Interviewer: video.loss
London based artists Juju and Rapallo chat to contact.online ahead of Juju’s new “Consumer” EP.
Juju [IG:@juerrilla, SC:@juerilla] has joined #CO
Rapallo [IG:@rapalloo], SC: @rapallosky has joined #CO
<CO>
How'd you get started making music?
<Juju>
I’ve been making music for a long time, when I started I was really into the hardcore punk scene. I used to like grindcore, I was in a band called Coffin Splitter and a band called Damage, but I was always a vocalist. My main energy was being on stage and having a presence. I was listening to a lot of Chief Keef, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka around that time, and it just started to inspire me more than the punk music, I felt like there were too many limitations with punk and I saw the potential to merge aspects from each genre. I got into music that I didn’t really know how to make – I knew how to create vocal melodies because I was into emo music and I was into trap music, so all I needed was the equipment. I linked up with a producer, Dead Bart. At that time, I had started promoting shows and booking artists because I was sick that there was nothing going on in Glasgow, so I was like, you know, fuck it. I’m going to do it myself.
I booked Yung Lean on his first tour, and started a business relationship between those guys, Yung Lean, Bladee, Uli, them boys. Then the second time I booked Lean with Bladee and Ecco2k etc, I put deadbart in the support slot, and I guess that gave him a kind of confidence in his music. So after that we linked up, and we just jammed- my friend had an autotune pedal, a TC Helicon and it was as simple as this: I plugged in the TC Helicon, Dead Bart put on a beat, and I made my first song in like 10 minutes.
It was called Clouds – I don’t know if it’s still on my Soundcloud but it’s a bit of a rare Juju song. I started in 2014, and every time I make a song I have a different approach, so as far as evolution, it comes natural to me.
<CO>
Rapallo, how did you get started and how did you link up with Juju?
<Rapallo>
I was making music while living on the Gold Coast, I was just trying to do some fun shit. I had a group of friends and we all made like stupid joke songs. This was around 2012- 2013, I was around 14 or 15 years old. My brother produced music and he’s one of those introverted nerds who makes music, he was listening to Burial and shit when he was 12 years old, so like you see where his mind’s at. I didn’t really have a choice, he just was like, you’re producing now. Now look at where I am, music’s the only thing I know.
So then as time goes on, I’m just curating my sound. I started sending beats to Junior (Juju) in 2015, And I made roots in 2015 but I never released it.
<CO>
It’s interesting that you recorded that song so long ago, but it still sounds so fresh. People are only just starting to take influence from songs like that, 5 years later.
<Rapallo>
I made F00L and R00T5 in 2015-2016. See for me, I don’t really like that song [R00T5] because I was just ignorantly making a Bladee type song, and I didn’t really think of it as being something different. I was like 17 when I made that song, now I’m 22. I sat on that song for like three years or some shit.
<Juju>
<Rapallo>
<Juju>
<Rapallo>
I came to London for a summer, pretty much just to link up with Junior, Lil Emo, Yayoyanoh, etc. I just wanted to make music with them for a whole summer; I got a taste of what London was like, then I got stuck in Sydney for a bit after that. I was living a bit of a dark life there. I was just trying to save money to come back to London and I couldn’t really make a lot of music while I was doing it. There was no inspiration around me at that time, but I’m back and now all I’m trying to do now is make something different. Every single song you hear from us now that’s gonna come out will sound like something we’ve never made before.
<Juju>
<CO>
You have a unique sound for sure - Juju being from Glasgow as well, people often try to emulate your sound, but they can't because they have an American accent.
<Juju>
It took some time for me to come to Love my accent – it’s too easy to use Americanism. I like to capitalize on my accent as much as possible, there’s certain words that sound better with a Scottish accent and it’s nice to see like younger artists out of Glasgow such as 222ily embracing that.
<CO>
How do you use music to express these emotions and help yourselves?
<Rapallo>
<Juju>
I like words a lot – I don’t really say things directly, I’m an abstract guy, so for me the right beat is important. I need something that will be able to help me get this abstract personal message across. I put everything into my music. Some people can’t make out what I’m saying due to my accent, or the pitch, and I’m aware of that. I like abstract art, and music is just another abstract medium – it’s the one that works best for me.
Because of my background, being someone who’s from a lower social bracket, I relate to a lot of trap music. I really feel the struggle in it. Struggle is a big part of my identity, and I wish it wasn’t. All those influences meet in the middle, gangster rap is not always deep or abstract, but then styles such as metal and punk embody that kind of struggle. Another big thing for me is fun – having fun and expressing myself – I’m trying to do something that no one’s done before.
<Rapallo>
<CO>
What happened with FALL on Roblox?
<Juju>
Haha, good question – When I made Fall, I was living at my auntie’s house; I was basically homeless at that point in time and had no way to record for a long time. I had just got my computer back and the first song I made was fall. It was quite an emotional song for me at the time. I was trying something new, that’s the first song that I remember really embracing my accent. I got Lil Emo on the feature and when he sent it back, I felt like it didn’t sound serious enough – he sounded too fun, so I sat on the song for a long time and I didn’t drop it.
I had made the artwork on KidsPix, which is like an old program that I used in primary school, the first ever art program that I used; so that was the vibe of the song, it had this sort of childlike energy to it. So I was like, you know what? I like the song, Lil Emo’s verse grew on me, and we dropped it. Sematary had made the beat (shout out Sematary by the way) one day, Sematary hits me up like:
“Bro, what are these Roblox comments?”
I checked the comments and I had hundreds of comments of people talking about Roblox. I didn’t know what to think of it, but it turns out that some big Roblox player had uploaded the song and people were playing it on boom boxes in the game. They started doing it with this fall song and it became a meme on Roblox. So now there’s hundreds of videos of fans doing this. It was totally organic, I didn’t mean for that to happen, but it’s become somewhat of a genre now, kind of “Roblox core” – Artists like Liu, Quinn, myself, and some other artists.
I’m really blessed for it because that song’s pretty popular now, and it got me this new fan base and it’s like inspired a lot of people to make music.
It’s pretty jokes, I’d love to do a Roblox concert.
<CO>
What is the concept behind Juju’s upcoming “Consumer” EP?
<Rapallo>
<Juju>
My first standalone release was Struggler, that was all about my personal struggle. Consumer is more about consumption and the things that I experience. I’m trying to put that message into my own reality as a consumerist and my time and space, what I choose to consume, what I bring into myself to make myself stand out.
<Rapallo>
<Juju>
I’m going to take that and like reappropriate it for the mixtape. A lot of isolation went into this, a lot of not having any friends or any support around me when I’m in Glasgow. There’s a lot of flexing on people that’s gonna get done on that tape. I think that it’s important to consume things in a way, because what you bring into yourself changes you. If you’re sitting around all day consuming a certain type of music it’s going to change your mood. I want to be a part of that, but in a conscious way.
<Rapallo>
People love to challenge you with their own struggle, like you’re not valid if your struggle isn’t as hard as theirs. With what Junior’s saying; it’s even kind of a sad thing. As someone who’s struggled, and Junior being a white guy, pale white, people might not think he went through struggle – Junior’s had the roughest life.
I’ve had my own struggle, but it’s so different to his, I know it’s not as rough as his. People really like to identify their struggle in a way to give them entitlement, and I know Junior’s more talking about it in a sad story when he feels lonely. I think people should really be proud of themselves in this positive light – Especially in this time of hope and faith in such a negative world, it’s just boring to be negative and hateful. You need to be positive to survive.
I feel that what Junior’s trying to say in Struggler is, there’s bright light in his struggle. He’s talking about surviving the struggle like that, so that’s a happy thing in its own way.
<CO>
Everyone’s struggle is equally valid. It's about taking that struggle and flipping it, using that energy to create something beautiful.
<Rapallo>
I think it’s a good thing that Junior made that project of being positive in a dark world. That’s what Consumer’s going to be as well, being a slave to capitalism, spinning it in an ironic way. It’s kind of funny to be such a consumer, but a socialist at the same time. There’s so many socialists out there, but fuck man, I bet you want that Dyson vacuum cleaner. It’s a piss take on like how much of a consumer everyone is. Junior is kind of the ultimate consumer, but Junior is the ultimate socialist at the same time. It’s just a bit of a fun double entendre.
<CO>
What does the word luxury mean to you?
<Rapallo>
<Juju>
<Rapallo>
<CO>
Is there a message you’d like to leave on?
<Juju>
<Rapallo>
<CO>
The ultimate flex is having fun.
Juju [IG:@juerrilla, SC:@juerilla] has left #CO
Rapallo [IG:@rapalloo], SC: @rapallosky has left #CO
