Artist Interviews

Q&A: Ghostpoet

By | Published on Tuesday 19 April 2011

Ghostpoet

Offbeat Brit MC Ghostpoet, also known as Obaro Ejimiwe, made his debut with his ‘The Sound Of Strangers’ EP last year. A single, ‘Cash & Carry Me Home’, made more waves earlier this year, and was followed by his first long player ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy’ soon after by way of Radio 1 tastemaker Gilles Peterson’s imprint Brownswood Recordings.

The album was much-lauded for its easy, inventive incorporation of quite disparate musical flavours and influences, tying together Obaro’s roots in a grime collective with elements of trip hop and dubstep. Second single ‘Survive It’, a trudge through the regrets and realities of everyday life with a chorus lifted by Fabiana Palladino’s hypnotic vocal touch, is due out on 9 May.

Having been handpicked by Metronomy as the main support act for their UK tour, Ghostpoet will be appearing live tonight at Digital in Brighton. Ahead of this, we caught up with the busy MC by bursting in on his pre-show warm-up brandishing a sheaf of our pesky Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started during my university years, experimenting with Reason, messing with grime…

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Life, a life long feeling that music is my calling, emotion, the up and down roller coaster of the everyday.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?

A skeleton of a beat first, then a lyric or two, then a little more beat to wove around my infant words until there’s some sort of conclusion.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I wouldn’t really say any particular artists influence my work but there’s quite a few I admire such as Badly Drawn Boy, Fela Kuti, Squarepusher, The Horrors, Roots Manuva and Patti Smith to name but a few.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Expect the unexpected… then expect some more.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
For as many people to listen to it around the world as possible. I know that’s a little hippy, but that’s me! I guess for the future I just want to keep being creative and keep my music true to me, nothing more nothing less.

MORE>> www.ghostpoet.co.uk



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