13. Young FathersDead
I’ve told them this, and I think they’re probably like, ‘Fuck off bro, we’ve heard this enough this enough times’, but it was a life-changing experience.
I was in Stockholm for reasons I won’t talk about, but I was moping and being really sad, walking by the lake. I saw there was a venue called Debaser. At the time, they had a turban-shaped silhouette logo. I saw that and was attracted to it, went into the venue and said, ‘Is there a band on?’ I bought a ticket and had an incredible experience. Mate, it was electrifying, charismatic to the brim. They don’t sugarcoat or hide anything.
I would hear the Scottish accent, but then I’d hear the Nigerian accent, and it was all so familiar to me. After that experience of being completely blown away, I went and listened to that record. On the first track, Kayus [Bankole] has a Nigerian accent and says: “Sitting in the parlour offerings of flour / Milk, plantain, rice for the bridal shower”. Things that took me back to being in Nigeria – this is me, this is who I am. I saw myself in them, and seeing their continuous build has been so inspiring.
This Black British quality of it was so alluring to me, it was who I felt I was: this diasporic meld. I’m not very this or that, I’m a combination of all those. To me as an artist, not really seeing that a lot, or seeing people who were that, but weren’t very open about that side of themselves, just seeing these dudes being who the fuck they are on record and off record was so inspiring to me. Like, I could do this.
