Ghostpoet Interview

Obaro Ejimiwe is Ghostpoet, the London lyricist behind Mercury Prize-nominated ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’ and new third album, ‘Shedding Skin’. Speaking to us before its release, we caught up with the multitalented musician to find out more about its themes, direction and collaborators.

Hi Obaro, how are you?
I’m alright, not too bad.

Congratulations on ‘Shedding Skin’; it’s a remarkably unique record with some thought-provoking themes; how do you decide on the topics you write about?
It’s life experiences, same as always really. I just like to be observant, keep my head up and look at the world around me. With the last record, I looked more inwards, and I didn’t really mentally leave the house, but with this one I’m in a much better mood and saw more of the world, so when it was time to make the record, it all poured out of me.

You touch on a lot of socio-political issues, such as unemployment, homelessness and unfulfilling, low-paid jobs, and while you’ve said yourself that you’re not a political person, it’s just stuff that you can’t ignore.
Yeah, it’s very much a case of, I like to write of the moment in the moment, and those things are what are going on in the UK and around the world to different degrees. I’m not a politician, I’m not outwardly political or some kind of prophet or spokesman, I just feel it’s very important to talk of the moment.

Do you feel a sense of relief as someone that went from working in a call centre to making music?
Having a job and being able to pay your bills and support your family is an accomplishment in itself, and as much as it’s something that I enjoy, I know that it pays the bills. If I can’t sell a gig or a record, what do I do? I’m just happy that I’m able to follow a passion and be creative; it’s not something that when I was growing up, it was my dream, I just knew I loved music, but I never knew it would become a career. I’m just happy that I’m still able to do that with a third record and people still want to hear what I’m saying.

You’ve commented that you wanted to do an album quickly, and you managed to write, record and have a finished product in four months across the space of a year; did you know what you wanted to do with it before putting pen to paper?
With me, I never know the end result. I knew I was ready to make a record, and once I had the demos in place before I started working with my band, I knew there was a clear direction of what I wanted to do and I was listening to a lot of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Interpol, and for me, I knew the mood that I wanted to get across, but with the end result, I never know until the end.

Are you happy with it?
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s the best record I’ve done so far, because it’s closer to the direction I wanted to get to. I’ve been flirting with guitars, drums and live instruments over the last two records, but this one’s more concentrated, and the time was right for me to work with musicians over the course of the record and have that set-up. I’ve been listening to it for a while and I’m not bored of it yet – that’s usually a good sign for me.

As well as musicians, you have Lucy Rose, Etta Bond, and Maximo Park’s Paul Smith on the record; how did you choose who to collaborate with?
When I wrote the songs, each vocalist were the voices that I had in mind. Once they were written, I just made enquiries, and luckily they all wanted to do it! The way I work, I never have one particular person in mind, I just write the songs and then approach them, and I’ve been very lucky that people have wanted to work with me. I got lucky with this record and got some amazing artists on board, they bring their own magic.

If you could collaborate with anyone, whom would you choose?
I think I would like to work with… Jack White, probably. Jack White and Beth Gibbons, that’s probably my dream collaboration. Maybe those two on a track together would be amazing – not in terms of my input but those two would be great!

You have live tour dates around the UK in April; as an artist who had to overcome a nervousness of live performance, what is a Ghostpoet show like?
Well, it was more leading up to touring the first record, and the fact that I’d made songs in my bedroom that were personal, and getting on stage and reciting them to strangers, was very strange. You’re still trying to work out how you want to be live; I always wanted a live band, and it was a case that I overthought it too much, I wasn’t comfortable just concentrating on my job and I would be thinking about everything, which I still do, but I enjoy it more now. Things will go wrong, but you’ve just got to roll with it and enjoy it. Now, I’ve got a four-piece band, and it’s a lively affair. They’re all great musicians, and it’s getting closer to what I want to do, it’s good times.

Why did you call yourself Ghostpoet?
I just wanted to have a name that didn’t really give you an idea as to what the music was behind it, that wasn’t genre-specific, but a doorway to a world that I was trying to create.