Kojaque: 'It's difficult to feel independent when you're still living in your ma's gaff'
Kojaque releases Town's Dead in late June.
Dublin rapper Kojaque could be about to have his breakthrough moment. Unfortunately, he won't be doing it from his hometown. He's been living in London since last October, having found the British capital more affordable. Though he says he's missing friends and family - as well as getting the bus to the seaside - he admits “there's a lot of things that I find hard to miss about Dublin as well”.
That’s not surprising. Consider the chorus of ‘Town’s Dead', the title track of his forthcoming debut album: “You could try the house share, try rentin', bit of money for the landlord’s pension. Heads are gonna roll soon, no warning, this town’s not dead it’s just dormant.”
He explains: “As I grew and matured - for myself and my friends and my peers, our prospects as young people and as young creatives - I could see it begin to be strangled. In terms of having any kind of agency as a young person, especially as a creative person, it's very, very difficult to feel independent and feel like you're in your 20s when you're still living in your ma's gaff.”
Now in his mid-20s, Kojaque references O’Devaney Gardens, near where he grew up, which is currently subject to a €400m fast-track redevelopment, promising social and affordable housing. Not surprisingly, he is sceptical.
“That's the sort of thing you just see time and time again in Dublin. And especially with the erasure of creative spaces. It's not a very forward-thinking plan by the current Government. Obviously, as you get older, maybe you get a bit more bitter or a bit more frustrated with what's happening, and, unfortunately, a lot of times, very apathetic.
"So I wanted to just try and shake that apathy, because there's no agency in apathy; you can't get shit done if people don't care. So I think that's where a lot of the songs came from.”
Town’s Dead is either Kojaque’s debut album or his second, depending on whether you count his Choice Prize-nominated Deli Daydreams in 2018 as an album or mixtape. That was a tender conceptual project based on a week in the life of a deli worker, comprising contemplations of love, life, and loneliness leading up to the work Christmas party.
Deli Daydreams took Kojaque to sell-out gigs around the country, raucous festival outings, and support slots across Europe with Slowthai. Boiler Room even made a documentary about Kojaque and his Soft Boys collective. He jokes - well, he laughs while saying it anyway - that Deli Daydreams was his little cash cow.
“I love that album,” he adds. “It's a nice little photograph of my life at the time. I was obviously just shocked at the response to it because it really just launched a lot of shit for me and put me to where I wanted to go.”
Town’s Dead is also built around a concept, a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year's Eve in Dublin. Sampling Girl Band and Maria Somerville, and referencing Pillow Queens, it’s an ambitious declaration of intent.
One of the tracks is ‘No Hands’, which deals with his father’s depression and absence from the household. “You proud of me? Hope you're tuning in,” Kojaque pleads. Does he find it difficult to put himself on display like this?
“Some of them just flow out of you,” he says. “They're not the easiest songs to write but no song is easy to write.
“I think it's important to talk about those intimate feelings that you can't speak to your friends about - or that you feel like you can't speak to your friends about… I found the shit that I feel like no one would want to listen to and no one would want to hear about tends to be the stuff that people are going through themselves.
“It's not until you really open up to someone that you really feel, or you discover, that ‘shit, I'm not unique in this, I'm not special, this isn't just happening to me, this is happening to loads of people all the time’.”
Maverick Sabre guests on one of the tracks on the album, and there are interludes featuring a few lads spinning around looking for a house party. “Get Kojaque to have a gaff, he’s probably got loadsa money now,” one of them says, to which another replies: “What are ya talkin about, he still lives in his ma’s gaff.” They’re funny but just how telling are such lines?
“You would not believe how small Dublin is,” he explains. “It's the world's biggest village. So from the minute you start putting out songs, you'll get comments from every other c**t. It's something that you just have to get used to. Usually the people making comments like that are my friends.”
He pauses, stifling a telling snigger. “So I know they mean well, it's trying to bring me back down to earth.”
Kojaque wants Town’s Dead to feel like an escape from the past year. It was created in a wardrobe in his house in Cabra and none of the songs have been played live, so he’s eager to get back on the road. He’s got Irish, UK, and European tours lined up for November.
“I'm making the music to play it live. I'm a performer so that's the intention, at the end of the day. And to not have that feedback, it can often just feel like you're shouting into the void.”
More than anything, though, Kojaque wants to be an artist. He wants Town’s Dead to be the next step, and he's open about his high hopes for the record. “It might do nothing, but I'm confident that that's not going to be the case.”
He’s also seen so many people try and fail, feeling like they haven’t been backed up by the place and people around them.
“I think it perpetuates itself, but f**k that, man, I want to be an exception to that rule. I want to create, because I love to create, and I shouldn't have to compromise, this should be what I should be able to do. And it should be what so many other people should be able to do full time as a job. It's my passion, and it's what I love to do.”
- Town's Dead is released on June 25
“I'm reading Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Berry, which is a great book. Also Dark Lies the Island by Kevin Barry is sick.”
“I'm listening to Gotts Street Park, who are a trio from Leeds. They're unreal. They've done a lot of work with Celeste who's also amazing. Yves Tumor - the Heaven to a Tortured Mind album is sick, 'Kerosene!' off that in particular is really good.”
“I've been listening to the Blindboy Podcast the odd time; that keeps me up to date with what's happening back home.”
“I don't have a telly here so I don't be watching much of it. I watched Total Recall the other day, going around the gaff doing Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions for the rest of the week. That's a sick movie, all the special effects hold up. It's mad interesting too, just the concept.”
