Interview: Kid Bookie @ 2000trees
Kid Bookie by Jez Pennington
We’ve been hyped for Kid Bookie ever since we caught him opening for Bob Vylan late last year. His electrifying performance left a lasting impression, and we believe that his forthcoming album, Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead, will be one of the biggest of the year. When we saw his name on the 2000trees lineup, we knew we had to seize the chance to chat.
Fortunately, we managed to carve out four minutes from his hectic schedule just before he took to the Forest Stage. In our conversation with the two-time MOBO Award-nominated artist, Kid Bookie shared his thoughts on the themes of his new album, his journey as a black artist in a predominantly white space, and his views on resilience, heartbreak, and self-loathing.
It's so nice to finally meet you, really excited to catch your set.
You really give a sh**t like that? It’s well nice of you to give a f**k that you want to see me. Thank you very much. It really means a lot to me.
Yeah genuinely! So this is your first 2000trees, and you're playing the Forest stage tonight. How are you feeling? Are you excited?
Oh, yeah, I am. I don't think too far ahead, so I'm not excited now, but I will be, like, two minutes before I go on.
So you just recently dropped your new single “LOVE ME WHEN YOU’RE ANGRY,” which we heard is about lasting connections in an era of fleeting interactions. Can you tell me about the single and the meaning behind it?
Kid Bookie by Jez Pennington
It's in the name, really. Just knowing that in our outbursts, sometimes we are judged by that moment. Please don't hold on to it, because that’s not all of me. It might be a part of me, but it doesn’t define me.
So if we are screaming and doing all of this due to our course of love and the serotonin that bursts through our head that’s depleted because we're no longer angry. So let me pick that s**t back up. It will be fine soon, and you will be fine soon. Maybe we can talk about it, and if we can't, sadness happens, and we will move on amicably. And I love you.
Is this a theme that's going to continue through your next album Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead?
Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead is more of a body of work. It's a journey through time, starting with birth and ending with the end of time. It's nice to symbolize the end of that chapter and then move on. I'm obsessed with death because I'm only going to do it once, so I will never find out anything more about it.
I’ve also hard that in the album, you’ll be exploring heartbreak, self-loathing, and resilience. I think it’s really interesting that you add resilience into that bucket, almost dealing with the pain and still moving forward?
It's pretty much the trifecta of my life, my friend! Self-loathing comes with depression; we all suffer in ways we don't fully understand until we do. You have to figure out what your brain is doing to you before you can talk about it. Then once you do, you can speak on it vulnerably and understand.
And then, once you know, you start saying better sentiments to yourself, and you lift yourself up. Heartbreak is a primal part of the human condition—everyone gets hurt. How you navigate that pain leads to resilience. You have to be resilient to get through anything that hurts. I like the combination of all three of those things together.
I think, maybe in art generally but in the music space particularly, you know there’s lots of songs about heartbreak, but not as many people turning that to talk about resilience.
Because it doesn't have to end at heartbreak, nor does it have to end at self-loathing. But if you do end it on heartbreak, just know that there is so much more. We all should love each other. We are on a floating rock, and are just bacterium that's evolved over time, and no one knows anything. We just have language, thoughts, connection, and feeling. And if you can put all of them together, then you might be a decent concoction of a human being.
Kid Bookie by Jez Pennington
This is such a meaty question to ask when we’re just chatting at a festival, but you’ve been really vocal about challenging stereotypes, particularly as a black artist in a predominantly white space. How has your journey been navigating through that?
Knowing that in a space like rock music, where a lot of people who look like me probably don't embrace it, because their mothers are Christians with a Jesus picture on the wall, so they're scared of the sound of screaming. They need to open their eyes a little bit more and say, "F**k you, Mum, there's more to the world than your thoughts."
There are so many topics here we’ve just breezed through, I’d love to explore them more with you before that album drops. We’re really looking forward to it.
Thank you for giving a s**t about the melanin of my tone, and hopefully it can make a change somewhere on this planet.
Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead by Kid Bookie is out on 13 September on Marshall Records and you can catch Bookie live at a series of in-store dates this September.
