Looking Stupid: Yo! Does now work?

Brian Nasty: my dude

yes!

LS: How are you man? How’s your day been? You’re in the studio now, yeah?

BN: dude i’m ok! thanks for asking. it’s been chill, yes, in the studio right now with isidora tracking vocals for our lil collab thing currently.

final takes !!! detail is everything

LS: Nice, how did this project come to be? What the recording process been like

BN: i mean isidora & i have been in the studio for like 2 /3 years now and all the female vocals on the last mixtape is her

and so whilst we’ve been touring and putting out my stuff

in the midst of all that we decided to do a collab jazz inspired thing together and we treated these songs as songwriting practice.

and now

we’re gonna put it out!

LS: I feel like that’s a longer gestation period than projects usually get these days. How has the sound of the project evolved as you’ve worked on it? 

How have your attitudes changed about this piece of work and what you want out of it. 

BN: really? That’s insane to hear but at first we wanted to just make the songs with just our voices and the piano and it’s just kept growing into full productions!

It started off as just songs to write as practice and then we figured out how all the songs kind of connected in a way that wasn’t intentional in the writing and the production and so we thought “lets double down on all the sentiments” 

LS: Sentimentmaxxing

That’s disgusting idk why I said that

BN: hahaha no but FR!

LS: What are the sentiments behind the project though?

BN: the project is called ‘When the Cows Come Home” and so we talk about having horrible days, grief, jealousy, but making it sound like hope.

And really sweet.

LS: That’s a pretty ambitious scope of emotion

BN: I mean

Yes

The pain of change !!

And hope it will all get better …

LS: I was thinking about how much change you’ve undergone actually, how you were on your way to figuring out what sort of artist you were heading into the pandemic, and was wondering how that whole-earth pause shifted your thinking around what you make and why, and maybe how as well?

(For reader reference I reached out to Brian after one of his first singles when I worked at an indie label in 2017. Younger days)

BN: Mannnnnn

i haven’t thought about that in a long time but i felt like i had the whole world at my feet

And like, my ideas felt really juvenile and suddenly were now in the pandemic and everything feels so serious

At least that’s how i looked at it

I think for me that was the turning point for where a lot of fear entered my psyche

LS: Just you talking about grief being a central theme of this project

That’s a different place than you were at, which obviously makes sense, it’s been nearly a decade

How did you come to terms with your perception of what opportunities were on the horizon when that went away for a while? How did you keep the sense to just make new work?

BN: yeah dude! I’ve just lived so much life since we initially connected, so many mistakes, so many beautiful things have happened too but i’m shrouded by a life of regret

I actually think that hindered me because i spent a lot of that time (going into the pandemic)  hesitating and i feel like so much changed in the industry so i essentially came out the other side starting all over again, and it actually threw me off my stride, cause now the way i thought thing should and would go couldn’t happen that way, and i didn’t realize why yet.

I had aged but experienced NOTHING

LS: There’s a funny curve in life, when you’re coming up the world is the world

And then at a certain point you live long enough to see all the targets move, and the way things shift, it’s pretty crazy

BN: dude exactly!! As everyone used to tell me, you think you know things until you realize you know nothing

i think i understand that, if i’m to keep hesitating my whole life will pass me by. I got obsessed with figuring things out along the way, and i think you could see that in my approach to my release to the mixtape, the songs sounded different, like films in different cities i kind of thought to myself. 

Nobody actually knows or cares about my intents and so let me free myself of my own expectations and contextualize things later but act first

Watching my friends achieve their dreams, heartbreak / family & relationships, understanding what i want and not want for myself and realizing that my life isn’t over and i always have another chance, but not to waste that chance. 

So within that, the ‘when the cows come home’ writing encapsulates it as i also translated into making of my debut album

Which i think i have a title for haha

LS: “Nobody knows or cares about my intents” is the kind of thing you can hear 1,000 times but you don’t understand it until you feel it

What goes into the title of a record for you? Does it always come last after you see the songs? Do the songs ever come out of a title? 

BN: yeah exactly, i didn’t think i had earned the ida that people would dissect my art YET

I mean idk i didn’t think

For me the title is an anchor, i always come back to it. Whatever i make does it sound like – x and if not, why not?

LS: Right, the ride has always started before you think it has

If the title is an anchor does that necessarily mean you think of albums as telling a story? 

BN: BN: yeah and naturally it’s easy to drift  as you’re making music! So something to bring me back to the ground/the idea

So always ! yes

I see it as part of my personality

As in each project is a different side of the same person

And i think i put so much pressure on myself to make an ‘album’ and what to me i think i grew up thinking it was but really every song is an extension of the title unless you’re doing a concept album

LS: How does playing the songs live affect how you see them and where they fit and into what story?

You were just touring, were you working out material you’re recording in this session?

BN: man ! touring has changed me so much. I see my stage show as theatre now. It’s one of the few places i truly get to be dramatic and i play into it so much. So now i’m at the point where i’m incorporating where the drama will go in the songs

We were trialing some of the next release out and people seemed to really resonate (with those songs)

LS: Did any of the songs change as a result of how they felt onstage? 

BN: you know what ! no actually, because we kind of made some of the songs after touring so we knew what pockets to capture with the main ones we performed. 

LS: Nice, how were the shows? Is it hard getting drama across in clubs, or in larger spaces? Or do you just access different tools for each?

BN: tour was fun but i think underwhelming overall. I sound so privileged saying that because last year there was so many high, supporting orion sun & loyle carner. I feel as if with the last body of work I exhausted all of the excitement for myself in order to make it feel magical. So this time around i was like huh this is a downgrade from last time but that’s ok. It’s work !!

Definitely need different things for the different sizes. Cause i didn’t have my band this time around it was a bit more rigid but in a good way, everything was tighter. 

The larger the venue the more i can go wild and detach

Smaller venues require much more eye contact and intensity – That i’m well versed in!

I think the next step is figuring out the full band set up, and hopefully with (the) debut album i can figure out how to headline tour

LS: What are next steps?

As you’ve worked on your music, what influences and driving factors have become more prominent in your process? What’s become less important?

BN: “When the Cows Come Home” is going to be a self release and so we need to figure out how much we’re willing to put into promotion

We’re already gonna mix it ourselves to save money, but we want this project to live visually too, release it July/August, September at the latest

Meanwhile I work on the debut album. I’m actually working on 2 albums cause i’m not sure which route to take haha a highlife afro pop rap project or an 80s soul & funk rap project

I want to do both but it doesn’t make sense to combine the two, it’s too drastic, the sound changes and subject matter, but most definitely I think i’ll do both regardless. 

LS: For the albums – Is it just a matter of wanting to do both and just letting timing and vibes do the sorting as to which comes first? 

BN: Yeah !!! I guess so. Whichever comes first.

I’m kind of looking forward to making something more upbeat, braggadocious, loud and brash, both in sound and personality. 

I noticed with the last release that if you didn’t know me and you only heard the music you would think i’m some timid unsure meek dude when actually it’s the opposite. I’m loud talkative and full of life and i want to show that side of me

I’m kind of over slow softness, i wan abrasive

And so the soul funk thing is more ballads and introspection in writing, and the high life rock situation is loverman, player dude with war stories in love. 

Alas, I’m making both and essentially need to decide what to commit to

I would say i’m seasoned in this but the way the industry is making me feel i’m starting to doubt things and need to figure out how to cut through and take things to the next level

The sphere has changed so much and it’s making me a lil jaded, and i’m aware of it but i’m working through it all

That’s my journey musically right now. 

LS: To wrap things up, what are you excited about right now? What’s keeping you engaged? 

BN: hmmmmm

I’m excited to find something new to obsess over

I’ve been taking all year to kind of let myself breath

Music is always on my mind. I’m almost ready to take action again.