boygenius<\/a> show happening at Austin-Bergstrom airport\u2019s baggage claim while I clamored for (and dropped) my suitcase and the drunken line for Voodoo Donuts, the week-long BME showcase felt like a haven for consistently remarkable performances.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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The thoughtful listening experience was powered by the UK\u2019s own audio heavyweight Bowers & Wilkins \u2014 an unsurprising sponsor, not just for its team\u2019s English accents, but also for the brand\u2019s time-tested focus on engineering that keeps in mind musicians and the way they intend their music to be heard. Bowers & Wilkins\u2019 Sound System follows the same industry-leading engineering philosophy behind the creation of some of the world\u2019s finest high-performance studio audio products, including the reference monitor loudspeakers used in Abbey Road Studios. The company translates the sound quality, realism and detail of a hi-fi studio monitor speaker to live music events, which isn\u2019t necessarily the case for most PA systems.<\/p>\n
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While acts like the otherworldly Bellah, joyously punk Folly Group and imminent star Samm Henshaw proved to be heavy hitters, no one tapped into what I needed at SXSW quite like Obongjayar \u2014 so much so that I saw two of his showcases in one day. With sets lasting 15 or 30 minutes each, it\u2019s difficult to do much more than play your tracks through, and many artists do it solo, leaving a backing band off the table. But Obongjayar \u2014 shirtless in a floor-length skirt and Bottega puddle boots \u2014 performed.<\/em> For his first time in America, at that. Alongside his six-piece band, which features a drummer, a guitar player, a bassist, a trumpet player and a djembe player, he dug into each song with serious, emphatic theatricality that felt deeply narrative and sonically diverse, not unlike his music itself. Throughout his career, the emerging artist has respectfully blown off all notions of conforming to \u201cgenre\u201d and has been driven instead by the wide range of references and influences picked up from his childhood in Nigeria and his now-homebase of London.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Backstage at the BME showcase, while Bowers & Wilkins finished setting up their newly updated Sound System for its first public appearance in five years, Obongjayar caught up with PAPER<\/em> about the internet as a source of inspiration, the importance of the UK music scene and coming to America.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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This is my first show in America, man.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s crazy! I remember meeting you on your first visit<\/em> to America, not too long ago.<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah! It\u2019s been wild. And I\u2019m actually playing two shows today. What have you seen at SXSW so far, anything good?<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m very overwhelmed, to be honest. Everything is spread out, the schedule is packed with insane performances and I suffer from crippling FOMO. There have been three other shows I want to be at for every performance I attend \u2014 but I\u2019ve really loved the British Music Embassy showcase. I saw Soak, Dream Wife… Folly Group. And I popped over to Death Valley Girls and Jadakiss across town before bed.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s one of those festivals where people tell you where they\u2019re going and you go to that. You have to find the right people and follow them around.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s true. Let go of decision making. The morning I got here I overheard someone saying New Order had done an intimate pop-up show the night before. Should\u2019ve followed them.<\/strong><\/p>\nI would be mad about that. Actually, I am<\/em> mad about that. I\u2019m playing a couple shows today and three tomorrow, Saturday is my time to see stuff. And eat \u2014 I have to get some barbeque. I love meat, although I\u2019m trying not to go crazy yet and fuck up my stomach and energy before I play. But afterwards\u2026<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Meat sweats. How do you feel about playing in the US?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m excited, but it\u2019s like anywhere, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s more the idea of it that I\u2019m excited for. Any show is any show, you play and have a good time. For me, especially, it\u2019s like as long as me and my band are in sync and loving each other still, that\u2019s all that matters. There could be one person in the audience, I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m just going to play the thing anyways and have a good time. As long as we\u2019re all in that headspace it\u2019s fine. But I\u2019m excited by the idea of being here for the first time!<\/p>\n
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What have you been working on lately?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m just working on new music, and I\u2019m doing it really differently than I\u2019ve ever done it before. I\u2019m working with a lot of people \u2014 a lot of producers and a lot of musicians that play different instruments. Rather than just going in with one person, having a concept and just doing that. The energy is a lot more open now, I\u2019ve got an idea what I want it to be like, the album, but I\u2019m open to collaboration with producers and artists and what they have in mind. I\u2019m going into their world and seeing what they\u2019re up to and taking that into consideration rather than my brain on the fucking table, you know?<\/p>\n
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That sounds like a lot of pressure to be relieved.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s just different. Prior to my first album I worked like that, that\u2019s how I collaborated. Going in and just seeing what happens. Being open, rather than focused on my concept. I just thought, Let me take that into the next album and see how it goes<\/em>, and it\u2019s been fucking great. I\u2019ve made so much music, I don\u2019t even know what to do with it. I\u2019m used to making a concise amount of music \u2014 I\u2019m going to make ten songs for this record<\/em>, and then I make ten songs.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Do you feel like there are less boundaries and rules around formal formatting and recording processes these days in the music industry?<\/strong><\/p>\nWell, yes and no. In the industry people are making a lot more music, but it\u2019s because they\u2019re hopping onto things. I\u2019m not hopping onto things. I\u2019m just playing with people who I really enjoy what they do. I\u2019m not hopping on big producers here, fuck all of that. If you have a groove and you\u2019ve got time, and are really on it \u2014 let\u2019s make some music and see what happens around the idea of making something for my record.<\/p>\n
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Though the methodology has changed, I feel like your music has always been about fluidity. It really transgresses the idea of genre.<\/strong><\/p>\nAbsolutely, I don\u2019t fuck with that. My influences are so wide because of my background and how I was raised.<\/p>\n
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What did you grow up listening to?<\/strong><\/p>\nEverything. My household wasn\u2019t a musical household, so it was the radio and anything I could find, really. I didn\u2019t grow up with my parents, I was with my grandmother, so I heard things at school and wherever I could.<\/p>\n
I grew up in Nigeria, so we didn\u2019t have access to much music. It wasn\u2019t readily available apart from, like I said, on the radio and when you find it around. And then when I came to the UK, it was just wow.<\/em> Everything everywhere all at once. And it wasn\u2019t even the music in<\/em> the UK, it was what was on the internet.<\/em> I was in this place where I suddenly had all the access. It was an explosion of shit. I\u2019m still taking in stuff, too, like I heard an album for the first time the other day \u2014 Beck\u2019s Mellow Gold.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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That\u2019s a great album, and a great era of music. I\u2019m digging back into it myself, lately. That\u2019s really an exciting place to be in, I\u2019m envious in a way. I don\u2019t think when I first heard these albums I had the bandwidth or intelligence to appreciate them enough to have my mind rightfully blown.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt is. Look, I heard the Ziggy Stardust album for the first time the other week. I like Bowie, and I\u2019d listened to Blackstar<\/em>, but I\u2019m still re-finding stuff and it\u2019s blowing my mind. So my music is truly a combination of all of these things. There\u2019s no one particular thing that I focus in on.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Do you ever listen to a piece of music for the first time and get jealous? That you didn\u2019t make it or do whatever it does to the listener yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\nAbsolutely.<\/p>\n
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Are you able to separate yourself from it and use it as inspiration and influence? How do you manage that feeling?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s not about the influence side of things, really. It\u2019s more the sound and arrangements and vocals. I just think, That\u2019s fucking sick, how did they do that?<\/em> and it opens a new door in my mind. It\u2019s realizing that, It doesn\u2019t have to be this, it can be <\/em>this. That chord can change to this one, you can try new ways of doing things. You can fuck up, and it\u2019s cool. And the use of sounds in certain things, I think, I couldn\u2019t have seen that, or known it was possible until I heard that person do it<\/em>. It makes me want to try random sounds, because I can do that. But the thing I get really jealous of is writing. But I appreciate it, as well. And I try to one-up it. I\u2019m very competitive.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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That can be a great quality, to a certain degree, in a creative.<\/strong><\/p>\nExactly, the things that I like and engage with as a creative push me to want to get to that bar, get to that level. My mind tries to figure out how to get better at language and sound, you know what I\u2019m saying? And that\u2019s how I get to the next level.<\/p>\n
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Where are you going after Texas?<\/strong><\/p>\nLos Angeles for a week.<\/p>\n
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Adding more collaborators to the list?<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, I\u2019m going out there to do some work. It\u2019s very exciting. Still, when people want to work with me, I\u2019m like, \u201cMe? <\/em>Woah that\u2019s crazy.<\/em>\u201d It\u2019s interesting because I feel like I exist in this weird little space. But the people who like me from far and wide, it\u2019s not relegated to one thing. It\u2019s fucking cool man, and it\u2019s mostly people that I admire and respect within their own right. <\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Well, I\u2019m excited to see you perform later.<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m excited to see you!<\/p>\n
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Photos courtesy of Bowers & Wilkins<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year, Austin\u2019s South by Southwest sauntered further down the road of reclaiming its place as both one of the country\u2019s leading festivals and as a foremost event through which emerging acts break out. However overwhelming the sporatic rainstorms and overflowing schedule may have been (and in spite of the city\u2019s inevitable gentrification and influx of tourists), both SXSW and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25983"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26011,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25983\/revisions\/26011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blushernext.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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