FEATURE: Spotlight: Sam Akpro

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Sam Akpro

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AN artist I hope…

becomes more engaged and frequent on Twitter, as he could have a real and growing audience there, Sam Akpro is someone who should be bigging himself up! A huge talent who released the amazing single, Death By Entertainment, in November, I want to introduce someone who should be on people’s minds. Before getting to some features and interviews, here is some more detail about the sensational Sam Akpro:

“Born from Peckham’s tangled streets and an imagination keen to distort, discomfort and entice is the sound of Sam Akpro. Sparked equally by the borderless sonic contortions of Yves Tumor as he is the extreme post-rock manipulations of Slint and the kitchen-sink observations of Hak Baker, there is a depth here – and a sense of discernment – that belies his twenty-four years.

Dive into his 2021 debut EP, Drift, and you will hear propulsive post-rock that’ll grab you by the collar, a mutant orchestra of strings and distorted electronics that pass like a dark, unsettling cloud. The scale of Akpro’s ambition caught the ear of Wu-Lu, Shame and 404 Guild who welcomed him to open their performances across South London, inheriting new listeners and a burgeoning reputation with his fusion of no-wave, jazz and funk.

All the while, he felt a pressure to define his sound, to carve out a statement of intent – but his hotly-awaited second EP, Arrival, proves that it’s in that space of uncertainty where interesting things start to happen. He returned to a place of no-pressure experimentation, trying on sounds, particular feelings, until he found the right fit. It was all about instinct, and from following something so natural, the confidence you hearfeels effortless. Compared to his previous EP, Arrival’s four tracks come as a surprise. Akpro is taking his sound right to the edge, drawing on a hyped-up heaviness that feels like a rush of blood to the head; a kind of adrenalin hit that will have you sprinting for miles.

‘Trace’ is the connector between where Akpro has been and the next step in his evolution: written at the tail end of his previous EP which he had co-produced with Finn Billingham of Sunken, its off-kilter funk was reflective of the relaxed atmosphere that he finds to be the most creatively fertile. ‘Leaving Please’, a feverish sonic freak-out, similarly came to life in a matter of hours. Tumbling down a rabbit hole of sampling, digging for his own drum brakes and listening to the beats of J Dilla, the making of the track proved to be a perfect storm of everything that sparks Akpro’s creativity.

Arrival was also created in a time of turbulence. With the world upended by the pandemic, he found his world confined to four walls. Under the weight of it all, making music suddenly felt strained. Only a sound like that of the title track could be born of a time like that with its pacing rhythm and percussion that rains down like hellfire. “The headspace for this track was probably more of a depressing one,” he says, “just because the world felt quite weird at the time. Everything just stopped. It felt like being in limbo.”

Single ‘New Blocks’, however, represents something far more hopeful. It was written alongside his band who transformed his production sketch into the chameleonic track you hear today. Coiling tension its unrelenting rhythm to create an uneasy, jazz-indebted arrangement, just when you think you have it figured out, Akpro pushes the sound over the edge into oblivion, caught in a punishing freefall, going faster, faster until it reaches its conclusion.

Mind-altering: that’s his ambition for this project, to warp your expectations and catch you by surprise. Arrival implies that Sam Akpro has reached his destination, but really, it’s a roadmap for where he’s heading next”.

I will come to another interview in a minute. First, Fred Perry chatted with Sam Akpro and asked some quick-fire questions. An insight into his music tastes. Still relatively new to the scene, I think that this year is going to be one where Akpro’s music gets him noticed and he gets some big gig opportunities:

“If you could be on the line up with any two bands in history?

I would go on stage with Miles Davis’ band around the time when he made bitches brew because I like the crazy switches in the music he made. The other band would be Joy Division, because they had a lot of energy and stage presence.

Which Subcultures have influenced you?

Skateboarding has influenced practically my whole teenage existence cause I grew up doing it from the age of 11. It’s where I’ve made the majority of my friends and it’s got me involved in other things like music and graffiti.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

That would have to be Miles Davis, just from what I’ve seen him say in interviews about music and the mix between the technicality of playing and the feeling of it. Also, I respect the fact that he didn’t take shit from people. A lot of integrity.

Of all the venues you’ve been to, which is your favourite?

I haven’t been to many venues but the one I did like was the Tate Britain, I played there three months ago with my band. The sound in there was really good because of the acoustics in the gallery.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?

Yves Tumor cause I feel like he’s tapped into a very unique sound and the evolution of his albums is very unheard of.

The first track you played on repeat?

'Paper Plans' by K-Trap.

A song that defines the teenage you?

'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' by Tame Impala.

One record you would keep forever?

'Loraine' by Linton Kwesi Johnson.

A song lyric that has inspired you?

“Familiarity doesn’t breed gratitude just contempt”

From 'Ezekiel’s wheel' by Jay Electronica.

A song you wished you had written?

'Patron Saints' by Ka.

Best song to turn up loud?

'Night Mode' by UnoTheActivist.

A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?

'Be the One' by Dua Lipa”.

Sam Akpro songs are magnificent collages that fuse elements from all kinds of styles and eras to create something truly individual. As he understands it himself, the wide-ranging, open-minded taste that facilitated this was forged on the skate park. “Skating was where I got a lot of my musical references from… just because it was so varied. Peckham Skate Park: make sure you get that name in the article! There’s so many types of people there, middle class kids, me from the estate opposite, people that would never have met anywhere else. That’s where I met a lot of people like JADASEA and Pinty.” These slightly older creatives offered guidance and inspiration, not only as music-makers, but also as listeners.

The skate park provided a context for musical exchange, not only in association with its various patrons but also in the skate videos shared among that community. “Every skate video is by a different person and they’ve got a different taste in music,” Akpro explains. Skipping through YouTube on the new family computer, Akpro was given an unsorted guide to music history bringing him from hip-hop to Tame Impala to David Byrne. Childhood friend Finn Dove, who recently produced the video for “Trace”, cut his teeth making skate edits, leaving choice of song up to the featured skater. Akpro remembers these videos and their music, noting they “subconsciously influenc[ed] me. I would listen to a song while watching a video but then at a certain point I would be watching just to listen to the music.”

Akpro’s sound is truly modern, speaking of that digital native upbringing, with access to the entire history of music, not only on dedicated platforms like Spotify but also out of context, as was the case with those skate soundtracks on YouTube. A noisy life in Peckham further expanded his sonic palette, involving gigs, parties, and even just music blasting out of shops. All around him, friends were producing their own music out of bedrooms and school practice rooms. “A lot of successful drill artists came from my school,” he explains, while also coyly referring to black midi as “friends from BRIT school doing well making guitar music.”

Being a part of a busy cultural community in Peckham, the evolution of Akpro’s own musical project came naturally and swiftly. After releasing his first EP on his birthday in June 2019, he continues “it happened really quickly.” His friend Me, Charles arranged to put him on at a night at Rye Wax, with the band ending up as headliners. After a few hasty practices at a Pirate Studios (“in Croydon of all places”) the band found themselves at an unexpectedly packed-out room, playing to a 120-strong crowd. “A lot of mates were there supporting,” he smiles. It was a show of the strength of that community, and though Akpro modestly suggests “I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he felt for sure that this was something worth pursuing. “It felt so organic the way it was happening”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

Whilst one can find press and interviews from years back with Sam Akpro, I think this is an artist that is still rising and coming through. Not everyone has connected with his music. As CLASH wrote last year when they interviewed Sam Akpro, this Peckham prince is looking for intuitive creativity. He is someone whose music has pricked ears and got him noticed. I would watch out for this amazing talent. A distinct and wonderful young voice on the British music scene:

“Sam started sharing his music on SoundCloud in January 2019, finding welcome success and laying the groundwork to cultivate a dedicated and supportive core fan base. Citing the 1000 true fans theory, which states that only 1000 dedicated fans are required to actively support an artist’s career, as something that resonates deeply with his purpose. “Where music started for me was on SoundCloud, with House of Pharaohs and that kind of era. SoundCloud was very, very sick, even to this day I have followers on there that have been there since the night it started.”

His mother’s Gambian background and his father’s love for gospel and highlife music had a hand in shaping his ear but arguably the largest component of his creative tapestry comes from his love for skate culture and the connections he developed kicking around the streets of South London. The freedom, exploration and individuality of the culture brought new modes of expression for him. “It’s madness… and the culture when you meet all the people in it, it’s really good. Because obviously, it’s not just the painting, it’s going to steal the paint from the shop all of that just like running around tracks or behind the block late at night.”

Waxing lyrical about his inspirations he mentions that Sonic Youth and The Alchemist were crucial in the development of his sound, but above them all stands the king himself, J Dilla. He became obsessed with the drums and sampling techniques of the era and wanted to experience that process for himself. “The Shining album innit, that’s a mad album. Like it’s hip-hop but there’s more than that in there. A lot of it started from sampling. Once I took it out of my bedroom and to the band it became something bigger.”

The songs he ends up releasing are usually the ones created in a short amount of time. These fast-developing ideas serve as the foundation for his tracks. ‘Trace’, for example, was created in an hour and was kept for four years before being re-recorded and released. Once it was out Sam combined it with a music video that transforms Peckham into a dark, psychedelic animation. Mentioning that he wanted it to be like a fever dream so people could understand his associations with his home turf. This intuitive approach coupled with a longer development time means he can slowly add and subtract elements, tweak the music, and try out new ideas, refining the tracks over time. “Some of my best stuff comes from moments when I wasn’t consciously trying to control the outcome, I want to allow the music to flow naturally”.

Go and follow Sam Akpro. As I said, some more Twitter engagement would be good. Building up hi social media portfolio. Maybe getting onto TikTok. There is a world who have already discovered his music. Yet, there are so many more who are unaware of this special artist. I think this year is the one where Sam Akpro…

TRULY breaks through.

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Follow Sam Akpro

Sam Liddicott