'We Tend To Be Full Of Shit!' - Fantastic Negrito On Writing From A Place Of Honesty

Fantastic Negrito is a one-man powerhouse. Fresh from a Grammy win for his album Please Don’t Be Dead (a great follow-up to The Last Days of Oakland – also a Grammy winner), Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz chats from his studio in Oakland, punctuating his speech with little bursts on his beloved "upright, out-of-tune piano" and with impromptu, sung walking bass lines. Ever the showman, but with substance, he ensures the music is always central to the conversation.

The resulting sounds are eclectic, electric and infectious. The rock/blues single Plastic Hamburgers is a great indication of the record's appeal, but there’s much more to it. “For example, the Boy Named Andrew is me, growing up in foster care, growing up surviving challenging areas,” Dphrepaulezz explains. Also featuring "a friend who stopped by", Hannah Levy, the track is a standout. “I think when you write, when you’re honest, you’re writing about the world. Because we all come from the stars, we’re all just cosmic dust, we’re all connected. So when I’m writing about me, and when I’m being truthful and honest, I’m writing about you.”

Why is being honest so hard? “I don’t know - we tend to be full of shit!” Dphrepaulezz laughs. “I mean, human beings, we tend to hide and it’s difficult, it is for me. It can take a lifetime to get to know yourself. And hopefully we evolve, I want music the do that too. I didn’t want to write the same record [as before], when I sat down to write Please Don’t Be Dead, I said, ‘Forget about the Grammy, forget about everything else, do something excellent and great.’”

Forgetting the past simply meant that the Grammys came to the party (again). Noting the increased range of sounds and perspectives awarded this year, he gives high praise to the other winners (“You gotta be happy for Brandi Carlile, she’s got three Grammys, it took her 15 years,” he says, while also giving big props to Janelle Monae), it’s clear the awards experience was crazy, but also another chance to expand. 

“I mean, human beings, we tend to hide and it’s difficult, it is for me. It can take a lifetime to get to know yourself. And hopefully we evolve."

Another standout on Please Don’t Be Dead is Transgender Biscuits, a song very much of its time now, but with a unionist spirit that could have originated with Woody Guthrie back in the day. “He’d have sung it a lot slower and he’d have smoked a few joints,” Dphrepaulezz laughs, agreeing. “But I think, I love speaking on things that people feel nervous speaking on. I think, when I’m a little uncomfortable after I write a song, that means that’s a great song. And if people are a little uncomfortable too then that’s great, it means we’re growing. Because growth and evolution is about being uncomfortable a lot of the time, and I think as an artist it’s a great opportunity to speak about these things.”

Despite some heavy themes the overwhelming sound and aim on this record is joy. For this writer, a favourite is Bullshit Anthem, which encourages the listener to "Take that bullshit, and turn it into good shit". It’s so crazy it just might work. “All my music is optimistic. It’s about solutions, 'turn the bullshit into good shit’ is about a solution – it’s like, even fashion, I’m into upcycling, take some old jackets and give it to a local designer and let them put their heart and soul into it. And that’s what the Bullshit Anthem is, take the things that aren’t necessarily going well for us, even the legacy of the music that I come from, the tradition of my ancestors – they had to do that constantly, so it's humbling just upholding that, and it is joy, it is happiness.”

Another big kicker is Bad Guy Necessity, featuring the powerhouse vocals of Candice Davis. “You know, when I did the bass line I thought of all the dubious characters that I have known, and that bass line, they’re walking to that. I think the most important thing to remember with Bad Guy Necessity, the polar opposite [to people like Trump] - Barack Obama, Martin Luther King - they were a bad guy to some people. That’s the irony of the song... All I know how to do as an artist is to get on the front line and try and do the thing that music does. Music is universal because it speaks.”