The Journey

My journey has been a long one filled with many learning experiences. I saw it as important to learn as many different fields of creativity as possible, I had this idea that it would 'expand my creative vocabulary' so I studied it in school, university and went on to do a masters all covering slightly different elements of audio. Education alone didn't give me the skills I have today, I think it taught me how to explore things more but my main learning came from my environment. I grew up in 'the school of grime' putting focus on originality, versatility and adaptability. We would travel to different youth clubs across the midlands looking for a mic to spit some bars, there was so much to learn from those days. 

I think the early years were spent getting as many experience points as possible and experimenting with music as much as possible because I really didn't know what being a serious musician was, I just knew that music was what I wanted to do. I joined many groups, and left many groups, trying to find some form of alignment to a path I wanted to travel. It was after lockdown that I became the most serious I had ever been about music, taking all my lessons and going solo towards my career. I remember being selected for Brownswoods Future Bubblers project which was an artist development program. It was a massive change of environment, before this I had only released one song properly (amongst a bunch of soundcloud demos of me clowning around) and all of a sudden I'm writing a track that's going to be released on vinyl. I remember being scared throughout the whole process but it challenged me to write 'Nose Dive’.

Alongside this, I started diving in the deep end of live performance, I wanted to get good at keys so I offered to play for bands and I was terrible! The embarrassment  forced me to learn music theory aiming to improve and I was still pretty trash. What I did realise is that I was good at playing my own songs because they were so different, it gave me the idea to study the theory of my own sound and figure out the whats and whys of beats I would make. I then teamed up with some local bredrins and we formed a 3 piece called Oneironauts and we toured around playing open mics and Sofar Sound gigs.

The consistency of performing life, making music, making connections has gotten me in some crazy spaces today that I could have only imagined. I'm part of the MOBO's Class Of 23, I've been on BBC 1XTRA's Introducing RnB Cypher, worked with Redbull, performed in some legendary spaces and this year I'll be taking my sound overseas to SXSW!

Does your cultural identity play a part in your music?

I definitely think so, I take influence from the music my family listened to when I was younger and sought out music of our culture, but also many other cultures. I once did an essay on music fusion and the results I came across in my research was a big surprise to me. I see fusion as bringing cultures together rather than just elements of sound, so while my cultural identity plays a part in what I create, I aim to speak to other cultures too.

What kind of themes do you tackle in your music?

My music is always taking on themes, the weirder the better, and I tried to link them to something to make them normal. I think I got this from my enjoyment of mythology, stories were written/performed about gods but given human personality traits/emotions. I took that concept a step further by taking any old concept or object and personifying it with our thoughts or emotions (I think it works, if not it makes the process challenging and fun).

Last time we met, you were so close to getting a new car. Now - "New Whip! Who This!?" is finally out. Tell us about the song! How have you and your new car been spending time?

New Whip! Who This!? I feel so stylish because of this song. I'm the type of person that is really excitable about something and wants to show off while trying to be humble. So instead of subtly waving keys around or saying "oh it's all good I'm driving...." to wait for a response, I'm able to stunt with a song. People are able to join me in stunting no matter what car that is, you can go on a road trip with your close ones at any given moment!

The very first day I got the new whip, I took it straight out onto the motorway (with the moral support of my friend because I was shook). Since then I've been up and down to London and all sorts.

What inspires you and your music?

I guess life and experience plays the biggest role when it comes to inspiration, without being through things I have no story to tell and no lessons to share. I tried to gain a full experience of something so that I can give a broad enough perspective when turning it into something creative, I want to tell just a fraction more than half the story

What do you hope to achieve with your music?

I want to be able to travel the world with my music career. Performing, producing for artists, movies, games and theatres, taking my creativity to new extremes. To me, that's my closest idea of freedom. Doing what I love without limits and borders!

Do you have any advice for young up and coming artists?

Always reflect based on your own progress, it's always a nice surprise to see how far you've come in comparison to last year. But that feels like nothing if you're comparing it to someone else!