So, around 2016, Yola decided to pick up her guitar and, with thoughts of classic country, Motown, and her ‘60s California folk favorites in mind, she withdrew from her studio career and started to write for herself. Her first solo effort came out on an EP that year, Orphan Offering. Her writing continued with the “pretty freaking fabulous” Auerbach, who had reached out to her after a video of her caught his attention. The songs the pair co-wrote for Walk Through Fire,ended up being a cathartic way to chronicle her break-up with her earlier career, the team she’d spent years building, and the end of a bad romantic relationship. Musically, she drew inspiration from Charly Pride, Aretha Franklin , and Roy Orbison, among others. “I've never mentioned it, but it's the dang truth: I like Shania Twain ,” Yola says with a big laugh. “I am going to come out of the closet right now, okay?”