Lebo Lukewarm on The Making of His Debut Album “Chandelier Happy”
Lebo Lukewarm’s journey as a musician has been one of divine timing. Never releasing music just for the sake of it, Lebo allows life to carry him through his experiences. From these experiences Lebo crafts the stories he tells within his music.
“The older you get the more you have to have an expectation management conversation with yourself. When you’re young, you still think that you’re going to be this global star. But soon reality hits and you begin to realize that there is more to becoming a star than just the music on your hard drive,” he explains.
For Lebo, making music isn’t fuelled by a desire to be famous. Instead, Lebo Lukewarm uses music as a way to express himself and deal with what life has to throw at him.
“As much as people believe speaking about this fast life and being in the club is cool. There is a whole different set of people that want to hear about normal life situations because it’s very much relatable to them,” he shares.
Over the years, Lebo Lukewarm has grafted a unique lane for himself in the space of alternative hip-hop; “Music can be described as having friends. We have different friends for different situations. Friends we go out with, friends we go to church with, and friends you play soccer with. Those friends feed different things within us. When you start looking at music that way you discover that there is a space for everybody.”
Since releasing his EP’s Swimming Practice and The Yacht Below Lebo confirms that he only releases when he’s ready. His musical journey started at the age of 12 years old where his mind was shaped by people like Outkast and Kanye West. Lebo notes that after Kanye West drops the The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation Lebo’s outlook on music changed forever.
Lebo’s journey as a creative has extended to include a successful career in photography and film-but music remained in the back of his mind. “Being a photographer helped me create the music that I wanted to make because I was not held hostage to create music and make money from it. This then gives me the freedom where I am allowed to create music from the different experiences that happen in my life, ” he confesses.
Chandelier Happy arrives as Lebo’s first full-length project, after almost 3 years in the making. The creation of the album was assisted by frequent collaborator Mvrco Polo, “We went back and opened the files we had together about 20 songs in total. We deleted 9 of those songs, re-opened the others and created a new concept, and made the songs more organic.”
On Chandelier Happy Lebo challenges listeners to change how they consume music. This latest release is an exploration of his range and an honest reflection of his life and experiences.
All these experiences are documented through a 16 track album that runs just over an hour long. Collaborations on the album include Bri Feel, Davina Gordon, Filah Lah Lah, Moneoa, and Mvrco Polo. Additional production credits go to Ragde Omar and Zadok.
For more on the making of the album, read our interview below:
This interview has been lightly edited for the purpose of clarity and context.
Daniel: What was your thinking behind the titled Chandelier Happy?
Lebo Lukewarm: Once I released Swimming Practice and The Yacht Below, I started to work on new material for this project that didn’t have a name. I wrote this song that didn’t even make it onto the project and there was a line that said we are chandelier happy but when the lights go off nobody cares about the sparkles. It’s like this whole performative act that we all do when we’re in a relationship or with friends. We pretend to be happy in public but when the lights are off or nobody sees we don’t talk to each other and there isn’t communication. With the internet, I always feel that we are putting on a show whether we are behaving a particular way or even dressing a particular way to please others. We are all chandelier happy, nobody is really happy.
How do you work creatively if the song that inspired the name of the album didn’t make it onto the final cut?
They say when you’re making a 10 track album, you should at least make 25 songs and scale down from there. I don’t work like that. It takes me a very long time to make an album and this being my debut album I had to sit with the material and review it to make sure that this still sounds the way I intended it to sound. I believe that music shouldn’t age but mature. I don’t want to create music that people listen to and immediately think of the year it was made in. I want to create timeless music that people will revisit because of how good it is.
You mentioned that Childish Gambino is one of your influences from a creative standpoint, purely based on music who inspires you?
I would say Kanye West. He is so experimental with everything he does despite his success. There isn’t this feeling of comfort with Kanye, he always wants to take things to the next level push the culture forward and we just follow him. I learn a lot from his confidence. Another person I look up to is Andre 3000. There’s a reason why my ep was called The Yacht below, because of the love below. The way OutKast deconstructed popular music is also why I make music today. A more recent influence of mine has to be Tyler the creator simply because he doesn’t care about what people have to say. Sonically what he created from Flower Boy to Call me when you get lost is just so inspirational. When Kanye drops the mic and says “I’m done” Tyler picks up the baton and says let’s go.
Talk to me about softza?
So Softza is what you get when you marry colors and the tiny desk and come out with the wooden stool. The wooden stool is our answer to the problem unknown artists face when looking for recognition from mainstream media. Breaking down the gatekeepers within the industry is what Softza is looking to do. So far the reception has been great because people are seeing what we are trying to achieve.
Speaking about helping more unknown artists, what’s your take on the generational divide between music artists? Namely, those wanting to be heard and those who already are a mainstay within the industry?
Unfortunately, there is this perception that if I share there won’t be enough for me. Ultimately that is why we have gatekeepers. The people that are seen as the ‘it’ people don’t want to share their piece of the spotlight because then they would be sharing something that they can have a whole of. This is also a reason why artists die out. When you keep all your energy enclosed you’ll eventually die from suffocation. So constantly sharing your energy and putting people on will allow you to potentially live forever.
When you eventually stop releasing music one day, what would you want your legacy to be?
That’s interesting. Earlier we were speaking about what makes a classic album. What makes a classic album is the repeat value right? When I got back and listen to the album in 20 years it will still sound great. So with me, it’s about creating that concept continuously. I want to create something that people in 20 years will listen to and say I understand why my parents were listening to this music. To me the legacy I leave behind should be making music that people constantly want to sample.
What type of message should your fans leave with after listening to Chandelier Happy?
With this body of work, it’s the first time I’m creating a project that sounds like you’re reading a book. You can’t come late or leave early then you’re going to miss out on certain parts of the book. In this project, I talk about falling in love and falling out of love and losing a million and how that feels. In this project, I do talk about our internal demons and how we might deal with them.
Is this your most personal body of work to date?
Most of my projects are personal. For me making music is a reason why I don’t go to therapy. I speak about my problems through music. So if I’m going through something I’ll speak about it. If I know you and you’re going through something, then I’ll speak about it as well. On the project, I speak about stuff so personally that if you aren’t listening then you’ll miss the bar because you can’t relate to it.
Release day can often be a nerve-wracking experience especially when it’s your debut album. How are you feeling, are you excited?
Well, I was excited when I got the master recordings and listened to them. This was in January. So I’ve heard it to death already, to me the project is old and I’m already working on new music. This week I had to listen to the project again and familiarise myself with the content. What I’m most excited about is seeing what people gravitate towards. Depending on what the people gravitate towards, I might make more songs like that on my next project. We’ll see.
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