Benjamin Reichwald beyond Bladee: « Wanted to become an artist »
The gallery on Krukmakargatan is small. The walls chalk white, the windows large.
Benjamin Reichwald sits at a camping table in the middle of the room. He shines up as we step in, take in hand and push a pink can monster aside.
He feels happy and relaxed. He has not always been described. With emotional hip hop, dark text lines and a face that is often covered by face paintings, hair or drawn hats, he has soon come to be considered a difficult, almost mythical figure.
« A rare interview with Blade, the mysterious oracle of the internet staircase, » the headline read when he recently participated in a portrait in the American Music magazine Pitchfork. The text continued: « The unofficial shadow king of strange internet music. »
It's in and by itself not a completely incorrect description. Since Benjamin Reichwald first started making music under the name Bladee, around 2013, he has established himself as an internationally successful artist. He has been out on several world tours and collaborated with stars such as Charli XCX and Skrillex. His most played song, « Be Nice 2 Me », has over 56 million currents on Spotify.
But in Sweden, where he was born and lives, he is still something of a concealer. He doesn't really know why.
– Here I will definitely be less recognized, although it has become more in recent years, he says.
I point out that he is not directly known for putting up interviews. He smiles.
– But I get no requests from Swedish media. My parents usually ask why I am not in the newspapers. Now they will be happy.
So it's not about actively cultivating a mysterious persona?
– No. But it may have been difficult to grasp my artistry. I don't know. It is different in Sweden. Here there has been more focus on Jonte.
When Benjamin Reichwald says Jonte he refers to his friend Jonatan Leandoer, better known by the artist name Yung Lean. The two got to know each other as young teenagers, when Yung Lean had broken through with the music collective Sad Boys and Blade worked with their group Drain Gang.
Twelve years later, it is difficult to know where one collective begins and the other ends. They are still friends, hang and make music (« we hold together and it's a nice thing »). The impact that the Stockholm guys' strange internet music « and kitschy visual worlds have had on the hip-hop of the 10th and 20th century is clear today.
– But people complain that we never do anything here at home.
Admittedly, he visited Yung Lean's giant concert in Avicii Arena this week, and this summer plays the duo on Way Out West, but when Benjamin Reichwald is to give back to the domestic fans, it is as an artist rather than an artist.
That is why we sit in a small gallery on Krukmakargatan. On March 14, his first solo exhibition opens in Sweden, « wicked ax », at Censorship Bureau.
As an artist you use your real name, not Bladee. Why?
– Because I don't want this to be linked to my music project that way. And I like to sign with my own name, it feels nice.
At the same time, the two practitioners – art and music – exist in the same universe. « They inform each other, » as Benjamin Reichwald says.
– I paint the same way I create music. There are no messages directly, but I do what I want to see and hear. I have no goals. Then it usually becomes more true.
But maybe the music is more free for interpretation, he continues when he has been thinking for a while.
– With the art I try to give a more direct insight into my inner world.
When I ask What it looks like in there points Benjamin Reichwald on the board behind him – a large collage full of old candy paper, strong colors and a smiling face that glimpses through the debris.
– Just like that.
He has done several collages for « wicked ax ». It was with that technology – and with the graffiti painting – that his interest in art was first aroused. He cut and pasted and played in Photoshop.
– When I was a kid, I wanted to become an artist, not a musician. But I could never really draw the way I wanted. This medium probably works better for me, it will be a more precise imaging.
To create collagen in the exhibition, he gathered on garbage for about three years.
What decided which garbage was allowed to come home?
– That's the interesting thing. What makes some stuff stand out? Why do I want to pick them up? Regardless, it eventually becomes very coherent, because it is I who chose everything, he says and continues:
– And I want to get something that feels unique to me. The best thing I can compare it to is runes. There is something magical there. What I want with my art is to create a feeling that there is no expression of.
How does it feel to show off the art, compared to releasing a record or standing on stage?
– More personal. People have so many opinions about art. But as long as I like what I have done and can stand for it, it doesn't matter.
Other contemporary art If he does not have much control over, he admits: « I see some on Instagram but am not so familiar. » The idol is instead a dead, but recently mentioned, Swedish artist: the abstract pioneer Hilma af Klint.
– Discovering her was special to me. Her notes and that each brush stroke has a deeper meaning was very inspiring.
Otherwise, he describes his sources of inspiration, as both artist, artist and fashion designer, as a collage in itself. Almost everything can be interesting, and most excitement occurs in the unexpected meetings.
Last year, Bladee was one of the participating artists, along with, among others, Yung Lean, Robyn and Ariana Grande, when Charli XCX followed up their success album « Brat » with a remix record. When they recorded the song « Rewind », in a studio at Mariatorget, he had no idea how big « Brat » would be.
– It was fun. Charli and I have had some contact over the years and I really like her music.
That's it Important when doing collaborations, he says: that he respects and likes the other artist.
– I've never been able to play that game, ie where you pretend you like someone. If a connection is missing, it is only difficult and uncomfortable and a poor end product. I have tried, there is more pressure on such when you are less known and think that you have to do everything because you just have a chance. But it never worked.
Did you want to be known?
– I think so. In the beginning, I dreamed that it could be something bigger. But it felt far away, unreal. Then it worked anyway. But everything has happened quite slowly and naturally.
Over the years has The collage that is Benjamin Reichwald's musical and visual universe has grown into a patch of electronically driven Cloud Rap, dream interpretations, obscure references, Y2K nostalgia-and strong emotions.
The latest album « Cold Vision » has been described as a diary of self -contempt (« I'm the King of Nothing Matters », he sings on « River Flows in You ») and what it is like to age, or renewed, in a career rooted in a hyperonline youth culture. When he started working on the record, his first release after the break from the record company Year0001 that he is not ready to talk about yet, he had just come out of a depressive period when he was mostly sleeping.
– I work best when I'm on my way out of the bad feeling, he believes.
– When I feel the worst, it usually does not get so good, however in « middle school », when I am not really anywhere. I have to be empty to start something new.
But it feels like you are doing different things all the time. How do you find the time?
– So, I feel I have a lot of time. I talk to people a lot about it. I do music and stuff all the time, but to me it feels like I never do anything.
How are you doing today?
– Now it's pretty good.
But he works Still with the self -image and poor self -confidence, he continues – he has always done so, may always do.
Even when something you have done is praised?
– It doesn't matter. I have to think it's good myself.
He does not really know what to do for music next, more than he wants it to « strive up instead of down ». He has tired of the darkness. And so he wants to paint more. Draw, experiment, show even more by itself.
– The more I create, the more whole the image of my inner world becomes.
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