Divine Intervention

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I came to know you and your music during the first quarantine—I would go for runs on the bayou by my house in Texas and listen to “260” and “Frozen River.”

Yeah? What part of Texas?

I'm from the Houston area.

I love. My family lived in Houston. I’m from New York, but I moved to Houston in like 2011. I lived there for like six years.

Well, I'm from Sugar Land. Do you know where Sugar Land is?

Hell yeah! Yeah. My family lives in Mission Bend, so not too far.

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How did you get started in music? 

It's funny that we just started talking about Texas, man. It really started when I moved there. I've always loved music, just from being in New York and just being around my older sister—she was really into going to the club and stuff, you feel me? So, she was like download- ing music on LimeWire, and I was just watching all the time. But then when I moved to Houston, it was like the beginning, maybe November of my 11th grade year in high school, and I had this friend, he was just always freestyling in the hallway and stuff. Then our relation- ship got really close whenever I moved to Houston and we just used to talk all the time. And then he would just send me beats like, ‘Yo, bro, spin over this beat. Yo, rap on this part. Yo, just rap on this part here.’ So, I decided to freestyle with him there and just started building confidence through that. Then as I kept exploring my sound for the next two years, I was just trying to develop a plan like, This year I'm going to do this clothing thing with my two friends from seventh grade, and the music is going to be like the second portion of the whole collection. Like, we'll push the clothes first, and the clothes will drive the music, and then the music will balance it out. By this time, I was still figuring out my sound. I was like, rapping, changing my name in different places. I had this one name, it was LARA, which means money in my mom's dialect. And it was just like playing around, just figuring it out, and also just living life and shit too, you know? It was maybe around 2013 when I figured out that I want to do this alternative kind of sound. That's what just started coming out of me, and I just kept running with it.

I feel like that intersectionality is kind of the base of your work. You’re kind of like a Renaissance man in that way—that you do clothing, modeling, you make furniture, music, but it all plays into each other. Where do you think that comes from? 

I just like doing stuff, period. I think I get excited just to do things, make shit, like making things makes me excited. Music is my first thing that I got super excited about because I was able to watch it on TV and just get fully excited around it like that. I feel the same way even just about playing basketball, you know? Watching my favorite player gets me excited. Yeah... I think maybe it's just my competitive nature, period. I'm like, Damn, I want to do this too. I can freak it this way. My competitive nature and also just growing up in New York, that was just a big part of my life, like always wanting to do the next cool thing.

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Was there a vibe shift when you moved from New York to Houston? 

That was the biggest shift in my life, you know what I'm saying? And that made me who I am. Houston's like, a big part of me. Because yeah, I was in that fast-paced lifestyle, but my parents, I feel like, always wanted calm- ness. They have that dynamic nature about them, too. My mom and my pops, they just both love having people around and stuff, but also love their peace. And again, my parents are both Leos, too. I'm a Leo as well. I'm an August Leo. My mom is August and my pops is July. But I think that also plays a big part of the intersectionality we were talking about—they just really love both sides. But [moving to Texas] was a culture shock, like not being able to get anywhere by foot really. The weather. No one understood me from my accent, and their accent was like, a language barrier. The teachers didn't under- stand me. So, a lot of the time—like, that whole 11th grade year—I was just adjusting really, because I wasn't really talking to people. I was still figuring out who my crowd was. And it was weird because it was the same thing in New York, and it just started to get that balance. Once I got into high school, I thought I started to figure out, Okay, this is my crowd and shit, because growing up, it was that same thing of like, Okay, I'm too African to be with the Americans, too American to be with the Africans, you feel me? Like when you look at me, my features, you wouldn't be able to tell, unless you're African. So, it was always this weird finding my place kind of thing. Going to Houston, that was happening again, which also just led me to dive into myself more and listen and go back and forth with my friend doing music stuff, because I was just in the crib.

What does the name Angelnumber8 come from?

Man, one day I was just in my room chilling. I think I was thinking about Dragon Ball Z, and there's this character—her name is Android 17—and I always liked the way she looked and her ‘fit. The haircut was sick—it was like, this blonde bowl cut. I was just thinking about the name and trying to change my name from the rap name that I had before, and I was like, Man, I'm going to just do a twist o this name. And I was like, Okay, Angel Number... And eight is my favorite number. So, I just added that to the ending. But then I found out a year and a half later that it’s actually a thing, and people started telling me like, Oh, yo, there's a whole story behind this, and everybody has their own angel numbers. And I was like, Oh, that's pretty cool.

I love your video for “Last Laugh.” In terms of music videos, who do you think is the best to ever do it?

Yeah, I don't know if I've seen enough videos to even put that statement out there. I've seen some cool ass videos, though. Of course, growing up, young Hype William videos were cool to me. My favorite video since I was a kid was “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” by Busta Rhymes. I remember seeing that... You ever seen it before?

I don't think so.

It's like super, super creepy. There's like elephants in the video and stuff. But I just remember seeing it as a kid, just bugging out, wondering like, Yo, why does this look so futuristic? But then it has, like, a real African kind of tone to it too, and that was super cool to me. That played a big part in what I'd be thinking about video-wise. I just like making shit that is just like crossing two different lanes where you're like, Okay, this music sounds like this, but this is a whole different kind of movie or visual put to it.

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I was watching your videos and listening to the songs, and I feel like you kind of have this overall mysterious energy. It just got me thinking about mystery in today's music age. What do you think about the concept of mystery for artists today?

I think it's cool to see artists like Frank Ocean and stuff. Like, it's pretty hard to know when that person is going to drop something, and you're going to want to pay attention to it, you know? But I think we got this shit kind of fucked up, man. I think you got to enjoy life, and life kind of takes time. You got to go see the people you want to. I think all that shit, as well as your experiences — what's surrounding you and stuff — plays a big part into what you create. So, sometimes, you need to be on the down low for like a month. Sometimes you need to be on the down low for a week. Sometimes for like, half a year, you know what I'm saying? I just be trying to keep the balance and see what feels good to me, really. So, if I don't post a certain thing, or I don't drop something, I try to just remind myself to trust in the process of life, period. You know, try to apply that to what I'm doing, because I know that what I'm doing is me, so it's always going to stand out and be seen, because I'm not trying to pull it from nowhere else.

What about your furniture brand, EA Design Studio? How does that work tie into your music? 

I feel like I just started doing it heavily. Like, with the furniture, I'll make some sounds that'll go with it. Or if it's like the whole concept of what the album is, just like this play on nature and things morphing into other things, it felt necessary to make a chair that was covered by grass and stuff. So, it just kind of played with the same theme. It's kind of like, Yeah, I'm already doing this, why not just involve it in here? We did a show last Friday in Venice for the album release, and I made this book installation. But again, it was kind of playing in hand with what the album was, because I made this poetry book for the album. I was like, I might as well also show people that this is part of the album concept. So, let me make something that's even more attractive rather than you just holding the book in your hand, like, let’s see it in one room.

Who's your favorite writer? Are you into nonfiction and poetry and stuff like that?

I haven't explored enough, but growing up, Edgar Allan Poe was the first person that made me feel some shit. I was like, Man, this is crazy, because I remember just always not liking to read books and shit—there was nothing that was interesting to me. But once I heard him, I was like, Okay, this is creepy for me. What is he about to say next? He's the person that made me feel some shit. Music-wise, I like Joni Mitchell. She's cool, how she writes.

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What era in music would you say you're most obsessed with or that’s had the biggest impact on you?

I feel like as a kid and early teenage years, I was just figuring out who Marvin Gaye was, Luther Vandross, older singers like Michael Jackson and stuff. But then, later in my teenage years, SoundCloud stuff really captivated me—and Kanye, what he was doing, as well. But I definitely think the older shit, like the ‘80s stuff, for sure had me feeling some type of way.

If you could make up a genre, what would it be? 

I did that already! What I did with the tapes and stuff for Soundmath—the genre that I created is called alternative poem and electronic poem. And then the genre for this project is called DiTri. It’s like a whole concept that kind of embodies the music.