BLK ODYSSY
Tirade World sat down with BLK ODYSSY’s Austin-based singer, song writer and frontman Juwan Elcock and guitarist Alejandro Rios to discuss how they met and came together to collaborate, growing up in New Jersey and the new album Diamonds & Freaks.
Interview Vicky Osinlaru
Hi how are you today ?
J: Im feeling amazing, How are you?
Is this your first time in London, how are you finding it?
J: Yes it is my first time Its incredible, It’s such a different culture. I was walking through the Hackney area and looking at all the school kids in their uniform, its a total opposite to what I experienced growing up, so to experience that for the first time its just been amazing to see something different, it’s so inspiring to me.
A: To me, its just being the first time out of the country as BLK ODYSSY, personally it’s opening my perspective, I’m getting a more broader world view, so I can relate with people In London, Paris and Amsterdam. I’m just excited to go back to America and be more open to it.
I was at your gig last week, it was great - what’s been your favourite city to perform in so far on this tour?
J: I mean I love London for sure, it was incredible! All of Europe has been, to be honest. In London, I saw the line outside and I was very emotional because this was our first time getting out of the country and just to see a lot people, it’s a very sobering and humbling sight for us to see, we’ve been through so much as a family. A good amount of our careers we’ve been told no no no, so to keep breaking down these walls and barriers, to persevere and just have the resilience to keep going, it’s been tough.
What was it like growing up in New Jersey ?
J: It was good, I grew up in Plainfield, its a very vibrant culture there was a lot of different things. We have a lot of beautiful things like, some of the most amazing artists in the world that have come out of New Jersey. People like Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah also some of the most amazing sports stars that come from the east coast. So I think its such vibrant place and it’s full of many talented people. On the other side we have a very large gang culture and there’s a big aspect of dangers that came with it. Growing up with the combination of those two, for me was very interesting because I was kind of in the middle of it, some of my older brothers were involved in gangs and I was the kid that was more geared towards the arts and stuff, that maybe people around me at a younger aged would have deemed to be weird. It was very interesting growing up and I think the understanding of these two worlds kind of moulded me and BLK ODYSSY to what it is.
You’ve been doing the thing you love the most, performing for the last few months whilst on your tour of North America and now finishing with Europe - how has this period been for you?
A: It’s been incredible, there’s something about exchanging energy from Artist to Fans and uh man, its just filled with love and we get to go up on stage and give the best performance we can.
What’s been the most rewarding aspect of this time on tour for Diamonds and Freaks?
J: To see a line of three blocks in London it was incredible, there’s was a moment on what we like to call ‘zoom out’ because we spend too much time nit- picking on the little things that can help us grow you know, so it was lovely moment just to zoom out and say ‘Damn BLK ODYSSY started to the world two years ago’.
A: Definitely a blessed position, practising gratefulness is always like a parallel for us.
As a listener, I can definitely sense that this is more of a conceptual project, then just a collection of songs. What was the process behind making this album and where did you start?
A: Originally it was going to start of as a mix tape, we were kind of on this wave of making love songs, mixing with old school songs that sounded like the 60’s, but then just as like what happens with us we just start making music and couldn’t stop, then it just started evolving into a project. How we operate is that we’re story tellers and cinematic, we want to convey as much emotion and try and make an impactful projects, were just watching this project guide us in its direction, Juwan talking about his experiences and having songs like Adam and Eve which is probably the most deep, raw and edgy song. From there we just started to see the erotic novel of love and lust, it had this cohesiveness and we got to really invest In the world, how music just blesses us with these ideas and the cohesion comes later there was a lot of that and then tied in with the way Juwan seal the ship in story telling lyrically we was able to make what we did.
With this only being your second studio album, revealing your most vulnerable side, as you spoke about God, facing your demons and also being so honest about your experience with woman and lust. There is a real sense of a whole story being told in this album not just songs. Was it hard to be so open?
J: Nah, for me as far as the song writing goes and the themes it’s just an open family vibe, my niece is running around my brothers kids, they call my brother here (talking about a) uncle. This is how we create music, its a very open and vulnerable place, so its easy for me to just go in. They’ve always made it easy for me to just go in there an be expressive and share. If I need to cry about something with family there I can do it in the studio and capture that energy, if Im also angry I can also do it in the studio with my family and that is also been a blessing for me as a person that writes the songs. Vulnerability is a huge part in who we are and what we do. We make it so like that because I believe the quality of a leader doing the things that people are not wiling to do but they know everybody can relate to it in a sense and that’s what I always looked for in refuge in songs. If I was insecure to say something I would listen to it and be like ‘Damn, that’s how I feel, but this person is brave enough to do it on a platform’ and listening to that kind of music made me want become somebody else that did that. There’s so much vulnerability in this record for instance the song Taboo. It was very much of a relief and what I was most surprise about is when we drop the record and put out a statement the amount of outreach that I got people saying they struggle with the same thing I struggle with but they would never say it but they appreciate me saying it on a platform about my issues, it makes it worth it.
You have some amazing features on this album such as Legend and extraordinaire Bootsy Collins and spoken artist Keisha Plum, how did these collaborations come about?
J: In the world of music that we grew up, we are just appreciating it what we have access to, we just want to do unconventional things, that seems very freaky and we like things that seem almost psychedelic - that’s the kind of music that we liked and bonded over. The characteristics of like a Bootsy Collins and listening to the music that he’s put out over the years, his vibe as a person in his art and then pairing that with such a stark, cut throat poet like Keisha plum to us we really agreed, that it was a stupid pairing. However they are the narrator’s of this erotic novel that we put together. It was sort of like the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, as you have this Bootsy Collins character who is very loopy and he’s sort of speaking in a psychedelic, funky way that puts it in like, this 70s vibe. On the other hand, we have Keisha Plum who is very matter of fact, narrowed through the record with her very much straight way of speaking, to have them bring you through the record as it develops, I was just so satisfied with the way it came through and how it did… I could’ve ask for anything better.
A: The female and male energies, are represented in the album which became so so fundamental, making it come together as one, resulting in it being bigger and relatable.
Around two months ago on the Roundtable discussion you said that “It’s easy to be impressive all the the time but the main goal is to be impactful” could you please elaborate more on what that means to you?
J: It really ties in to what we were just talking about, instant gratification, its easy to fit into the status quo, its easy to make decisions artistically that seems acceptable and very in line with what everyone else is doing at the time, but I think It takes a lot of courage to step out and do things that are not necessary popular and you do get backlash. I can’t even tell you how many labels told us, “I don’t think this is going to work or it don’t really make sense.” It’s always been of the interest of our team to do things that are impactful, which seems to see us making moves that are generational and that’s important to us.
I mean you’re doing something right, as in just two years you’ve achieved 50 million global streams, what a rewarding achievement! In reflection what does this mean to you?
J: It is crazy at the end of the day. You have to realise that two years ago no one knew us. It’s just a blessing we can’t even explain how it feels.
Taking it back to New Jersey, you have a really interesting story of how you got into this music or into the business, involving meeting someone on your lunch break, I would love to know more about this and what exactly happened?
A: I was bartending at this pizza shop and usually its kind of how I am on stage, when on stage I kind of am a different person and its almost like I feel like my true self but bartending ill be like more animated and expressive and everything. However I was just doing my thing as a bartender but I was in another band in Austin and I was just talking about it with some guest and the Juwan was just sitting at the end of the bar and he over heard and he was new in town and I see him a couple times and he was like ‘ you play music, that’s cool, what kind of music do you do’ then we started talking and he told me he did soul music and I told him I did rock music and he was looking for someone to play music with and I was looking for something to get more impactful and that’s when he showed me some of his music and I was like this is exactly what I was looking for. Then I played him a song that I think he would like, then he started talking to me about artist like kendrick and D’Angelo, Frank Ocean and everything and then I was talking about Jimmy Hendrix and we realised we had alot in common and we wanted to see and talk more about.
New Jersey is a city that is much focused on Hip Hop and also has the stigma of artist following that route and trend, however you’ve stayed true to your individual sound of soulful, rock n roll, jazz, Funk with an angelic sound. - How were you able to continue to stay true to your sound whilst knowing there was a lot of pressure and influence of Hip hop around you?
J: To be frank we don’t have any pressure outside of our camp, the label never pressures us to do a certain thing, they were very understanding that this gong to be something that could be here or there.
I was on BBC earlier and I was telling them the next thing that we drop is going to be a complete 360 to what people have heard from BLK ODYSSY. That’s just what we do we just do things different
Oh! Exciting! What’s next for BLK ODYSSY?
A: It’s another world, the way black vintage was its own world and Diamonds and freaks is its own world. Each project we’re making we just want you to experience a whole different world, ultimately its a story telling so we want you to connect to these different worlds. We both very big on and trying to make as much emotion come out of instruments or production and also relaying that, it’s almost like visual in a musical sense. This next project we want to push it even further we want to see where the fans will let us go. We’re making music that we seem is important and beautiful in its own sense. A: For me, more than anything, it’s thank you. I feel everything we've been doing is great but it wouldn't work if it didn't resonate with people and if people didn't come and show their love and support in different ways. When I say stuff like “people don't recognise how dope and consistent we are”, the fans do and that's what's important. When I say “those people”, I'm talking about the industry; they see it, they know what it is, but they're not going to accept it. I think the fans have always respected it, the fans have always shown up, the fans have always come to everything we've done. Every festival we've done has been sold out, every show we've done has been sold out, in America, England and Nigeria. That's something I’ll never take for granted. Hopefully the same way, they've invested their time and energy and efforts in us, I pray people invest in their lives as well.
J: Expect a whole different vibe from us, sonically it may be a bit polarising to our current fan base but in return we think that the new stuff will bring in so many more people. It’s going to be cool.