Jazz has always been about breaking the rules, being rebellious and doing something unexpected so it’s surprising there are not more visible LGBT performers in the genre. One artiste we have been enjoying a lot lately is London-based vocalist & producer Margomool and their misconceptions EP. The EP envelops and transports you to another world, one that feels more inclusive, warmer and more harmonious than the current climate we find ourselves in. Loverboy talks to Margomool about being non-binary in Jazz, being creative in lockdown and the eternal inspo that is Björk.
Jazz seems to be an exciting place right now with yourself, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Sons of Kemet and others although for a lot of people, jazz will still be perceived as an ‘old-fashioned’ genre. How has it been for you, entering into jazz, finding your audience and being non-binary? Was it easier/harder than you expected?
It’s funny because I wouldn’t say I’m a jazz musician but I’ve always played with and been around jazz musicians. Most of the music I grew up on – soul, hip-hop, reggae – is influenced by and has influenced jazz, so in a way I’ve always been present to it. As I started to listen to more jazz and experience it live, it began to influence my writing choices and my general attitude towards music-making. Jazz pushes me to be a more open musician. To listen better and dare to go to weird places. Being an untrained non-binary musician in the scene I’m in can be pretty daunting at times. There’s not many of us queers around, although we’re slowly peaking our heads through. The voice is an especially gendered instrument, so as a vocalist, it’s taken me a while to feel comfortable in my authenticity outside of cis-het expectations. I’m still finding my way through it all and expect to continue
There’s a lot to learn! The exciting thing about jazz is the endless possibility of it fusing with other genres to make something completely unique. All the artists you mentioned do this so well and in a way are a reflection of London’s sound and history. It truly makes me blush to be included in that list, especially being a white enby from the midlands. The instinct to blend jazz with other music genres like dub, break beat and even folk music is so reflective of our globalised society. My music has always been difficult to define. In the past I thought that would be a barrier for audiences, but right now people want to hear fresh sounds so it feels like my time.
Jazz is so rebellious in its construction but it is not one of the first genres people think of when it comes to queerness. Are there are any historic figures that have been overlooked in terms of gender and sexuality within jazz?
Someone who’s work has been super influential on me is Beverly Glenn-Copeland. He doesn’t personally describe himself as a jazz musician but has been regarded as one in response to his explorative style of composition. In recent years, his output has been recognised and his career really started to take off in his 70s. In interviews, he describes his black transness as a hindrance to his music being popular earlier on, but also the fact that people weren’t ready for his music at the time of release in the 70s / 80s. My knowledge of other queer jazz artists is pretty slim. It’s a sad likelihood that we may not know many queer jazz musicians from the past 100+ years because of how historically hostile it has been to be openly queer. I really hope this continues to progress and change. The queer artists that I’m drawn to right now also probably wouldn’t describe themselves as jazz musicians, but I feel their way of constructing music through improvisation and intent chaos is of the jazz attitude. One would be left-field electronic producer aya. The way she weaves her compositions together and transforms samples is magic to me. Another queer artist I’m always in awe of is tom theythem, an amazing poet, writer, vocalist and long time collaborator. Their craftsthemship towards improvising is truly astounding and they are one of the reasons why I got into the scene I’m in. Definitely check both of them out!
Misconceptions is beautiful. Tell me about the ideas behind it and how you came upon the title and the subjects you explored.
Thank you so much for your kind words! As cliche as it sounds, misconceptions was truly a lock-down project. The pandemic hit and we found ourselves having to face a new reality. Being in this limbo place, I became pretty obsessed with the concept of what was real and what was an illusion. The collective veil had been lifted and I had found myself in a precarious housing situation, with no work and lots of time to not distract myself from the internal dysphoric mess I had put off facing for too long. Our perception of the world had shifted so abruptly and was difficult to even grasp. With misconceptions, I wanted to capture the feeling of this whirlpool we found ourselves in, which we are still very much swirling through. The EP and visual projects touch on subjects which are pretty foundational to our perception of the reality: the natural world, our egos and gender. I tried to twist and tease the ways in which we relate to these areas to show how absurd our constructed world view is. The title is really a nod to how we are imperfect things that don’t really understand what is happening.
I love the feeling of you and your band coming together on the recording. You all seem to be on separate musical journeys but come together to create one being. Tell me about how you worked with them on the project. Was the music a collaboration between you all? Was it more you leading the way?
I’m so happy that the family vibes of the band comes through. We’ve been making music together for over 4 years, so the language we’ve built feels kind of like home. Day, Night and The Space Between are songs we’ve been working on for a while. Gaia Be Free was a song I brought to the band the rehearsal before the recording and they jumped in right away as they always do. Myst was one I produced using samples from different tracks in the EP to tie it all together. In terms of how we collaborated on the project, I wrote the skeleton of most of the songs: the main melody, lyrics, a little bit of structure, and some basic chords / bass line / groove. We then fleshed it out together and the songs took a course of their own. After recording, I changed some bits of the arrangement, or took a more free section and pieced it together. Night is an example of song that’s mainly a jam. Fully trusting your collaborators means you will get the best sound possible and ideas will form that you alone couldn’t conceived. I love and respect all of the musicians who worked on the project so much and can’t wait to make more music with them. They are for sure all incredible artists in their own right on very special journeys. Shout out to Matt, Momoko, Benedict, Tilé, Lluís, Tom & Ben <3
The artwork feels suitably chaotic in the best possible way, for an album that has so many different ideas. What’s the story behind the artwork?
Chaotic is definitely the vibe. The artwork came from a collaboration between myself, graphic designer Darling Baby Jay, photographer Liv Wood & stylist Naomi (Ohh) Oyewo. It’s funny because Jay was just supposed to shoot it but came into contact with someone with you know what, so Liv stepped in literally 2 hours before! As briefly stressful as that was, I loved that it turned out this way because it meant that more amazing queer artists added their flavour to the project. We wanted to play with the idea present throughout the EP of layers of reality through representing the warping of time. Jay did this so beautifully with their graphic wizardry and I really just let them fly with their ideas. The magnifying glass felt like the perfect prop for communicating the feeling of trying to make observations through the chaos, and I love how the coat adds to the enby futuristic detective vibes. I can’t wait to work with all these amazing artists again. I’m still yet to meet Darling Baby Jay irl which is wild and needs to be rectified in 2022.
The video for ‘Night’ is a trip! It gives me Bjork in her Michel Gondry days. How did you come up with this vision?
Wow what a compliment, Bjork was definitely a big inspo. The vision honestly came to me out of nowhere and I had a very stubborn urge to make it happen as strange as the vision was. I was making the music video to Day with animator, Molly Pukes, and we started to create the character of the pink feline beast that represented the nurturing and destructive characteristics of human nature. I wanted the Night music video to completely contrast the sweet, idealistic world we had created in the animation, and instead reflect the feeling of existential dread that’s the basis of the song. For some reason, I though the best way of doing this was to become the pink, genderless, cat character from the animation. I had never done anything like it before, and during many moments of making the video I said to myself ‘what is actually happening right now?’, which in a way was perfect for the message we were trying to communicate. The aim was to show a feral representation of our inflated egos which often causes us to feel like the world is ending. There was definitely a lot of hysterical laughter through making of the video as I was writhing around on a green screen totally hot pink. I have to give a special shout out to the directer, videographer and special effects legend, George Nindi. Thanks for going down the rabbit whole with me. To have spent so much time editing the piece of pandemonium and still have your sanity intact is pretty astounding. As well as being able to do literally all the mad techy bits, he was incredible at teasing out the idea and making the non-sensical have shape. Another artist who I’m super blessed to have worked with on the project.
Which artists have been on your radar recently?
Lucia Fumero, Jackie Shane, Arooj Aftab, KMRU, Scrimshire, Mas Aya, Miryam Solomon, Pie Eye Collective.
Lastly we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001, so we always ask, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song? (For a jazz moment, do you know ‘The Wind’?)
I was not aware of the jazzy Mariah, should we be so lucky! Thanks for the tip. I love this question. It’s got to be ‘Emotions’. The amount of times I’ve watched her live MTV unplugged version is something to be proud of. It’s her perfect jump to whistle tone, the strings and gospel choir for me.
Margomool‘s misconceptions EP is out now.
Soundcloud / Bandcamp
Photography by Bridie O’Sullivan
EP Artwork by Darling Baby Jay
