In the past year, 19 year old Brisbane producer UV Boi فوق بنفسجي has quickly become one of Australia’s most unique and impressive producers thanks to his distinctive, genre melding, 808 style. Blowing up thanks to his diverse SoundCloud page, he’s now embarking on an Australian and overseas takeover. Half way through his national tour, we spoke to him about his beginnings, social media, the proposed Brisbane lockout laws and what the future holds.
Hey how’re you going?
Good, how are you?
I’m great man – I started listening to you back in 2014 and it’s been crazy to see you grow. You’ve had a huge year playing Splendour in the Grass, Beyond the Valley and FOMO, as well as going onto supporting the likes of Yung Lean, Flosstradamus, Kaytranada. How’s the experience been?
Ahh what’s the word? It’s been unreal.
You also just dropped your new「L-UV」EP and now you’re touring the country, how’s the crowd reaction been to it so far?
It’s been amazing. It’s crazy to see people react to something so personal that you’ve created in such a positive way. It’s unbelievable.
Starting with your roots- you began by sampling vinyl, citing MF DOOM as one of your inspirations, did you start by making classic hip-hop, and how did you evolve to the UV Boi we know today?
Before UV Boi, I had another project, and I’d create all types of genre and experiment with everything I suppose. I moved from hard-style to hip-hop and dubstep, and I guess that’s really shaped and allowed me to create what I make now – having those different influences.
The Australian electronic scene looks to be growing really strong, are there any artists you think should be getting more recognition?
Yeah, on SoundCloud I come across a bunch of people all the time. It’s amazing to see new artists come up, and you know thinking about it, two years ago that was me. There’s too many to artists to name.
As a Brisbane resident and artist, what are your thoughts on the proposed lockout laws and how do you think they will effect the electronic community?
It’s tough. I don’t support it, but it has gotten people to talk about violence and alcohol and everything. It’s unfortunate that so many innocent jobs are going to be lost, and music venues especially will see the effects of it. I don’t think it’s the best solution, and it’s not the only solution.
On a lighter note, I’m a big fan of your social media, how has the different forms of media affected your identity?
*laughs* With the power of the internet you can reach all your fans all across the globe, but you shouldn’t see it as the most important thing. Just have fun with it, it’s a nice way to reach your fans.
How important has the SoundCloud culture been, obviously with you blowing up with the help of it?
It’s definitely affected it, it boosted me to another level. SoundCloud has nourished so many amazing artists. It’s such a nice free platform for people to listen to your music on.
You and Young Franco seem to be hanging out all the time over social media. Did you link up with him over SoundCloud?
I actually met him in a club, Nina Las Vegas was performing, Franco was one of the acts playing there. I had heard of him before going and he knew of me, so it was nice to finally meet each other and say hello. He just invited me over to his place, and then the next week I went over and we created a song together (Anywhere). Ever since then it’s just been such a great friendship.
Can we expect anything else from you in 2016?
Yeah, I’m working on a sequel for this EP, something with a darker turn from the first EP.
Yeah the EP definitely had brighter sound compared to some of your other tracks
Yeah, it was all about ‘will he find love’ and ‘does love exist’, for this next EP it’s like ‘did it happen’, ‘did it work out’, so yeah we’ll wait and see what happens.
So for the rest of the year there’s touring and going overseas and seeing how far we can push things. There’ll be different things apart from music too so that will be awesome to get happening too.
Remaining Tour Dates
Saturday, 23 April
Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
Friday, 29 April
Transit Bar, Canberra
Satuday, 3o April
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Satuday, 7 May
Flinders Social, Townsville
Image: Hoffisbetter