Psykhi is Confronting The Future

From studying iconic punk bands that emphasise their originality, to drawing from his own personal experiences and building his sound from the ground up with a tenacious enthusiasm; Psykhi is set to go far. His music strives to push boundaries not by suppressing the classical sounds of years gone by, but by hoisting them up.

Talent: Psykhi / @psykhi

Producer / Stylist: Jermaine Robinson / @jermainerrobinson

Photographer: Kai Shui l / @kaishui.photo

Photographer assistant: Hillary Adams / @_hillarybrownn

MUA: Grace Macartney / @gracemacartneymakeup

Retouch: Jude Amponsah @kentekwame

Words: Sophia Nouska / @sophia.nh

Location: Arch1 / @arch1livemusic & Dark Pink Studios / @darkpink_ldn

Special thank you to @melodyberkery

Psykhi is comfortable without the sugar coating that glazes over the painful truths of our existence. The Ghanaian-born and now London-dwelling artist describes his music so far thusly: “My concepts come to life by taking my emotions and pouring them into an objective lens, observing the human psyche in a sense that is experienced by anyone, not just myself.”

Of late, however, he wishes to communicate through his music from a more subjective point of view – writing exactly what is ruminating in his thoughts in the present moment. "I made my first EP Youth, in 2019, and that was a vastly different time in my life; I was far less experienced. That’s why I remained so objective because I tried to write from the perspective of a screenwriter, fabricating experiences rather than it being directly personal. But now I would like to try and write things entirely from my own perspective” he adds.

In the grand scheme of things, since the release of his debut EP just over a year ago it’s been a significant year for Psykhi he tells me. He has gone on to perform at shows, meet new people, improve his skills on the guitar (self-taught), executed countless shoots, and is doing some volunteer work at his local youth centre. And although the start of our conversation was on the subject of some serious trials he’s been through of late, there was a lurking sense of optimism towards his future.

We are resilient as humans, and this is something that feels apparent in the narrative of Psykhi’s music; perhaps this explains the positivity I was feeling shine through the dark clouds he talked of at the time. The prerogative of any creative person (which can be anyone and everyone), is that although it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone, once you take a step outside you discover where the real growth can occur. “It takes bravery to push on with your decisions, and it’s such a complex process but it can be so much more impactful.”, he says.

His prior work sonically reflects on life’s transitional phases. Of his newer releases: ‘Rat Poison’ is like a commentary on city life and societal standards. “It’s something we are all quite familiar with, which individuals can infer from. In modern terms or in the context of rap, it was in reference to someone being a ‘snake’ – someone that has snitched on someone

else... “Tell ‘em all about me” was conveying when someone might dare another person to snitch, like provoking someone to go ahead and tell on them.” Other tracks like ‘Deaths A Creep’ had themes of horror. Evoking ideas about what fear is – almost like an entity walking behind you in life, tapping on your shoulder every now and then to remind us it’s there.

‘Sitting On Ice’: projects feelings of tension. “That track was something I wrote last year, writing from the experiences within my relationship of me and my ex – there were some bad memories of that period. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, reflecting on things that were particularly tense. Hence the phrase that you’re sitting on ice and feeling almost frozen over; I wasn’t making that much music during that time because all of my energy was on the situation. It was things I couldn’t understand at the time, I felt stuck.

It can often feel like listeners are programmed to want to hear someone ruin themselves in a song, to hear artists pick at deep emotional scars, but for Psykhi it’s not all about expressing things negatively. When asked about how he feels towards this he answered eagerly, “I really dislike feeling sorry for myself. I do have music to come that is more uplifting and less pessimistic. It’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about recently because I particularly hate making stuff that sounds like ‘woe is me’. I don’t think that music should solely be about working through the negative moments or emotions, there are so many positive ways to look at things as well. I do think it’s cool that people can relate to the scars, we all have stuff we’ve been through”

A large stock of inspiration for Psykhi comes from the likes of documentaries and literature, “I used to be really good at literature in school, I studied Shakespeare and I used to read a lot...I do believe life imitates art and it’s a symbiotic relationship I try to pull from. Especially books and music, any raw real-life experiences become the main focus for me to draw perspective from. Recently, I’ve been watching documentaries, specifically random YouTube documentaries about people living in the forest... I had some ideas from this about living collectively in nature in this period of time. The Forest People is going to be a classic rock EP, with no trap or rap influence at all. Real songwriting, I’ve taken my time on this... it comes across quite serene.”

At this point in the conversation, we couldn’t help but veer off into a tangent about the stories and mythologies of the Forest People. A tribe of people who view their natural surroundings as a God; something I studied years ago in Anthropology and quickly became one of my favourite topics. We shared thoughts on our fascination with this idea of living by the forest’s terms, a life dictated by our natural surroundings rather than an ego-driven ideology of how we should live. Living in a city can far too often be a place where it’s difficult to find your feet grounded in the present moment, it’s very much designed in a way that makes us chase happiness rather than accept it in real-time.

When Psykhi moved to London to live with his dad he remembers not finding a place to anchor himself straight away, here he talks about how discovering The Ramones helped him during that period. “Joey Ramone, the lead singer of The Ramones is really tall and awkward so I related to him a lot at the time, I was finding it really difficult to find my crowd or feel like I can blend in. I wasn’t sure how to communicate well at all. Joey is someone who also deals with intrusive thoughts which is something I relate to in a way – having anxiety and thoughts that I shouldn’t be thinking of,” he admits. “It's the way he sings as well, it’s something I think is quite similar to the way I sing, like the ad-libs. I listened to them a lot before I recorded Youth in 2019.”

When Psykhi was growing up in Ghana he learnt from the unconventional sounds of Ghanaian High Life and Gospel music which so greatly differed from the Elvis Presley that was playing on his grandfather’s radio. “There is a lot of melodic influence and sense of rhythm I have learnt from growing up. Music was and is a big part of everything in Ghana. They have a certain cadence and method of bringing out their melodies that are so different to anything else. I’ve learnt to be so sharp with differentiating the origins of what I’m listening to as well, even if you disregard accent. Hearing Elvis Presley on the radio back in Ghana and then moving to London and hearing rock music, all of that blended with what I picked up in Ghana. I even used to sing in church sometimes.”