“As an artist, the most important thing is originality” – An interview with Dámì Sule

VIVA recently had a chat with Manchester based poet and artist Dámì Sule, all about his E.P.  ‘Crayons’. We also managed to get an exclusive insight into his brand new project: ‘Rough Canvas’ which is out on May 11th.

In his E.P. Dámì Sule challenges themes such as race, emotion and individuality, accompanied by spoken word and alternative hip-hop beats.

VIVA: What was the inspiration behind the E.P. ‘Crayons’?

Dámì Sule: “‘Crayons’ is just all about emotions and feelings. I just wanted to create a record where I could say what I wanted to say and pour every feeling, good and bad, onto just one project.”

VIVA: Did you draw a lot of inspiration from your personal life?

Dámì Sule: “Yeah, I talk a lot about my experiences in each different song. It was a freedom of expression really, and I tried to put a little bit of what I go through into the songs.”

 

 

VIVA: The video for the single ‘Crayons’  (which was released in March) is very creative. How much were you involved in the process of making it?

Dámì Sule: “Myself and Jay Bannister – the Videographer and Director – came up with the initial idea. When we got onto the set, whatever came to our head we would do it. I had the idea of me sitting in front of the bath tub where I performed and he came up with the idea of the girl being in the bathtub. So we joined ideas.”

VIVA: Did you try and make the video as colourful as possible because of the title of the E.P. being ‘Crayons’?

Dámì Sule: “Yeah, basically it had to make sense to what the title was. The video as well as the writing on the board, we were just trying to make sense of crayons as the theme.”

VIVA: There’s a song on the E.P. called ‘Self Love’, could you tell us a bit about it. There’s a lot of different themes in there, especially about the black community. What inspired you to make a song like that?

Dámì Sule: “I think ‘Self Love’ is a song that everyone can relate to, about loving themselves. But I wanted it to relate to myself  being a black boy in a society and trying to empower people like me to love themselves. I think the most inspiration I drew from that was when I go back home and I see a lot of people bleaching their skin, it feels like they don’t like their complexion. So I just wanted to put that into a song.”

VIVA: Your sound is quite different, there’s not many people that I could compare you to in the UK Rap/Grime scene. How important do you think it is to be as original and authentic as possible?

Dámì Sule: “As an artist, the most important thing is originality. There’s plenty of singers and rappers and the most important thing is originality, and that’s how you stand out. I think that’s how I stand out in terms of how you can easily recognise my voice and theres a different way that I project my voice.”

VIVA: Is there anyone in the music industry at the moment who you would say inspires you as an artist and makes you want to keep going?

Dámì Sule: “I listen to quite a lot of music. In terms of rap I listen to 808INK, Goldlink, Kojey Radical. I like people who are original, people like J Hus and Mist. They are very different and have their own type of voice. When they start rapping you recognise them straight away so I like that type of music, they are the type of people I get my influence from.”

VIVA: When you first started off in your career, there must have been a low point. Can you name any?

Dámì Sule: “When I released my first song ‘Suffering and Smiling’ about this time last year. It was a song about suffering and smiling in terms of people suffering but putting up a front of smiling and being happy. When I released that song I submitted it to a site that sends it out to different blogs and they give you feedback and, the feedback from it was really harsh. That knocked my confidence a bit.”

VIVA: How did you overcome this?

Dámì Sule: “From the love of music and making it, I overcame it. It didn’t stop me. The more I made, the more I knew I was good and the more confidence I gained from it. Through the love of music, I overcame that burden.”

VIVA: Do you have any new music that you plan to release?

Dámì Sule: “I’m planning a project this summer called ‘Rough Canvas’. It’s based on the idea that there’s perfect and imperfect and that’s when love matters and that’s the most important part. So ‘Rough Canvas’ is a 10 track project where every song implies on the perfect and imperfect boundaries and what we’re portrayed as.”

You can listen to Dámì Sule’s new track ‘Prayer’, from the upcoming album ‘Rough Canvas’ here 

Dámì Sule will be headlining two shows in Manchester and London with his band ‘The Youth Club’ and special guests in June. Click here for tickets.