Riding the ebb of homegrown sounds and the flows of layered introspection, Ghanaian-Australian Artist Immy Owusu has mastered a recipe to make the world dance.
“I kind of have an idea drop into my head and then I'll have a rough demo of it. And then we'll add things that feel like they're needed. So just like cooking, you have an idea of what you want to cook and then as you're cooking you're like smelling it, sniffing it, looking at it.”
If Immy Owusu is the Chef de Cuisine, then South African-Australian producer Sensible J is the Sous Chef. Together they plate up a fusion of their heartiest reminders of home and the vastness of their own personal journeys. Their love for 70s African Genres like Zamrock and highlife serve as the brine for their genre-hopping odyssey EP, Spiritual War.
“The mixed experience can be very diverse sometimes. I grew up listening to a lot of psychedelic rock, where I grew up in Torquay, like coastal surfy town, but then a lot of hip-hop R&B as well. And (Sensible) Jay, similar thing, he played in a lot of rock bands and stuff and then migrated to being a hip-hop producer.”
With the surf comes also the undertow, and something deeper broods on the EP – touching on heavier themes of capitalism, colonisation, and existential dread. Owusu explains that these concepts came naturally to him, allowing his adventures and cross-cultural experiences to speak through his penmanship.
“It was completely unintentional, to be honest. It's like, you're just writing…whatever comes out … I wouldn't say it was intentionally meant to be a political thing or anything, but it's like, oh, I could see how people would see this as political.”
Steeped in Ghanaian influence, the title of the EP, Spiritual War is one that is reflective of how deep spirituality runs in Ghanaian culture and the way it shows up in the everyday, where the conveniences of the Western world take tangible toll on the soul.
“I feel like culturally with Ghanaians, spirit is like a really important thing… All these nice conveniences of the Western world and underneath that there's a lot of you know, at what cost? There's a lot of material cost and personal cost from other people, but then spiritual cost I would say, quote-unquote of like, you know, your soul just not glowing, not shining.
It's just this little lump – like you existing, but not living.”
Words by Tiana Severino-Fidow