HEART
& SOUL
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
One thing is for certain of Bilal: the neo-soul artist is
surely on a journey of self-made greatness.
Bilal says his story began in Philadelphia, where his
funk-loving father constantly took him to various jazz
clubs around the city. These outings were where Bilal’s
lifelong love of music blossomed.
When the time came to pursue higher education, he ea-
gerly attended New York’s School for Jazz and Contemporary
Music. There, Bilal (born Bilal Sayeed Oliver) dove into creating
his own songs. He tied together both his childhood and formal
exposure to jazz to create a hot and heavy recipe of sounds
influenced by Prince, Stevie Wonder and anything ’70s.
His approach to making music is flamboyant, risky and
incredibly experimental — and exactly what the music
industry was looking for when he showed up. By the ripe age
of 19 in 2001, he released his first album, 1st Born Second,
with Interscope Records. Dr. Dre and J Dilla were just some of
the powerful names behind the scenes of Bilal’s debut.
With his success came plenty of financial rewards,
which he blew through like most teenagers with a newly
found key to an upper-class lifestyle. After a tornado of
financial turbulence and a terminated deal with Inter-
scope, Bilal put almost a decade-long halt to creating any
full-length albums of his own.
His hiatus was far from a hibernation, however, as he
continued to collaborate with music royalty like Beyoncé,
Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Kimbra. Through collaboration,
he explains, musicians not only create “really good music”
but they achieve oneness. “We make this universal
language that everyone can understand,” he says.
Bilal came back strong in 2010, using the knowledge
from his career hardships and collaborations to approach
music in a new way — one with very few rules and zero
corporate labels.
Now, when he enters the studio, Bilal steps into a new
mindset in order to create fresh content that keeps the
inspiration flowing.
“I change my name when I go to record an album,” he
says. “Every album, it’s like there’s a different guy producing
it, but it’s really me. Sometimes I call myself Pillow and
sometimes I call myself Sirius. Seriously.”
This, he explains, is the luxury of creating freely — and
sometimes oddly — under independent labels.
Bilal’s recent albums have received lavish praise from
the R&B community. He dropped his second full-length
album, Airtight’s Revenge, in 2010, and his third, A Love
Surreal, by 2013.
Two years later, he released In Another Life, an intricate
album that pushes the boundaries on traditional structures
of soul and R&B. Not to mention that he recorded the album
solely on refurbished studio equipment dated no later than
1968 in order to recreate a truly vintage experience.
Come enjoy some warped white noise, uncanny
frequencies and a whole lot of soul with Bilal 9 pm Tuesday,
Apr. 18, at Hi-Fi Music Hall; $20 adv., $25 door, 21 and over.
Bilal, along with Shy Girls and Laura Ivancie, will also
perform at the Soul’d Out Festival in Portland at Revolution
Hall on Thursday, April 20. Doors open 7 pm, music at 8 pm.
All-ages, $20 advance at revolutionhall.com. — Kelsey
Anne Rankin
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