“If you do too much of one thing it will kill you. We are constantly dancing with death. But life is supposed to be fun, so enjoy the ride.”
Published on the 7th of January, 2023
Phant8m BONEHEAD, BONEHEAD, and OG SLiM are a few of the various alter-egos that culminated in Bone Slim. This mysteriously masked English artist is known for spitting intricate and soothing rhymes over a diverse range of instrumentals and different sonorities. Not only does Bone Slim already have a vast solo career, but he is also an essential piece of the refreshing and authentic, London-based NiNE8 Collective (DIY Arts & Music Collective). Here he shares the stage with the talented Lava La Rue, Biig Piig, Mac Wetha, Nige, Lorenzo RSV, and NAYANA IZ.
Bone Slim and I met at ANTù in Cais do Sodré on the 1st of April 2022. After 1 month of back-and-forth messaging, we finally got to know each other in person. On the 2nd of April, Bone Slim welcomed us with his big and open smile into his entourage. We got to interview him before his concert at the Micro Clima festival in SMUP, where he performed along with Nige and Sidders. After, we got to spend the rest of the day and night with his entourage. It was a lovely day, and it was a stepping stone to seeking sound.
We recommend you have Bone Slim’s Spotify open by your side while reading the interview so that you can listen to any of the songs mentioned if wanted.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in the suburbs of London. More precisely in Zone 6. We call it Zone Sticks because it is filled with sticks. Metaphorically and physically. It looks like a nice place, but if you look deep enough you can find lots of weird shit that goes on there. Being a young boy that was growing up and wanted to be the fucking dude, I ended up getting myself in stupid situations. So yeah, fun childhood. Did a lot.
How did your household influence you?
I am going to sound really cliché. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do. Because I am a perfect example of it. I grew up the youngest in a family with 3 boys, so I had a lot to prove.
I tried to pick up every instrument as a kid and I used to get laughed at by my family. I was quite a shy kid, around them. My family and my brothers never encouraged my music. So, I encouraged it all myself, with the help of my friends. It was only when Biig Piig started getting a lot of traction, that my oldest brother realized that I was on her tape, not as a producer but as a rapper. So that was the moment when my family started realizing that I was indeed doing something.
Did you go to university?
Yeah, for 6 weeks. I dropped out of art college in Kingston. After dropping out, I started working as a hairdresser and a barber in Central London for 3 years. Started doing it for a bit and I just really enjoyed it at the time. But I was always making music on the side. I found a lot of people who were very supportive in that world. And I found myself opening my mind to a lot more things.
What kind of music did your parents listen to?
Lots of garage. The first ever device where I listened to music was my brother’s old iPod shuffle. It had 70 songs on it, and they were all bangers. Things like Roll Deep and Plan B. Old UK sounds. And then there was band stuff like Artic Monkeys, The Zutons, and The Libertines. Elton John as well. My dad had a big obsession with Elton John, so I know all of the lyrics to the songs.
Yesterday you told me about your friend Charlie. How big of a role did he have in your life?
I used to freestyle on PlayStation and Xbox on Modern Warfare 2 lobbies. People would bring their mates to battle me. That was where I came up. On Modern Warfare, spitting through the mic while playing instrumentals in the background. I would be shitting on the game 100% and rapping on the mic. Charlie was the first one who told me I was talented and that believed in my music. Hearing that at a young age was important.
Why do you drop music on Soundcloud under different names?
I used it as a sketchbook, to test out ideas and see how people liked them. The last thing I released there was “ColourBlind” on valentine’s day in 2020, with KXRN. It was more of a poem, and it was never supposed to be a finished song. It was just supposed to be an outpour of emotion.
I have different aliases. When I was younger it was more about creating little easter eggs. It was like a breadcrumb trail that I started years ago, which I feel like in the future people will discover and appreciate.
There is a point in trying to make something for the future, something which people could keep up with and could reflect on. This is the story of someone who is told he can’t do something, so he does everything in his power to do that to the best of his ability.
Why did you choose to have a mask?
I always liked classics. I enjoy Greek mythology and Greco-Roman theater. When those shows were curated, everyone wore masks, so that the people at the back could see the visual representation of the artists. Also, the artists used masks so that they could portray different characters in the same play. I could wear whatever I wanted but I chose to use the same mask as them. It is like Elton John with his glasses or Ziggy Stardust with his lightning bolt. It is a constant. It can change color, shape, and texture but it is a constant. I feel like it is good to be consistent especially when you are making music that is intended to be timeless.
MF Doom used his mask to hide his identity. What about you?
It is not about hiding my identity. Most people know I am a bigger character without it. But it is the idea that anyone could do this thing. So, I put on a mask, and it all makes sense. That is a metaphor for what everyone does every day whether you dress up in a suit and go to work or you sit around in your house all day in your boxers, or you put on a nice outfit to go out and meet a girl. We all wear masks 24/7. You don’t talk to your mom the same way you talk to your boys. I just made it very physically aware that I am bringing all the things past my face and that I am seeing through all the plastic lies straight away.
Did your musical process evolve or change in any way in the last few years?
Back then I was narrow-minded, and I was cautious about how to take music seriously. I started trying to do everything properly, taking it more seriously, and then I learned my lesson. I was taking it seriously already.
Stripping it all back again and making things in my bedroom again but doing it at a much higher level was a great thing. The man that I was yesterday is not the man I am tomorrow. So, whatever I just said yesterday I am sorry it probably just changed. I am only human, susceptible to change. I am evolving constantly; I am an advocate of that.
How do you create your alter-egos?
A lot of drugs I suppose. It just happens. I am quite an animated character and I have a lot of different moods and different mindsets. For example, how I am talking to you is not how I talk to my mum, and it is not how I talk to someone with a knife in their hand. You got to play in your field. I always say I am like Julius Caesar. I win a war with words. You don’t have to get sticky unless you need. That is the last thing you do. You can always talk to people, communicate, and set out problems.
When I was younger, I was trying to work out who I was. Creating alter egos was a coping mechanism at first. I feel like I was creating those characters because I felt I had different avenues in me. But now Bone Slim has become something that I am confident in saying is for everyone. And if I don’t have a song for you, I will make it.
Why did you describe yourself as a thinker and not a doer?
I am a doer now. When I came to Portugal, I made that my main focus. My new year’s resolution was just to do things, even if it didn’t work out. Just doing things.
You didn’t do things before?
Everything I did in my life before coming to Portugal was on everyone else accord. Getting kicked out, sofa surfing, getting sacked, getting hired. It was always someone’s else job; it was always someone’s else thing. Last year I just realized that if I want to do something I need to do it myself. I wish I learned that at a younger age.
NiNE8 Collective has an ethos in which we try to encourage people to do things. Anybody can create a NiNE8 around them. NiNE8 is nothing other than a collective network of open-minded people who are willing to back each other. It is a very important ethos, and we try to infect the world with it.
What was the idea behind Bone Slim Rolling Papers or Bone Slim Matches merchandising?
Everything is a collectible and that is why, when I do merchandise, I never do more than a limited number of things. Everything that I release is to be cherished by people. I make it for them. Everything is usable or you can keep it, but I will never re-release it.
If you believed in me in the beginning, you keep it. Shit is going to get way more expensive. When I released the matchboxes all my mates were going to me and saying: “Oh, I don’t want to buy a pack of matches for 15 pounds”. I didn’t make it clear in the description of the product at all, but I was saying it on Instagram quite a lot. The matchbox had a USB stick inside with the whole tape BoneChilledMilk on it. I only had 50 matchboxes for sale. And it worked, I sold them all.
How did NiNE8 start?
I knew Lloyd (Mac Wetha) from the area. He did production for me, and I supported his band shows. Then he went to a different college where he met Lava and Biig Piig in a music class. One day they went to Lloyd’s house studio and then they made NiNE8. I heard about it that week, and then I literally forced my way into the best rap group on earth. And here we are.
How is NiNE8’s work rate when you are together?
It is super-fast. It is something that I am an advocate of independently of who I am working with. People say I work fast in the studio. I try to capture a lot of ideas as quickly as possible in the studio then I go home, refine it and I go do all the boring work by myself, and then I will bring people back in to finish off the song. Regarding the beginning of the process, it is quick. It needs to be because you are only in the studio for a certain amount of time, and certain important people can leave in the next half an hour. You can’t let people go stale in the corner of the room. It is like having a barbecue and keeping all the coals warm.
Everything I do is a collaboration. I feel like it is important to have a second set of ears or a second set of eyes from other people around you who believe in your vision, and allowing them to collaborate and have input.
What did you learn while you were coming up in the music industry?
Don’t take yourself too seriously. For years I was very narrow-minded. It is not what you do, it is what you know. Read the contracts and don’t trust everyone because some people are pricks. Just because they wear a hoodie does not mean they are cool.
Drugs and Alcohol do not benefit your career. It is not even an enhancement. It is just something that can be there to keep your mind at ease if you need it. Anxiety is a bitch, and it is a real thing as well. I didn’t think it was real when I was 17. Thought it was just something inside someone’s head.
Do you and deadlines go along well?
Aahahaahahah. Every deadline I had this year has been missed. It is one of the things to not get too caught up on. I want to give the fans everything that I can as soon as possible, but I have a level of quality that I need to keep consistent.
The difficult thing is missing a deadline and realizing you just don’t want to do a specific song anymore. At the same time, in this current day and age, I just can’t overuse and throw so much down people’s throats. It is annoying when people are used to having quick information all the time. No one buys an album anymore. Even getting someone to listen to a whole album is difficult.
A long time ago you participated in a project called HOTR. What does it consist in?
It is avant-garde music. It is sound-escaping art. It is like flem. It is literally about regurgitation. It was never supposed to be music. We always said we are not going for the Grammys; we are going for an exhibition in Louvre.
If one of us just starts not having fun, while we made the music, they literally look and say “delete, delete, delete, delete”, and somebody just deletes the whole thing.
In 2019 you released a project with droppedmilk called BoneChilledMilk. How was this project born?
Zack (droppedmilk) was in my class when I was in college, and he would come around to my house every day after school and we would make songs. We finished the tape two years before its release. After finishing it, we were shopping around to gauge what people thought of it. We end up sticking with Robbie, my engineer. He was the first person I wanted to impress with my music because I knew he would take me to a level of production which was going to exceed everything of my wildest dreams. Then we finished that tape with him. This is when we went to the label and why it took so long to come out. When BoneChilledMilk came out, I had already finished ifiwas2015 and I was ready to release it.
In ifiwas2015 you were experimenting with the sounds from your SoundCloud era. Why did you change your sonority between BoneChilledMilk and ifiwas2015?
Well, BoneChilledMilk was a collaboration, and it was pure hip-hop. By the point it was released, I was completely over that point in my life. It was an important EP because it made me appreciate the traditional approach to writing songs and stories.
When ifiwas2015 was coming out, the reason I was so focused on sounding completely different was that I had been labeled as a hip-hop rapper due to my first tape. And I wanted to break out of that status quo. We had been advised to make hip-hop songs so we could put our step down into the industry. Despite this, I was always trying to make weird and alternative sounds.
Why did you build this macabre environment around Bone Slim in your Danse Macabre project?
I like how “danse macabre” translates to the dance with death. If you do too much of one thing it will kill you. We are constantly dancing with death. But life is supposed to be fun, so enjoy the ride. It is not supposed to be a scary thing.
I knew I wanted to make that cover with the people running up the hill because it reminded me of the May solstice festivals in Norway, running around in circles and those weird cult mindsets.
I just typed in “danse macabre” on google when I was trying to explain my references to my visual creators. This guy from the Philippines, Nino Raul, is fucking sick fan, made this whole in-depth video about Danse Macabre. It was quite funny because it fits and makes sense but my idea it was not that at all.
If people derive something from my lyrics, I am alright with it. Anybody can have their interpretation. If that imagery means that to him, cool let him have it. It is amazing how someone can dwell that much in-depth and how that can all make sense, despite not being what I meant. I was just trying to create an image where it looks like I am leading all my friends into a really bad abyss, while we are all having fun. Because that is the dark reality of enjoying things. It is slowly leading to your death. You are enjoying a nice walk? Your feet will eventually fall off if you walk too long.
There is a lyric in your track “Marble Mansions” that goes like “I will probably OD in Marble Mansions”.
Yeah. That whole tape is supposed to be about the end of my career and about the gangster that goes and retires on the beach in Marbella. It was a prediction. Predicted it well mate. Been in a fair few mansions since. Just looking for mine now. Probably will never OD, because I am a lot smarter now and I know how to handle my drugs. It is about the inevitable demise of everything. I have seen the super-rich and I have seen the super-poor. I was lucky to have never been either. Because at the end of the day, someone’s definition of a rainy day is their perception of it. I have seen people who have everything in the world, but they are the most depressed people ever. Certain people just can’t appreciate life. I have seen self-made people that are absolute pricks to waitering staff or cab drivers because they are self-made, and they believe this is how everything is supposed to be. The whole thing of “I will probably OD in a Marble Mansion” is the inevitable demise of anyone who feels like they have materialistically gotten success.
To wrap up, do you seek balance?
No. Never. Why try balance when you could be waving? Well, let me answer this honestly. I never thought I needed to seek balance. I think as I have got older, I now try to, but it is just being mature about certain things, like not acting out or being a dickhead to people.
On the 2nd of April, Bone Slim played an amazing set at Micro Clima festival. During the last year not only Bone Slim had lots of supporting gigs, but he also played in the climate live bus stage at Reading Festival. On the 30th of September NiNE8 Collective (DIY arts and music collective that Bone Slim is part of) threw the NiNE8 Fest in the fabric London.
On the 10th of November, Bone Slim threw a crazy mask party supported by some crazy artists and DJs to celebrate the release of his new EP ?SNIDE.
In the last months, Bone Slim released the tracks “NIGHT BUS”, “MOVERS AND SHAKERS” and “Trackies”. He also released his brand new EP ?SNIDE through Stogey Records.
As it was not enough, Bone Slim also took part in the last three releases of NiNE8 Collective: “Hush Hush”, “Nige Piano (Deja Vu)” and “Noodle Poodle”.
You can find Bone Slim on Instagram.