CIEL INTERVIEW: 19-year-old South East London rapper, Ciel, includes Fimiguerrero, YT, Jim Legxacy and close friend Len as affiliates. Following the release of his project, ‘SPiCE’ last month, it’s time to get familiar…
What five words define your sound?
Sexy, Sleek, Vivacious, Hypnotic, Confident.
Tell me something unique about your creative process.
A unique thing about my process, I don’t really write any lyrics down, I just say whatever comes to mind when I feel the beat for the first time. I produce quite a lot of my own music too.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
‘Sexy slizzy’.
What inspired you to make that song?
The song was inspired by this one special girl, she really gets me.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
My most vulnerable song is ‘FLY it’s US it’s We!’, the outro on my project ‘SPiCE’.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
Best experience on stage is hard to pick, every time I do a show it gets better, but I’d say one that stood out to me was a show I did just after ‘Cielmyriad’ dropped with DJ EJ. Everyone screaming the words to my songs is a feeling you can’t explain. I don’t think I’ve had any bad experiences to be honest, I love every show I do all for different reasons.
What is your favourite song to perform?
My favourite song to perform recently has been ‘waxxon’. From the first beat drop everyone’s ready and excited, I love.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Starting off I would say hearing Young Thug made me wanna start making music, specifically the song ‘drippin’. He made music feel fun and fresh for me and ever since I always wanted to do that with my music, but there’s so many other artists and albums I love that have contributed.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
My name came from my real name kinda – Khy sounds like sky and I knew sky in french is Ciel, cause it’s the name of an anime character from Black Butler, I liked it so I stuck with it.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
If I wasn’t making music, I can’t say where I’d be or what I’d be doing to be honest. Music was the only real thing I wanted to do.
What’s success to you?
Success to me is a constant state I guess, as long as I’m always pushing boundaries striving to be the best, then I feel successful.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
Most recently I’d say a time when I was listening to ‘Cielmyriad’ thinking about what I want for ‘SPiCE’ and I just knew I had to go harder. Everyone loved ‘Cielmyriad’ but me I knew that wasn’t even the start of what I could do.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
People can keep in touch with me @cielmri on everything but on X it’s @cyberpunkyardie.
Photo by Marleyshotem
