The anguished R&B on Anxiety,
the second LP by Autre Ne Veut, brainchild of Brooklyn’s Arthur Ashin, may or
may not be R&B at all. In an interview with Pitchfork, Ashin admitted that
though “People who heard the album say, ‘This is so R&B’…. people who
actually listen to R&B are not going to feel like this is a real R&B
record.” But then just what is this
electro-pop paradise of an album, ringing with falsetto vocals that soar and
sear beyond expected R&B conventions?
Is it Top 40 gone indie? Is it a series of jams for
nightclubs exclusively catering to art scene kids hopped up on ecstasy? There
certainly is an inwardness and sensuality to the record, even as it seeks to be
“Ego Free Sex Free.” Too breathless, tortured, and oddball to gain mass acceptance,
Anxiety’s music still feels like it
belongs on sweaty dim-lit dance floors. Its worried handwringing is nearly indistinguishable
from a clubber’s bump-and-grind.
On Anxiety, Ashin takes
that grind and grooves and moves with the vitality of a 21st century
Prince, even if the work lacks Prince’s narrative velocity. Its cut-up,
stilted, semi-coherent lyrics capture the incomplete, unfocused trajectory of
the human thought process. Full of contradictions and blind yearning, Autre Ne
Veut uses words to prompt impressions, tossing grammar aside for flow’s sake. Hazy
half-finished phrases like “In the world that your heart is screaming, find it
Neverland” and “Don’t deserve baby and you follow you wanted to me” are more
felt than cognized. Recurrent obsessions with death and disconnection manage to
register in spite of the record’s intentional blurriness, creating a tonal
desperation that undercuts the frisky funk of Anxiety’s songs.
Autre Ne Veut is freakier and shriller than progressive R&B
peers like Frank Ocean and Janelle Monáe.
Employing tighter songwriting than the Weeknd, Anxiety nonetheless relies on similarly memorable moodscapes and
emotional expansiveness. Though it may not be a traditional R&B album, its
bluesy rhythms being overwhelmed by foggy synth-pop sensibilities, Anxiety is a slick and sexed-up production
worth getting anxious over, worth diving and dissolving into.
Greg Billups Jr is an R&B drummer who first started
performing for his church. Currently he is the drummer for The Kenny Berry Experience
and is excited about their prospects.
Matthew Lenox: So Greg, how did you start playing the drums?
Greg Billups: actually, it was a funny thing. My dad was
playing the Sega, taking my time off of it and he had this big, really huge
drum set in the playroom. I was like two years old at the time, I could barely
touch the foot pedal, barely touch the high hat pedal. I used to play, he had
Kurt Franklin, which was my favorite gospel artist of all time so I used to
know how to play the CD player so I popped a CD in, pressed play, and from then
on I was listening to music and was able to pick it up, listen to the drummers,
play everything.
ML: So you’re self taught.
GB: Yeah, self taught.
ML: Now, how did you get involved with the band youre
currently with?
GB: Well the guitarist actually contacted me on Facebook and
said she was looking for a drummer, she knows that I was a drummer because she
was the guitarist at my church at one time so she came to me, she said that her
band needed a drummer and was looking for someone committed to being in the
band and since she knew me she gave me a try out. And even though she said it
was a tryout I knew it was a sure thing cause I was waiting for something like
this.
ML: So you always wanted to be in a band?
GB: Always wanted to. I wanted to make music a career way
back when me and Roger were at the church, he was the organist, we had great
goals and aspirations to do that, make music beyond church because we had the
talent to do that. Why not spread that talent around? He had the opportunity to
do it. It was different for me because I had to take care of responsibilities
first, take care of things at home so I didn’t have that free time to do it
like he had. It was all good though, the saying says that good things come to
those that wait so I waited and didn’t give up which is good cause I don’t know
what would have happened if I gave up.
ML: How long have you been with this band?
GB: Tried out in March and have been with them ever since.
ML: What do you guys play? Original music or are you a cover
band?
GB: We haven’t really thought about writing our own music. We
just play cover songs.
ML: What artists do you cover?
GB: We play James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder…The
Temptations…and a whole bunch of others but artists like that.
ML: You’ve played some gigs with this band since joining?
GB: Yeah, we got seven, we did two at the colored musicians
club and the most recent one the one we did at the Juneteenth. That’s the gig
that broke us wide open. We opened for
the whole Juneteenth extravaganza musically for everything that Saturday at 2 o
clock. We opened and was supposed to get off at 230 or 3 o clock but the band
after us was running late so they wanted us to play until they showed up. After
that, people noticed us and things started flying from there.
ML: You told me you have some gigs in Canada. How did those
come about?
GB: I think Kenny was asking around in Canada to see what we
could do. He was calling around and there were some places that were interested
and we had a couple Canadians that came to the club, they heard about it and
wanted to see it and they liked us. So with all of these things transpiring,
these gigs were able to come through.
ML: How does it feel to play at the colored musicians club,
a place with such history?
GB: It’s an honor cause there is a picture of Duke Ellington
in there and when I walk in that’s the first thing I see. There’s a museum at
the bottom showing the history and prestige of the club and has all of the
artists I knew about, from blues to jazz to funk.
ML: What do you hope to do with your career?
GB: I hope to one day be one of the names in the colored musicians
club. That’s one of the goals for me. I want to be one of the premiere drummers
of Buffalo.
ML: Do you have any drummers that influence you?
GB: The most important person of all would be my father because
I got it from him, he’s a drummer himself and played with groups. If it wasn’t for
dad having it, I don’t think I’d have it myself.
ML: When is your next gig for people interested in
experiencing The Kenny Berry Experience Band?
GB: October 19th at the colored musicians club. Anyone
interested should come on out.
ML: Thank you for your time. (Shake hands)
GB: Thank you. Sorry about the grease on my hands. (During the interview he had been eating
lunch.)
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