‘Alien Day’ is much more than its face value would suggest. Not just a record, the album is the sonic companion to ‘Every Where Alien’, a collection of poems penned by New York City-based creative Brad Walrond. Transposing his literary work in the form of spoken words, Walrond chooses an eclectic and nuanced blend of old-school hip-hop as a musical soundtrack, wrapping his evocative and cathartic vocals in sonic gold.
Delving into what he calls ‘black epistemologies’, Brad Walrond looks at black history and black identity with a global and holistic approach, resulting in a wide, abstract exploration of human nature.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the American writer and musician to learn more about his work… Interview below!
Hey Brad, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
I am a poet; my creative vision stems from the force and sound of words and ideas. I’d say in a visceral way my work is a portrait of the cultural and creative force of the New York City underground.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; What first drew you to making music?
By the time I was recording the track Underneath the Metal on the Eargasms Crucial Poetics: vol. 1 spoken word compilation album in the 90s I was already experimenting with poetry performance and vocalists and musicians. Somehow music is deeply embedded in how I approach language even when I write and certainly when I perform.
If you had the opportunity to pick any artists in the world for a collaboration, who would be your first choice? (and second choice, perhaps?)
Tems first! There is the Zake track on the Alien Day album which grew out of an homage to Ntozake Shange. The chorus is She is She is / what a poem is / without trying. Tems is what a poem is without trying. I would love to collaborate with Alice Smith.
You recently released an evocative and anthemic album, ‘Alien Day’. It’s packed with meaningful spoken words, delving into nuanced and existential themes – how would you describe the record? what does it mean to you?
Proudly my first collection of poems Every Where Alien is being published in August 2024 on Amistad/HarperCollins. Alien Day is a sonic map of that body of work. We call Alien Day the soundtrack to Every Where Alien. If we are willing to pay attention there are so many histories woven into the spaces we live through. Every breath we take opens us up to the possibility of discovering how these histories belong to us. How they inform the histories and futures we are making right now. We all have one job here. Become the fullness of you are. Give to the world at least as much as it has given you. We are the aliens we’ve all been looking for. We belong to this planet. May we all learn every which way we can how to better regard ourselves and our Earth.
We appreciate the old-school hip-hop vibe in ‘Alien Day’. Do you feel that such a sonic direction fits your lyricism?
My lyricism makes space for any sonic direction. Implicitly my voice is something brand new, even when nursed in an old-school hip-hop vibe. I don’t think anyone comes to my work because I fit into tidy categories. I don’t. I would never call myself an emcee per se although my work can at times call on elements of that tradition. But I don’t think we’d call Gil Scott Heron an emcee either still our approach to language and music spans these traditions and calls old and new forms unto itself. I’d rather folks come to my work to listen for what’s new and not for what they’ve already heard before.
Do you feel more confident writing lyrics alone, or within a team?
I mostly have written alone, so I definitely feel comfortable there; I have in the past year been working with some badass experimentalists (Muzeosynth) and I definitely come alive in new ways in that space. Writing extemporaneously with other mixed-form artists feels spectacular every time I get the opportunity.
We are told there’s also a book coming, ‘Every Where Alien’. How do the record and the book intertwine each other?
Alien Day takes that textual world of the book Every Where Alien (Moore Black Press Amistad / Harper Collins) and turns it into its own sonic holograph.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
We are working on some live shows. That live-living sharing part of the journey feels ripe in its need for existence. We can’t wait to feel and see how the aliens everywhere interact and respond to this work.
