” Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin’” and a slew of Aaliyah records, said he wanted in on her quarantine jam sessions.

Immediately, she tells me, her mind wondered whether she’d impress him or not, but she gave herself those 30 seconds to overthink before bringing herself back to reality. Skye suggested Nelly Furtado’s “Say It Right.” (She loves that song.) He had other plans—an original. “I’m like, ‘So, you want me to write something?’ At this point in time, I’m not extremely confident in my writing.”