“Chaos And Calm At The Same Time” – An MM Exclusive With Boj

For over a decade now, Boj has been at the forefront of a new musical style, ‘Alté’. The artist is the self proclaimed pioneer of the form that goes beyond music, making it his methodology to create with a freedom of thought and a refusal to be boxed in by genre. This has made his music fluid and diverse, blending influences of Afrobeat, Electronica, Rap, and R&B amongst others, which in turn has seen him work with the likes of Dave, Skepta, and Wizkid.

I sat down with Boj around the launch of his latest album, ‘12 Summers’, to discuss his journey so far, his love for collaboration, his creative process, and what keeps him motivated:

You grew up between London and Lagos, right?

Yeah, man. So I was born in London, went back to Lagos till I was like 13 or 14, and then came back here for year nine to school before uni. Then I moved back to Nigeria in 2015 to pursue my dreams. I’m back and forth now. I do a couple months in London, a couple months in Lagos. 

How do you think those two cultures have informed your style?

I’d say the basis of my sound comes from African origins. It’s based in Afrobeats, but I think London is where I really found myself and my style. I think they both worked hand in hand. I was the only child for nine years so I used to listen to my parent’s music. It was everything from Shaggy and Wyclef to Toni Braxton, Tracy Chapman, Fela Kuti. There’s definitely a range of sounds and cultures I was influenced by.

You first really got into music with your group Rap Royals/DRB…

Yeah, 100%. We were all in the same school and they were doing Rap stuff. Then there was this show that they were going back to Lagos for, and I wasn’t really involved in it, but I was the only black person in the school who wasn’t doing the music thing. I felt like for that particular show, I had to be involved so it didn’t look weird. We were very young and it was almost like peer pressure, but that’s what drove me into music. The next song we made was more Afrobeats and everyone liked it so I just stuck with it.

Is that the first time you sort of considered music as a career?

Yeah, maybe like two years after that. I dropped another song soon after and the love was actually insane. Like, bare calls from everywhere. My parents’ friends were calling them, and then that’s when I thought “Okay, I’m probably onto something here.”

Across your solo work, it’s been a 12 year span for you now. How do you feel your process has changed in that period, if at all?

I would say at first, it was really just about having fun. It didn’t really matter what I was saying. It was more just about enjoying the music with fun, melodies, and stuff like that.  As I evolved, more things started to get involved with my thought process. This is going to be a career. This is how I’m trying to make money, and this is how I’m trying to eat. There became a lot more thought to it. I’m always trying to improve my songwriting and stuff like that. It was more about evolving and I started thinking about evolving more as I went on. I think the evolution is clear and the sound is more defined. 

Across those 12 years you’ve worked with some huge artists, from Skepta and Dave to Davido and Wizkid. What do you take away from those collaborations?

I find that most of the people I’ve worked with, they really know what they want and their drive is something crazy. No matter how big they are, they work so hard. They work like they don’t have what they have, you know? That’s the one constant that I noticed in all of them. They live and breathe music, so I try to implement that in my career as well.

You describe yourself as an Alté pioneer. Can you describe the meaning of the term Alté?

The truth of it is that the Alté thing isn’t specific to a genre like that. It’s more about being able to express freely, without boundaries and without constraints and without trying to follow trends. It allows you to do how you feel and not be scared and held back by boundaries or constraints. You can make mainstream music but I can still view them as Alté because of how they express themselves. It’s less about making music because it’s the trend or it’s what’s popping now and more “How can I make this me?”

And your new album, ‘12 Summers’ – can you talk to me about that title?

Like you said earlier it’s been 12 years since I started doing this, so that’s basically how it came to me. When I was trying to think of a name for the project, I thought that it’s about to be summer. It’s dropping in summer, and it’s the 12th summer, and I just felt like that sounded cool. When I told people it just resonated with them. Some artists find the name of their project and write around it, but I like to make the music first and listen back to figure out the title. I feel like it sums up my journey so far.

What kick starts working on an album for you?

For this project, I actually went to Ghana. I intentionally went to Ghana, because I find that I feel peace there. I took some producers and instrumentalists, and we went to Ghana and got a beach house. We got inspired by the water, the waves, calm, serenity. We used the spread of that energy and that’s how we started it. Then we went back to the Lagos chaos so it’s really like a double edged sword. Chaos and calm at the same time. That’s what the album is and that’s how I would describe myself. I’m very chaotic but I’m also very calm.

The album and a lot of your discography involves a lot of collaboration. Do you think that’s where you do your best work?

Yes, I definitely do. A lot of people don’t agree and feel like I should do more songs by myself, but personally I don’t like hearing myself on my music. I get bored of hearing my voice all the time. I prefer to hear someone else on my track that I like as well to bring that different dynamic. I’m very heavy on collaborations because I feel like it’s very forward thinking. I also think it’s able to connect people. You can reach other people’s fans and put them on.

Across the project you have a lot of UK features and a lot of Nigerian/Afrobeat features. Do you feel like that gives a true representation of yourself?

100%. I like to try and do that on most of my projects. I feel like on the majority of my projects that’s been the case. Even on ‘Gbagada Express’ I had ENNY on there as soon as I found out about her. Every artist brings something different to the table. Some, it’s like serious bars, or extremely memorable melodies. Even with the producers, a lot of them just brought so much with them and made it whole. It really does present who I am. I’m really London and Lagos.

12 years into your career you have achieved a lot. What gives you that drive to keep evolving and progressing as an artist?

My drive is just from everyday inspiration. I’m just trying to inspire people that feel left out to know that they can do things in their own way. That’s what really drives me every day, just seeing people feel confident to try shit, you know? I’m not really motivated by awards or numbers or anything. It’s more about connecting with people and making people feel proud.

Finally, your album has just dropped but what are your next steps? Do you like to map out your future with a long term plan?

I’m trying to tour the album but I don’t like to look too far ahead. I like to live in the moment and I’ll enjoy this album, tour and then see what happens. Connect with people, create, and keep making songs■

Boj’s new album, ‘12 Summers’, is available now across all platforms.