eat ya veggies is out now!
Image: Mats Schram
Rising Canadian rapper, singer, and songwriter bbno$ has dropped his new album, eat ya veggies. We caught up with the musician to chat about the record, writing tonight we fuckin' party in Sydney, air fryers, dressing up as a vegetable and so much more!
Congratulations on the new album, eat ya veggies. It's so good, I love it!
It's pretty good right?
Yeah, I love the title too cause I definitely was not a kid who likes to do that.
I feel like I'm the only individual I've ever met that like raves about vegetables. I don't know, maybe it must've been my parents to be completely honest and like, they must have gotten me into it. I would prefer a salad 90% of the time. But maybe I'm just a psychopath [laughs].
That's a good way to be. I've come to like broccoli in my adult life, so that's a good one. It’s been three years since your debut Bb steps, you’ve released a bunch of albums and EP’s since. What new knowledge and experience are you bringing into the sessions working on the new record, that differs from creating your debut album and subsequent albums? Because you've had all that experience and you kind of know what you're doing now. Is there anything that you think you've been able to implement to kind of get it all across the board?
Yeah, that's a really good question. In all honesty this is like my seventh interview today and like, this is a great question. I don't think there is anything I'd do differently to be honest. The only thing that I would say is different is I know what is good and what isn't. I feel like my songwriting ability has just vastly gotten better in a sense. I don't know if that's just me not rapping 99% of the time and like leaving some space for like general user consumerism, kind of. Maybe? Maybe I'm just making easier music to digest. I will say my production value has increased and that's like on the producers side. That's also just like music and how it develops. I do think that like seven years ago, rap music sounded like garbage. Just like sonically, it wasn't as easily accessible to make a really high quality music. Whereas now, it's like everybody, every single average Joe can come and make a song that sounds just as good as Drake songs. And it's like, you know, that has changed a lot due to maybe the world just opening up about simple things and all these tricks. But I don't think anything has really changed. I think it would primarily is just like, I know what is bad and I know what is good. The writing process is very, very, very similar. I just grab a coffee, slam it and then just hope to hell I get high enough off of the caffeine and hope to hell I get enough inspiration and hope for the best.
How did the album evolve throughout its creation? Did it end up in a different direction and was there anything that didn't make the final cut that is still on your mind?
I mean, for me it's a little bit different because I feel like every single artist has a different creative process and way to get across what they want to say on the album. You know, I don't really like necessarily say anything on the album. You know what I mean? Like it's just like fun music.
It's definitely a fun record, which I think is really good especially with the world still in the midst of the pandemic and whatnot. I think it's just such a great and fun body of work which is arriving at such a good time, at least in Australia where we're about to come out of lockdown in Sydney.
I could agree. I mean, every single time I've been to Australia as well, It's like the love I have in Australia is outrageous. When I did Laneway, holy shit you know, like I have fans in Australia and it's sick. I think Australia is the coolest place tour to be honest. I can't wait to come back. I just hope I'll be able to do some time soon. But yeah, as far as my creative process goes, it's kinda just like, I just grouped good songs together. That's typically what I've done. But I've also never done, something that I've done on this album, which is just one: spent a lot of money on the marketing side. I've never spent a penny on my music, to be honest. And then two: put pretty much exclusively good records on an album. I've never really done that. Usually I put filler because you know, songs are going to get slept on. That's just the way it is. But I don't know. I could die tomorrow. My girlfriend was like, convincing me hour after hour, she's like, "Alex, why don't you just try it? Why don't you just try it once?" I'm like, "okay, whatever". Making music is the fun part of releasing it. So I'm just going to go back to the drawing board right after this album is out and start making some more music. But yeah, I think it is fun. I think it is good. Maybe everyone's lying to me. I don't know how well it'll perform. I don't really care, but I think it's pretty decent.
I agree! You worked with incredible artists on the album, Rebecca Black, Rich Brian, Night Lovell, Lentra, Yung Gravy, so many awesome talents. How do you think your collaborators helped to round out the project and deliver the body of work we hear today? .
I mean, collaborating is probably the most enjoyable way to make music. I make music with some friends and then we ended up making a song and their personality comes out in the music and they have their own gifts and talents themselves. Some of them are producers, some of them are vocalists and it's cool to have Rebecca Black on my album, to be honest. It's like kind of ridiculous, but she's cool. I just shot a music video with her. She's a really nice person. I don't know like this is the form of making music. It's better unless you're like that type of person that really loves making music by yourself, which I'm definitely not. It's not that much fun anymore. I used to do it, like I did it for five years and now it's like, let's just go to a room and try to make a song type thing. It's just way, way, way more enjoyable.
You just mentioned you just filmed a video with Rebecca Black, and your next video comes is about to drop. You've put out some really awesome music videos for this album cycle, and even previously, but focusing more on this album. How important are the visuals for you when it comes to building the overall identity of the record? Because you know, so many people are such visual creatures now and take in visuals and music at the same time.
I think it's pretty important. I don't think truly it's like 'end all be all'. I like making music videos. I think it gives me a little bit of inspiration cause it's like, 'oh, I think song is good enough I'm going to make a music video to it'. That's just like create, you know, and the principle of creating is really enjoyable. But I will say, if the song is super, super, super good, people will stream it regardless. But I mean, it's hard because I had a ton of people, for instance say Lalala sucked. And you know, quite frankly they were as wrong as they could have been, I would assume, because of the validation through it being a ginormous record. So you just never know what will go or what won't go type thing. I think we didn't even write or make a music video to that song until way past it blew up type thing. But I definitely think using imagery and creating a narrative and a story and providing visuals just gives your fans something else to grab onto, rather than just dropping a song and it not really having any like visual component. but at the same time, I think my fans at this point kind of just don't care. They're just like, 'oh, he'll just drop another song in a month and I'll check it out and if I like it, I like it. If I don't, I don't'. And that's like kind of where I've gotten my fans to and I think I appreciate them for doing that because now I have career making music. So it's dope.
Like I said earlier, it's a great name for an album. Eat Ya Veggies - sending out a good message and reminder. What veggies do you think are vital to remember to eat?
I really like kale. Kale is super, super good. I like cauliflower a lot. I just recently bought an air fryer, which is like, honestly, maybe one of the best creations I've ever purchased. I thought a blender was crazy, but air fryer is like nuts. You can literally make roasted veggies in 15 minutes and they're delicious. They taste like they're like fried, but they're not fried at all. They're just like heated really fast. I honestly like yams, rutabagas, radishes, turnips, all the roots, carrots, potatoes, all the tubers. I really like every single vegetable, there's something about vegetables that just kind of gets me going. I don't know why. I feel like when I was growing up in Vancouver, there's a ginormous Asian demographic here and like Asian cultures kind of use every single bit of everything, especially in Chinese culture. I was in Chengdu, which is like the Sichuan province, so it's like spicy food and we were going to this market and this vendor was selling chicken brains and starfruit and like dragon veggie. I don't know the name of it. That's what this vendor was selling and I tried all three and they were great. One was like dehydrated, one was just like just there. And I don't know, like veggies are great.
If you had to pick three songs off the album to play to someone who'd never heard your music to make them an instant diehard fan, which three songs would you choose?
I feel like it would be situational because let's say John is a fan of like punk rock and like turnt up energy. And then we have Sally, who's a fan of like Mac DeMarco and like Black Eyed Pead. Yeah. So I'd play black eyed peas, I remember and probably resume for Sally because that's kind of similar. John I'd play tonight we fuckin' party, brainless and whatever he want to hear. I'll just throw any other song on it doesn't matter for John. Because there is a little bit for everyone on this album, to be honest. Some songs are super laid back. tonight we fuckin' party I made in Sydney, Australia and I blew my vocal chords and that song is the least laid back song I've ever made. I originally was actually going to get Eamon from The Chats, I was going to get him on it. But he was just like, 'bro, I'm too busy. I'm sorry'. I'm like, 'don't worry about it. It's not a big deal'. But yeah, The Chats are sick. I love The Chat.
You are heading on tour next month, what can audiences expect from the eat ya veggies Tour?
I was just writing the treatment for the tour. I just ordered like seven vegetable outfits. So if that's any idea of what you can expect, expect that. If I was a 17 to 21 year old kid who really liked bbno$, I would come to my shows and I would be impressed because I think I put on decent shows. I don't know how to say that modestly, but I've definitely been to some rap shows that I have been not impressed with. I feel like I try on stage, I definitely give it a shot type thing.
Hopefully we'll see you back down in Australia sometime soon!
Definitely!