There are few artists who look at modern life through a lens as critical as Kid Bookie. The last few years has seen Tyronne Hill go from underground sensation to genuine breakout contender in the UK rock community, and it has all come from being as uncompromising and unrestrained as possible. Though despite using his voice to speak against intolerance and bigotry and for more radical and rousing thinking, just because you can hear him doesn’t mean he has it all figured out.
That can be felt through his new full-length album ‘Songs For The Living // Songs For The Dead’, a stark and sincere look at how the spectrum of emotions that we radiate on a daily basis affect the relationships we build with each other. Wrapped in a sound that is uniquely Bookie, merging cultures like its second nature, it is a fascinating, furious and thrilling look into the mind of an artist that is always two steps ahead of the curve.
To dive deeper into what the last couple of years of growth has been like and how it has influenced his output, Rock Sound had a big old catch up with the man himself…
ROCK SOUND: How has it felt over the last few years, building to where you are with this album, realising that other people are on the same path as you regarding your creative vision?
BOOKIE: “It’s weird. I sometimes feel like I am extremely blasé about the accumulation of merit. You equate successes and the furtherment of your career to milestones, that this is supposed to happen and this is supposed to reflect that, and it’s hard sometimes because ultimately I’m still struggling. But I recognise this jump in support from the industry. It’s something I have yearned for because that’s who you need to give a fuck about you. You need to ensure they understand you as it moves downward towards fans and other people. You need to be confident in who you are and able to write it down in words to be sure that people will understand you, especially when they don’t know anything about you.
“So, it’s nice. I still feel very much like an outcast sometimes. It’s still scary out there. I don’t choose to be an antagonistic or challenging character; it’s just a part of the genetic makeup of my brain. Things are there to be broken and then rebuilt, but I am still learning about who I am within that action. There is still room to grow. And because none of this is guaranteed. As much as everything is well, I still battle with the idea of being everything for everyone else sometimes.”
RS: Struggle is an important word within that because even though things have kicked up a notch, that doesn’t always change how you feel inside your chest. You’re still going through the same toils, and it’s not like you have ever posed any solutions for how to find your way out of that darkness. You’re still figuring out yourself, but how are you supposed to express that when you feel you must be indestructible?
BOOKIE: “When you’re an artist, reaching a place of contentment is something that comes with age, acceptance and going through life to a point where you actually understand what you are going through. I’m still learning from and getting hit with things that I went through ten years ago that I thought I didn’t give a shit about but am reacting to right now. I’m reacting in ways where it’s clear those things had an impact. So I’m unpacking a lot.
“The pressure of getting “bigger” is the pressure of the crew you must handle. You are aiding other people’s dreams. I have a band that I have to support and one bad day of mine, and we all go into the shit. Before, I didn’t have those thoughts because of one bad day, and nobody cared. I’m not saying that everyone cares now, but you get put on a pedestal you never really asked to be on. But what you do in your job or day-to-day creates this allure that has some magic to it.
“As humans, we are a by-product of where we are, and then by that, we see who stays around us through that or even wants to aid us. Those people are working relentlessly to try and make me a superstar, and sometimes, I truly cannot fathom that. And it’s not, ‘Fuck yeah, I’m ready to be a rock star’, it’s more me thinking, ‘Fuck man, I’ve got a duty to uphold to help make these people’s lives better’. I just have to do it. The underdog that I was, and still feel like I am, is having to swing at bigger fucking targets.”
RS: How has returning to those feelings from the past influenced where you have gone with your songwriting? What has it felt like dissecting them?
BOOKIE: “None of us have any idea if they are making the right decision for themselves at any time. We just wake up every day and try and make it happen. If we all stopped to think about every decision we have made all the time, society would collapse. Society is run by all of us, day by day, guessing the way to make the world run better today. Which is fucked, to be honest. But I love the fragility of the human condition. That’s why I try and prod so much as an artist; everybody walks around like they are so definitive. I like to play with that and say, ‘No, you’re not’. You’re an everchanging shape where you can fit however you want. Sometimes, that’s unnerving, challenging, and uncomfortable, but this world is a playground. Tomorrow is a guess, so how can you make it run? We must have a lot of faith if we are letting things work that way. We are all walking on this border of insanity with the hope that tomorrow will be a new day to practice new thoughts, and that’s a pretty beautiful thing.”
RS: What were the earliest strands you pulled on regarding what you wanted this album to feel like? How did it build from there to become what it is that we hear now?
BOOKIE: “I think it was ‘Purgatory’ that really kicked it off. It’s the most vulnerably raw song because, first and foremost, the vocal delivery isn’t great, but that’s what makes it perfect to me. It’s more wailing because I am sad about a relationship that has been my bane of existence for so long, which ended but then got back together and then has ended again. It has hurt my soul so much, but also it’s a song that makes me think. ‘Fuck, I wish I had done the thing’ in terms of being what you should have been in that situation.
“Again, I’m reflecting on something and every time I listen to it, even over a year after writing it, I’m still feeling the same way. It’s a vicious cycle of a song. Once I finished it, I knew we had made an honest song. It’s not about a theme; it’s about an emotion. From there I allowed myself to play more with those emotions rather than themes. The only theme, per se, on the album, comes in ‘AI (Save Yourself)’ because that’s something that is so prominent in today’s world and something I still don’t understand yet
“So, the album became a platform for me to express emotions. All the emotions rather than just sadness. This industry likes to promote illness, making you believe that mental illness is fun and that we are all in this together. That, to me, is a theme, and I am not a part of that.”
RS: It’s important to show both sides of the coin. You aren’t just inspired by the heartache on this album but also by those feelings of love, lust, and everything that comes with falling just as much. It’s not one part of your life that you are exorcising; it is every little thing that you feel…
BOOKIE: “These songs have been a proving ground for making the music that I love all the time whilst getting better each time. Music is a place where you can’t be lazy. You have to challenge yourself as well as challenging the world around you and challenging other people. Some people will never see it that deep because it’s not that deep for me. But music really is so deep because it is waves of sound made by objects designed to make them happen. It’s almost genius that you can make those waves of sound whilst also putting enough emotion into it. I think that’s so special.”
RS: The most important thing is remembering why you found yourself here. And the only way for someone to express that is when they have lived it. They have worked to find their way into this culture, even when the rest of the world shuns them, and have come out the other end more driven than ever. Being in this position yourself now is really powerful, and as you look to the future must feel incredibly exciting…
BOOKIE: “Making these songs made me realise I can do that whilst also standing with the best out there. I can express the prowess of my vocals and actually feel proud of it. I can show people that this stigma that I’m just some rapper that walks around in rock music like a novelty that needs its back-patting because I’m a POC is bullshit. Working in this way has shown me that I have a lot more vim inside me than I thought. I can make my music exactly what I want it to be. And that means I will be able to springboard to the next place with the same ethos of making music while trying to improve things. I want to be here forever and have my legacy be in the sound I make.”
