FEATURE: Spotlight: No Guidnce

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

No Guidnce

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THERE is a lot to cover off…

when it comes to No Guidnce. Even though I am not a massive fan of the name – Google always tries to auto-corrected to ‘No Guidance’ -, they do at least stand out from the crowd. In terms of the crowd, I guess I mean boybands. Once upon a time, the music scene was teeming with them. They had a purple period in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Now, we do not see many. There are K and J-Pop boybands around. They do not get the focus and airplay in the U.K. and U.S. that they perhaps deserve. In the U.K., we have a range of girlbands coming through. FLO are perhaps the standout. Even so, there is a surfeit of girl and boybands. I think boybands used to have that reputation as being a bit naff and uncool. Perhaps unfair! There were a few pretty good ones back in the day. No Guidnce are a bit of a rarity in the sense that they are an R&B boyband who are suggestive of the '90s crop. Bringing back the cooler and sexier edge. There are quite a few interviews I want to come onto. Their Spicy EP was released back in September. Boasting big tracks like Yeah Yeah, it has put them on the music map. The Standard spoke with the group last year about their aim to reshape the Nineties narrative around boybands:

“No Guidnce, a four-strong boyband who’s revival of Nineties nostalgia has proved extraordinarily popular with young fans, owe a great deal to a bright yellow car park in a mystery part of central London.

Blessed with both natural acoustics and security willing to turn a blind eye to their sneaky recording sessions, it is the place where the group, two in their teens and two in their early 20s, first went viral with their acapella covers of everyone from The Fugees to Usher.

Even the car park’s guard has seen their ridiculously popular TikTok videos made in this renegade recording studio (the group won’t disclose where it is). “He’ll come up, and be like: ‘I’m supposed to kick you out now… but 10 more minutes,” Zeekay, the group’s resident joker grins. “We should invite him to our next show,” adds Kaci.

That show is next week, on September 18, with the band set to headline for the first time in the UK. They’re still fresh from playing the main stage of Wireless earlier this summer with just a single EP – this year’s debut Is It A Crime? – to their name.

“Seeing the feelings that our music evokes in the audience is the best thing honestly, to see in real life,” says Ebubé, whose velvety baritone wins him frequent comparisons to the RnB singer Giveon. “Wireless was a crazy experience. A lot of people [in the audience] didn’t know us, but we took on the challenge… it wasn’t daunting at all.”

An increasing number of people are catching on; just ask any of their 73 million TikTok followers. The title track of their debut EP, Is It A Crime? was written with Ariana Grande collaborator Victoria Monét, already boasts 6 million streams, and channels a mischievously sultry, Boyz II Men-ish brand of Nineties RnB. It puts them in good company with an increasing number of London-based artists bringing back the aesthetic of this era, along with Enfield singer Bellah and Brits Critics Choice winners FLO.

“Especially with FLO, the whole RnB group concept is coming back,” says Ebubé, with Josh adding there may be a time when its right to collaborate”.

I am going to come onto DAZED and their interview with No Guidnce. All the headlines seem to be around ‘making boybands cool again’. This suggestion that they never were! I think it was more nuanced than people think. There were some cool boybands. I think many have not dated that well, so an updated and fresh take is needed. We have a tantalising option when it comes to this intriguing four-piece:

“Hey guys – first of all, what’s the meaning behind the name of the band?

Zeekay: No Guidnce just means working towards freedom, and not really following a path that’s been done before. It’s a very old-but-new concept. We are a thing that isn’t really out there, and we’re doing things that are quite different to other people in our lane and in our surroundings. It’s just about being independent and following a different path.

How do you guys feel about the boyband moniker? What do you tend to call yourselves?

Kaci: We say boyband. We used to say ‘R&B vocal group’, because we thought ‘boyband’ wasn’t cool, but we’re trying to make boy bands cool again.

What made you change your mind back to boy bands being cool again?

Zeekay: Cos we’re cool! [Laughs]

Josh: We are so cool.

Kaci: When we started doing live shows, we discovered the whole boy band effect thing. We were like, ‘no, we might as well just go by boyband.’ And we do have someone who plays instruments, so it does work.

Josh: I feel like we’re just trying to change the connotation, give it a fresh new meaning, you know?

From what it looks like online, the fan reaction has been quite intense.

Kaci: Yes. Intense is the word. It’s been quite wild, to be honest. We’re on tour right now with Mahalia, and I feel like we’ve seen the biggest fan reaction while we’re on tour with the people we’re meeting. Basically, at the end of the shows, we’ll just meet a bunch of people at the end, taking selfies and stuff – and it’s a lot. But it’s good, though. So sick to meet with the fans, and just to meet new people.

What was the inspiration for the new songs ‘White Tee’ and ‘Long Walk’?

Kaci: We’ve dropped two EPs now. We just wanted to take things, not even a different direction, but just improve on what we’ve already been doing. We’re getting an idea of what works for us and what necessarily doesn’t. With ‘White Tee’ we wanted to bring a bridge back, and it’s us really vocalising, again, like our first EP Is It A Crime? We have proper vocals and we’re singing together, it’s much more that kind of vibe.

With ‘Long Walk’ it was a bit different, because we were like ‘let’s just try something very different.‘ It’s like a boom-bap style, and we never really ever saw ourselves doing that. It was one of the songs we made randomly in Miami, and it ended up coming through as one of the stronger ones. So yeah, we’re excited for people to hear these songs, to be honest.

Josh: I feel like both of those songs are two types of songs that we haven’t released, and fans haven’t heard from us. We always wanted to give our fans something fresh.

How do you approach the songwriting side of things?

Ebubé: Mainly, we go out to Miami. There’s this particular studio that we really like. They pamper us, give us chicken wings, loads of soul food. We usually write off concepts with a writer and a producer. We’ll sit down even before we get in the studio, and work out if we want to write something up-tempo, something more slow jam, something more meaningful, and then we’ll come up with a concept. Usually it’s just a word. Like for ‘Spicy’, it was just the word spicy, and screeching the word out loud”.

There is a bit more I want to source. Wonderland. were keen to spotlight a very special British proposition. At a time when the boyband market is a little lean and focused mainly in Asia, it is good that there is a band that have stormed TikTok and are getting their name known. Let’s hope that, with more music this year, they get even more attention and focus:

“What would you say connects you all?

Our sense of humour. That’s originally built our friendship, just busting jokes 24/7.

Our influences too, we all loved Boys II Men as a sonic influence and aesthetically. We have in general a very common goal of what we want for the group, since the very beginning. We’re driven and we won’t stop until we get there, no matter what adversities we face.

What is it like to exist as a boy band boy group within the British R&B scene?

It’s been interesting. It’s very good that we have each other, mainly because we have each other and we’re navigating being new in the industry together. It helps to not feel alone. UK specifically the RnB scene is niche, but also on the come up at the same time. There are a lot more genres that the UK grasps onto than RnB and its history, people are adjusting, so it makes it a bit harder, but it’s part of the challenge, it’s fun. It’s been about 10 years since a boy band has been entered the scene. We’re watching the respect and the audience slowly grow together.

Another thing about being in a boy band is realising the “Boy Band” effect, realising how powerful boy bands are. People just love boy bands!

Congratulations on your recent single and EP “Spicy”! What does spicy signify to you all? What is the message behind it?

(Collectively laughing) It’s a really deep song about finding yourself… yeah…

We made “Spicy” ages ago, it was a step into a new part of RnB for us, we had been doing slow jams and wanted to show people No Guidnce can go into any avenue of RnB. That’s the beauty of having four of us, “Spicy” gets people hyped, every time we perform it live, it’s a surprise and it’s instantly party time.

No Guidnce has been on the road with Mahalia, what has this experience been like? What has been a standout moment?

It has been just constant giggles. One of the highlights was the show we did last night, we were about to come back to the hotel in Amsterdam, and as we were walking towards our Uber, there was a group of girls that just started singing “Crime”, it was a real “wow” moment that people knew who we were.

Mahalia has been amazing to us, she was one of the few people in the industry who reached out to us and lent that hand of support from early on. It has been so helpful to understand the industry from her point of view, with us being newbies, and allowing us to tour around Europe and the UK so early on is so valuable to us.

We have grown so much since the first show with her three weeks ago, particularly in confidence and performance. Having a run of shows back to back has just allowed us to hone in on our strengths and lock in as a group. Mahalia has given us so many tips and pointers about being on stage, how to just be ourselves and block out the noise.

What would one bit of advice be to someone starting their creative/music journey?

Enjoy the process of getting better. Enjoy that process of always improving and learning what it means to do music.

I saw a video the other day about work ethic and it made me think about the answer to this question. If you want to start to prepare yourself for 10 years, be ready for success to take 10 years before you start.

For us we didn’t plan every little step in detail, we very much thought if we’re always striving to improve and feeding into TikTok and keep building little by little, then we’re on the right track regardless of what is going on around us.

What change do you want to see as a whole, specifically within the UK scene, but also industry as a whole?

I think we need to have the old way of doing things, before TikTok was a thing, maybe a way of them working together simultaneously, because TikTok is great for artists who don’t have a way of getting exposure, to get exposure and they can end up being bigger than people who are fully planted through the industry. But at the same time, because of social media, some people have the whole artist package but haven’t quite yet figured out a social media thing, so yeah I wish there was a way for people to have more help on that side. Artists should be found through their talent and then should be helped through the social media side of things.

The industry is sick at the moment though, I love how it is right because there’s so much going on.

What’s next for you?

We’ll be making new music, there’s one exciting project that we’ve had in the pipeline that we’re excited to be able to share. Next year, there’s going to be lots of shows and elevating the dance to the next level”.

Let’s move along to Ones to Watch and their discovery of a wonderful new act. I think that the rise of No Guidnce will get people listening back to boybands of the past and casting them in a new light. What the London group are offering now is their own stamp on that R&B sound of the past. Bringing it up to date whilst nodding to the past. This takes us back to June, when the boyband released the Is It a Crime? EP:

“Stealing hearts with angelic harmonies and making waves across oceans, London’s newest prodigal boyband No Guidnce is delivering us back to the golden age of R&B. With cosigns from artists like Boyz II Men, and legendary acts like Babyface showing up to their show in Los Angeles, it’s clear they’re getting passed the baton with resounding approval.

Consisting of Zeekay, Josh, Ebubé, and Kaci, No Guidnce is a soulful quartet making a name for themselves in an industry actively debating whether or not R&B is dead. With a sound reminiscent of the timeless tracks you’d hear while buckled in the backseat or as your hair is being washed in the sink, it’s impossible not to be transported to a time in which R&B was at its highest reign. Catching the attention of artists like Anderson .Paak, Labrinth, and more, No Guidnce has mastered a sound that begs you to be a kid again, or ravenously in love, or somewhere in between.

Their latest release, the Is It A Crime? EP, consists of four tracks that bow to every cornerstone of romance—the yearning, the mourning, the floating, and the falling. With emotionally dense singles like “Committed” and their title-track hit “Is It A Crime?,” their most significant offering to the industry is bringing us back to the roots of a perfectly crafted love song. To Zeekay, a perfect love song “takes a good story. An experience. I like songs written with a lot of metaphors and wordplay.”

Paying homage to a lost art, boybands were a once vital organ to the industry that has been buried under the sands of ego and individualism. “R&B is more than just music. A proper R&B boyband doesn’t come around too often,” shares Kaci. “I think in the '90s it was poppin’ because everyone was trying to make it, but it’s not really as much of a thing anymore.”

Taking it upon themselves to resurrect a genre both malnourished and overshadowed, they’re only paying respects to the musical eloquence of their very childhoods. “Having grown up in it and having listened to it is why we’re helping bring it back,” shares Josh. Zeekay adds, “Music changed dramatically from 2009 to 2020. There was a change with the deaths of old school stars like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. I think love has changed, too. How people identify with love, how we define it. I think the young artists whose parents put them on and are grown up now, like Coco Jones and Alex Vaughn, and even people who have been here a long time and didn’t get big until recently like Lucky Daye, are becoming mainstream again and a boyband is what’s missing.”

It only takes a few tracks to be immediately aware of their comfort in their sensitivity and their radical ability to strip to the core of themselves. Each member has individually grown up with open-hearted women figures in their lives, nurturing their vulnerability and giving them permission to lean in. “My family has always been very open. We’ve always had open conversations at home. I’ve always been an emotionally available person,” shares Kaci. Ebubé adds, “I’ve always been close with my mom and grew up with my sister, auntie, and her daughters. I was always in conversation with women and understood how they view life. It’s important that we understand how they view life.” These emotionally nutritious ecosystems could only birth R&B stars, or at the very least men willing and able to be fully seen, and aren’t we lucky to witness it all?”.

Let’s end with a recent interview from NME. There have been a lot of interviews with No Guidnce recently, though few sites tipping them for big things this year. Is there still this snobby attitude towards boybands – about them not being serious or as good as other types of artists?! I hope that attitudes change, as No Guidnce offer something enduring and instantly good:

“How did you create your first singles ‘Lie To Me’ and ‘Committed’?

Kaci: “We wrote them with Theron Thomas, they both came quite differently though. The first one, producer JR [Rotem] played us some sample tracks, and we instantly gravitated towards the Spandau Ballet song ‘True’, and we made that song quite quickly. We heard the hook and we knew straight away, ‘Yeah, we’re messing with this one’. And then ‘Committed’ came three days after. That came from us just having a conversation with lunch, talking about relationships and this generation, and we just wanted to be committed to one woman.”

How did it feel to get that message from Victoria Monét?

Zeekay: “I nearly cried. We got posted by Genius, one of our Michael Jackson covers. Our DMs were quite flooded that week, and the Victoria Monét one came through and I just messaged the group chat immediately. And the second message was her saying, ‘I’d love to work with you guys’. And then we’re like, ‘Oh, we’re in business now!’ So immediately we started having conversations about getting out there and linking up in LA, and then it happened and it was amazing.”

What do you think of the state of R&B in the UK right now?

Kaci: “It’s poppin’ right now. I think people are being more brave with it. I think before it was all one sound, you could go on Spotify’s ‘UK R&B’ and it all sounds the same. But now, with people like FLO, and hopefully with us coming to the scene as well, it’s a more broad sound and it’s more individual to each person.”

Ebubé: “FLO really reminded people that they needed R&B groups, and that’s what we’re trying to do with the male space as well.”

You recently performed your first live show at The Great Escape. How did it compare singing for a relatively small audience compared to the numbers you reach on TikTok?

Zeekay: “I feel like a smaller audience is always more intimidating. When there’s a million faces, you can’t see can’t see any faces. Whereas when there’s 10, you can see every reaction. It’s still one of the things that should be daunting but it’s really not. I feel like at the point we’re at, we’ve been behind the scenes for quite a while, so finally getting out there and performing, which is one of the main parts of a musician’s life, it’s very nice. We had a great time, we loved being on stage.”

What’s something people don’t know about you as a band?

Kaci: “We’re just the funniest people in the world. We’re comedians. I feel like it’s not well represented on TikTok because we’re very serious.”

Ebubé: “We just laugh all the time. The craziest stuff happens. We just went to America for a week and it was like we were there for a month. So much happened, it was just insane. I feel that’s the best way to deal with a lot of stuff that gets thrown at you when you’re doing music. To laugh it away”.

There is no need for caution or hesitation when approaching the music of No Guidnce! Regardless of your feelings towards boybands, there is plenty to recommend about the four-piece. Offering up some nostalgia and modern cool, I think they will enjoy a long and varied career. Let’s hope that they attract a wider listenership when it comes to their music being played on radio. What they have put out so far proves and highlights the fact that they…

WARRANT respect.

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Sam Liddicott