Issue 99 / May 2019

Cultural alienation happens at every social level and
individuality is difficult to experience anywhere, but Mensah
made a breakthrough discovery on a trip to America. “It was
when I took a trip to Houston to go see my uncle, I think it was in
like 2008, 2009. I remember, it was the first time I’d discovered
Drake; they were playing a lot of Drake on the radio at that time,
it was his So Far Gone mixtape. I remember I came back to the
UK hyped about Drake, telling all my friends to listen to this guy;
and no one really listened. Give it a year or two years and he was,
like, the biggest artist in the UK. It was always an interesting one
growing up in a predominantly white
neighbourhood, or a predominantly
white high school – it definitely shaped
me into the person and artist that I am
today.” Growing up in the suburbs is
supposed to be a sheltered experience,
but this stereotype doesn’t reflect
Mensah’s experience: “I’ve seen a lot
of things that not a lot of young teens
should have seen; I guess that’s down
to being surrounded by suburban kids
and being a suburban kid myself. It’s
been an amazing journey, and I don’t
think I would change anything about
where I come from.”
Since breaking through aged 16,
Mensah has been on a path of constant
development, having been identified as
a prodigious talent from an early age. He’s been part of the LIMF
Academy artist development programme, worked with industry
exces and ‘big name’ producers and tipped to achieve great
things. This scrutiny brings its own kind of pressure – but it’s not
something that seems to ruffle Mensah’s feathers. He’s taken
his time and allowed his craft to develop, pouring his own brand
“I want to tell this
story of our generation
and how addicted
to their phones they
are. If you don’t take
a picture… what are
you even there for?”
of electronic soul into Sub Blue. It’s the kind of route that other
artists at the start of their careers could learn a lot from.
“I think the message I want to get across is that it doesn’t
matter where you come from or the ‘things’ you have,” he says.
“We all have our struggles and demons that we are battling as
we try to make sense of ourselves, the world and our place in it.
On this project, I try to touch on the dark side of what happens if
we don’t ‘wake up’ in time.”
Another experience that hits people from all walks of life
is leaving childhood, and Sub Blue is one of those rare artists
who will get to look back on his own
documentation of that delicate process.
His performances are interspersed
with vocal samples from moments in
his life. “One of the interludes is from
my debut EP Suburban View, after
Teen No More,” he explains. “It was
a voicemail from my dad wishing me
a happy birthday when I was just
turning 21. That was the year that I’d
finished writing Teen No More, got back
from LA, and I was kind of feeling the
pressures of life, I guess. I’d have to
maybe get a full-time job, and not be
able to do music full-time. That was
one of the reasons why I wrote that
record.”
He’s inspired by other work
documenting the experience of wealthy children: “A lot of the
other samples that are running throughout the set are from a
movie I watched on Amazon Prime called Generation Wealth. It
really touched on the life of suburban kids; and I really connected
with that story. It gave me the inspiration for what I wanna write
my album about. The whole thing about wealth being the centre
of attention for kids in the suburbs, and that being their coping
mechanism, I guess, for dealing with pain or whatever it is that
they’re going through. Like I say on Think We’re Fine, ‘We spend
money like we don’t like money,’ as quoted by J Hus.”
In my view, we give privileged white men the licence to wax
lyrical about their ennui and sadness on a daily basis, tending
to accommodate any difference between us in order to feel a
shared sense of essential human anxiety. Thom Yorke’s allowed
to be miserable. Ricky Gervais just released a six-episode Netflix
series on one suburban man’s journey from nihilism to hope.
Why shouldn’t Sub Blue lay claim to sensitivity and suffering
because he grew up in Cheshire? Surely a hard-liner who
demands that musicians writing about their emotions should
be working class would also possess the ability to see that
capitalist luxury is an expression of emptiness? In any case, the
vast majority of people in this country grow up in a comparatively
luxurious environment when using a global standard. Everyone is
entitled to unhappiness and the catharsis of expression – there’s
something universal in that. Especially when it’s in the form of
Sub Blue’s smooth, spotless melodies, voiced with a sincere
depth of emotion. !
Words: Niloo Sharifi
Interview: Joel Durksen
Photography: Robin Clewley / robinclewley.co.uk
iamsubblue.com
Wilfully Blind is out now. Sub Blue plays Sound City on Sunday
5th May at Love Lane Brewery – tickets available now from
ticketquarter.co.uk
FEATURE
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