Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: We both felt a pull towards groove in its various form our young years – I, Edy more in terms of neo soul, soul and R&B, Forey in terms off jazz and funk, but I think the biggest take away from our respected childhoods is a sense of depth because we were awakened to the harshness of excistance rather early and thus we couldn’t just enjoy shallow pop, we had to ingest music that pulls on the strings of your soul. By that I mean deep, deep emotions and true artistry.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “Edy Forey”?
A: We’re trying to fall in love with social media. So far it’s been more of a duty, but we’re getting into the groove of things and I can see how making content can be enjoyable. That will mean organic traffic.
We also have a PR team here in the UK and in USA so that will be the more industry side of things, getting exposed to tastemakers and heavyweights. For everything in between, paid ads don’t hurt!
The message we’d have is that we’re two globally conscious artist making totally original music that grooves. That we’re alternative.
I hope that comes across – we’re still working on how to package that so that it’s clear.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: Life is the biggest inspiration for making music – the game between good and evil. Observing human nature in both interpersonal relationships but also a dynamic whole. We believe in God and this idea of spiritual purity juxtaposed with how cold, ruthless and carnal the world can be really gives us an infinite amount of things to talk about.
Almost all artists who really inspired us are now dead, we’re old school. Artists we like that are active today would be Kamasi Washington for me, Doobie Powell for Forey. Both groove like mad.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, “Nature Boy.”?
A: Forey did a clever reharmonisation of it, and I just happened to walk into the room and ask ‘what’s that, that’s good’ – he was just messing around, said it was Nature Boy. I loved the lyrics about how love is the only things that really matters because it’s true. It’s better to be broke and beloved than loaded and lonely.
I’ve added more lyrics about human history. And then we asked Toku to play his beautiful flugelhorn to get some of that oriental breeze all the way from Japan.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Sophisticated. I think.
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording “Nature Boy”?
A: Not really, it came together fairly easily. Unlike some of the other songs, gulp.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: Message is for people to stop sleepwalking through life, Netflixed-and-chilled out of their minds. We hope to remind people that morality requires everyone’s conscious participation. Society without it will fall like ancient Rome.
Right now we’re going through a transition from a Christian moral code to a satanic one. I know it’s a loaded statement but think about it: Christian principle is to love your neighbour as yourself. Satanic one is love yourself and do whatever you want. The first one sustained our societies for thousands of years and it’ll be interesting where will the new general principle take us – and we have a feeling it won’t be a very nice place. The mental health crisis might just be the first symptom of what’s to come.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: Luckily a lot of our dream collaborations happened on this album – Bob Power, Michael League, Bob Reynolds, Sharay Reed – we used to admire these guys from afar and they actually played on our record. In the future though I’d like to maybe team up with Kamasi Washington for some horn vibes and production grease, and with Gregory Porter for a duet. Forey says Herbie Hancock for production and piano combo.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: Making music your career is difficult but with God everything is possible. If you do music because you want to do some good in the world, you’re sure to find a way. If you do it because you want to be famous and idolised, our advice would be to… uh, change your mindset.
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: For both of us it would be to read a Bible a looong time ago. Would’ve given us a good idea of how things work and save us a lot of stumbling in the dark. I’d personally tell myself to pursue music a lot earlier than I did. My family told me to get a good job which meant everything but art. They meant well but it held me back. Now we’re on track though, and we hope that with Culture Today we’ll make a dent on culture Today. Did you see that pun? Hulk smash
