Talib Kweli & NIKO IS
Hip Hop is a genre of music based on respect for artists that have paved the way, the pioneers of rap. Talib Kweli is one of the legends in the underground scene and he uses his Stay Out West show to teach us festival goers about the history of Hip Hop and freedom of speech. Playing with prodigy NIKO IS before his childhood heroes De La Soul. Talib’s lesson is powerful and useful.
In a trailer behind some kind of warehouse we get invited by Talib Kweli and his crew. Still euphoric from his gig, Talib greets us with warmth and apologies for our having to wait outside in the cold. The time is around 2:30 in the morning and the trailer is placed in an industrial area outside of Gothenburg. The audience come there with the tram and come back by taking special festival shuttle buses driving all over the city.
Part of Talib’s entourage is NIKO IS, a young Brazilian born Florida rapper, who threw in some words here and there during the course of the gig. In the trailer is also Talib’s DJ for the evening, Thanks Joey, and jazz man Kawasi Washington, who played the festival earlier on and decided to come by for a visit.
“This is not my usual crew that I do shows with”, Talib tells us when we sit down together. “It was different for me but it felt like the crowd showed me a lot of love. This is my second time doing a show with Thanks Joey. He’s not a DJ, he’s a producer, so I challenged him to come DJ the show”.
NIKO IS tells us about the opportunities he has gotten when he came to USA from Brazil and that he has started rapping in Portuguese and Spanish along with English. He is signed to Talib’s label Javotti Media, where Talib picks up the artists he wants to support.
“These are great artists I’m working with”, Talib says. “I can show them a way to put their music out and see the world, to be a musician for a living. I can’t guarantee a hit record but I can guarantee the artist I work with that they can make music”.
All of a sudden it’s time to go see De La Soul on the main stage. We follow Talib, NIKO and Joey up to the side of the stage where we stand and look at the backs of De La Soul and the faces of a screaming crowd. A perfect ending to a festival day to say the least.
Oscar
When you live your life with the philosophy “Cut and Paste”, like British indie prince Oscar does, it will show and be heard. On the second, grey day of the festival we spoke to Oscar before he went off to the local amusement park for his day off with his band and we managed to snap some photos of him as well.
“It was so good. I didn’t know what to expect from the Swedish audience”, Oscar says when we ask him about his gig at Nefertiti the day before (he played just two hours prior to Moon City Boys) and he continues with joy “It was incredible last night. It was crazy to see that people knew the words and there was a mosh pit at the end”.
Way Out West is not Oscar’s first appearance in Sweden, he has played in Stockholm before but never Gothenburg. Coming from London he strangely enough plays more shows abroad than in his home country.
“When I first started, when it was just me and a drum machine, I did a lot of London shows just to try to get some practice. As soon as I got signed I went international. The good thing about being on an independent label is that wherever there is a demand, they’ll send you there. They won’t try sell you and break you in one place”.
Oscar is a very gentle and kind person, open to talking about his music and his life. His debut album is called “Cut and Paste”, words that fit well with his music made up of different genres and feelings. The phrase also is his way of looking at clothing and life in general.
“It’s kind of my ethos in life, cut and paste. You take things from experiences and apply them to new experiences. It’s like customizing, seeing all the things you like and finding new ways to use them”.
In his clothing, the colours are the way for Oscar to express “Cut and Paste”. He wears garments that can feature a colour pallet similar to a rainbow just as well as a simple navy blue bomber jacket like he is today. Colours was a fascination of his while he attended Central Saint Martin’s art school in London, studying fine arts. If you’re looking for an interesting indie artist with a sense of style and good music, look no further.
Moon City Boys
Stockholm quartet Moon City Boys closed the opening day of Stay Out West, the after party spread out all over venues across Gothenburg, at the club Nefertiti. Before they took the train back home the following morning we got a chance to speak to one of this year’s best up and coming punk groups.
We meet two fourths of Moon City Boys, singer/guitarist Sofia Eklund and bassist Ella Rolf, when they are about to check out from a central Gothenburg hotel. They are very tired and it is understandable, because their show started at 1:30 in the morning the previous night. For a Swedish festival such a late time to begin is unusual, but Way Out West with its after party Stay Out West is not a usual Swedish festival. Stay Out West is included in your ticket and it allows you to listen to music until the wee hours of the night.
Moon City Boys played the last set at the club Nefertiti, an establishment where jazz is most common during the rest of the year. Before that they had some time to spend on the festival area, where they got to see bits and pieces of Morrissey’s show and they tell us their preferences when it comes to playing festivals. Sofia and Ella must have known each other for a long time, because when they speak their flow gives the impression of a great chemistry between them.
“I think it is difficult, these kind of festivals with really big stages like this. It’s difficult to connect”, says Ella. I think our gig was perfect for us, standing on a club scene. It wasn’t small but maybe more mystical.
“I like playing both big and small stages”, says Sofia. But it’s nice when there is a club vibe.
“I don’t know if we sound lazy but I think it’s easier to build a good feeling in a room that is packed”, says Ella.
“It’s more intimate”, Sofia agrees.
“It must be incredibly demanding for someone like Morrissey for example to stand on that enormous stage and try to deliver something true”.
Moon City Boys has a lot going for them at the moment. They have been touring a bit in USA, they have managed club nights at Stockholm’s Taverna Brillo and they’re going to London soon. Upcoming is a new video, for the song ‘Hopes In Vain’, the first video that the band hasn’t produced entirely on their own.
Jack Garratt
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Jack Garratt has never called himself neither a multi-instrumentalist nor a producer until other people started saying those things about him. A few hours before his afternoon slot on the last day of Way Out West we share a moment with him in the park Slottsskogen.
“The only thing that connects any show together is the fact that it is completely and utterly a new unexplored moment”, Jack Garratt says to the question about how his Way Out West appearance will differ from his last visit to Sweden, a showcase at a Stockholm dramatic theatre. Jack’s enthusiasm for his craft shines through his words when he speaks about the music he plays.
“Shows and sometimes studio time are kind of the only things that I genuinely like that are complete unexplored territory. You have no idea what’s going to happen, because it’s a purely creative moment, even if the thing that you’re creating off of is something that already has an existence or structure. Like performing a song, where it has a beginning, it has a middle, it has an end. Anything can happen during that time; the crowd is different, the venue is different, the weather is different, the moment that you’re existing within is totally new”.
Jack Garratt’s artistry depends on the unexpected. People who haven’t seen his shows may not expect that he will play all instruments on stage all by himself and when he produces or remixes a song, he is looking for new angles at all times. His way of working is natural to him, just the way things have always been.
“I’ve never called myself a multi-instrumentalist, I’ve only called myself a multi-instrumentalist because that’s what other people called me and it seemed like an easy label to refer myself as. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been able to play lots of different instruments, but I never saw that as being a gift or a talent. Only when I realized not everyone else could do that as well that I knew it was a unique part of me. I’ve always produced my own music; made the sounds I want until I found out that that is what producing is”.
Garratt is very unique in his way of playing and working, and that might be because he does exactly what comes to him naturally, even though it seems to him that the things he does almost happen by accident.
Hurula
Robert Hurula may very well be the hope and faith of Swedish punk rock, formerly as front man of Masshysteri and now as a solo artist. During Way Out West he was put in situations that we are not used to seeing him in, and they fit him well.
When we sit down with Hurula for our interview we are not alone. With him is a film team, working on a documentary about him that starts with the release party celebrating the first single from his second solo album. He does not strike me as accustomed to the filming and he says that he doesn’t mind it when he is playing but that doing interviews in front of a camera is more challenging.
For Way Out West this year Hurula collaborated with second hand store chain Humana for charity. He designed two Harrington jackets that will be sold on auction for the benefit of the HOPE project concerning HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe.
“I was asked if I could contribute with anything and it came naturally because I always draw and paint. I thought that I just as well might do it for charity. So I did two jackets and found out that I only needed to do one”.
The jacket that Hurula designed first was described by Humana as a work inspired by David Bowie. One might think that it was true, because the image on the back of it slightly resembles the classic Ziggy look. But that is not the case.
“That was something they said later, that it was David Bowie-influenced, I don’t understand why. I was inspired by an image from “Sunset Boulevard”, an old film noir, but it’s okay. People see what they want in pictures”. Robert Hurula has also designed his own logo, the one with the dead bird, and he has made special garments for special shows. Aside from his dark and powerful music, we can expect greatness from him in other forms of creativity.
Bibi Bourelly
Except for writing massive hit songs like “Bitch Better Have My Money” for other artists, Bibi Bourelly is a solo artist on the rise. With the respect for art coming from the underground and the inspiring self-confidence she has, she might go very far. As one of the last acts of the festival, we meet Bibi during the final night of our stay in Gothenburg.
Instantly when we meet Bibi Bourelly we dive into a conversation about meeting our heroes and what it does to a person. She has obviously worked with some of hers, like Rihanna, Kanye West and Alicia Keys. The latter made quite an impression on Bibi.
“I remember being in the room with Alicia Keys and it was just me and her and a piano, and all the phones were off. She’s playing piano and I’m singing and I knew I was going to be there someday.”
So you knew you were going to make it. How did you imagine it?
“I didn’t. Or I might have expected things and imagined things but very quickly at the beginning of my career, when I got in with all these people, that idea was eliminated. You can never imagine what its going to be like. I think the key is to achieving your goals is knowing you’ll get there. It keeps you working and keeps you hopeful and keeps you pushing.”
Do you have any goals left to achieve?
“Yes, of course. But I just like to move in silence. I think when you talk about it too much to people, you jinx it.”
Bibi Bourelly’s determination is amazing and she has achieved great things already, at the age of 22. Born and raised in Berlin, but active since a couple of years back in USA, she not only writes for other artists and performs herself, she also manages a project called Society Sessions. The sessions take place in big cities, where Bibi brings together local underground artists and musicians to show us where art really comes from. Hopefully she will do a Society Session in Sweden, because The Forumist will be right there with her.
Deportees
The fact that Deportees can make a crowd gather in front of one of the biggest stages on the Way Out West festival area, despite the extreme rain showers, tells us just how popular they have become. The fact that the heavy rain gave way for redeeming sunshine during their set is difficult to explain in other terms than gratitude. Other than a weather changing concert, the festival offered Deportees front man Peder Stenberg a chance to make his voice heard in a new forum.
The day before Deportees’ rainy and sunlit gig at Way Out West 2016 I speak to Peder Stenberg on the phone. He is a bit nervous, not only because of the upcoming show on the Azalea stage. An hour or two after our conversation he is going to do something that he is not used to, something that seems to take him far outside of his comfort zone. Peder has gotten the opportunity to debate the Swedish Minister for the Environment, Karolina Skog, on a festival stage. An opportunity like that can be used in many different ways, especially by someone like Peder Stenberg, a lyricist who tries to say something about the world today. This close to the debate, he is still considering his approach to it, and he tells us how he accepted the offer of speaking to the Minister.
“I said yes in a moment of weakness, I have never done anything like this before. I am prepared but I haven’t met the Minister beforehand. I think I was invited as an artist, not to do an interview, so I won’t be an investigative reporter but I’m not there to help her gain voters either”. Stenberg grew up with the Hardcore and Punk movement in Umeå, where most followers lived a straight edge life. We ask him if the vegan style of living will be brought up in the debate, seeing as Way Out West is mostly a vegetarian and vegan festival. He agrees that those questions are important now and tells us about how things have changed since the Hardcore days.
“I have been a vegetarian since the 90’s but I’m not a vegan anymore. I haven’t eaten meat in 23 years. Back then people called us crazy and thought we were terrorists because we talked about animals and ethics but now time has caught up with us. Meat is discussed when it comes to the health of the people and the environment. The consumption of meat is still rising but I think there will be a change.”
The music that Deportees play today, the music that brought an enormous crowd out into the rain, is very far from the Hardcore that Peder used to play. What is left is a political awareness in the lyrics, that just might be the reason for his invitation to an environmental debate. Whatever the reasons, Peder has a vision with his lyrics and we will continue to strive forward when Deportees work on new material in the fall, material which is already in the works.
Credits:
Words by Filip Lindström
Special thanks too
Way Out West festival