H. Yamou : The producer is Charles Stooke but his artist name is “Me, Charles.” Daks : Let’s talk a little bit about how you got involved with the whole ‘breath is invisible’ project. H. Yamou : It was through Charles. We used to work together at a restaurant in Peckham called Coal Rooms. Actually, there were a bunch of people working there that were musicians. Daks : It’s like going to LA. Except there, everyone is an actor. H. Yamou : It was pretty nice because I am shy about my music and there were all these people and they were putting themselves out there and he was one of them and I kept begging him to make music with me. So, one day he called me and he said ‘could you please read these lyrics from a Curtis Mayfield song. I need a recording of someone reading it.’ I said ‘yes, of course, all right.’ I recorded it and sent it to him, and he called me and said everyone loved it. And I said, ‘who’s everyone?’ T. de Ricard : But he gave you a very limited time to record it. H. Yamou : Yes, he sent me the lyrics and then 10 minutes later called me and said ‘can you send it now please?’ And then he called and said, “ oh are you down to get your face scanned in 3D?’ I was like, ‘yeah of course, who isn’t?’ And then I ended up in a studio with a bunch of cameras getting every angle of my face. And then I got to meet with Martyn Ware. Daks : So let’s talk a little about Martyn Ware, because I grew up listening to The Human League and Heaven 17, but you probably didn’t know who he was? H. Yamou : No. (Laughs) Daks : When I was at University, The Human League was my girlfriend’s favourite band. But, it was before they were commercially successful, and of course, as soon as they had their first hit she put them aside. She only liked
them because nobody else knew who they were. Those early Human League songs were what I grew up dancing to so I was really interested to see you were working with Martyn and with Zachary Eastwood Bloom who did the 3D imagery. It’s a really cool project and then it was shown at a gallery on Westbourne Grove in West London. H. Yamou : Yes, it was there for a month. Daks : And it was part of the Black Lives Matter movement. H. Yamou : It was also to honor the victims of Grenfell Towers. Daks : Which is quite close to there.
Daks : So let’s talk a little about your EP. How many songs? H. Yamou : There’s six. They’re all new songs and we’re making everything from scratch which is really fun. Daks : Who are you working with? H. Yamou : So there are different producers, people that I’ve met in the past year. I didn’t really know that much about music or know anyone who was willing to work with me, because I didn’t have anything to show, but now that I’ve started to put myself out there and with the label, people take us a bit more seriously. And during lockdown, because everyone was home, it was a lot easier to get in contact with people. One of the producers is the one that made the soundscape ‘breath is invisible.’ Daks : Brilliant! Because that’s something I really wanted to talk to you about.
H. Yamou : It was about not being seen or heard. But, when you have a giant face like mine on the wall you can’t not see it! Daks : Yes, it was huge like 20 feet by 10 feet or something like that. T. de Ricard : Don’t forget to tell them the name of your EP! H. Yamou : So, it’s called Sexcapades. I was going for something very ‘70s. It’s quite a kitsch name. Daks : Awesome! Thanks, everyone!
H. Yamou : It was cool because in the soundscape they put in a lot of police sirens and the sound was playing in the street. And it’s quite a nice street with shops and cafes and then you would hear the police sirens. Daks : It’s a very privileged area now, but used to be very Jamaican. It’s where the Notting Hill Carnival is held, and there have been riots against the police in the past.
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