We Chat to ALT BLK ERA Ahead of their Rock City Beta Gig

You must be reeling from the release of Freak Show! How does it feel to put out your debut EP?
Nyrobi: It feels great! We’ve been busy, which is good! Busy is always really good. It’s been our first taste of things being full on, with everything that comes with an EP. We’ve been doing a lot of shows, making a lot of content, doing interviews and a lot of travelling. We’ve also been making time to do little things like watching TV together and hanging out. It’s been really exciting. We wrote these tracks while we were finding ourselves. Each song is like a stage that we have experienced growing up, and which we know many others have experienced too.

You are certainly becoming local legends in the Notts’ music scene, but for those who don’t know you, can you tell us a little bit about ALT BLK ERA? Have you guys always wanted to make music together?
Chaya: Well, we started making music in lockdown; our mum challenged us to release a single, just to get a feel of how the music industry worked. We just really liked it! We kept on going from there. Then we started to experiment with different sounds, going from pop-rock, to heavy metal, to electronic metal. ALT BLK ERA is a collection of everything, every genre.

So much of the power of your music lies in its ability to create a safe space for those who have always existed on the margins. Are there any artists, musical or not, who did that for you both growing up?
Nyrobi: We actually didn’t really have a safe space in music, or anything to use as a sort of creative outlet. We grew up on traditionally black music, like R&B, soul, reggae, but it was throughout lockdown, when we experimented with our sound, that we came across the alternative world. We were like this is what we want, this is what we’re doing. It all kind of stemmed from there. We grew up with some of the same problems as alternative people, even though we weren’t exactly dressing alternatively. It was more on the inside, without having that exterior outlet to express ourselves. Our music is what we wish we had growing up, and why we feel it’s had such an authentic impact upon people.

Can you tell us a bit more about the creative inspiration behind Freak Show? Did you have an overarching message that you wanted listeners to take away from the EP?
Nyrobi: I think Freak Show is a story, it’s the lifetime of an alternative person. It’s all the great things that comes with being alternative and finding your community, but then it’s also about the loneliness, and how hard it is to find people like you. It feels like more than an EP. Even though the alternative scene is still so new to us, the fan’s reaction has been really strong in terms of authenticity. They seem to really relate to it, and they see themselves in it, which is so important to us. The songs take you through the range of emotions that misfits feel, but ultimately, we just wanted our listeners to feel empowered and unapologetic about who they are.

Do you have a creative method to your music? Or do you guys take a more experimental approach to creating each track?
Chaya: When writing songs, we just go with the flow. We don’t set out a time for writing, it’s just wherever and whenever. We’ve written songs in the car while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. It’s really just random. With production, we go to the producers with a very clear idea of how the song should be, it’s just a case of trying to describe it, and trying to get someone else to understand it. *Nyrobi and Chaya laugh*
Nyrobi: Our music ranges from really serious topics, to crazy stuff. We’ve got a song about the Queen of Hearts, but we’ve also got songs about abuse, getting through domestic violence, depression, and suicide awareness in Misfits: LUNAR as well.

Can you talk about the connection between Misfits : Solar and Misfits : Lunar?
Nyrobi: Misfits: LUNAR addresses the pain felt by the people on the outskirts of society, and how destructive that feeling can be. Meanwhile, Misfits: SOLAR is a defiant message of rage that comes when we’re made to feel like we’re less than others.

It shows how one person can hold two very different sides of emotion. We’ve had messages about Rockstar: LUNAR and Misfits: LUNAR especially where people have said this song saved my life. Just one person saying that makes the whole thing worth it. Just knowing that there’s someone out there who we’ve had such an impact on. 

We like to make the LUNAR and SOLAR versions too because our personalities are so different. We want to reflect that in our music. Also, nobody experiences just one type of emotion or feeling, so it just feels ignorant to only talk about the good things when we know about the alternative struggle. 

Do you have a favourite track from the EP?
Chaya: I’m really set on my love for Freak Show. That’s a good song. I just love performing it live. It’s like the in-between of the SOLAR and LUNAR styles too.
Nyrobi: I like I’m Normally Like This, just because I like singing it with the crowd. It’s so fun when everyone is just singing it together. When I’m listening to it at home, because I do listen to it a lot at home *she laughs*, I get flashbacks to moments onstage. It’s so weird, like I remember people in the crowd, what they were wearing and how they screamed it, putting their hands up. It’s like a movie I love it.

You guys performed at Glastonbury recently, which is amazing! Are there any other moments throughout your musical careers so far that really stand out to you?
Chaya: Well just a few days ago, we supported Lord of the Lost at the O2 Shepherds Bush, and that was just absolutely crazy. There were so many people, and I think it was one of our biggest stages.
Nyrobi: And then obviously headlining the BBC introducing stage at Reading and Leeds was massive for us. Oli Sykes from Bring Me the Horizon put I’m Normally Like This on his story, which was a screaming round the house kind of moment, that was wild.
Chaya: We supported Witch Fever in Leicester and I really liked that because a lot of people were familiar with us and were singing along to most of the words, and even reciting our lines back to us while we introduced each song because they’d been to so many ALT BLK ERA shows.
Nyrobi: Yeah! I remember I said, “This song, we need you guys to scream” and there was this guy just screaming the whole time, it was so funny. Even to look at people in the audience who know the words, it does just feel unreal. Like oh my god, we’re making music, and we’re on the stage, and you know the words, and this is all happening.

Aside from your much-awaited Rock City Beta gig, anything exciting coming up for you guys this year?
Nyrobi: So, we’ve got a lot of things that we can’t talk about, yet. But we can tell you that we’ve been nominated for two Youth Music Awards: Rising Star and Best Live Performance! We’ll be performing Freak Show live at the awards, which is coming soon. Then the headline show, we’ve got so many surprises and plans for that. It’s going to be bigger than last time. Last time, we had masks on, and it was really dramatic, because we are really dramatic, so it has to reflect in the set. We’re making this one even better. I don’t want to ruin it, but there is going to be a lot of exciting things! We’ll be teasing our new music for 2024, and we’re going for a D&B, rock, kind of vibe. So, if you want to hear it early, you gotta be at the headline show.

And finally…we are always on the lookout for exciting new artists to listen to. Anyone you’re listening to on repeat at the moment?
Chaya: Gender Crisis, PleasePrettyLea who is supporting us in Nottingham.
Nyrobi: Ruena.
Chaya: Yep, Delilah Bon. Rob Green is coming out with a new album.
Nyrobi: We pretty much know everyone in Nottingham, it’s a really good scene though!

ALT BLK ERA will perform at Rock City Beta on 3 November 2023.

@altblkera