Sat in a Central London café nursing an unnecessarily large Americano, I wait for my guest: up-and-coming British soul artist Alex Parvenu. My first encounter with Mr Parvenu was in late September at Nell’s Jazz and Blues, a live music space in West Kensington, London. Mr Parvenu was on the bill supporting British soul veteran Hil St Soul. Clad in a smart blue tuxedo, and sporting what I described as a ‘gravity-defying Afro’, he impressed with his retro-flecked original material.
Mr Parvenu walks in, a little late but forgivably so. After all, he’s just returned from a busy three-day recording session in New York and is understandably exhausted. He will be releasing his song ‘It Wasn’t Me’ next month (having released a teaser for the animated music video this week), with a full EP coming out sometime next year. He’s wearing a woolly hat, concealing the gigantic hair I last saw him with. The hair is done by a hairstylist he frequents in Rockaways, New York. It is apparently quite a mission to maintain he tells me.
Knowing little about him other than that he can write a catchy tune, I ask Mr Parvenu to take the two of us back to the very beginning. He describes himself as a ‘North London boy,’ a child of Nigerian parents who moved to the UK in their teenage years. He cites a strong Nigerian influence in his upbringing.
Despite having very academically oriented parents – as Nigerian parents tend to be, he informs me – his house was always filled with music. He fondly reflects on the big speakers and the piano in the living room. Specifically, he attributes his love for music to his father, described as a ‘very eclectic man’ and an aspiring pianist. ‘My dad had a love for music which he ingrained in me: soul, jazz, African music, reggae music etc. The first music I ever fell in love with was the Graceland album by Paul Simon; I had an uncle who played percussion on it.’
He reels off a list of music greats from the realms of jazz, soul, and blues who inspired him: Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Fela Kuti (the Nigerian virtuoso), Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, The Temptations, Motown artists in general, Billie Holliday, and Nina Simone. He describes Billie Holliday’s ‘Autumn in New York’ as his soundtrack when visiting the city.
And more contemporary artists? ‘Leon Bridges, Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill, Raphael Saadiq, Solange, Cee Lo Green.’ But he clarifies that the ‘old stuff is the foundation of what I build most of my music on.’ Indeed, he describes his own music as soul, jazz, and Motown-inspired – ‘an amalgamation of different styles of Black music.’ Somewhat cruelly, I push him to name some favourite songs from the above that come to mind. He namechecks Aretha Franklin’s ‘Ain’t No Way’, Paul Simon’s ‘Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes’, David Ruffin’s ‘Statue of a Fool’, and The Fugees’ ‘The Sweetest Thing’.
So where did it all begin? Like so many soul and R&B singers before him, Parvenu grew up singing gospel music in church. He was part of the Young Disciples Gospel Choir, in which he was coached by Vula Malinga – part of the incredibly successful Soul Family residency at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. I ask him how this experience singing gospel influenced him. ‘It’s influenced the way I hear music definitely. Harmonies… the gospel quartet kind of sound, three backing vocalists and a lead. Most of [my original] tracks have a B3-organ running through them.’
He wrote his first song at age eleven: ‘Swing Through the Night’. ‘It was about having a party and having a good time I guess’, he chuckles – perhaps reminiscing on the sweet naivety of childhood. He guesses that he’s written almost 600 songs since then. ‘I’m always writing man; I write about stuff I can’t talk about. If I can’t talk about it in words, or spoken words, then I’ll write it down in music.’ He mentions that he is also currently writing a children’s book as well as a personal memoir about his recent break-up.
With his parents pushing him down an academic route, Parvenu went on to study politics at Brunel University before studying a PGCE teacher training qualification at University College London (UCL). In fact, he currently works as a teacher in London. I mock him for inadvertently quoting Whitney Houston’s ‘Greatest Love of All’ when he describes how ‘children are the future’. But he speaks of his love for teaching with sincerity. ‘I love working with individuals who are still very excited about the world and about life.’
During university, he set up a Ska/indie band by the name of ‘The Clef Truants’, managed by Lisa Maffia of UK grime group So Solid Crew. There is only one video left online of them performing. They had some success in London’s live music scene but the band are currently on a hiatus. ‘Watch this space though’, Parvenu tells me. He wrote the lyrics for the band’s material. Despite becoming quite engaged in his politics degree – he mentions wanting to pursue politics in some form in the distant future – he never stopped writing during university.
I ask him whether, like many of the soul artists he admires, his interest in politics feeds into his music and songwriting. ‘There are definitely songs which have social commentary. At the moment I’m writing about love and relationships because that’s where my mind has been.’
Indeed, Mr Parvenu and his romantic escapades linger in the background of our conversation. At Nell’s Jazz and Blues, he mentioned going through a tumultuous breakup. The songs he performed, however, were about a previous break-up: a mysterious lady in the music industry whom he refuses to identify, despite my prodding. I’m sure I’ll get it out of him at some point. ‘What was the dynamic of the relationship?’, I cheekily ask.
‘Just listen to the songs,’ he remarks. Touché.
Check out Alex Parvenu’s teaser video below. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
