East London-hailing rapper, KAREEM‘s single ‘Power’, shows him flow effortlessly over an atmospheric and wavy instrumental.
‘Power’ finds Kareems’s pen flowing with his desire for power and his ability to give love to his partner. Remaining cooly unapologetic, the rapper serves up some of his slickest flows, which could borderline R&B while retaining the poetic nature of hip-hop; in a way that’s slightly reminiscent of US artist, Sahbabii.
Drawing from a pool of influences that range from Trap to Hip Hop, more specifically the likes of Young Thug, Future, Nipsey Hussle and J Cole, Kareem has managed to take these inspirations to cultivate his own unique sonic, much like those aforementioned.
CÉLINE AND THE BLUE debuted on the blog in 2019 with sassy number, ‘Learn To Be Alone’ and since then, they’ve been regular favourites with you guys (and myself, I have to say). Their most recent offering, ‘Crave Love’ scooped the Song of the Week title for two consecutive weeks in January AND Song of the Month title in February. So it’s an absolute pleasure to invite frontwoman, Cèline Buccomino into the interview seat to discuss latest EP, ‘Within & Without, out nowall good DSPs.
NLM: Hey, thank you for taking part in an interview with NEW LEASE MUSIC. How is 2021 treating you so far?
CB: Heyy, thank you so much for chatting to us on here! 2021 has been very promising so far, it’s been filled with loving, inspiring and exciting energy. We’re very keen to express that back through our music, the past year has just made us that much more committed to this career.
NLM: You recently released your EP, ‘Within & Without’. What is the public perception on the project so far?
CB: Our listeners are so talented at spreading the love! We’re very grateful for every message we receive about our music. It’s so lovely to hear when listeners connect with the story line intertwined within the track list. Even the press response was great, we love seeing new people come in from new sources!
NLM: What inspired you to produce the EP?
CB: Our favourite thing about the EP is that it came about extremely organically, we hadn’t initially planned to set out the releases as an EP. Once a few songs had come out, we noticed a common thread between the tracks, it only made sense to encompass them in a unique body of work. We thought this collection really embodies our origins as musicians and is the perfect way to wrap up the first ‘era’ of our music!
NLM: How would you describe the album’s sound to potential fans?
CB: ‘Within & Without’ has a groovy and colourful character which ventures into the genres of Jazz, Soul and Pop. An authentic sound dominates the sound pallet with live instruments, guitar and keys solos and fresh vocals. We wanted to inject a lot of good feelings in this EP, we hope you sense those too!
NLM: What is/are your favourite single(s) from the EP and why?
CB:As the whole band, ‘Learn To Be Alone’ is our jam! We feel so good while performing it, it fires great connection between us and makes us feel alive! Despite this, we each have individual preferences which vary from ‘Safe’ to ‘Crave Love’ to ‘Papaya’.
NLM: If you had to feature one mainstream artist on the EP, who would it be and why?
CB:It would be quite hard to settle on just one artist as everyone has their own favourite, but John Mayer is probably the one we might find a common agreement on. It would be incredible to witness him interpreting our genre. And he’s just so timeless and brilliant!
NLM: Did the Covid pandemic present any drawbacks in the production of your EP?
CB: It slowed the production down loads! We started recording ‘Papaya’ and ‘Safe’ in March 2020 and then had to wait until August to finish them. It was frustrating! Making music is made up of many things, we were still working hard on the behind the scenes elements but for a while we were missing out on the actual ‘making music’ part of it, which was hard to adjust to. We made it in the end, better late than never!
NLM: Do you have other project(s) for 2021?
CB: Yes! We are making some fresh music, focusing on production a bit more to refine the sound pallet and we’re loving what’s coming out of this so far. We absolutely cannot wait to showcase this new music getting back into gigging this year! NLM: How can potential fans find you?
CB:First of all, thank you so much if you want to check out our work and connect with us! Just look for ‘Céline & The Blue’, our music is on every music streaming platform, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. You can also find our podcast ‘Out of The Blue – By Céline & The Blue’ on any platform for podcast streaming.
NLM: Finally, any special shout outs to those involved in the production of ‘Within & Without’?
CB: Biggest thanks go to Sam and Tom over at Studio 91 who have really helped us craft the sound for this project. Their imprint has been essential to provide this EP with the character it has. We always have the best experience working with them, the environment at Studio 91 is stimulating, positive and a true pleasure!
Continuing their burgeoning musical alliance, UK Hip Hop vocalist, NICK BREWER‘s (pictured) and critically acclaimed songwriter and producer, Phil Simmonds’ second single together, ‘Same Window’, elicits the same soulful yet expressive sound the two talented artists have forged across their collaboration. The flow of effortless vocals from Nick and the production prowess of Phil makes for a unique project that’s hard to ignore. The track is taken from their 5-track EP collaboration, out now.
The second single to my upcoming EP alongside Phil Simmonds contains the first lyrics written in the first lockdown last year. That feeling of being stuck in the same spot, not knowing where to move to, but a feeling of hope deep down – Nick Brewer
Prolific British songwriter and record producer, Phil Simmonds began his career as a live musician and later musical director for major players such as Jessie J, Angel Haze, Zak Abel and Leona Lewis. Finding his strength in collaborations and producing full projects, Phil then went on to produce Eryn Allen Kane’s critically acclaimed ‘A Tree Planted By Water’ project as well as the debut album for Lily Papas and further writing/producing credits for Prince Fox, Olivia O’Brien, Iyamah, Desi Valentine, Stan Taylor and a host of others.
Gaining widespread acclaim in 2015 for his UK top 20 single ‘Talk To Me’ featuring Bibi Bourelly, East London based rapper, Nick Brewer has continued to solidify his presence within UK grime since he burst onto the scene in 2010 and quickly became known for his ability to effortlessly flow with tongue-swirling efficiency.
With a steady stream of releases over the last decade, Nick has worked alongside some of the UK’s largest names in the industry, including Stormzy, Naomi Scott, Little Simz, George the Poet, Barney Artist, Ruby Maze, Kinnship and Tink who featured on his 2015 ‘Warning Light’ EP.
This versatile collaborative project between Nick Brewer and Phil Simmonds showcases a different side to their creativity, an exciting taster of what’s to come. Check out ‘Same Window’ below…
King and pioneer of Afro-tinged rap, SNEAKBO is keeping fans happy with a constant stream of music. Fresh from his single ‘Dripping’ ft. Still Greedy released last month, he has now dropped a sizzling hot freestyle, remixing Drake & Rick Ross ‘Lemon Pepper Freestyle’.
He literally peppers the track with conscious, thought provoking bars that let people into the mind and life of the Brixton lyricist as he flows effortlessly over the mellow production opening with “I pray the Lord forgive me, lately I’ve been sinning”, leading the way for more real lyrics.
With Drake being a fan of Sneakbo, who stated “Huge fan, I’m inspired by his movement”, it was only right that he killed this freestyle in his own unique style…check it out below…
JOEYMVNE opens up about his personal experiences with past love interests through his second single of the year, ‘Delilah’.
Over a chilled New Jack Swing sample, Joeymvne discusses themes of lust and temptation, through his hypnotic flow. The single’s name ‘Delilah’ is linked to a story in the bible including Delilah and Samson, as it shares some similarities of burning lust and temptation.
Why not check out Joeymvne’s smooth joint produced, mixed and mastered by the East Londoner himself.
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