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Photo Credit: Ki Price

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“An album that still rings with frustration and vitality, but decides to actively prioritise positivity and choose hope.” DIY Magazine

“Bob Vylan’s new album is a rallying cry during a time of deepening hardship and enduring injustice” – Songwriter Magazine

“Bob Vylan are an inspiration to anyone fortunate enough to listen to their music and ‘Humble as the Sun’ couldn’t have come at a more important time.” – Clash Magazine

“Bob Vylan have become the loudest, most vital voice of righteous rage in the beaten-down nation” – Classic Rock

“The Brilliant Bob Vylan… a lovely amalgamation of all types of genres whether its rap, punk, grime, dub” – Clara Amfo BBC Radio 1

“Incendiary, explosive, empowering – Bob Vylan are the crossover band Britain
needs right now.” – Metal Hammer

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Congrats on your new album, Humble As The Sun. Throughout your music, you have advocated for social justice and drawn upon many life philosophies. How do you use this to find creative inspiration in your songwriting process to the final product – the song?
A lot of the lyrical content is written from first hand experience and so it’s not necessarily something that I have to think all that hard about because I’m just writing about how I grew up and how I experienced things in the community that I was in and part of, whether that’s a black and brown community or a working class community. So I suppose that stuff heavily informs the music. Then as I got older and I learned more about why I was living this way and why my community was living this way. That then starts to inform the music as well. That’s probably the easiest way for me to address certain societal issues because I’m addressing them from a first person point of view.

Why do you think your fans connect with your music, considering it reflects your unique perspective? How would you describe your sound?
I think it offers them a perspective that they don’t necessarily see a lot or that they’re not necessarily aware exists, or maybe they just haven’t been exposed to it in such an honest way because of the independent nature of the band. We release things on our own record label and that means that I get to talk about these lived experiences in a very honest way. There’s never any compromise or watering things down. I think maybe people appreciate somebody coming out the gate and saying, this is what I see, this is what I’ve experienced in a very honest and confrontational manner.

When you release music and receive feedback from listeners, how do you handle differing opinions (specifically negativity), considering your personal connection to the material?
I don’t really, I don’t. The first and foremost thing is that it’s made for myself. I wouldn’t call it a selfish endeavour, but it’s a self-serving endeavour in terms of me making the music. There’s certain things I listen to, whether it’s something mainstream as Kendrick Lamar or 50 Cent. Then there’s things I can listen to like Public Enemy, Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone or Minnie Riperton. Certain things they talk about speak to me but they’re not talking about my actual life. So, I’m just making the music for myself to listen to, it’s not enough that that one song of that artist speaks to me, I want a whole album that speaks to me personally. It (my music) talks about my life, so I can listen to it and I can find empowerment in it and I can find hope and strength in it.
If they don’t and they hate it and they disagree with what I’m saying that’s also fine because it wasn’t made for them and so once it’s out there it’s not really for me to to respond to people’s responses on it. If somebody says oh, it’s a great album. Thank you, I appreciate it. But if somebody says, I absolutely hate it – it’s rubbish, then that’s fine too.

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Essentially, everyone’s interpretation is their own?  
Yeah, and once it’s out there in the world, it’s out of my control. If I wasn’t prepared for people to have contrasting opinions on it, or opinions other than mine, then I wouldn’t release it. There’s some songs that I haven’t released because of that, because I’m like, oh, I don’t know if I want people’s opinion on this song.

How do you determine this limit?
Well, the one song that I’m thinking about specifically is quite a personal song. It’s about a friend of mine that passed away and and it’s a song I’ve had for a long time and it’s kind of gone through various versions and different lifetimes as a song. It’s one that I still listen to, especially when I miss him. I was thinking about putting it on this album, but it didn’t quite fit. I also just thought, I’m not ready to have people’s opinions on this.

When new fans discover your album, which songs should they listen to first to fully appreciate your message? Is there a specific order you recommend for them to experience your impact?
People have found us at different parts, different albums, different times. If I was gonna advise anybody to get into Bob Vylan, I’d say listen from the very beginning up until Humble As The Sun, because from We Live Here, to The Price Of Life and to Humble As The Sun, I think it’s quite a nice cohesive journey of an artist and it is a journey that makes sense travelling in that direction.

Speaking of that process, how has your personal journey changed since your first album to now?
That’s a good question. My personal journey is ongoing. It’s hopefully ever ongoing. So much has happened in my life, so much happens on a day to day basis, to be honest, in my life. I suppose the band is one thing and the show’s getting bigger. The logistics of the band is getting bigger with having to get more people on board. I need to free up my time so that I can be with family and I can work on music. Balancing, my personal life outside of music, and then my life in music is an ongoing battle. I definitely haven’t gotten that sweet spot yet, but I’m figuring it out. It’s hard. It’s very hard.

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You have a few dates coming up in the UK and you’re going on tour in American and Canada. Are you planning on coming to Australia?
We would love to get over there. It is not a country that we’ve traveled to before. It is somewhere that me personally, I would love to get there. I would love to see that country just because as a kid, all I know about Australia is that it’s very far away. There’s spiders there that could kill you. There’s snakes and stuff like that, right?
I would like to go there and see the country with my own eyes and meet the people there, especially at the shows, because I think meeting people is always an exciting thing to see how people of that place react because everywhere kind of reacts slightly differently. Some people are more reserved, some people have more energy. We’re gonna definitely try.

What piece of advice would you give to any artist starting out?
Knowing your worth is one of them. You’re creating this art for yourself, right? There will come a point where it gets commodified and somebody wants to sell it or whatever or you’re asked for a price like how much do you play a show? How much is your CD? How much is the download?How much is a t-shirt? So you need to know your worth and what you’re comfortable with taking and what you’re not comfortable with taking. That would lead me into my next point, it’s an industry that at various points will attempt to make you something that you’re necessarily are. And it also is an industry that will will leave you unrecognisable to yourself if you allow it to. Having morals, having ethics, having principles that you stand on.You’re not going to end up in a situation or a position that you feel uncomfortable in, because you’re happy to say no to opportunities, if it doesn’t align with your principles, or your morals.
The final piece of advice, I’d say it’s just don’t quit. That’s it.

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Humble As The Sun
Tracklisting:

1. Humble As The Sun (intro) ft. Jerub
2. Reign
3. GYAG (Get Yourself A Gun)
4. Dream Big
5. Hunger Games
6. Right Here
7. Makes Me Violent
8. He’s A Man
9. Ring The Alarm
10. I’m Still Here

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Follow BOB VYLAN
Website – Instagram – X/Twitter – Spotify

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Press Release 8th April 2023 (below) HERE

BOB VYLAN
new album
‘HUMBLE AS THE SUN’
Out Now HERE

New single + video
‘REIGN’
Out Now

WATCH IT – HERE

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AMNPLIFY – DB