yeah your man bought in vinyl who wants vinyl yo yo yo let me get there I need one from my house and I need one for my bedroom and I need one in I got one left out of five and I'm kidding [Music] congratulations let's talk about this man um honestly like I just told you before it's my first time seeing it in the
plastic isn't it crazy so it just feels amazing it's hard and taking nothing away from why we're here and where we are and what it means to be able to Listen to As Much music as you want through a subscription I love it as a fan I make unlimited playlists and I love just going on a journey but I also love holding something in my hand yeah
it's tangible yeah I mean it's just like it means so much it means so much it's a dangerous habit too yeah I tell you the Bible is important we all need it in our lab limited edition Ultra clear it's super clear have you opened one yet have you had a little no can we do it in the plastic please go do it you ready for
this you do it though you do it no thank you this is this is this is a moment well I'm glad I get to do this with you guys let's do it we're over the moon and we get to keep one I'm stoked yeah yeah here we go [Music] that's what you put your heart and soul into look at that a physical manifestation of what's going on in your
heart and soul right through the filter of art yeah yeah man I wish I wish I was at the plant like what's in the whole process but it's loud yeah this is great the plants are loud you need it you need earplugs for sure yeah I need my own plan because the amount of time it takes to get these together who are you
Metallica no I'm just saying I'm like can we all band together and like and like that's why they did it figure out that's why they did it when I asked them why did you guys buy a plant invest in a plant they were like well we do so many reissues on vinyl why wouldn't we manage that process ourselves yeah then I said
to Lars will you be also prioritizing new artists out of the Mage label system to ensure they get their artists printed up anyway you know it's uh and James went yes he was just like yes yeah stop talking lies we're gonna do that because it's like that's what I wanna sometimes this is not me complaining but sometimes
we want to make don't last minute changes and want to and whatnot and and sometimes this like it can limit you to the time that um they take to produce it but it is what it is it's worth it in the end of the day and look I mean if it's a step towards execution which I always think for the artist and I know this from personal experience and anyone
who's watching this on Tick Tock or listening right now around the world on Apple music or watching this later will understand if you make art the creativity is something that is ultimately instinctual when you're in your space comes naturally but the courage to finish and release is hard yes it is it is and and it's funny
because last time I was here was really like the conversation that we had almost like affirmed so many of the like values because we talked a lot about like the values and like almost like the the parameters that I'd set for the record and that conversation almost like like reaffirmed those kind of beliefs that we had and then we then
because we made loads of songs after that you know what I'm saying in that period between then and now songs were made that ended up on this and this album sounds free yeah dude it doesn't sound like you gave yourself so many boundaries this time I feel like you found yourself into a place where you've
had something inside that you wanted to say and you let the music support that as opposed to creating a creative framework you were trying to fit into for sure for sure it was very much like calm layer calm let it come let it come and um it definitely felt like a free process because I we were not working as many studios
traveling a lot and it just felt like a living breathing process that was just really nice to be part of it and I I mean this is the ultimate kind of goal it felt like a job like I think when you actually go to work and music you realize music is what you're dedicating your life to yeah and it's not just like
oh you've got a session between two and six or go grab that I mean you could be doing that whilst you work in a day job at a coffee house to be able to go to a place and Center yourself and make something is a job yeah exactly and you and you've got to take it seriously a Job saying you've got to take it seriously and and when you when you take
those steps they're like okay not be in the studio not work in the studio you have to like really apply yourself because you know I mean if things it can get floaty and it can get you have to like have the focus and know like like you said things have to get finished things have to get to understand otherwise you ain't gonna get the final
holding your hands give me my damn record back bro exactly is there something about having a tangible version of your art that's different for you 100 and we always do loads of different tangible like products for an album like so we'll do we'll do like different types of vinyl we'll do cassette we'll do CD we'll do all kinds
of things just because it's like it's just nice like I'm saying like the way he's holding it it's like it's just nice to have that physical thing and like we always kind of make a try and make a point of going above and beyond to like make that kind of stuff because I just like it from uh from a fan standing
point I always liked having those fingers and hope being able to hold things you know what I mean and then also be able to like design things that people are going to hold that's what I'm saying you've done a beautiful job with this man I mean look at this look where the logo just sits right there in the corner it's all four of us all thought
about right attention's in the detail hey look at you with your limited edition Stussy collab right here on the back of the Halo t-shirts I love it huh this garment has been individually dyed producing a one-of-a-kind result just like a car One of a Kind result due to the unique process color May fade or
bleed after watch do not wash this with your weights do not wash this with your whites I remember when Susie came out the first time I remember when stucy was the thing the first time when they had limited designs but it was hot at the time and then it went to plateau and now it's like right back where it belongs man
probably plays right in the center of La Brea hey bro we got the album we got the T-shirt you came bearing gifts and all relating to what we love about you man aside from the human being that sits before us the artist that continues to create inspires us where were you when you started this album mentally and
spiritually mentally and spiritually it was a like the conversation we had last time it was all about just like finding the light which I mean finding the freedom finding space yes so I'm saying an allowing space and um how you do that in London we were traveling a lot because I was on the road yeah so we actually started it while I was on the road
uh for for the last record and um and then things just like coming to us coming to us coming to us we put out good news yeah and then like that felt like the spark that felt like a trigger to something that just felt really good and we just followed that like we just followed where we were being led you
know what I'm saying so yeah where did you go in terms of your writing lyrically and thematically there was New Territory for you what surprised you how did you surprise yourself on this it was the first time I ever let other people write songs with me so that in itself was an interesting it could be scary it could be scary yeah
and even if that being said like the people the personal persons that I let in were like people that I was already really close with anyway yeah so it was it was still tough but it wasn't as tough as it could be so who rode with you on the album who was with you so it was like people that had never even
wrote before like actually like technically never had like so it was like friends of mine that I knew that like we would just like write songs together you know what I'm saying and then like it was one it was one of my friends in particular his name's Daniel and um and we and him just wrote songs on piano for like years and always
thought like okay we should we should actually go somewhere and like put these songs down and stuff like that so we already had that relationship but it was all it was all kind of like jovial and not like are we actually gonna do it and I'm not gonna like certify this this is just us having fun yeah and if you go
back like for that time there's like a long like track record of like you know suck like teachers and people just that weren't songwriters that wrote massive songs dude the guy who um you know Robert Pollard from Guided by Voices was a literally was a school teacher for a majority of his sort of first half of his life whilst he was doing the band
then eventually the band became a priority but he's like a school teacher and he's like one of the greatest songwriters in modern alternative music exactly and I think I heard that story exactly so it's like so it was that kind of energy and it was like again that that freedom of just like knowing that someone's like you there's a connection
there there's a spot there it doesn't matter what like the the anything else is it's just like oh my God we've got something we're writing like good words together Joe I mean and um and I think it was a joy for my producer also to see me working with someone in that capacity yeah yeah and going back and forth well
it's a confidence that you need in order to apply yourself into an unfamiliar environment where the other person is unfamiliar exactly right that you go from being someone who um normally artists is going to Studios with people who know more than them that's the point of a producer that's the point of a co-writer I need you to help me find
something I'm trying to say I need you to help me make it sound a certain way because I need to learn from you for you to put yourself in a situation where you're guiding somebody else into your world is like unheard of yeah and and you know he's a he's a very confident man and he's actually now like going on
to write other songs and I was gonna ask that is this the start of a new era yeah honestly like I can't wait for his story to progress because he's actually like started to write songs with some like prominent people but what yeah so Daniel's gone from like just joking around with you to riding with you and
now Daniel's in the studio with he's he's the Drake not far off but like he's just he's just a extremely talented man and like was making me uncomfortable you know what I mean and challenging me in certain ways and and that's just prices so yeah he helped me on like three or four songs on this record amazing yeah that's awesome
dude I spoke about the confidence that you that you're showing right now in your music and then the decisions to work with who you're working with when did you start to feel like you know some of that that doubt which is totally normal as you try to establish your voice in the Arts yeah find your audience say something that people will
connect with when did it start to become something you had more confidence in I want to say was it when you packed out Coachella to the point that me and my family couldn't get in yeah yeah that was an amazing moment let's go see my car and it's like how long is the wait for the security guards like 23 minutes
I look at my watch you're on for another 29 minutes I'm like that's not gonna work no that was that was a humbling amazing experience but honestly I feel like I stepped out with a certain confidence if I'm being totally honest sure like because I was around a lot of musicians that had great taste and and I would be in a lot of the scenarios where
because your pops right your pops had the studio but your uncle has the studio but also just friends around me jumping up from Camden they're like everyone wrapped yeah like so I'm saying everyone like there was a lot of musicians I was just saying like I was explaining to my friend budgie he had a he had a studio
and people would come through even then like I remember like action button would have a show in London he'd be at at Barcelona at the studio so we'd just be around musicians and stuff like that and um and people always respected my taste and my opinion like just in studios and stuff so I or I came in with like a with
an air of like oh like I think that people are gonna like what my perspective because you have that thing as well you can't really relate to that thing that we see but he has that thing 100 percent yeah it's it's a non-tang tangible quality I imagine that someone just walks in and it's a it's not necessarily
stoic but it's like still parallel to it yeah it's it's like it's never get too high never get too low and like and just and just ultimately like trust in in your gut listen I'm a human being yeah I'm saying at the end of the day yeah of course like there's there's there's external like what are those days is
like when it gets a little bit too much and you realize that you are vulnerable to that energy it can happen it happened during the process of this album where even on um well once it was done and I'm like what am I gonna put out and I got so many voices and then at that it will be in those moments where whatever you believe in
comes to the fore and really guides you into like into just trusting who you are and trusting your teeth and it and also just like your peers it might just be a random video I might just be scrolling on whatever I'm scrolling on and see been talking about the fact that that the audience is relevant and that I just
need to listen to myself and that might be the moment that I needed to hear it and it might just be that that is like you know what yeah today I'm going to make my decision and my decision is the decision the true genius Superstars for me one of the things I've learned in the Playbook is I've done this for a long time is that they don't disrespect or
discount the voices of influence those that are trying to help them make their best decision right to do so would be to isolate yourself to the point of um dictatorship or most creative dictation almost yeah and so you know that's not a healthy place to be either they absorb those voices but if none of those voices are ultimately helping them
get to a place that they can't get to themselves they use it to resolve their own opinion they use it to to reinforce what it is they know is right yeah that's the I honestly that's the thing I do the most with opinion it's like even the that's why I say never had too high never too low because like I'll speak to
people that I admire you know what I mean or get or happy have the opportunity to work with them and talk them but it's still like everything with a pinch of salt and and and you know take what you will take what you want but you still have to really believe in the city the name on it it's your name at the end of the day and you're gonna
have to if you're just gonna have to stomach it you know what I'm saying when you're like oh I wish I did this I wish I did that you know your music does sound to some degree about wherever you instill yourself there's moments on this album even though you're traveling I still feel feel very london-centric very
there's something about the way that you can make something sound full with very few elements there's an urgency to the musicianship like the first song on the record has that right yeah it starts with that simple Halo and then it just yeah and that's look that's little Sims is worth it right at the start I love
that yeah that's a little similar I just I just needed like we were just hanging out a lot and I was just like yo I need your presence so like I should just voice not that for me like but yeah there is got an amazing presence ah she has an amazing just yeah she's an amazing human being I'm sure you know that and it's like yeah that's the
there's that urgency to like to to also just want to tell stories you know what I'm saying I feel like in London whether it be grand whatever the the fingers we have a real urge to tell our story people in Los Angeles in other cities we tuck ourselves away and build our homes and our relationships and our
communities but it all feels quite isolated in a city like London the stories are everywhere you walk outside your front door and even if you're in a relatively quiet road heading into the center of your town to catch the the tube you are surrounded by stories constantly around you all the time yeah it's pretty amazing
environment it is and and honestly like there's a right this second like in the city there's just like an amazing energy this is so creative I felt it this summer yeah it's so creative right now that just there's so much great music just in and around it's just like I just love being there I know yeah I bet I bet
man where is Home in London you have to give you street but which which bar are you in I live in Camden in Canada's still living in Camden yes still living Camden in a nicer place now but yeah yeah so for people who don't know Camden um is a is one of the tourist centers of of London uh it's probably North London's tourist centers in the parks
North London's where a lot of the parks are beautiful amount of greenery out in North London that's where we live we lived in North London when we lived there majority of our time and ended up staying living in toughness park for a lot of that time we had the kids there and stuff down the road from me yeah I
love that area you know I love that well you're so close to all the parks but when you get into Camden it can get hectic right I one of my first jobs I worked in Camden and you used to buy my pack of 10 marble lights sit down and spend whatever pound I had left on like one pastry that was my like breakfast lunch and dinner it was like slim but uh
it's an amazing part of the world and it's loud and it's intense and you man you've never lived until you've gotten off the tube at 8 30 in the morning in Camden yeah and the street cleaners are trying to clean the streets with the machines but you cannot clean that smell yeah exactly and that's that's that like
that's what's strange about Canada is that it is a tourist spot but we live like so that's the like that's just that's what makes it yeah and makes people yeah because it's like very residential but then when you go to our High Street and it's just like other people coming from other places in the world yeah to get this dose of yeah you know and
there's like this kind of like this Amsterdam me kind of vibe about it and it's like cool and it's just it's so eclectic and even for us you know like the our households weren't as eclectic you know like we're African we're like we're a certain way you know what I'm saying that our parents came and they're
that that they know what they know kind of thing and so to have all of this electricity that's outside mixed in with like just where we're from well you're amazing first generation exactly street level curiosity within the the north London environment like if you put it that way taking nothing away the ultimate curiosity is to travel to a new
country or a new city and immerse and build your family there that's respect but to your point your parents weren't out there seeing what Camden had to offer like you were not at all pay the bills like Johnson just trying to put the roof over our head so you must have got really good at walking the
line between good boy and bad kid and that's what that's me that's that's literally me man and like that's what you you know does that and it's just Intrigue and just on and just always like you're saying it's such a great point and you make that our parents really didn't go outside you know what I'm saying and and on top of that there
was only a certain amount of control they could have on us whether they wanted to be good let's jump saying because they had to do what they had to do it worked so they're gonna turn their back at some point exactly and so whether that's a 11 12 13 14 15 at some point we're gonna be outside jobs and so that breeds the people that that you see
but you had to have you had to know where the break was for you some some people don't some people get a taste of their freedom especially if they don't have and they're not coming from an environment that can show them where the line is a lot of times kids just go man there's no line for me I'm out here I'm
just gonna I'm gonna hustle gonna make my ends I'm gonna do what I gotta do and sometimes it can go bad you obviously knew guessed her upbringing and through strong guidance that yeah you can go have fun you can dabble in the idea of what naughty is and what is gonna make you're gonna have experiences but you
know where the Halo sits yeah and and all and just like like the where I'm blessed to be spawned around spawn because we had so many greats you know and even in my even in my year like like like a bad like wolf Alice yeah well like that was a band that like was coming up it literally went out before I was even making music and then my peers
you know what I'm saying we were in the same parties together in our school days so it's like we had examples people always doing stuff like people whether it was graffiti whatever it was whatever like we know like we had like um we had like rap battle culture in our bar like it was just like so much who was showing
up anybody everyone's listening to now on the street ah like it like it was probably it was people like Pro green and stuff that were older than us yeah I mean it was like it was like those kind of people even like example and like those kind of like those kind of guys were like rapping there's other people that I'm forgetting but yeah yeah there
was just like all kinds of different stuff guys like bristle kicks were definitely kicking around 100 yeah like it was like it was all kinds of stuff and it was just like immersive and a lot going on there's a lot going on North London there's a lot of a lot of musical heritages I mean everywhere South finds
an obviously reputation in West London it's incredible when you actually break it down borrow to Borough how this sounds ultimately shift and they do shift like what goes on out west under the Westway is very different to what you're going to get in Brixton a hundred like 100 it's like it's like even if you go back in the days like Grime was very
much like they weren't making greatness off London they they were really spearhead in UK wraps yeah I'm saying and that's where you get your giggses and Etc but um yeah every different bar every different part of the city has their own kind of Swag and now its own little Pizzazz you know I mean you're in
a situation now where we've got this album Halo we're gonna talk about it in a second but before we do I want to take you back um we know every time you make a new project this is official lab number two not not counting obviously the mixtape um to some degree this is a reflection of the mixtape I feel like bad bad kid
and Halo there's a there's a two-sided thing we just touched on um you know when you think about a song like hell and back um and who you were in 2019 and what you were trying to say at that moment in time uh who is bakar who are you at that moment at that moment I'm just trying to find my feet as an artist honestly at
that moment I'm just trying to um I'm trying to I think I know what I want to make but really in hindsight I don't because at all that's the best description you could come up with hey [Music] I love that look you know this man is a man of many many many talents must be nice to still be able to play that out man just drop that one you know
man but I wrote I wrote a letter to that song and I was and I was and like literally in the last few days I wrote a letter to this song basically explaining because I had such a love-hate relationship with this song over the years like whether like at points I've been like you know I started off like loving it so much and then it became
this thing that wasn't mine almost and because it was so early in my career I very much didn't know how to deal with that because it's quite a precocious beginning you know you come out with that it's like the idea of um painting such a vivid picture it's got a real kind of quirky confidence to it that I
think would be hard for you to live up to every single time especially on the days when you're feeling low so what did that letter say it was just like it was basically just apologizing but also explaining myself being like listen like you know I know that sometimes I push me to the side sometimes I almost treat you
like the uncool sibling you know like sorry like you're not as cool as your siblings you know what I'm saying by the end of the day like you are so many things to us to the family that is the songs so what's your relationship with that song today now you're in the letter I we are in a great place we're in a great place because the upgrown and I
understand and you know I feel and there's so many emotions when it comes to this song about this song's done so much for me and above all else that is the most important thing yeah and it's a great song man it's a great song man yeah and the thing is right it's yours you have to nurture it and you have to find ways
I can't remember maybe I was talking to Tom York about this with the idea of some of those Radiohead moments that we all love so much and they have to find space between those them and them those songs to evolve but then when they come back to them you know like the fact they play Creep now well who knows when
Radiohead in a tour again but like you know when they did to a few years ago they were playing creep you know quite a lot and it's like there was a time when you couldn't even mention the name creep why is by that when you were mentioning that because the last time I not last time I saw you but I saw you at the uh
the El Rey and yeah you would mention like I hate this song just before playing it yeah she said it on stage that's why you had to write the letter because it's that's hard but I'm so happy that you're in a better space with that song yeah obviously no I was just respect for that so I turned down some of the craziest things like if I really
went into it like opportunities off the back of that song because I was so you know like you know what like I just didn't want to be that guy you know what I'm saying and I always thought I it it became so crazy bro so I just I didn't know how to do with it but yeah I came to terms listen you know sometimes you
have to push the things you love away in order to re-establish what it is that you love about them yeah because we're all telling you this song's amazing you're amazing because of the song that could be kind of that could be pretty sketchy on how you look see yourself yeah and it's also the context you know I felt like for a long time I was like
the contact people aren't deep in it like you know like it was it was a hard song for me to even write yeah when I when I made it it was a dark song that got made Happy in that context of just how people were taking it just like oh you had a big lesson there you realize that that your intention through your
music isn't always met with the same attention yeah and and that that and that that's okay like that's okay it's okay because I'm really busy in my life and I mean I'm just trying to like make dinner right now and I've just got home I had a stressful day at work and I just like the groove of this I'm not in your
pain exactly but and you know I'm always I'm always I always want everyone to understand the duality of what I'm doing but if they if they if they connect to any part of it it's a blessing do you know how they really come to terms with the duality of what you're doing and who you truly are keep going yeah keep going
if if radio hit to finish the point had stopped around the bins everyone would have been like that's who they are but now I have no idea who they are yeah because yeah I know what how complex they are but I don't pretend that they're one thing or another you know yeah and to your point like I honestly it makes me sad that you that you remind
me of that because it's like you know I'm I want to do things with tests you know and and I never want to represent the songs that I wrote like that you know what I'm saying so yeah so man so you yeah you've got to do things with testing why are you apologize no and I loved it because then you just brought
out Paris Texas and had them play their own track and start a mosh pow your own show because the rest of the entire show was a mosh pit that was not a shows I was expecting I just imagine that when you were angry at that song If that song was like just it would just be like just somewhere quiet on its own yeah bro like why don't you like me
[Music] see I think it was I think it really need it then you wrote the letter yeah and it was all good and it was all good again but honestly it took time to get to that place man was that the first time you realized that once you put art in the world it's not yours anymore yeah you know like you hear that you know you
hear that but until you really feel it because you know with the with the apps and the tick tocks and whatever like things can just get so crazy and and taken out of your hands and I never want to sound I never wanna um I wanna I never want to take that for granted man like I never I wanna break appreciate it I don't want to take any
of you and your peers for granted and I don't mind I'm gonna I'm gonna create a division generation leave and through the statement on a standby I I I'm in like I'm Blown Away by you and your contemporaries and the generations that are coming after you the way that you navigate this landscape it is so complex
and so much is on your table to figure out yourselves yeah there were problems signing a record deal back in the day because if the label didn't get it or figure it out you're back to the drawing board but at least you could focus on the art yeah it may not have even been the best decision maybe we should have spent more time
focusing on what we were doing after we made the music but now it's gone the other way like the amount of the attention currency even just being on Tick Tock now which I love Tick Tock and I'm love that we're live but you have to factor all the stuff into what is effectively a part of your life which is simple I have something I need to say
and the only way I can say it is through that exactly and and I have to express like that I have to express but like it is an adaption but I I'm a firm believer in like make great music you know what I'm saying like I'm a Believer in that like like just that is number one like everything else is a byproduct of that
you know that's 100 that's why you know Tyler can go and build whatever Empire he wants but he'll always come back to the music exactly and that's why those kind of people are all shining stars because it's like or at least the black you know I gravitate towards as like a black alternative artist is like we just
need to like keep doing because we have there are North Stars to follow and there are there are blueprints you know I'm saying it's 2023 like there are examples yeah I'm saying and that's and I'm trying to be one of them you are one of them for sure and we're really glad you're here to talk about this album
Halo man which is so close and I just this album to me it like I said it has so much purpose but it's just it doesn't feel like you over thought it it just feels like you were searching for you were searching for you were curious yourself is what you were gonna say a hundred percent I was curious to what that to that lack of boundary was going
to bring yeah like that I honestly was because yeah I had to set myself free on this record into into not overthinking that oh and what that lack of thinking would do there's songs that we on this record that were made not that long um before it was turned in you know what I mean and that feels so good that like
real timeliness that we and me and you've talked about before yeah felt so good to operate on that yeah yeah yeah let's talk about live I mean with the exclamation point at the end so it's a statement it's not a word it's a statement what are you saying with the title and with the music two I want to be alive I want to feel something like
like what that emotion is you know is dependent on the day depending on all the you know so many things but I want to feel you know what I'm saying yeah good bad for better for worse I want to feel and and and just in terms of the process of making the record like it was a it was another turning point you know
like when we made alive it was uh me and my producer looked each other and were like okay we're in yeah we're locked in like yeah I love that I also just love how raw and real the guitar sound is at the beginning of this yeah it it's funny because we had an argument about it me and my producer argued about like
cleaning that up you know yeah it goes against the nature of producers and Engineers to leave things rough and rugged but it's in the artist's interest exactly and if it feels right that's right then we're invested in you from the start because you're not presenting a finished product expecting us to get it straight away that's the one thing
people used to ask me especially when these shows were really at their Peak you know and in America they still they still uh you know do huge numbers it's mainstream television but like those talent shows you know like X Factor The Voice pop out all that kind of stuff and I know I'd be like look I'm not trying
to like everyone has is entitled to use a platform to try and reach an audience and if you come up with a format that's sticky that millions and millions of people care about and spend money on it then man fair play to you you crack the code right the thing that I struggle with is that whenever it comes to the end I'm expected to be a Super Fan like
I've known this person my whole life and I've got no space to invest in them I'm supposed to invest through the season but it's like I feel like that's just puppetry work yeah like I need to know to your point that when you start that song with that guitar that sounds like you just picked it up in your in your
living room or bedroom to use it and then by the time Daniel sees I don't think people supposed to know that shows up halfway through and plays the the beautiful Santa acoustic guitar I'm invested in that experience yeah and like I think I think there's so many examples that we've ever heard or whether we know or doesn't know where
it's like the mistakes or the bit yeah I'm saying the mistake was the bit that lack of imperfection was the bit like that Drew us to the thing we want art not algebra exactly and like and it's just like I don't want to dwell in in I also don't want to dwell in good or bad too like too long like you know what I'm
saying like like it just is it's not like let's call you lot make that decision like that's almost like the less important decision to me and the more decision is how how do I get to this next idea like as soon as possible so I can make like decisions on that man at the videos you've been making too for this project feel like they give that
same energy of like that long take that like giving you your raw self they're absolutely crazy alive you're just like dancing in the street like the truck with I'm done like yes they're beaut where are those coming from those are coming from I did them with uh with a director uh duo called rubber band and
we just wanted to do something different you know I I felt like things were just like uh looking at the last time I felt like things were like a bit over stylized and just like I really was getting a vibe that my audience was connecting to and I'm not just going to do what's connecting but I I I I saw that like things were when I
was presenting my art with a certain energy and a certain like presence and maybe even with a smile it was just it was just having it was resonating in a certain way and I liked what that was doing and so with alive it was like trying to really bottle up this Carefree energy as much as possible and and just
let yourself go a little bit more you know what I'm saying and you let yourself Let Yourself Go and not take yourself and it too seriously like there should be like it should be it should I I hate saying the word fun too much but because I don't forget because I don't think it tells the whole picture I think people are gonna like
you know trivialize your process because if you just did it for the fun yeah exactly but but like there needs to be that aspect in it you know especially as artists well that's one of the things and and I I really do make a point of this not to to continue to um add uh awareness for the for the people that aren't aware of the incredible influence
this individual had during his two brief time on the planet but I feel like Virgil saw in you that Virgil always wanted to make sure it was fun as well as valuable and of real influence but he felt like he did things from a place of fun and I like to to to speak to people of which there are many that we talked
to who had that personal experience or felt like Virgil touch to their journey in a very real way to just kind of reflect on that a little bit because I feel like you do carry that with you it's it's such an important part of creating and like the that child like like uh that child that child like being in you like I'm saying like never really
um never like the attach him from that you know I'm saying always being able to go back to the the the thing in you that questions everything that you know that prods don't get jaded yeah like don't get jaded and like one wants to keep exploring like it's it's really important yeah it's really important man
for sure what about the summer Walker joint man oh bro another one could gave to 100 people in my partner he said that to me super confidential the other day and I listened to what I was like on that Thursday it was important that it was her because I like why why why why I mean obviously why because to me she's like
the Amy of this whole thing right now to me like this just the energy the honesty that she puts us out into the world it's a lyric safe yeah well I I was listening to a song the other day and I was just like this is exactly what it was like we thought was going on external and then she goes and writes the song and just
bottles it up and explains it all and I'm just like that's that's a real real school like that's a real and I just think she's special and and with everything I I said to you I was saying before about the record and how I felt I just felt like I kind of wanted to cap it off you know I wanted to cap it off and then I think this was just like the
best way to do it man oh Sam's just opens it up with a one-word intro he got Daniel Caesar showing up bringing his best acoustic in the background he got Summer performing as always and writing who else is obviously you know there's some other bits people that aren't even um that aren't even um musicians like one
of my good friends Medrano she she's a she's a photographer she shot Kendrick's album yeah she's the voice from the start I'm done like we were like the studio that we finished the album at was Electric Lady she's from New York she would come to the studio to hang out and naturally she was just saying funny
stuff that you know us as London is like we're just hearing a like it was recording she said that and it was just falling to us so we used it like and and and without us really knowing like there ended up being a whole host of just like really important black women that like lended their voices another one of my friends Mona two guards she's like a
supermodel at this moment you know just having an incredible moment right now on the cover of everything you see and she speaks at the end of writing for now that's her talking and so we just ended up just having and that just comes from natural just you know what I'm saying natural Valves and yeah man we ended up
having like really great um black women on this record bro we just got to keep doing this every time it's so cool having you in the studio hanging out with us man and um I just I get such Joy knowing that you've you've hit your stride like thank you bro I really appreciate it and I I honestly feel like I'm just get started man like
you know it's so cliche but I really I really really just want to there was a big break between bad kid and nobody's home you know what I'm saying in terms of like us putting body of work together it was like four years oh you're too busy being mad yeah and just like being confused exactly but then I got it
together and like and like now it's just like we just want to Output man we just want to Output I look at all the greats you know what I'm saying I look at I look at just back in the day of you know people putting out amazing records year on year out and I just you know I want to be able to uh output that level [Music] foreign