Isaac Dunbar Takes Our Pop Quiz
office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
Stay informed on our latest news!
office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
Falling in love has to be one of the scariest and beautiful feelings to taste and even coming close to it will have you wanting more. Isioma’s encounter with love even at the young age of 17 is documented and hearing the thoughts ruminate from then to now in their new project brings a feeling of nostalgia and longing. With these different themes circulating, it shows that there is no real binary in anything; dichotomy is not complex enough in this case. Princess Forever is about garnering community and taking care of it, loving one another enough to heal, and being okay and patient with the changes that happen within yourself.
In just a short three years, Isioma has done something special—they’ve cultivated true artistry. You can hear that in this new project and in this conversation with office. While on set I was able to step into Dreamer’s world and meet the characters that make up this one dynamic human. Ahead of their tour starting this month, we were able to slow down amidst the constant movement they are in and confront all that they had been through. Sitting across from me was not Dreamer the character but Dreamer, the "ever-evolving" artist who is reshaping what it means to be a Black and queer artist.
top ECKHAUS LATTA, pants R13, shoes ECKHAUS LATTA, earrings HEAVEN by MARC JACOBS, earring JUSTINE CLINQUET (stylist’s own), necklace CHOPOVA LOWENA.
So you're a big advocate for mental health awareness. Was this project therapeutic for you in terms of healing?
Yes... incredibly, so. It's very healing to my inner child.
You’re first-gen Nigerian-American and you’ve had a traditional Christian upbringing, which I relate to. Can you share how that has influenced the music you make? And with your personal journey?
I mean yes. It's very much reflected in the song “Why Pray To God?”
I literally had that as my next question.
See? Look at that, period. I've definitely had a very long wrestle with not only Christianity, but religion in general. Christianity on many levels. There's the whole colonization thing. And then also the structure specifically. I grew up Catholic. I was in fucking Catholic school. I'm trans. It was not working for me. So, it was a long wrestle. There was a point where I said, “I hella don't fuck with God.” But I have grown and now I’m trying to get more in tune with the earth, more with nature. Have a healthy body, healthy mind, and energy these days. I've been saying this a lot where I'm like, “I want to live to be a good person without the fear of hell and the goal of heaven”, you know what I'm saying, and that's how I feel. It doesn't matter what you believe in. I don't care what you believe in. Do what makes you happy, as long as you're not hurting nobody type shit. Just be a good person.
Was the making of this album spiritual in any way? Like, as that relates to the song “Why Pray To God”, like, were there any spiritual aspects of it for you?
Yeah, the earth; living; experiencing new love; new life. You know what I mean?
Do you meditate?
I do yoga.
Love it. So did you study any Afro-surrealist artists for the album? Who are some of the people you look up to?
Yeah, you can consider him an Afro-surrealist artist. Donald Glover, Atlanta. That's how I learned the term Afro-surrealism. That show really inspired me and it made me realize a lot of parallels with my life — growing up as a African Black person in America. It's very weird. I feel like I'm in Atlanta every day.
That’s so real. It is hard. How have you grown from Good Night Dreamer to now with Princess Forever?
I have way more swag.
Yeah!
I’m a lot hotter now.
Right!
Hair grew, money longer.
Right, right! In terms of not material. What would you say?
[laughs] I mean, you know, besides my amazing body. I would say that I've grown musically. I've taken a lot of time to relearn music theory and how to play the instruments that I grew up on like piano and guitar. Studying artists like Tyler the Creator, Andre 3000, Erykah Badu and then sometimes way back with Nina Simone and Chuck Berry. The original rock stars, you know what I'm saying? Always studying and getting better.
What was the hardest song for you to write?
I don't know, they all came very naturally. Some of them came super fast like “Fuck The World.” I just wrote that shit and just wanted to be done. “Saturn Ring." I sat on that for a good year. I wrote the first verse and did the second one later. Then there's songs like “Done In Love With You." I wrote that song when I was 17 years old.
It did feel like a younger version of you in that song.
Yeah exactly, but I wanted it to be bigger so I waited for the production. All of those aspects ran their course, but they also came naturally.
top LRS, pants LRS, undies DOLCE & GABBANA, sneakers TALENT’S OWN, chain DOLCE & GABBANA, bracelet HEAVEN by MARC JACOBS
What was it about Space is the Place that drew you to intersect the story with your life and project?
I mean, that movie is just fucking awesome. It's a great film. Sun Ra is so raw, because he was doing that shit at a time when nobody was even thinking like that. Black people were not thinking about space, we had other shit to deal with. When I think about space, like no, there's a world outside of the bullshit that you're living in type shit. Niggas was king. So seeing that, and seeing him being brave enough to do that made me want to be like, “Okay, well, I'm in the future. And we're still dealing with this bullshit.” Niggas is not thinking about space, we have other shit to think about. But also, I want to remind people that there is a world outside of the bullshit. There's a way out, there's a new path and we can still fight against oppression, and all of those things.
The storyline of Terra 2000 is really cool and very realistic in regard to building community. Are you looking to build something like Wasted Island Youth in real life?
Yes, literally, Wasted Island Youth is really a thing that I run. I want it to be a nonprofit. We ran a couple events last summer, and it was really fun. Now I've been doing a lot of partnering with my mom's charity; it's called Xanderena Foundation. We've essentially tried to give education and health care to people in various villages in Lagos. I've been doing the creative direction for the uniform designs, the website, social media, and all that fun stuff.
I love that. So, this album is definitely a good balance of feminine and masculine energies, which is obviously a theme within your own life. How has your self-discovery journey been kind of documented and put into this project? You popped off with “Sensitive” in 2020 and then you've been front-facing on the internet for three years now. So how have you been able to document for yourself and put it into your project?
Shit, I mean, just what you hear is what is happening. I am very authentic to the music. I'm speaking through the vessel of like characters of course, there is a character of Dreamer versus me, who is also a Dreamer. And then there's also like the kings or Princess Forever, who is an extension of myself. So you are seeing me but, different versions of myself, you know, and I'm ever evolving like the next phase of me, maybe it is not similar to this, but it still is me.
top ECHKHAUS LATTA, pants R13, shoes ECKHAUS LATTA, earrings HEAVEN by MARC JACOBS, earring JUSTINE CLINQUET (stylist’s own), necklace CHOPOVA LOWENA.
top ECHKHAUS LATTA, pants R13, shoes ECKHAUS LATTA, earrings HEAVEN by MARC JACOBS, earring JUSTINE CLINQUET (stylist’s own), necklace CHOPOVA LOWENA.
The throughline in the album is love. How would you describe love now compared to how you would have described it when your first album dropped?
Well, I will say love is not just a feeling, it is definitely an action. You know, I have an amazing partner who has very much taught me how to love and how to be a better partner in love.
How has love in your life helped you heal? I expected the album to be sad considering healing as one of the main themes but it wasn’t. I feel like healing is usually synonymous with suffering.
Yeah, of course, niggas be sad but love is supposed to be fun. If you're stressed out, you're not in love, you need to leave, but I am vibin' in this bitch. But yeah love is supposed to be fun and whether it's loving yourself, your friend or physical partner, it's fun. So it's vibes. It was a fun album.
When you first started making music, was it different from the work you're putting out now with Radical Romantics?
I started to make music 35 years ago. So I've been doing this for a very long time now. When I started to make music, I had no idea one could have it as a profession or make money out of it. Back then, I just [made music] because I just felt I had to do it. There was a strong urge to do it, which I still have. But, back then I also did a lot of other things. I went to school, I worked on a lot of other things. And now ,I think after every album, “What am I going to do now?” I’m not sure — I’m never sure that I will continue making music. I'll think, "maybe now it’s time I need to start studying to get some other kind of job or something." But then I always come back to the fact that there is this thing I need to find out more about and there are still stories to tell. I take it very little at a time.
When a lot of people first start out with music and touring, they go at it really intensely and burn out. I don't know if that's happened for you, but if it hasn't, that's good.
I totally understand one can get bored and very exhausted by touring. I got that last time, five years ago. And now this time around we planned it very differently. So it’s not that many shows — it’s less intense. And there’s room for doing other things in-between. It’s always important to come back to, “Why am I doing this?” Because the most important thing is to take care of your relationships, and that can be quite difficult on tour. It’s important to have a tempo that allows you to do other things as well.
If you’re not doing a bunch of shows a week, maybe you have to actually explore the city you’re in or at least get some rest and call your family. So I’m glad you’ve planned out your tour in a way that lets you rest and recharge, and you know — catch your breath.
I think that’s important. Economically, it’s really bad to do that. But yeah, we’re trying to do that in a more healthy tempo.
You bring up the idea of knowing why you're making music, knowing why you're going on tour. What's your reason?
We have stories that are important to tell. I think what we're doing on stage is very important in these times. I mean, we have a band of women and non-binary people. And we are telling stories about queer life, which, today — is more important than ever.
I think wherever you go, you're really building a community — which isn't to say it wasn't already there…
Yes. I mean, it is really something that we also create together, gathering in a room and listening to music. It's a very strong force. And it's something that we just have to continue to do.
And no show is ever going to be the same — you're never going to be at that venue with that same group of people again, so it's a very surreal experience to know that, everyone who's there, they're there for themselves and for you.
Yes, it's something you can feel. You can feel an audience and you can feel that there’s something going on between us and that there’s something going on in the room, which can be magical. It's a very strong thing that happens.
Are there certain aspects of queer culture that you take and transform for inspiration?
That's a good question. We have very specific inspirations — like John Waters' films and all these ideas about camp. Those are very present. And there’s so much — it’s an old thing in the EU/UK, based in a kink and BDSM scene, and we were collecting a lot, looking at pictures, and we made the plunge in the last album. It's still quite present in our aesthetics. Both of us look at so many things and read a lot of old stuff, old queer history, and culture.
Yeah! When I was looking at the images, the BDSM and the kink influence is very clear, with the fishnets and vinyl gloves.
Yeah, it's beautiful. It's a very powerful thing to be able to continue queer history, to be able to continue telling queer stories. In these times it's so important — it's about existing.
I mean, if anything, this is a testament to our existence.
We can't be erased.
You know, especially with the state of American politics today, I think your work is extremely relevant.
And it's happening in Europe as well, with right-wing conservative movements happening in so many places now.
Globally, everyone's talking about how much we've progressed. But when you think about it, if this is progression, then our bar was set really low.
Can you tell me about the story you're telling with your most recent photoshoot?
That’s from when we did the video for a track called “Even It Out.” I've been working for a long time with a very dear friend and collaborator, Martin Falck. We did the “Even It Out” video. And we talked for a long time, too, that we wanted to have a femme character. And it was not so easy, it was unclear– how it was going to happen. But then, we had been looking at these films by John Waters, and the actress Divine. And we felt like, “That’s great!” I mean, that's a great inspiration for this video. It's also the first time we created a character that is completely free of shame — which is fun. Because the other ones we've had have been a bit oppressed in some way. But this one is completely open and free and really enjoys themselves and their body. It was a really fun character to step into.
I can imagine that with all the different characters you make your own mental utopia.
I think we're suggesting other worlds, other situations, other ideas. But also for us to create a space where we feel free. That is the best part about making art — that you can create this place of freedom.
So what what is it like stepping into each new character? Do they feel like entirely different people?
I worked with Martin on this once, and I think we start from more emotional characters. It starts more with a feeling. And then we collect photos and images and films with ideas that we want to try out. And then we just sit down and try to organize and nail it down to what it is, “Okay, this sort of feeling emotional character can look like this.” And then it's like making a sculpture or something. Me and Martin feel very close and connected to these characters, but sometimes they are a bit more extreme. So, to make them fun is a very important thing for us, so we also feel like we can laugh about them.
They're all very fun! They're all very campy and even if you are portraying sort of somber feelings are very serious and grounded, it’s never depressing.
You have such a range throughout your discography. You use all of these different voices. How do you determine which voice to use in a song?
I think the voices are more assigned to different emotional spaces. It’s very intuitive. I try to find the right vocals to tell a specific story. And I have a sort of have a very large range myself, and then I also use a lot of machine programs to stretch it even more. But I think it's really fun to play with the idea of authenticity. My voice can be anything from here to there. And all of that is me. And it's a lot of fun to play with that.
As much as telling queer history is important, maintaining that element of joy, happiness and celebration within the context of queer histories is also really important. So I'm glad you're having fun. Thank you.
I sat down with three members of Nautics at the Bus Stop Café, the relaxed West Village spot, and instantly noticed their evident bond, both within and outside of their bandmate relationship. I recognized their impenetrable rapport as they hurled good-natured insults at each other over a plate of rapidly-vanishing chicken tenders. "A lot of... us... is just arguing until we stop arguing and then that means it's done,” Repola said at one point of how they chose the band’s name.
Nautics' distinctive sound is new wave adjacent and frenetically upbeat on their recorded tracks but leans into something punkier live. The influences they list are eclectic, including Gorillaz, The Strokes, XTC, and Elvis Costello. “We do a lot of ska stuff accidentally,” bassist Van Cameron laughed. It was the verve of Nautics’ performance style, however, that first caught my attention, as I watched Repola make fevered forays into the crowd at a January 25 show they played at Sour Mouse, his eyes wide under stripes of graphic eyeshadow as he encouraged audience members to sing along to the gory lyrics of “Fruit Punch.”
This commitment to face-to-face engagement and displays of visceral intensity is how they realized their ethos as a band; again and again, the band locates themselves in a sort of reactionary cohort relative to the heyday of withdrawn, irony-tainted indie acts. “There was a space in the indie community where everyone was just too cool for school. We realized that wasn't cool and I think that's the conclusion everybody else is coming to as well, that it's actually cooler to be honest and to just shout and to cry and to whine,” Repola says.
This tension between presenting an obligatory facade of detachment and feeling internal discontent is the throughline of the band’s latest release, “Shotgun Shack,” the narrator constantly anticipating a misinterpretation of their feelings: “I’m not bitter/I’m just a reject/I’m not frowning that’s just a reflex/Heart beats starting only when needed...I’m not angry/I’m just sour.”
Though they’ve been a fixture of the local live music scene, seasoned at playing the Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan venue circuits for over seven years, the band retains an admirably humble self-awareness about the realities of creating and aspiring to be recognized for it. “Being a band is inherently a little vain. You have to think that you're worth watching and being paid. It's incredibly narcissistic, which is why you have to have a lot of reverence for the people that come to see you because they're giving you everything to feed your ego. That's a very sensitive thing,” Repola says, asserting that their “core value” is putting on a show “worthy of being seen.”
Their show at Arlene’s Grocery delivered on this promise, complementing the momentum they’ve picked up from their recorded songs. On the way out, I’m intercepted by a self-described “Nautics groupie” named Franklin, who discovered Nautics on Spotify and raves openly about the poeticism of of the band’s lyrics and the performance of Shotgun Shack we had all just seen; a taste, perhaps, of larger-scale success to come.