© Lara Shapiro
Multihyphenate creative Dabieh’s latest EP ‘us, uninterrupted’ is a heartfelt ode to the current times, inspired by the people of South London.
Dabieh has South London running through his veins. A creative with roots settled deep in the area, he’s been pushing boundaries in the music scene and beyond. A rapper, visionary, and businessman, there seems to be nothing that he can’t turn his hand to.
Following the growing success of his latest business venture, Cloud X, Dabieh also discusses the current and future aims of the project, which currently consists of a record label, a buzzing music festival, and a wider entertainment company.
He spoke to INJECTION about his recent mixtape slash ’six-part storytelling musical observation’ aptly titled ‘us, uninterrupted’ and how a love of his hometown has informed his artistry.
How do you feel us, uninterrupted follows on from your last body of work?
I think it's been really interesting because you develop and change as a person over time. The world around me was a different place than it is now. When I listen back to the music, the stories that are being told are actually quite different. I think that the last project was much more introspective, and this one is far more outro-spective, like I’ve been looking at the world around me and taking stock of how people are feeling, as opposed to just how I was feeling. I think that's been quite an interesting journey.
What would you say you’ve learnt in the time since your last record?
I think the difference would be that I feel more responsibility to help communicate the feelings that we're all sharing. I think a lot of music, particularly these days, looks very inward and doesn't talk about the current times. Times are really tough for a lot of people in a lot of different ways, all over the world. It feels like there’s more of an urgency to speak about the collective condition so that's probably the thing that affected the music the most.
What inspired you whilst making this project?
That's a hard one to answer because a lot of my influences don’t come from music. One was Albert Camus, who's one of my favourite authors, he’s a French existentialist, and he wrote this book, L'Étranger. Also, there’s a writer called Arundhati Roy who wrote some books I absolutely love, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and The God of Small Things. Reading those books influenced the state of mind I went into when creating the sounds.
I do think that when you listen across the project, it's quite guitar-heavy. But, there's some rap elements in there, there's some soul, there's a little bit of pop. I think I listened to a lot of different sounds so it's hard to nail down specific artists. I think you're going to hear a lot of different influences, and part of that is also being, a proper South Londoner, and being surrounded by such an array of different people and tastes. I've got friends that are great garage DJs, and I've got friends that play classical music, and I go to both their gigs - I think that's there in the music as well.
© Ben Crxss
I love the track south london, particularly when you were saying, ‘the fabrics are torn, the souls in doubt.’ What do you want people to understand from the lyrics on this record?
I don't want you to think about what I'm thinking about. I want you to feel like it's supposed to help you make sense of your reality. south london, for example, for me, is an ode to an area I grew up in; one that I love. It is also changing a lot. Those lyrics you quote are very much about, if something is changing so rapidly, what is your relationship to that thing that has changed? Are you the same person? Is your love for that thing the same anymore? I think that you can sort of apply that anywhere in your life, whether it's your friends, a place you grew up, or your job.
The lyrics are there to act as a mirror between your reality and your internal thought process. That’s part of the reason I didn't have any features on this project. Over the course of listening to it, I want to take the user on a journey where I'm narrating, almost like an internal voice to help you make sense of your own self.
I think a good example of that is in the opening song you (we) should be free. The first thing you hear is ‘Who are you? Why are you? How are you?’ And that's the point. It opens and takes you on this journey.
Would you want to do an accompanying musical visual album?
I kind of didn't want to create a visual initially because I'd love to see everyone else's interpretation, but it felt important to create that anyway. We're working on a 10-minute short film, all based in South London, that uses the music as a soundtrack to it. Once that's done, we're going to have a screening of it. This project is more than music. It's a philosophical viewpoint. It has to have all these other touchpoints outside of just the music itself.
I've also been approached by a couple of director-friends who want to make their own breakout pieces for it. I think one of the roles as a creative that you want to do is to inspire action and it's definitely seemed to have made people think, and then, more importantly, made people act. I think it’s the role of an artist in this world. And I don't just mean music, with anything you do, you can be an artist in it.
One thing that we're doing is that for every vinyl we sell, 50% of the profits are going towards community youth clubs and workshops that we're putting on for free at our space in Brixton. That real-life element is important as well.
© Perry Gibson
What has South London been saying about the project?
South Londoners love South Londoners, definitely. I think a lot of people have connected with the themes of change, instability, and insecurity. Outside of that, a lot of the feedback I've gotten is that people felt sort of therapised by listening to it like they were sitting around with me having a chat about their lives and the theme of mirrors keeps coming up.
How do you navigate having a music career whilst also supporting other people with Cloud X?
Not easily. It's really hard work. What I normally do is I'll only record my project once a year in December-January time, when everybody's away and everything closes down, I'll just book out the studio and that's when I made this project. It gives me a really good time to focus and reflect. But it has been hard, you know, running the festival and also the label, particularly when times aren't the easiest for a lot of people right now.
I think it's been a good lesson that sometimes you need to just let things out and then they’ll come back to you. And so, yeah, I think at the end of the day, what we do as a label and a festival is to give a creative space for people to feel and be expressive and free. I need to make sure that I give myself that same love.
© Lara Shapiro
What do you have planned for the Cloud X Festival in the future?
We're trying to export this space of metropolitan diversity and inclusion to celebrate voices from underrepresented communities. We’re trying to take that across the world. The plan is to set up in some key cities over time. We're in London but we want to be in Paris and New York as our initial spaces. We want to create an international network of people who love the community that we've built.
What's it been like seeing the festival go from an idea to a realised event?
It was never really just an idea! It's just what we do, you know, we get up and we make music, we bring people together. My business partner is my best friend who I've known since I was 11 so we've shared this journey. We love to create important and urgent art, and our role is to get out into the world. It has been really exciting to see how it's affected other people. Sometimes you go into a room and there's this energy in the room, and that is a beautiful thing. When you have an intention and you match it with the execution, you see this amazing result. We keep trying to remind ourselves that the intention behind what you do, and having the ability to execute it is something that you need to keep precious.
Will we be seeing you live on stage anytime soon?
I'm organizing something at the moment. Since it's an art piece, it has to go into an art space. We're trying to see if we can find a museum or gallery and have it there. It’s going to be a live experience, rather than a live show.
© Perry Gibson
Dabieh’s newest EP is presented through a perspicacious lens and drips with his refined yet beautiful melodic style. His eloquence stretches from this interview into his music, and his passion for South London is inspiring - even to those living a thousand miles away.
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