Jah-jah, seda minagi. Enam ei ole seda, et kõnnime Silveriga koos Birminghamis ja mõtleme mida hullu ja huvitavat võiks korda saata. Seekord on nii, et üks rapsib Tallinnas, teine Birminghamis. Meid see ei peata nagu näha. Üks päev tuli mõte, et võiks uurida UK artiste – maailma mõistes väikseid, aga väga siiraid inimesi. Pika otsimise peale sattusime Abel Gray otsa. Anname teile hea ülevaate sellest, kes on Abel Gray, tema muusikast ja muust.
Kajastus tuleb straight from Brumm (loe: Birmingham).
PS! Tekst on inglise keeles!
Who is Abel Gray? What does he stand for? If you would need to explain yourself and your beliefs what would they be?
I’m a 23 year old guy from the middle of England. An artist first and foremost. Music is the art form I enjoy most, so that’s the core of what I do, but illustration is another big part of me. Overall I just try to express my thoughts and visions through creating. It might sound corny to some, but most of my beliefs revolve around love, both for each other and for ourselves. I think there is a lot of unnecessary hatred that comes from misunderstanding each other. It holds us back. I just want to contribute to shifting the focus away from that. People worry about the wrong things.
Could you explain your creative process of making music?
Ok, so generally I start off instrumental. Sometimes the first thing is a sample from another record, sometimes it’s me playing something on the guitar or piano or whatever. Then I build up from that and add more and more parts. When the instruments are starting to sound good, I look for vocal rhythms and melodies that work well and start to put words into them. At that point it kind of snowballs and ideas start to build off of one another. I’ll change bits of the instrumentation around to fit with the vocal and vice versa. When I think I’ve written everything, I start recording it, but a lot of the time I carry on changing stuff after I’ve started recording.
In your song Blue Skies you say “Keep your mouth shut and your third eye open” If it is, then how is your music influenced by the spiritual aspects?
Spirituality is something I’m still exploring and thinking about a lot, so as a result it often finds it’s way into my music because my own thoughts are the main thing I write about. I think it can provide important perspective. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about love and avoiding confusion and hatred. Whether you believe in gods or energies or whatever, that feeling of connecting to something bigger than yourself helps you to see what’s important and what’s meaningless.
What is your biggest inspiration source besides music and why so?
All different types of art. I’m inspired by anyone taking a thought or an idea and makes it into something for the world to look at or listen to. So that applies to illustration, films, books etc. Anything where someone is using art to communicate something. I like when art is used as a tool to help us understand each other.
When we were shooting you mentioned that hip-hop is the basis of your music. What do you think different genres add to your sound and why do you use them?
I really just set out to make the music I want to hear. It’s not so much that I start with hip-hop and then try to bring other genres in, it’s more of a melting pot of all the different music I like, there just happens to be slightly more hip-hop in there than anything else. My favourite artists have always been the ones that do weird stuff which doesn’t really fit into a genre, so it makes sense that I end up making that kind of music too. I love too many different types of music to stick to one.
What is the name of your next project and when can we hear it?
The next thing I have coming out is Outsider On The Inside Volume 3. It’s the final part of my trilogy of EPs, the first two are out already. I don’t have a specific date yet but it should be done in June. I also have some videos and things coming before then.
Where would you like to see yourself and your music in a couple of years?
I set my long-term sights pretty high, so hopefully there’s quite a journey ahead of me. In a couple of years I just want to be further along that path, with a wider audience, and bigger, better shows. In terms of the art itself, I want my work to be more advanced conceptually and integrate music with illustration and other art forms more seamlessly. If I could be self-sufficient and living off of art by then, that would be great too.
Abel Gray muusikat saad kuulata:
Soundcloud
Big props to Silver Mikiver, kes tegi need imelised visuaalid ja aitas intervjuud kokku panna!
Tema tegevustele saate siin silma peal hoida:
Kodukas
Instagram