Growing Continuously, In More Ways Than One

Brisbane musician Emmanuel John — better known by his stage name, UV boi فوق بنفسجي — is struggling today.

When The Music makes contact with the acclaimed young creative to talk about his upcoming appearance at the Brisbane Festival, he's audibly drained, fighting off a flu-like illness typical of this time of year. But, in keeping with the work ethic for which he's renowned, he cheerfully dismisses an offer to reschedule, and dives headlong into a chat about his new live show.

As part of the performance, he will play with a live band for the first time — something he says he's been working towards for a while.

"The whole idea of having a band has always been an end goal and so, with each tour I've played previously, I've always tried to add a new piece or something just to spice it up and make it more exciting for me and for the listeners," he explains of the change to his live line-up, which now includes a drummer and guitarist-cum-keyboardist. "So, it's finally reached this point that I was like, 'Hey, I think I'm ready to have some more band mates on the stage with me.'

"I wanted to work with people who I felt comfortable with and who I wanted to, in the future, be going on tour with, and those guys just seemed to be really great, and I had a really great chemistry with them. So the new live show is a three-piece band. It's going to be really exciting."

It won't only be the new members marking a shift in UV boi's live (and recorded) music, with the precocious muso set to continue increasing his vocal contributions too, a gradual broadening of horizons that fans will have noticed more and more at recent outings.

"I've been introducing a bit of vocals through the past tour, so I'm going to be singing a few more tracks, and on the new EP [Returned Alone], I've got a few singing tracks on there as well, so all together that's the band," he says. "In my head, it's always been, like, the title is, 'UV and the boi Band'.

"So now it's happening and Brisbane Festival is when I'm going to debut it, and hopefully in the future I'm going to take it around with me."

To be clear, the Returned Alone set is distinct from the one he'll be playing at the Brisbane Festival; rather, the EP is more a direct continuation of — indeed, "a sequel" to — 2016's acclaimed debut, L-UV.

"I had so many tracks on there, close to ten tracks, and it was moving towards being an album but I decided just to downsize it a bit more, to about six tracks," he reveals. "It's definitely a growth from the last EP."

Although the Brisbane Festival will be the first time audiences will be treated to the new-look UV (and the boi Band) show, and it seems purpose-built for such event-calibre gigs, it seems entirely possible his new recruits may be sticking around for more than just a single tour. 

"Moving onto the new record I'm going to start writing, I'm definitely going to try to introduce more organic instruments," he teases, "and those two guys are very talented — and might just be playing a bigger part than just being my live band."