Izambard

Interview by Matt Sonzala

I first heard your music through my friend in the UK named Nick Cage. He told me about you because he knew of my affiliation with B L A C K I E in the US and knew I would like your music, and I do, but I have to ask, where exactly is Izambard coming from?

It’s my middle name. Isambard is my middle name, I just changed the S to a Z. I used to do it when I was younger because I liked Dragonball Z. My head kind of looks like the Dragonball, so that’s the reason. Izambard is obviously from the name, from the British figure Isambard Kingdom Brunel, he was like an engineer. I didn’t pick that name, but when I was thinking of an artist name, me being the engineer of, I’m not really into reality. Like even though I edited my name that my parents gave me because I wanted to create something new with it. I changed my clothes and put a mask on so that everything that I was creating was my creation. Me mum and dad, they had no say in this stuff. This is me in my wildest fantasy and my most like the furthest I could push my imagination creatively. This is what I created and then I can step into that whenever I want and protect myself. Because when I was younger I used to step inside my imagination to protect myself. I use my imagination to survive. That’s why I say I don’t really give a fuck about reality, especially if reality is not that great. I remember when I was younger, this kid was fucking with me in primary school every day. Every day, me and me mate Rich he would beat us up. Just steal our lunch money or fuck up our shoes, just beat us up. Whatever it was and Rich was round my house one night and he said “I don’t want to go into school tomorrow. I want to tell my mum I’m sick.” And I said “Naw, I’m fed up with this. We’ve got to sort this out.” And something hit me, I don’t even know where it came from and I was like “Why don’t we, like we’re scared, why don’t we walk into school tomorrow like we’re not scared and we imagine, like whatever he is in our heads, the opposite.” I was 6 or 7 or whatever I was and we just started laughing about it and I started to feel more powerful, because we had just changed our perceptions of reality. So we walked in, it wasn’t like we were scared I was excited, I didn’t know how this was gonna go, I was excited to confront it, it was like a science experiment. So we walked in and bigged up our chests and he sees us, walked in, standing tall, and he makes a step towards us and we just start laughing between each other, and he stopped and we started laughing even more and our laughs became hysterical and he is just looking at us, he’s baffled, and it’s like he looked at us and thought we know something that he doesn’t and that spooked him for whatever reason and he just left us the fuck alone. And then we walked past him still laughing and just couldn’t believe like I just cheat coded life. Reality just was different after that point. My imagination changed reality like, chalk and cheese different. And so ever since then that’s what I did. If my reality wasn’t how I liked it I just went into my imagination, flipped it around, went back out and then my reality changed. So that’s what I do as Izambard. If I don’t like how I look, or how I feel, I put the fucking mask on, put the super hero on and I’ll go out there and you know, the only other person like when I was growing up and like shifted my brin on that was someone like MF Doom. Same kind of concept. I remember watching a couple interviews and he was like “Anyone can be me, anyone can wear the mask, it’s for everyone.” And I took from that that the philosophy of that is what he was talking about. You can become what you think you can’t, and then be free, then it’s limitless and I would much rather live there than my reality most of the time.

The brain is a stronger muscle than a lot of people give it credit for. I think a lot of times the art that is forced upon us has that intention. To not really give that cheat code away. How does your music differ from what your brother Caper Grey does? You both have a dark side and an aggressive side but yours is maybe heavier?

Yeah I guess my brothers much more focused on like moving the needle and he doesn’t like the state of art and culture. Especially British art and culture, which I agree with him on a lot of it but I don’t give a fuck about anyone else. He actively wants to give back to someone who is him when he was younger. So what he and me and him grew up on he wants to create that for the next gen. Whereas my stuff is much more like I show and prove. You can watch what I do I’m not gonna give a fuck if you like it or not. I couldn’t care less about what anyone else thinks. Where as he will make his stuff more accessible to appease someone to get them in. And that’s a conscious move. And hes not doing it and sacrificing the art so it’s fine. If you are doing that and sacrificing the art then it’s a problem but he is not doing that. It’s really simple. You just have to subvert stuff and I subvert my stuff all the way and he will subvert himself all the way but maybe make it more repetitive or with a catchier hook or simplify. And James Brown simplified, doesn’t mean it’s bad when you simplify as long as it’s coming through true. So that’s difference. I’ll go all the way and jump off the edge and he will like, stand on the edge and watch.

I came up in punk rock and hip hop and people would compare the two and say they walked in parallel lines, but I always saw a more conformist edge in what hip hop became, not real hip hop culture but what it became. And it was only in the past years that I started hearing things coming out of modern hip hop with a real punk aesthetic, like I don’t give a fuck, this is something that came from nothing, and I feel like that’s kind of what you are talking about. Do you think that your music in particular comes from any kind of lineage?

Um, I’m big on attitude so there’s not too many people that I can reference for me. Like, Casper was in a noise punk band and I was fusing grime at the same time. I was just grime. Obviously that’s aggressive but people do the same thing that you said about hip hop with grime and punk. They say that’s that generations punk music and it is because it’s DIY. Do it yourself to express yourself and that’s what I was doing. And I was much more in my bedroom on my own and whylin out. Yeah we all listened to the same stuff. We both hate how in the last 10, 20 years, music doesn’t really push the envelope much but within that there are a few moments of like what Sophie did and what even like Odd Future did, like we were all in that, that was like what we were coming up on. It was just, it wasn’t as much as when we were kids. There’s like three people there whereas when we was kids there was like 100. I always liked artists who also as much as expressing their aggression and other side of it I also love the aesthetic that half of this is the design thing, but not as fake. Like creative as fake, like making something to stand out and be yourself not to fit in whereas today so much is made now to fit into a fucking mood board, which is embarrassing. My stuff is minimal, it’s like black and yellow it’s like warning sign, it’s like the Joy Division posters, I was looking at those things and there’s such a thread of black and yellow. Like all these artists who use black and yellow, there’s Bad Brains, there’s all these artists who like tapped in to a color scheme because a color scheme reflects and attitude so that’s like, I would just think about that and I would layer the whole process, the attitude is in the music is in the art work is in the costume, it’s in everything. And so I channel the attitude but I will also take from like, we both grew up on Gorillaz. That concept straight out the gate was fucking amazing. Fucking animated band and you could play different characters. That’s a lot of what we do. A lot of times we will jump on each others tunes and put a different voice on because we want that voice and we ain’t got the money to hire a singer we’ll just pitch it. And you can do that really fucking well with modern technology, the computer. Why no one does it, I do not understand. There is a good example here. You know comic books? I remember watching a Ted Talk from this guy who was like a leader, like innovator of comic books and he created, this is old, this is like when the internet was just starting, and he was like, with this technology you have these endless opportunities now to tell a story and a comic book doesn’t have to be page to page linear. You can go up and down, so if you look at the computer screen as a window and then the canvas behind it you can just move the canvas around and follow the story wherever you want to go and you can have multiple story endings. Which is basically what Black Mirror tried to do on that recent thing, that is how I approach production. That is how I approach all these things. Like I don’t just have to do one beat for three minutes. I can fuck it up and just make the beat switch. Like one of my favorite bands is 10CC. Listen to some of their tunes and you don’t know what’s coming, it’s like seven tunes in one tune. What’s it like “Life is a Minestrone,” that tune. It just switches up and you don’t know whats coming next. And I was gassed off that, it was entertaining. It kept you interested. Sometimes you just want to be lulled into, I think now more than ever people want to be lulled into like a vibe or an energy like obviously I fucking hate those words. I’m trying to smack you out of your fucking vibe. Whatever drugs you’re on, however life has sedated you, I’m trying to grab you by the scruff of the neck and slap you around the fucking face and choke you out until you wake up from that sedation. And I liked that happening to me when I listened to a song or watched a film and it fucked with me, it threw me around the room and I was like whoa whoa whoa whats going on? Then I’m awake and then I pay attention and then I always want to stay awake. Not woke, but awake. And I listen to stuff that wakes me up, and that’s what I make. I like to make stuff that saved me.

That’s dope because that was a huge outlet for me as a kid, music that shook me up. We need that. It was a big benefit to me and when I hear the sing songy music that permeates everything, I love it when I find someone like you or B L A C K I E or someone that can give the kids that energy, that release. Music can really open your mind and show you how to create this new reality. You need that release and music can provide a huge release and that’s what I get from what I have listened to from you.

Especially now. I think what musicians are fighting against is harder though. The drugs and the phone is so powerful man. I’ll go see my cousins or like friends and I’m just like, if they’re not coked up and gassed up and whatever they’re pilled up it’s fucking Requiem for a Dream. That film probably isn’t even as extreme as it is now. People watched that film and they can’t watch it again as it shook them up. But life is worse. Life is so much fucking worse and it’s just anything to not be alone anything to not be alone with your own thoughts for more than ten minutes. And I’m trying to push people past that and be like, as scary as you think it is in your own head, your reality is much scarier. You just don’t know that because you won’t let yourself be alone. Solitude is a big thing. When I’m in the mask and I’m performing that feels like I’m on my own and I love it. That’s why dance music infiltrates a lot of my stuff because in the UK, dance music, like grime is dance music really, just like you know a lot of where our stuff comes from is the dance, is the rave, that’s a lot of what this country is based on.

Wiley summed it up right in the beginning with “Wot Do You Call It?” He went through all the different words that people could try to use to describe a form of music.

But like the influence, compared to maybe like an America, the influence of being in a dance, or in a rave and how that influences the type of music you’re making, it’s somewhere you can be alone with everyone. You can rave or skank on your own, with people. Its a solitary, it’s like cinema is similar, that’s why I sample a lot of cinema and I have a lot of dance music references because it’s the solitude of that thing. You’re not alone. You’re alone together. That’s like the sweet spot of UK music that doesn’t get like, people talk about community as well and how important community is, my experience is community can also fucking kill you. Like being known isn’t always a good thing. Being known isn’t always a good fucking thing. Especially now. People will get their phones tracked, people will see you post a story and they know where you are and will run up on you. Being known and being bait, like I didn’t even realize it until a girl I was seeing asked me, she was like “Why do you always post your stories that day after?” And I’m like, “Why do you fucking think?” I remember one guy DMed me, he was like “Oi, you still here?” I was like “What do you mean?” After I posted something. I didn’t realize he was trying to press but I was lucky that I just got into the habit of posting the day after. People don’t get that. It’s like when you go into a pub and you’re looking around. I remember when I first left London, I was outside and I didn’t realize I was looking over my shoulder and people was like “What are you looking for?” And I was like, “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” And then they just like noticed it cuz they weren’t doing it. And yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about right now.

I look at everyone who passes me in every way, and my wife, she doesn’t see shit. I’m always like “You didn’t see that? I’m watching all these motherfuckers around here. All these nuts.”

People are nuts bruv. It’s not it.

And I mean a lot of the new generation they were being fed these drugs by their parents from the womb and from when they were super young. They tell me they been on prozac since they were in elementary school and I am like man you are supposed to be nuts in elementary school!

If you can’t sit down, that’s a good thing. If you’ve got energy and you can’t sit down in your chair like they told you, it’s a good fucking thing. That’s the thing like when we do this shit, that is the kid I was and luckily my mom and dad as hard as it was for them they never let me believe no victim narrative. And I know it’s hard these days cuz you’ve got people who will be like considerate to what people are going through but a lot of peoples situation is down to them or their parents and you got to take accountability to get out of it. There is no way out. The only way is through. You’ve got to get yourself out. No one is going to help you. And luckily my parents, I could have been told I was like this, or had learning difficulties or you’re disruptive and you need to be on whatever, and you get labeled as something and my parents was like “You ain’t got nothing wrong with you.” Anytime it came up they were like, “If you did something wrong, you did something wrong.” It doesn’t mean you’re wrong, or you are faulty and you need to be fixed. You just need to fix the thing. The thing you did was wrong. So if you’re late, you’re late. You haven’t got anxiety, you’re nervous. Everyone gets nervous but I think attributing a label, that gives it power. That gives it power in you subconsciously. You’re like 95% unconscious. Your 5% is important. You are somewhat in control of that 5% but you don’t even know why your body is doing what it does when you aren’t feeding it right. When you aren’t sleeping right. Whatever you are doing and you’re like going, it’s like even when you are younger you’re not even aware of what you are doing. You’re just running into walls every day. Just smacking yourself into walls and just falling over all the time, metaphorically and physically. It’s only when you then go and do something, I don’t know maybe it’s like that pre frontal cortex developing and that’s the development of your conscience. And that’s what me and Casper talk about. He’s got a tune called “Good God” and that’s what it’s all about. I’ve got a song called “Duality Duel.” There’s two sides to everything. And you might sit on one end of the spectrum when you’re doing something but then like it’s weird how religious people get with on all these drugs or how they need God to save them and don’t realize that the God that they’re projecting out is within them. When you do something bad and you know it’s bad but you still do it, like, that’s you choosing to go against your moral judgment and your moral guide. Like that’s what Socrates and his Daemon was. Socrates all he did was he just listened to his Daemon, or Demon however you fucking say it. And he was like that’s what I do in that stage and I’m on the right path and from that he created all these things that could be seen as commandments. You don’t know why when you are a baby why you laugh. When you are a baby you didn’t decide that was funny. Like there’s innate things in a human being that are just innate and they are there for survival and they are there for whatever and like Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, always let your conscience be your guide. That’s like my favorite Disney. It’s fucking perfect man. People hate Disney and people don’t let their kids watch Disney now because it’s too violent. I’m like, bruv it’s a fucking cartoon. If you can’t see past the cartoon and differentiate between that and reality then you’re a fucking pussyole. That’s how you expose your kids to the dangers, through a cartoon that is obviously not real. That’s the safe way to experience the feelings. The unsafe way is actually in your home pumping your kids full of stupid drugs, and stupid food and not sleeping and making them sleep on a cot next to a fucking microwave. That’s the fucking way to ruin your kids. Disney is the healthy way and so yeah like the conscience thing and like, the whole philosophy isn’t about the status, the duality of even my logo is angry and sad, that’s the angel and the devil that’s the yin and yang, the philosophy runs through it all. It’s the sock and buskin, it’s comedy and tragedy. People don’t even think like, God didn’t make that. God didn’t make two sides to your brain. Like, it evolved out of this thing and you’re conscience and your like, this thing you can’t even understand and because you can’t understand it you make a character out of it. You make Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio, you make the Damon in Socrates. Look at Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, that’s all about how even when you do something that is bad, even though it’s the right thing in the context you can’t live yourself down because you won’t let yourself get away with it. And when people try and do that now they try and cheat code life, they try and get through doing something that they inherently don’t want or don’t like but they have told themselves a story, they start falling apart. Their brain splits, they get bi-polar, they get whatever because they didn’t listen to the people call it their gut or their conscience or whatever people will call it God, but it’s an internal projection on to the world outside and if you try and ignore that you just destroy yourself. So I never try to ignore that. I try to build my own and get to know that it was just a projection and channel it through my art. And that’s why I’m able to express the dark side and the light side and not hold them and not judge them. It’s part of the same thing and sometimes you slip down one end of the spectrum to the other. And knowing you are on that and just trying to keep balance, that’s what… the Izambard logo the reason why it’s angry and sad is that’s really the only emotions that I felt. I was expressing either that or the other it’s so extreme.

Do you just have the one release that is online but do you have others?

I have a full 13 track album from called Y in 2021 and then the EP with A2B2 and Andy Morin from Death Grips. Andy started that label and signed the EP. Why is my favorite word because it’s the answer for everything. It’s what I used to do as a kid, just annoy people and ask them Why forever. And if you ask Why for long enough you get to the root of it. I think there is a Louis CK joke about that. I always watch comedians. Rik Mayall opens the album, I’ve got a Rik Mayall sample that opens my album. It’s him doing poetry as a joke. And there is a Louis CK joke where he is talking about jis daughter keeps asking him why and it’s just like “why can’t you put the cup on the thing,” and it’s just like because some things are and some things are not. And he just stretches it out in this genius bit of writing. Also every single thing on the Why album sampled British artists.