Let’s give it up for all those artists keeping the spirit of old school RnB alive, like our boy here, Johnny Kulo. He’s been round here a few times before with his steamy blend of soul and RnB, but we gotta say that this one takes the cake. ‘Loyal’ puts forward the character of someone who makes mistakes because he’s too often led by that hedonistic trait, but Johnny claims it all like the genuine article that he is. The Berlin-based musician talks about his experience linking up with fellow local creative August Ingram in the studio when a session just messing around turned into the grounds for ‘Loyal’.
“This was one of those songs that didn’t take a lot from me in the studio to cut out. Another day, August Ingram and I just hit the studio, listening to records and passing around instruments, riffing off – I came up with the little guitar loop, and started humming what ended up becoming the hook. I was just talking stupid, talking about tryna stay loyal but having too many distractions in my lifestyle. The whole song was written as I was recording it, and initially I intended to just record the first idea so I can go away to write something ‘substantial’. But then I decided, fuck it, this is what I’m going thru right now and it’s expressed exactly in that way. Not every verse needs to be premeditated, sometimes it sounds less clever the more it’s polished you know?”
It might not be polished, but ‘Loyal’ is a RnB gem. This one and previous track ‘Poseidon’ also feature on Johnny’s new Bloom EP, which is available to stream on all good platforms now.
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