Interview: Five Minutes with snny
Rising Ivory-Coast born musician snny is making his mark, the musician has collaborated with renowned indie-pop trio SHAED on the single ‘You Got Me Like’. His single ‘Wild’ was featured in the multi-award-winning television series How To Get Away With Murder and the musician currently sits over 12 million streams across streaming platforms. His previous EP Ottito saw snny collaborate with names like Alex Mendoza (SHAED), Scott Hoffman (Scissor Sisters) and Starchild & The New Romantic (Toro y Moi, Solange and Blood Orange). His latest release, single ‘Postmodern Black’ will feature on his album debut later this year.
We find out more about the adventurous creative in this exclusive.
Set the tone for us. Why the arts?
I create art out of instinct, and necessity. Imagination is the most necessary tool we have. Everything that we know started with an idea. For me art is water.
Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?
The idea always comes first. Sometimes it comes with a sound on its tails.
Does your material feature any collaborations?
The new album I’m working on, I plan on collaborating with a couple of artists that I’ve been really into recently. For my previous songs, I’ve wanted to just create a world of my own and more so introduce people to that.
What’s on your current playlist?
A lot of Erykah Badu, Dilla, Future Islands, Samba Touré, Amadou & Mariam.
Tell us about the chemistry you have with your fans on stage.
Free-spirited.
What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?
Singing in the shower.
Take us through a day in the recording studio.
Get to the studio, make some tea, talk about random shit for an hour, listen to random music for another 30 minutes, start an idea, and see what happens from there.
Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?
Not really, because I just started doing it without really giving it too much thought.
What do you keep close by while you’re playing a set?
My intuition.
Any emerging artists on your radar?
Crack CLoud is pretty dope, and all the artists on the label we just started.
What gets your creative juices flowing?
Something wildly opposite of the zeitgeist.
Take us through your collection of gear, tech or software that accompanies your creative expression.
Analog synths, note pad (digital and physical), MacBook Pro, Minolta 90 + Nikon Lite 120.
Any side projects you’re working on?
The label we just started has really taken up a lot of my energy and I’m excited about it because it’s a platform for independent artists and enables everyone on the label to have ownership of the music and the company much like a co-op. I also just started this art collective out here in Iceland that is going really well.
How have you refined your craft since you entered the industry?
I’ve just stayed true to my instincts.
Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?
Debut Album, New Releases from our record label Radio Silence, and hopefully some International curated multidisciplinary art installations from my art collective.
Famous last words?
The beginning.
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