Remi On His Upcoming Second Album: It's "A Bit More Personal"

For Good, the first taste from Remi's forthcoming second album, features rising star Sampa The Great as well as an irresistible, bubbling groove. On the follow-up to his Australian Music Prize-winning debut Raw X Infinity, Remi Kolawole enthuses, "I can't wait to show everybody, it's very different. It's a lot more musical than the last one... We got some more instrumentalists on this one. We've got a couple of guys coming in playing keys: Simon Mavin from Hiatus Kaiyote and Silent Jay actually came and played keys on a few of the joints as well. And we got some awesome features on there, like, we've got Sampa, as you know, and Baro."

So how much longer do we have to wait for the full set, entitled Divas And Demons, to drop? "We're aiming for September 2nd," Kolawole reveals, adding this upcoming material is "a bit more personal". Kolawole then promises "a new taster from the record" will come out "within the next month". 

"I know a huge thing about major labels is they kind of just get as many artists as they can and then hopefully one of them will turn into Bruno Mars, and the rest kind of fall off to the side."

It suddenly sounds as if Kolawole is speaking from inside a fish tank and, when told about this, Kolawole chuckles, "I'm underwater." Has he got gills? "I'm taking this rap stuff to a new level, you know?" he teases. 

Our discussion turns to the evolution of musical formats and Kolawole points out, "When we first started doing music, the idea of ever having vinyl — and selling vinyl — was just not even on the cards." Fast forward to now and, "Vinyl is one of the main things we try and move and people really enjoy having it," he observes.

"It's amazing that we're not losing our history," Kolawole commends, after noticing the availability of "crazy reissues" of "classic albums that people just never thought that they'd have". "I think that's so important," he concludes. "Whatever you're doing, pay attention to your history." 

Kolawole and his long-time collaborator Sensible J (Justin Smith on his passport) now run their own label, House Of Beige. "We're trying to be a label that's a family," Kolawole stresses. "I know a huge thing about major labels is they kind of just get as many artists as they can and then hopefully one of them will turn into Bruno Mars, and the rest kind of fall off to the side," he laments. The idea for House Of Beige is to "create [their] own little scene", Kolawole admits: "If you really like our music then you more than likely will like the other music on our label... it's gonna have that similar energy, that similar vibe."

House Of Beige releases music that sits outside the realm of expectation when it comes to Aussie hip hop and Kolawole elaborates, "A lot of second generation migrant kids have come over and we sound different, we look different, our musical taste that we've been brought up [on] in the house is different; you know, I didn't hear Bon Jovi until I was 17! It was funny, because I was at my friends', like, 18th birthday parties and stuff. And they're all arms around each other singing that stuff as loud as they possibly can. Whereas I grew up with, like, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson in my house."