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Natures Memories ~B O Ḵ Ë

Album Release March 25, 2021. Musical Conversation.

By Tess TimmonsPublished 3 years ago 14 min read
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B O Ḵ Ë 2021

Striking gold while scrolling Instagram is exactly the feeling I had when finding B O Ḵ Ë. Immediately I sent his artistry to all the music heads I know. When B O Ḵ Ë sent me an album release announcement, I stopped what I was doing, right-that-second knowing I was about to embark on a wonderful journey of sound.

B O Ḵ Ë aka Scott Russell Wilson Jr. is from Fife, Scotland. B O Ḵ Ë is Scottish slang dialect that means Based On Key Elements, GREAT alias! He is 24 years old "but for some reason, I feel a lot older not physically, but on a more spiritual level, even as a child weirdly enough." After listening to Natures Memories, B O Ḵ Ë's ancient wisdom is abundantly clear.

*Note to reader: listen to the Natures Memories while you read this article.

S. R. Wilson Jr. 2021

"In total, I honestly could not tell you how many albums I've actually made. It's a lot. I usually have an idea and work on it for a while then scrap it & never release it. Or it morphs into something else for later down the line. I've always been more of a 'Full Albums rather than Singles' type of Artist. I've always enjoyed digesting music as albums. Start to finish in one session preferably", Wilson explains. Natures Memories includes 17 tracks, 16 songs plus an interlude. Five different artists Monroe, Shogun, Pri, Planet.DRVV, and Aniela collaborate with B O Ḵ Ë. "Currently I have 5 Projects in total out under the Alias B O Ḵ Ë & I plan on dropping a 6th as an NFT very soon."

Enjoy the Q&A music conversation below about Natures Memories.

  • This album is titled Natures Memories, what are your favorite places within nature?

Whenever I spend extended time in nature it's preferably somewhere pretty secluded, away from civilization, which can be pretty easy here in Scotland with all the Loch's & Mountains to explore. Anywhere I can dive deep and focus on what's actually important, towards the development of my health; in order for me to create a meaningful future for those around me. I like beaches, mountains, forests. All the infinite places you can get lost in.

On a day-to-day basis, it's... anywhere in the trees locally, near birds where I can of course take some recordings and sample these birds & other noises out in nature. I would definitely say nature and its weird & wonderful ways have been the main source of inspiration, not just in this album, but in my life's path and this journey I'm on.

MatadorNetwork H.Amen 2014 Scotland
  • First, congratulations on a beautiful album that layers in depth and takes the audience on an introspective journey. Be Free, track 2 starts off with a recess vibe reminding the audience of childhood- our free path. What were you like as a child?

Very creative, optimistic & open to new ideas. I've always had a pretty deep sense of purpose & felt like my reasons for being here were important; so I should pay attention and soak up whatever I can from the people around me. It's weird because at first I just assumed that's what everyone was doing. Trying to make the world a better place than it was when they arrived. It wasn't till I grew a bit older I realized a lot of people are quite happy to just waste away and do nothing for the duration of their time spent in this realm.

I grew up in a big family with a lot of siblings, so there were always so many minds to bounce new ideas off. We moved around a lot while I was going through my childhood years from 1 to 13. Over time it made me strong & through the constant changes in my life, I learned to become more flexible and adapt to sudden changes rather than let them overwhelm me.

B O Ḵ Ë - Natures Memories YouTube 2021
  • In track 2 Be Free there are frog croaks, along with the kid's voices. Are you recording frogs and kids?

Honestly, most of my samples come from hours of listening through sounds I find online somewhere & then warping them, chopping them up & playing around with them. Having fun until I find something that makes sense. I recycle the noises I find in online sound banks or out in nature, in old cartoons or lectures from spiritual teachers.

I play the Tibet Singing Bowls & drums to induce some sort of altered state or to inspire new samples to record. In recent years I have been learning the basics of the keyboard. Some of the tracks you hear on this project & the B-side have samples I recorded on my phone while I was staying out in Tenerife at the beginning of the lockdown. Listening back to the sounds of busy human life happening once I had returned home to Scotland, to lockdown, was honestly pretty haunting. To think it was all just in that moment... everything was normal and the pandemic had just started to creep in, to then sudden lockdown, all the busy streets fell silent and the place became a ghost town.

  • A final thought on Be Free: Monroe's voice glides strong and low perfectly in juxtaposition to the high voice of the kid. His rhymes of "no sleep, cutting the middle man, back against the wall" dig deep and help lift us into the hook of "we just wanna chill, we just wanna be free." You do a great job of layering a variety of sounds and matching artists' voices. How do you find lyricists and singers?
  • It's genuinely from listening to a whole load of music, putting myself out there & reaching out to these artists to show some love and appreciation for what they do. I genuinely like to work with people who I consider myself a fan of. Like if I really love your music, then I would really love to contribute to what you are doing and it's as simple as that. It feels most natural to do things that way. Everyone on this project is special because they're genuinely just being themselves; yet at the same time, making my dreams come true & helping people all over the world get through whatever they're going through. I feel like right now in the world we need more of that & I encourage humans all over to be more authentic and express their true selves.

    K2Promos 2021
    • Perspective track 2 leaves childhood behind, pulling up our hoddie to rock the boxing beats and punches Shogun slings. There's a Gorillaz industrial vibe happening in this song. Nature is set aside, Shogun keeps us in the pocket of conflict between man. This is one of many turns in the journey of your sound.

    Crazy that you would make a comparison to the Gorillaz. They're definitely a huge inspiration of mine (growing up & their recent works - on a deeper level) & I look forward to our collaborations in the future somehow taking form.

    Also, the Artist featured on this track Shogun is a Legend in the rap game here in Scotland, & another huge inspiration of mine. Getting him to be a part of this all has been crazy. I really appreciate his work & the attitude he's had towards representing our country in the right way. To be a part of that this year and last has really been special.

    Shutterstock 2021
    • Track 4 Have Focus, Have Fun, Have Faith transitions your audience into a wonderland filled with dreamy vibes, bubbles, waterhole sounds, and pages turning in books. Did you actually flip a book and record it? Reminds me of GZA finding beats as he walked the streets of NY. The lyrics in track 4 remind me of Abraham Hicks. The hook speaks your album title. What message do you want the audience to gain from your album?

    Too many books were flipped in the process of this album, It's all I had to do, other than actually make the music itself & feed my mind through other alternative routes. Books help me stay sane, and I would say other than nature, music & altered states of consciousness it's helped inspire this album more than anything else; particularly the album title & track names.

    The album title 'Natures Memories' was a term that seemed to pop up a lot while having introspective conversations with my dad about the nature of reality and at the time it seemed like the easiest, most simple way to sum up what's going on around us. How the birds remember how & where to fly and the plants remember how and where to grow, and somehow all of this happened a long time ago yet it's still happening right now in this very moment, stored in the memory of nature.

    I became obsessed with the words 'Natures Memories' all through the year...tied everything together for me. It became a way to sum up my sheer confusion and amazement of the world around me. It helped me make sense of some of the psychedelic experiences I had throughout the year, as well. I hope people take something special from the album and really start to question the things that go on around them. The plants, trees, mushrooms & other species are all conscious living beings ... Stop to think how intricate this whole realm is & all its layers.

    Rupert Sheldrake has a theory of Morphic Resonance & it's the closest thing I've heard to an explanation for what's happening all around us constantly. Without Rupert breaking things down in the way he did through his theory of Morphic Resonance, the album Natures Memories would never have existed with the title & theme that it does.

    Pick Up Limes 2021
    • Track 5 Breakfast Jam Pri sings, "My energy I must protect...just like the sunshine...This could be our breakfast jam...you made my coffee sweet just like I like it, you warm me up on cold mornings." Do the singers send you written lyrics? Studio ad-lib jam session? Do the beats come first?

    All of the lyrics on this album are written by the artists themselves. The process for me is usually a case of making a selection of sounds & sending them over to the artist to do their thing. Although, with this track (& a few others on the project) the random titles I had given the beats, ended up inspiring the artists to choose a topic on the words provided in the title. This made a real special touch to the whole experience.

    D. Wood 2016 NYC Dance

    • Track 6 Am I Aware Breakfast is had, an afternoon of dance is about to ensue as the audience is lured with flutes and chanting to a desert party. Not only am I dancing in my living room but become filled with glee to hear Deepak's voice...that was so exciting! What sound first came to you in making this song? How long does it take your mind to layer all your complexity of sound? What a world your head must be!

    The first sounds that I started out with on 'Am I Aware' was the Indian-type flute samples you hear in there. I knew the feel I wanted the track to have, but like all my other songs, I never actually have a solid idea of what's going to happen when I start making music. It either doesn't work out for me and I have a stressful hour or so before I can really get into the flow of things. Or it just flows immediately because I timed my production session correctly & the energies want to flow through me. It is weird to think that there may be some sort of higher power guiding me when these things happen. I feel like I'm here to leave a footprint on humanity and music is my platform for being able to do that, as it's what I love to do.

    Sometimes I can put too much pressure on myself to get things how they should be... returning to the present moment and being gracious for what's happening here & now is key. That was the underlying message for not just this track but the entire project.

    N. Andrews 2017 Financial Times Trainspotting
    • Track 9 Fiftyten Interlude has a Beck vibe to it. In cheerfulness B O Ḵ Ë and friends send blessings to other tribes~ reminding us all to dream. Track 11 We're Made of Drugs, the cartoon video is wild. Who drew it? A bit of a 90's rave vibe enters the journey of sound now. Feels like a Trainspotting joyride.

    Fiftyten is where the album takes a turn into the more Psychedelic side of this. Everything sort of deteriorated and made less sense as an album but in my world, it was the perfect 360.

    The track title & style of the song, in general, was of course inspired by fellow Scottish Producers Boards of Canada & their track Sixtyten. In the end, I settled for the title Fiftyten 'cause it felt disrespectful to try and one-up BoC. I can't even begin to explain how much Boards of Canada influenced this journey of mine.

    E. Alexander BAZAAR 2017
    • Unlike track 15 All I Want which has an incredible Bjork industry vibe. In Track 12 As a Matter of Fact we head back into nature with Aniela. The static in track 12 sounds a bit like rain - again bravo on your variety of beautiful noise. You layer like a professional baker, giving the audience so much stimulation, that one could hear the album five times in a row, (that's me) and still find new beats to bob our head to.

    A lot of emotions happened throughout this year, highs & lows and some realms were entered that became ever more frustrating to convey in the music. I like drums that hit hard, melodies that make your hairs stand up. I like noises that normally sound normal - no longer sounding normal. It takes you on a journey through inner space and I love that about life. Realizing what's beyond and then asking yourself the question 'how far does this go?'

    BOKE YouTube 2021
    • Track 14 Worry is Useless almost felt like the end of the album. How do you decide your arrangement?

    That is weird you should say that because I was wrestling between the idea of 'Worry Is Useless' or 'All I Want' being the final track of the album. Four singles were released in the lead-up to this album being dropped & I wanted people to be able to end the project on some fresh material. It didn't feel right having the album full of tracks that had already been heard. So I dropped out a few tracks that were originally meant to be on the album (Let Me Be & Rude Awakening) that will now serve as the familiars on the B-Side of Natures Memories, more than likely.

    The tracklist of this album has completely changed at least four times through the year, so you can imagine how many tracks I've actually got to choose from. Hence the reason I'm doing a 17 track B-side as an NFT. I don't want all these tracks that got made in the process to get buried. (Similar to what I have done with the 'Fractal Living Organism' album being followed up a month later with the album 'Overmuch' on NYD 2020).

    L. Sidgwick The Drum 2019

    • Track 10 Feel High is saved for last. One can crank loud and louder and it sounds better and better each time. If that's not the definition of a top hit, I don't know what is. The sing-songy hook brings us back to the Feel Free vibes with other childhood voices, reminding us to ride light and enjoy the ride.

    I agree! Another beautiful track with Telford Rapper MONROE, another very special artist who it meant a lot to work with. It's always exciting when you know about a superstar in the making & someone who's destined to be at the top; it's even more exciting to get the chance to work alongside them. More music with MONROE is absolutely on the cards. He just brings the vibes, man. Something about his energy has drawn me to his music for a while & I look forward to seeing the heights he takes his career to.

    • What's next for you? Will u be touring after Covid? Where can people find you?

    Touring, more than likely I'll do something, but it has to make sense for me to take on that venture. Definitely lots of travelling in store. Linking up with a few new artists from all over is a no brainer.

    People can find me out in nature across Europe in the real world, or @dmtBOKE on most socials, if you live here in the digital.

    *Thank you for reading this music conversation. It was a joy to write! If you liked it, click the heart. If you support artists, tips are appreciated.

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