Trying to pin down the sound of Lil Silva’s music is like trying to describe the flavor of salt: It’s impossible. After talking with the North London-based musician, it becomes clear that this indeterminate style is intentional: “I want to make timeless music,” Silva tells me as we discuss his recently released debut album, Yesterday Is Heavy, a lush and intricately layered work that blends chill club beats with soulful vocals and proselytizing lyrics.
The album showcases Silva’s creative genius, which for years devoted itself to behind-the-scenes work forother musicians. Silva started out as a member of the Bedford-area grime crew Macabre Unit before moving on to a successful career as a songwriter and producer (he’s worked with Adele, Banks, Mark Ronson, and serpentwithfeet, among others). He’s since spent years educating himself about genres as disparate as garage, hip-hop, and classical music, developing a genre-less sonic mixture dubbed the “Silva Sound” by critics. Nowhere is that sound more in evidence than this album.
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Nina Karina: You spent years behind the scenes as a record producer and have now put your own work out there. How does it feel to have released Yesterday Is Heavy into the world?
Lil Silva: I’m still processing it, to be honest. It’s super amazing and overwhelming at the same time, but it’s brilliant. Like, I’m so happy people are really engaging with it. Yeah, it feels really, really good.
NK: Listening to the album, the overarching theme is living in the present, but I do want to take it back a little bit. Did you gravitate towards music as a kid?
LS: I remember myself like 4, 5, 6 years old, always near the DJ booth at parties, always near the speakers. Just fascinated by anything with it. My uncles dabbled in the [Jamaican] sound systems [culture] and reggae and all this stuff. So I grew up around it as well. I was like, I’m definitely going to do this.
NK: What were some of your earliest musical influences?
LS: When I was coming up, I heard The Neptunes, Pharrell, Timbaland, J Dilla, which was, you know, a huge influence for me. They all have their own sounds, so very defining. You listen to them and it’s like, Oh, that’s definitely a Timbaland track, or, That’s definitely a Pharrell beat. I got very into the idea of having a defined sound and making great music with that. I keep hearing, “It took Silva over 10 years to make this album,” and I’m like, No, it was over 10 years of influences. It’s been an amazing journey and I wouldn’t change it. I don’t feel any regrets about the timing of [the album] dropping.
NK: A lot of your music is labeled as club music, which is often thoughtof as mindless dance music. But listening to this album, it’s obvious you’re taking the genre to another level. I’m interested to know what it is about club music that provides such fertile ground for your creativity?
LS:I love being in a club. That was such a massive part of music his-tory and even the sound system [culture]. I think about things hitting, listening to the bass, really connecting—that was always my thing. I love melodic things and I love hard, gritty bass. I felt like, if I can mix these dark and beautiful things together, that will really work. It’s just such a great blend, and it’s honest. Life is that gritty bass, but you have beautiful moments, too. That’s my thing, mixing the dark and soul together, because I love both. It’s like there’s this wobbling needle on a scale, always about to get stuck in one genre. I’m never gonna stick to one thing, dude. We’re going to just focus on the sound.
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NK: You’ve got an amazing listof musicians appearing on your album like Little Dragon, BADBADNOTGOOD, a n d Charlotte Day Wilson. How important is collaboration to you?
LS: It’s important, but I think it’s just important to make great music. It was quite a nice experience to belike, “Hey, I’m making an album. I would love you to be a part of it.” I didn’t know if they were going to end up on it or not; it was more, ‘I would love your energy in the room.’ They in and yang of the collaborators as well—it was perfect. I’ve worked with Sampha for years, and bringing back Jamie Woon—he was one of the first people I ever worked with when I came into the industry. It was really important for me to have him be a part of this.
NK: Your daughter is 4 years old now. How has being a father influenced your art?
LS: She’s like a Mini-Me. She’s a twin. She loves music. I’m probably seeing what my parents witnessed from me—I knew I’d made a good song if my dad complained about it. Now, if my daughter sings it, it’s a win. I mean, other than [parent-hood] making me more grounded, it’s even more fun writing and just saying to my daughter, “Here listen to this, what do you think of this one?”
NK: How would you describe the“Silva Sound”?
LS: Is there not a tab now that’s just like, “Silva Sound?” [Laughs] But saying that, like—the algorithm of genres just brackets and limits everyone to one thing. It’s the grime, the jazz, the funk; it’s the hip-hop, it’s the garage, it’s the house. That’s the Silva Sound.
NK:How does one create timeless music?
LS: I had to stop listening to music during lockdown. I know it sounds mad, but I just wanted to try to build this thing purely off the energy I [was] bringing in the room. You have to challenge your energy and balance yourself in order to do that—not being your ego, staying by yourself, [but] being in the now, and just doing what lights you up in this moment. That’s all I feel we should be doing, right? ❤
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STORY CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHY Benjamin Werner, STYLIST Luci Ellis, GROOMER Nohelia Reyes using Omorovicza, ASSISTANT Jakub Gessle
HERO IMAGE CREDITS
SHIRT Off-White, JACKET Haydenshapes, JEWELRY Lil Silva’s throughout
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