Enfnts Terribles

2020 was quite a rollercoaster. What would you consider your ups and downs?

To be honest, my biggest up and my biggest down were probably the exact same thing at the same time. It was when all the BLM protests happened and having an overwhelming doomed feeling of the world collapsing, a loss of morals, and politics being polarised in everybody. There’s just so much oppression towards vulnerable people and then suddenly within a couple of weeks, see the people protest and actually do something about it, I went from a super low to a super high. I was quite angry at first but then I was around people I care about, which was my ultimate high, so that was a rollercoaster week.

There’s still a massive lack of representation of POC and queer people in the media. Have you witnessed an evolution since the BLM protests?

I think there’s a step in the right direction. I think it’s really easy to see a tiny bit of more representation and be like “okay, cool!”, but there’s still so much more to be done. A lot of windows and doors have been opened, but I still feel like we have to walk through it and progress. There’s still a huge demographic of people in power who may be endorsing equality towards people of color, because it feels like a popular opinion and probably don’t actually give a fuck. The most important thing is to have people who actually give a fuck, because they feel that they should. That’s when there will be a real evolution.

How do you try to contribute in that needed evolution?

I feel there’s still a lot of spaces in music that I believe could be more like of queer places. Specifically, a lot of queer musicians feel like that they are expected to make queer music rather than music that’s appreciated in all forms. When you think of queer music, you often think of club music or stuff that isn’t as respected. There are so many incredible queer artists who are incredible musicians, but it’s almost seperated from their queerness.

It would be great to have more musicians to feel the way that I do. We should be taken up all spaces because a lot of non-queer people take up queer spaces. Some of the biggest queer idols are straight, white women, which is fine but we should have as many queer people across all fields of genres and have their narratives be normalised. We’re not quite there yet and it would be amazing to make fucking great queer shit that everyone loves.

In “Magpie” you’re singing that London has set you free. How did this global metropole influence your transformation as an artist and human being?

I guess there are so many different people from all over the world in London, you can find a community for anyone, no matter what you’re into. Whether that’s queer cybergoths or basketball heads who are into stock exchange, tor Jamaicans who just wanna play dominos in the back of a West London barber shop all day. I’ve seen all sorts of niche circles of people here who connect over specific things. London is the playing ground for that.

Some songs were made in downtown LA. Did the different dynamic of the city have an influence on the songwriting?

It helps coming out of a place to be able to reflect/write about it – for me coming out of London made it easier to talk about how I feel about London because you start to recognise things that are a part of your daily life that may not exist in other cities. Doing that from LA definitely informed the more upbeat vibes of the project too. I was in a good space and a good mental place just really vibing with nice people.

The EP can be labelled as a crossover between classic R&B and psychedelic sounds. What makes this such an irresistible combination?

I feel like if my life between ages 14-22 had a movie soundtrack it would be mostly psychedelic rock & RnB tunes in there – so my music being a combination of those sounds actually makes a lot sense.

You’re ending the EP with “Lift You Up”, a collaboration with Karma Kid. What was the starting point of the sensational EP-closer?

Me and Karma Kid were on a roll the day we made “Life You Up”. We were jamming and had already finished writing whole songs from start to finish in the daytime. 5 hours in, the sun was setting and we looked at each other like “lets write another song to close the day” by this point I was starting to mellow out from bouncing off the walls singing upbeat playful tunes all day and the energy was like “I’m gunna take the mic and spit some real shit and you (Karma Kid) can write/sing the hook” Karma Kid has a beautiful voice and the world should hear it more. The result was very real and authentic.

BUTTER-FLY is out now.

Pictures by Jack Cullis.