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How 6LACK Rejuvenates
Now may be the time to shift the tide and see 6LACK as a person who advocates for bliss — especially for those in the Black community. In order to achieve meaningful work, he must be inspired by every aspect of his life. We all know and love 6LACK as the artist who releases back-to-back hits and collaborates with our favorite musicians. Instead, he’s recently released different versions of the same songs for listeners to meditate, study, and relax to.
Tell me about some of your favorite discussion points with Sadhguru.
My favorite part of it was the different perspectives and talking about the same thing but from two different angles. I actually got to learn a little bit more than I got to share my perspective which was cool because I come from a space of normally being the person that people come to. So having a moment to sit back and listen to somebody with a lot more experience and wisdom was my favorite part. It was a listening session for me.
Were there any commonalities that you two had when it came to mental health and love?
I think the idea of being loved and making that a part of your everyday life and everyday practice. That has been the constant driving force behind everything that I do creatively, and I know as a yogi it has to be the center of who you are, so that’s definitely where we connected.
What do you think makes you and Sadhguru different?
I would say that the only difference that I could offer to that discussion is that sometimes when you come from different backgrounds or different areas, the hurdles that you have to go through in order to attain a level of peace or a certain amount of love is just a little bit harder to tackle. The focus on being loved when there are so many distractions and we live in the social media era where news is flying at us 24/7. Coming from a younger generation where there’s a lot more for us to sift through and filter through – that’s where I would say we’re a little bit different. I have a little bit more of an understanding and compassion for just how hard it is to dedicate yourself to that practice.
Was there any piece of advice Sadhguru gave you that really stuck with you?
Honestly, it was aside from the talking points. It was his poise and his patience throughout the discussion. I think that being able to speak clearly and freely only comes from doing so much work on yourself. That was the lasting thing that I noticed throughout the discussion. The way that he’s conditioned is just something that I aspire to be.
You released Since I Have A Lover back in March. What’s the overarching theme of the album?
Since I Have A Lover ties back to the discussion with Yogi Sadhguru. The album is about practice. It’s about figuring out how to be your biggest, best self and how to show up for yourself. It’s about love – and not just romantic love, but self-love. It could be love for a hobby or for a passion. It could be love for a routine, doing something for yourself health-wise…Reminding yourself of who you are outside and the one or two things you may have adapted as a personality. So for me, it was just an album that was made to help me practice getting back to myself and inspire other people to do the same thing.
You took a hiatus to focus on your mental health. During that time, what did healing and taking care of yourself look like?
Sitting with myself sometimes in complete silence and just have those moments where I’m going through everything that I’m thinking or feeling and trying to organize it. After sitting with myself, I was finding something to read; a good book. “The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life” was one of my favorite books during the beginning of that process because I was switching my sleeping patterns and starting to wake up earlier to tackle more of my day before 11 a.m. Besides that, yoga and meditation in the morning. Doing one or both of those makes me feel a lot more prepared for anything that comes at me for the rest of the day. I’ve been running a lot lately – any kind of exercise. Anything except the music was helping me because in order for me to be creatively inspired in music, I’ve just grown to the point where I have to be creatively inspired in every other aspect of my life first.
How long do you think it took you to get back to being musically inspired?
Right around the time I was wrapping up some of my sessions with my therapist who I was also talking to during my process. Once I started to have a better scope of everything that was going on in my life, I just felt better going into the studio. I felt more excited and a weight was off my shoulders and I actually had something worth saying.
You said you hit rock bottom which means something different for everyone. Do you feel like you’re bouncing back and more able to continue working on music?
Absolutely. To this day, it’s still an everyday practice, but the bounce-back has been amazing. I was up at 6:30 this morning for yoga class in Venice, then 8 a.m. meditation, and now I’m doing this nice interview. A lot of stuff has been done before my day really starts. As soon as I get off here I’m going straight to the studio.
I think that being able to speak clearly and freely only comes from doing so much work on yourself.
Why did you choose QUIN, Don Toliver, and Wale as collaborators for Since I Have A Lover?
I always just make the music first. Then if I hear somebody’s voice, it’ll pop into my head in a moment where maybe I have an empty space on the song that I didn’t complete. I’ll listen to it with that empty space for a while then hear one of my friend’s voices pop up in my head. That’s normally how it happens. For the song with Wale, I had finished the entire song, and then toward the end, I just kept saying ‘I hear somebody else but it’s not me.’ I hear poetry so it has to be Wale. For Don, I had an open space for a hook, and knowing that he was one of my favorite artists throughout the pandemic so I reached out and made it happen. QUIN is obviously my partner and one of my best friends.
Who do you want to collaborate with in the future?
I would love to make a song with Erkyah, James Fauntleroy, The Dream, and Frank. I’m open to anything. There are tons of people I haven’t worked with who I would love to work with. I would love to work with Sade even though she doesn’t do collabs.
During your discussion with Sadhguru, you touched on the point of Black women being the blueprint. How do you incorporate the inspiration of Black women into your music and daily life?
By opening my eyes and opening my ears. Some of the best advice and most unbiased opinions that I’ve ever gotten were from the people around me and the women around me. I’ve always been the leader for my group of friends as far as guys go, but it’s always cool to have a perspective that’s like, ‘Hey, you need to get your shit together. I can see you, and you might look cool to everybody else, but you have a little bit more work to do.’ It’s hard to accept in the beginning, but it’s so necessary in order to grow.
Are there any direct Black women in your life who give you daily inspiration?
My mom for sure. She was there from the very beginning of what wasn’t even a career during the time. Besides the music, she took on the responsibility of raising three kids, having to make sure everything was covered, and still allowing space for there to be some kind of creative outlet. If it weren’t for her, then I probably wouldn’t even be on this call right now.
If you were a yogi, what is some advice you would give to people who want people to slow down and take care of themselves?
I would honestly just say to be gentle with yourself, and be gentle with other people. That’s the best piece of advice. I’m even taking it for myself today and with everything that I do, with every conversation I have, with every conflict that pops up. I’m really taking my time and not getting worked up, not overreacting, and allowing myself to be responsible and seeing what that does for my life.
Were those some of the issues you faced that made daily life difficult?
For sure. You have pent-up feelings of resentment towards something. Then you get caught off guard and the next thing you know you’re reacting or overreacting. I know what the best version of myself is and I love to be proactive, to listen, and to figure things out.
Why is therapy important to you?
I really had to talk to somebody on the outside to figure out how I feel inside. It was the main thing that I know I was struggling with. I left therapy feeling like I had trained for football or a sport. I know so much better now and it’s not even that I need a specific answer about anything in my life. I just needed to get it out of my head and my body, and once I got it out I had a better idea of how to handle myself next time versus just continuing to create this story that’s way more dramatic than it has to be.
What are some of your goals moving forward?
I would love to put on some weight and take care of my body. I also want to spend as much time as I can with my daughter and continue to figure out ways to help myself and help the people around me figure out the rest of our lives in the most fun and creative ways possible. I want to make more cool shit.
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Enough of Our Machines
The already ethereal work takes on a new sound with vōx and Alex, adding elements of their own futuristic style. The original acoustic, melancholy piece from 2010 suggests a desire to abandon a world perpetuated by machines and disease, a yearning to return to nature and reconnect with ourselves. Fast forward to today, this message could not be more relevant, in a world where machines, AI, and disease seem to lurk at every turn, there’s a gravitation to return to our roots.
Building from a minimalist perspective, and slowly growing into a room thumping pulse, the third part brings in Alex’s live drums and mesmerizing synths to engulf the listener, before falling back into a deep calm. The new interpretation takes on an electronic and synth twist, bringing us on a rise and fall of emotions, all accompanied by vōx’s diaphanous vocals.
To accompany the release, the band also worked with Yudo Kurita, photographer and longtime friend of vōx’s, on a photoshoot to capture the dynamic between the two collaborators. Straying away from the same old “band photos” we typically see, Yudo took a different approach, finding an affinity between the photos and the song itself. Drawing from the same somber energy of the piece, the photos were shot in dim lighting, focusing only on the silhouettes of vōx and Alex. Surrounded by a meadow of wildflowers, or laying together on a rocky terrain, the pair finds themselves quite literally reconnecting with their natural roots.
office sat down with the two to discuss their collaboration and reconfiguration of the track.
There is a bit of an overlap in your guttural, yet ethereal sound and that of Son Lux. What was your process for blending in your own music style and making the song your own?
vōx- Son Lux is already known for their genre defying futuristic production choices, so it was definitely a challenge to make the song our own. We also made careful consideration in how our choices would age over time. Something I really admire about Son Lux is how their production from 10 years ago still feels fresh, and we wanted to make sure we made choices that would have a timeless element. And not even really timeless in a classic sense, but timeless in a sense where you can’t easily place them in time.
Alex- There are a lot of overlaps sonically between what vōx and I have been making and what Son Lux is doing. Though on this song in particular, they have more of an acoustic approach, so we tried to do something with a bit more electronic and synth touch but still honor the original version.
How often do you and Alex work together? Do you have a set approach when you do work on a piece together?
V- We’ve worked together consistently since 2018 when we met at a small festival in LA we were both playing. I’m super consistent in the way I work. I think it’s definitely a part of my neurodivergence that I’m so settled into the routine of it. I prefer to songwrite alone and then during the pandemic I learned how to record and comp my own vocals, so I’ll come to a session with a demo song for us to start.
A- vōx and I have been working together since 2018 and we work quite often, we have done 2 EPs, One LP and another in the works. Our work flow is so natural and smooth, we have very aligned taste.
How did this reinterpretation come about? Did Son Lux reach out to you?
V- Yes! I’d connected with Ryan Lott a few years ago about working together. I’ve been a Son Lux fan since the We Are Rising album, so it’s truly an honor and young me is squealing!
What stood out to you about this boundary-pushing track that made you want to rework it?
V- I love that the track is deceivingly simple and straightforward. The lyric lines repeat and the vocal melodies don’t change much. There’s an effortless quality to it, but underneath is a world of complex musicality. That’s really the magic of Son Lux.
A- I love the rhythms and the melodies, very interesting counter rhythms and compelling melodies. Not landing in a clear positive or negative place. Just evoking questions of the listeners ears.
You’ve also flipped the song on its head, starting instead with the outro “I’m asking you to take…” Why is that?
V- This was an idea Son Lux had!
Together you bring such a unique perspective to the song and often talk a lot about using music to help with mental health struggles, which feels true especially now. How does that transition to this piece coming out in 2023 as opposed to 2013 which was such a different time?
V- I agree, this song feels especially poignant now! Never have we been more in a “had enough of our machines/disease” mindset than in 2023. There’s a weariness that I relate to in the lyrics. I think a lot of folks out there are dreaming of a life off the grid or coming back to nature, slowing down enough to find peace and healing. I don’t know if that’s exactly what Son Lux had in mind when they wrote these lyrics, but it’s certainly one way to interpret the song.
A- vōx and I like to use the sound of our music to express deep emotion and anxiety and even frustration with things in our lives, therefore giving it a distorted/chaotic sound at times, countered by some very beautiful soft moments. The music is very cathartic for us for dealing with anxiety and mental health issues, and we hope it can do the same for listeners.
How did you and Alex decide on the creative for the photo shoot to accompany the release?
V- I had met Yudo Kurita (our photographer) many years ago, but we hadn’t connected on a project yet. We mostly just let his distinct style take the lead on this shoot. I was already a huge fan of what he does, so I wasn’t worried. Aside from that, we wanted to find fresh ways to have a shoot with two people. It’s easy to become boring when you’re shooting “band” photos, so we were fighting against that aspect. This is the first shoot Alex and I have ever done together!
The music is very cathartic for us for dealing with anxiety and mental health issues, and we hope it can do the same for listeners.
Do you both want to do more reworkings like this in the future?
V- Yes, definitely!
A- I love doing reworkings of other peoples songs because it gives us a chance to tip our hat the original song but also put our personal spin on it. Also, when there is already existing material there to work with, we don’t have the fear of facing the blank page and starting something from scratch!
