“I learned at a very early age that a box is the worst shape ever in the world. I fucking hate boxes.”
Riding Ian Isiah’s wave is an elusive affair, in the same way trying to contain light in a box would be – and that raises even more issues, given that he really, really hates boxes. Throughout his chameleonic career, he’s been a plenitude of selves. Raised in Brooklyn as a church choirboy, Isiah’s musical pursuit emerged from the spirit, only for it to later spill into the very carnal (peek his new Big One music video to comprehend what’s really meant with that). When the church doors were closed, Isiah would loiter around his parents’ hair salon, the place where he was introduced firsthand to what looking good holds – as an act, as a medium, and as a palliative.
Finding himself at the juncture between the beatific and the beautiful, his R&B-y, gospel tenure never lost its grasp. This exploration, rather than becoming a rummage through genre, grew into a magnet, transforming an expected artistic linearity into a circular voyage. Years later, the voyage in question is far from being completed – as he himself admitted in our interview, it may just as well be at the beginning. Our conversation was an earnest delve into what collaboration, openness to the world, and being overall irreverent may bring you along this road of uncertainty – alongside some highly particular opinions and icks
Hey hey! For the record, how are you?
I am fab. I feel great. It’s really early. I usually don’t look this good this early. You look great too.
Um, thanks. Here it’s not that early, though. It’s already 4pm. What’s the vibe over there?
The weather is getting good. It feels very hip-hop and R&B outside, finally. You know, spring is in the air in NYC. Fake flowers are everywhere.
Yay. Lovely. I was also supposed to move to New York this September, but I got reluctant.
I love that. Reluctance is always a beautiful thing, honestly. It’s always disguised as patience that you don’t want to have for something beautiful. 90 degree angles are corny. 360 angles are also fucking stupid. You know what I mean? Create your own angles at all times. Confuse everyone at all times.
I stand by that!! The way you’re smoking right now reminds me of your song Smoke, also with Blood Orange and Yves Tumor. I was going to ask you about it later, but it feels like a great start. It’s been in my top five for the past three Spotify wrapped seasons.
Wow, that song. A lot of people really love that song. You know what? I really love it too. It was a beautiful day when we did that song. Dev Hines is a genius. I learned so much from him. And we never know where we are and what we’re doing when a song starts and when he starts to make a song. And we never know who’s in the room either. He puts it together like a fucking equation. We just go with the flow and the flow is always just divine. Yves Tumour, who is a great friend of mine, really showed up on that song. It’s very meditative.
I was going to ask how it came about, but I guess…
That’s how. Just the beauty of Dev Hines. The beauty of friendship. The beauty of brotherhood, sisterhood, just love in a room.
I can feel it, it’s very tangible. Can you tell me more about yourself circa that time, how did that time frame look for you?
I like to consider myself a model that is always evolving. I’m like a product that forces itself to evolve at all times. In retrospect, I never see what I’d guess anybody else who’s been following me sees. I just always see what’s missing. And it’s not that I don’t appreciate the art that I put out, or it’s not that I’m not excited about something that I birthed. It’s just that I’ve kind of trained myself to always look forward. And not in a way where I’m not taking history with me, or not in a way where I’m not taking what I’ve learned with me, but I’m just always trying to push forward in whatever capacity that is. Pushing a limit, pushing confusion, pushing people to think completely differently. Making alternative-anything very normal. And that’s usually my focus. So when I look back and I think about who I was then, I am not that person. And whoever that person was is great. And the only thing I want to do for that person is hug them and say, it gets greater.
I see. But I feel like there’s been a definite vibe-shift with Big One.
Well, it’s been a while since I put out music. And a lot of people know me as this fun, loud, gay, extravagant, auto-tuned R&B gospel singer, which is all true.But like I said before, my favourite thing to do is to push a limit and to confuse people at all times. And I learned at a very early age that a box is the worst shape ever in the world. I fucking hate boxes.
I’m from the church. I love gospel music, even to this day, when I’m gay as fuck. And that alone is also a box. So the fact that I love the church and God and gospel and still do what I do is a depiction of me living outside of a box. So whenever I do interviews, whenever people talk about my music, they’re forced to talk about what they think they know. But I’m just here, making a lot of noise. Before I even started, before I was even a recording artist, my friends gave me a microphone and told me to chant for hours at night in the club.
So I began there, night after night. Big One is really just a tribute to my younger self. I want my lyrics to bless people with broken wrists. Also, I never had a chance to really do gay music like I wanted to. This is me finally doing proper gay music. I feel like right now we are in dire need of overdue gay music.
I also was thinking today, because I feel like the term “genre-defying” became a genre of itself in a way, rendering it quite an ambiguous term. How do you feel about that?
Definitely, I agree. Which is also fine. It just doesn’t have to be labelled in a way where it’s weird, peculiar, different. It’s still giving the power to ignorance in a way. Or at least, I wouldn’t stop there. I would keep going to the point where everyone was just like, that’s too much. And that’s my point. It’s like, don’t force me into a bot or a label. But that’s just me in general with labels. You know, I think music is no different.
It’s also a human thing. We think we need these titles and labels to be organised. And it’s like, do you? Or can you organise without putting a title on top of it? It’s so frustrating.
Yeah. Going back for a sec to Big Ones. I watched the music video earlier, I think it’s very provocative. What inspired producing it in the way you did, how was the process of going out with a vagina on your face?
What inspired it? Vaginas inspired it. I’m also a visual artist. I’m not just a musician. In the daytime, I work very heavily in fashion and have been for the past 15 years. So I’ve seen so many of my visions come to life already in fashion. And I’ve also seen some ideas that I have merged with geniuses that came to life. So I just, I feel like with my music and my approach visually, it just always needs to be something that’s forward. Even for me to understand. So I wrote a song about pussy power, but you know, the subconscious of that is about butch queen power. And all that just sums up to me as a vagina. Also, I wanted to be the first to be a pussy clot in real life. I got great responses. The whole video was really just responding. But yeah, the inspiration was vaginas. Expose yourself. White Lotus isn’t the only one who likes to show genitalia.
I am really interested in where the vision started overall. Can you tell me more about your upbringing?
I was a choir church boy, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. Father is a Rastafarian, mother is a devoted Christian. I think I’m both raised in the church, learning music, how to read, and how to play at a very young age. Also went to music school for a little bit. Grew up around anything hip hop and R&B for the past 20 plus years of my childhood, meaning I was raised by Mary J. Blige. I was raised by TLC. Went to high school, got bad, went outside, started partying. Met my closest friends till this day. Shayne Oliver started working in fashion, I became an assistant to Shayne, directed Hood by Air. Received the first CFDA award and so forth and so forth and so forth. Then I started to release my own music, which was very weird, intricate R&B. Here I go trying to put titles on my shit. R&B, kind of T-Pain goes gay in the beginning.
And then linking up with Telfar and becoming his music director for his brand. It is not that usual to have a music director as a fashion brand. However, we’re not just a fashion brand, but a network, which is also, again, changing the face of what fashion actually is. Direct-to-consumer is an actual thing. Creating jingles that parallel to the bags, which caused mayhem, which also gave me the confidence and inspiration to work on songs such as Big One and songs that are outside of my comfort zone because I saw the response online from how people were receiving it, and it felt really good. Later, I released a funk album with Chromeo, who are geniuses. They’re also like my funkles, my funk uncles.They opened up a door for me that was really dear to my heart. Then, fast forward to this current day. As a music director, I do Telfar related-work during the day, and I’m a fashion consultant / I make whatever song I want to make at night. And the new music that I’m doing now, I would consider it altogether a pop compilation, kind of. Because the next song has nothing to do with Big One. It doesn’t even sound like Big One. Singing is back. I’m going back to rapping, just cause it’s so fun.
So intricate! I’m very excited to see what’s going to evolve. We already touched on this, but in an attempt to describe you, a lot of media outlets use a lot of “contrasts” and “oxymorons”. I wanted to ask how you envision that having an impact in the way you developed? What’s your stance on it now?
It is fuel, once you become self-aware. The character development is working. I am on track and if anyone is saying anything different, then I’m stirring up a pot. But also if there are people that understand and are agreeing, I feel like I’m also on the right path. So it’s just like, it’s a myriad of things to look at. it’s good to see other mirrors, which sometimes don’t even reveal you to yourself. They just show you a different perspective, and I love hearing other perspectives. That’s just how I like to do any art. You know, when I do any art, it’s always a collaborative thing. It’s never just me. Once I have an idea or even if I have a fraction of an idea, I’ll go to someone that I know is in that world, and we’re working together.
You spoke about character development, but I assume that’s also outside of your music. I feel like the way you describe your upbringing, it’s also a lot of oxymorons, right outside of being in the church and also being flamboyant. And I assume that brought a lot of…I don’t want to say difficulty. I hate this narrative that it has to be difficult to combine them.
That narrative is actually true. It’s fucking difficult to become yourself and also be authentic. And it’s even more difficult when you’re trying to keep up with a goal and a dream that you have that keeps you authentic. It’s fucking difficult when your surroundings, not the ones that you have to curate because they see you, the ones that you have to force to see you at the same time, you still being who you are and not suppressing yourself, it’s fucking difficult.
No matter where you are, no matter where you are online, even if you’re in a cool place like New York or in the buttfuck of nowhere. You can have something that’s different from what people consider normal, which is why I’m so anti-box. And people are so boxy.
Do you have any big inspirations in people? Like, any one specific?
Quincy Jones is a genius. I love Quincy Jones so much. He is one of my idols because for me, you know, my goal is not to be, you know, I’m already a musician. My goal is not to be a superstar or anything like that. My goal is to, like, raise and be available for people like me and to develop an army without being the leader of that army but just raise the sound and develop at all times. I’m a musician first, but I grew up in fashion. And fashion is a collective thing, and music is a collective thing too, but music can get really emotional. And solo, sometimes you get in your head, you want to be by yourself and write your song. Even in fashion, you know, designers, they want to get by themselves and sketch up. Fuck that. The next day, they’re with their friends trying to figure out how to make it cute. And I’ve learned that attitude and mindset in fashion where it’s like I want more of everything. I made a cool song, I want to hear 100 other people with the same cool song somewhere, doing 100 things together. Creating a whole new thing, an enclave. And just disrupting preexisting structures. Whitney Houston is another idol of mine, she exacerbates my feelings at all times.
Who is it again? I think you got interrupted.
Whitney Houston!!! The queen of the night. She is me. I love her. She also grew up in the church. Prince, Little Richard, you know, all my influences are old. But I’m also influenced by children. I get inspired by anything and everything. So I think everything is really funny or cool.
What is the most shocking thing about you?
I am, believe it or not, very shy. I’m not scared or anything. I’m just very introverted. My social battery is usually at 62% at all times.
Would have not expected that, that’s for sure. What are some of your worst icks?
My worst icks are the music industry investing in nonsense and not investing in real art, especially when they know where the real art is right now: gay people.
Real.
Don’t get me started on icks. Another ick that I have is the racism that is heavily imbued in the fashion industry. I will say no names.
Just know I’ve been around forever, bitches. My last ick is just stop the publications. Spend your money online. Get real.
You think the online part is icky, or the analogue part?
I think the analogue part right now is the icky part. It’s okay to chill on transcripts. We don’t always have to transcribe every damn thing. I just feel like in 500 years when I want to look up history, I don’t think the transcript will be the main thing, or not in the way it’s been so far. I will be looking for the hard drive.
Definitely an original ick!! But I feel like the internet is more feeble than the transcript.
I don’t think it’s robust, personally. That’s why I’ll never own my own magazine. But okay, maybe that’s a terrible way of confessing this ick. But for now, those are my icks.
What’s your favourite medium then?
Hair. Beauty is my medium. A lot of my inspiration stands in beauty. I’m secretly a beauty consultant. I spend so much time in beauty supply stores. Apart from church, I was at my family’s hair salon because that’s where I just learned how to be. I think that’s when I first learned how to be gay. Actually, just being around black women, getting their hair done every day in your childhood will mentally prepare you for the world. Film is definitely obviously a medium for me. Like I speak in visuals. When I talk to people, I send them visual decks at the end of the day because I need them to understand what I said.
Film is very, very important to me. Writing, too. I write a lot, because everything becomes cool when you write about it. Some of my songs are just stories that I wrote that I refused to make into a published story. So maybe I do believe in transcripts – ugh, I’m such an oxymoron. But yeah, those are my mediums. Obviously fashion, but I’m trying not to be so materialistic these days.
I never heard someone saying beauty is their medium of choice, but that’s really cool.
Oh yeah. And not in a vague way either. It’s what it brings. The emotional expression that it allows in other people, the connection that it brings with that. Leaving the salon is really fab to me. Watching them come in with all their burdens and initially they’re like, oh, I feel like shit today, and leaving completely different. It’s genius. Maybe it’s just the idea of transformation through a feminine way. I think it’s a medium for me – feminine transformation.
I’m wondering, do you have a favourite collaboration that you did
They’re all my favourites. I go in there like it’s the last one.
Do you have any final words, inspo, dreams?
Please be your fucking self. I’m still living out my dreams. Haven’t even got a start yet. Maybe I am getting started now. Dreams change, change with them. Stick to dreams. Stick to the goals that you write down. The sky is not the limit. Go out and wear a beautiful lace front past the sky.
Image courtesy of the artist
Words by Luna Sferdianu
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