VIPER caught up with rising Chicago artist, producer and creative UCHE, who’s preparing to follow up with the second installment of his two-part album, ‘HOW TO LIVE/HOW TO DIE’…

What’s the meaning behind your name? 

It’s a shorter form of Uchenna, which is from Igbo descent. I’m from Nigeria and it means “the farthest mind,” “the father,” implying God. So it’s like, “the mind of God” pretty much if we’re translating. But it also means “the mind.”

What five words would define your sound?

I would say disruptive, prolific, human, transparent and evolving. I’m very, very human and my music and my art is just me acting as a mirror to other people’s human experience through expressing my own human experience. So there’s a lot of tears and dynamics to that experience and that can be breathtaking depending on who you’re looking at. It also can be immersive, it can be challenging. I just think there’s levels to mine and everybody’s human experience. I just act as a mirror so I think that’s where those words come from. 

Tell me something unique about your creative process.

I play music on the speakers at a decently loud volume and I sit right in front of the speakers holding a C14 mic condenser, which is for recording vocals in loud areas. That’s how I record all my music. I’ve gotten so good and found a way that works for me to mix everything and make it sound good, even though sometimes you can hear the music bleeding in the back and playing a part in it. But I feel like it adds textures to my world and it’s real because I’m creating music from a place where my life is happening. So I think that’s something that’s unique about my process.

What inspired you to make ‘Here I Go’?

‘Here I Go’ to me is like a big kid in a mosh pit. Like you’re putting your elbows out and making room for all the things that you want to take up. That helped me put a stamp on that, in the industry and just clearing the space that I hope to take up and occupy with my art moving forward. 

What is the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing?

I definitely think when you listen to songs like ‘Almost Home’ on ‘There’s Fire on the Lake’ – which is the album I dropped before this project – I touched on a lot of things that are really personal. I touch on relationships and how failed relationships might have played out. But even more than that, there’s some really specific and personal human stuff that goes on in my life that I’ve touched on. On songs like ‘Almost Home’, you see me reflect on the doubt that people had for me and the way that that’s transpired, just messy situations in relationships and navigating that. So I think I allow myself to get really vulnerable in music all the time.

What’s the best or worst experience you’ve had on stage? 

I co-headlined a show when I was really young, this was my first or second headlining show. At the time it was a big deal, it was myself and a bigger artist. I guess the artist was a little intimidated that I was so much younger and I didn’t have as much of a following, but my music was up to par. So we went through a lot, doing soundcheck, fixing stage and design issues. At the show, he has his crowd and I have my crowd and my crowd is all in the front. I’m performing one of my slower songs, and somebody from his crowd screams “stop playing.” l’m doing an acapella so we could hear them say it. But what was crazy about that, was everybody that came for me immediately turned to him and was like, “get out of here bro.” They were singing my song even more and for 10 seconds I was like, “what’s going on?” It was good that it worked out for the best.

What is your favourite song is to perform? 

I think a lot of the new music that I’ve just released is going to be some of my favourite stuff to perform. Previously, I had a lot of fun performing the records, like ‘Movie’ or ‘Excursions’. I think people like to see me perform those records that have that kind of energy, I’m also able to keep up with the lyrics and deliver my bars how they sound on those records. It’s always exciting because people realise I’m actually a student of my craft. I’m not up here, just doing anything.

Which song, artist or album made you want to make music?  

‘Mrs. Officer’, when I came to America in 2008, I was in the city of Chicago and I heard ‘Mrs. Officer’ for the first time. I’d obviously heard Rap before, but I hadn’t really heard Rap and I was like, “what is this?!” When I heard what Wayne was doing and how he was rapping his flows, I was like, “I could see myself doing this.” That song single handedly changed my life and I played it endlessly to understand what he was doing and why he was doing it. 

If you weren’t making music, what do you think you would be doing instead? 

I’m a sports guy, I was really good at American football. I still train MMA and I do Muay Thai, so I would be fighting in the Octagon, or I would be playing sports for sure.

What’s one thing that you would want your listeners to take away from your music?

I want my listeners to start seeing themselves in my music. I think they are, which is why we’re picking up traction, but I’d really like to have them identify which parts of themselves the music speaks to and how it relates to them. That’s a huge part of my mission in music, as well as to have people be able to identify themselves in my art.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Trust yourself, what you’re feeling, what you think you’re seeing, believe everything that you feel. Believe every inclination that you have, when something feels wrong, it is wrong. When something feels right, it is right. When you are inspired, that’s the right feeling. Don’t try to make sense of the world around you based on other people’s standards or other people’s expectations of your energy, just trust yourself. That’s what I would tell him.

Tell us about your recent album, ‘HOW TO DIE’ and it’s forthcoming follow up, ‘HOW TO LIVE’.

‘HOW TO LIVE/HOW TO DIE’ is a two part album. I was really excited for ‘HOW TO DIE’ to come into the world because it completes my thought process when I was starting, when I conceived the idea. No matter what I do, there’s always a side of me that the world can get to see. I feel like it’s a more complete effort to tell my story to the world. So my goal is to release part two, ‘HOW TO LIVE’, followed by continued visuals. I think my purpose in art and music and culture is to push the boundaries, to elevate sounds and places that we can go as artists. I have some potential collaboration projects on the way, with some really dope artists on the rise as well as already established ones.

Photos by Luke Rowan

Interview by Nickeeba Archer