#graph nobel

Graph Nobel - The Light’s Out (2016)

The track had pop appeal with a catchy chorus, but it has always rung out as unique.  What is strikingly odd about the more popular version of the song is the rap section by fellow Canadian Graph Nobel.  Smoke Baby talks about a man’s love for a self-destructive woman but does so with a sense of longing and intrigue.  When Graph is introduced to the song, she plays the aforementioned woman, but comes off as belligerent and obnoxious.  I understand this is true to the character, but it is somewhat jarring to the rest of the tone of the song.  I don’t necessarily think this is a bad choice, but an interesting one.  I haven’t decided on which version I like better, but the song is great regardless.

“I don’t want to put myself in a box here,” she says. “Urban is a box, a very small box And I have a lot of urban music influences. Hip-hop is the love of my life and I think in the band we all have that, we’re all black. We want to be able to move in and out of that urban identity. It’s cool to play urban sounds, it’s cool to have a Mobb Deep bassline, but we don’t want to get caught in it.” With a completed album due for release sometime this year, Graph Nobel will be continuing to balance this artistic fluidity with the often rigid nature of the music industry at a higher level, something she’s learning to grasp constantly. “Business and creativity don’t really work together,” she says. “If you’re an artist just planning to put your shit out independently that’s one thing, you can do what you want all the time. Planning to be successful and climb all the way to the top of that ladder you have to find a way to make creativity work with it. And that’s a tough thing, it’s a stressful thing. But I’m lucky, I love everyone in my band. I’ve got such strong support from producers, friends, industry people that’s it’s a very comfortable thing for me to try and achieve.” This comfort level allows Graph to focus on improving her art. “I have to work hard to be a better singer. I have a lot of difficulty with that ‘cos I’m jumping around a lot and I can’t stand still. The rhyming has gone down, I mean when you stop rhyming your skills go into the garbage can,” she says laughing, ” It took me a while to get my confidence back up and get back into it.” It’s evident though she still has a lot of confidence about what she would like to achieve and wants to do everything from working on small, collaborative projects to appearing on the David Letterman show and to do all this by remaining true to herself. In the long run she knows the benefits of sticking to this game plan in the long run will help her carve out her own artistic niche. “I’m not ashamed of the different things that I like and I talk about it. A lot of black people I know are into the same things that I’m into and they’re saying ‘yeah I like Radiohead too’. I mean certain shit is undeniable. I don’t care who you are, I think every black person when Nirvana came out with ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ we all liked it, we just didn’t tell everybody. When a song is written that way it’s undeniable to any genre. It crosses all lines.” Committed to becoming a songwriter who can do this, Graph Nobel isn’t about to conform to the rules or any neatly shaped categories any time soon. “Sometimes I can feel like that new kid on the first day of school that no one wants to become familiar with,” she says. “But I’m trying to ease a part of the music world in a more peculiar direction.” [Read More]

wow! haven't heard from this girl in forever! Happy to see she's still hustling. 

Graph Nobel - Fyah (2009)

Buy this single & Bootleg Culture LP --> http://bit.ly/TNQLgL Watch Number One ft Black Molly Video: http://bit.ly/R60L9L Produced by Che Vicious & Travis von Cartier (Kops & Robbers Studio, LA) Mixed & Mastered by Ron Allen (The Hive, Toronto) Recording engineer: Eric Hule (Empire Sound, Toronto) & Rayna Zemel (Kops & Robbers, LA)

The Throwback (Some Kinda Wonderful) - Tone Mason Feat Brassmunk, G Stokes & Graph Nobel