Artist Spotlight: Sidders

Shot by @freddiestisted

Offering a sound that bridges hip hop, soul and R&B but driven by the structural and sonic nuance of indie, Sidders’ music, like his personality, is hard not to like. It’s inoffensive, engulfing easy listening portrayed in a well crafted manner, driven by the singer’s melodic cadence and charming tone. 

Bursting onto the scene with his debut ’19 EP About Time, which featured catastrophic hit Breathe, Sidders then languished in the shadows, refining his craft and building a backbone of music. A wholesome, earnest Mom Tudie collaboration Better Days led into the beginning of a new phase of Sidders’ artistry, beginning with subtle and introspective cut May Snow and seconded by latest number Home Alone.

Home Alone is a cut that breathes colour and positivity. A love struck Sidders divulges in his romantic endeavours and outlook, not cliched in his vivid narrative of intrigue, nostalgia and attraction. The lightly glazed sonics stem from Sidders learning to play guitar during lockdown, with the groove-laden, kaleidoscopic soundscape constructed around the lively chord sequence. Accompanied by a video shot by titan videographer Mr. Moe Musa, who has worked with the likes of Wizkid and Davido, the video mirrors the coy and characterful approach of the song, with Sidders and his mystery beau on getting friendly amidst a picturesque backdrop. 

I spoke to Sidders about the new single, the progression of his sound, and his endearing musical and personal positivity.

Who and what influences you? 

I grew up around a lot of R&B. My mum was into hip-hop, but it was more like the Outkast type hip-hop. A lot of like Andy Stone, Gregory Porter. There was like a duality to it, cause on the one side I had a lot of R&B, hip-hop, like Erykah Badu, Andre 3000, The Fugees, Biggie, but then on the other side I had a lot of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers – I remember if I was ever in the car, cause I used to go to and from Brighton a lot, I kinda grew up between the two cities, it’s like every time we put Californication on, and we’d like listen to that start to finish. Or we’d listen to like Solid Air by John Martin, like play that whole album from start to finish. It was kind of like a mishmash of cultures – two coming into one. My biggest influences in music would probably be when Kendrick dropped ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. I remember I was always into music, but when he dropped that album, that was the first time I was like, ‘fuck me, this is an artist’.

I definitely hear that in your sound, there's the duality of indie pop mixed with hip-hop. 

I never meant to choose a genre or choose a style, which is annoying when people say like ‘oh what type of music do you make?’, it pisses me off because there’s a lot of music you can’t box. I think it’s definitely a mix of cultures, you know being mixed race, there’s the indie rock side and the hip-hop side, and then the fusion of being like British and having Caribbean influence. 

At what kind of point did you think ‘I’m gonna make a career out of music’?

After I started putting the beats on SoundCloud, the first proper track that I put out was ‘Kyoshi Drifting’. This was the beauty of SoundCloud because I don’t know how, it just took off, I don’t know what the views are at now but that was the first track to hit 50k, like relatively quickly. So after I actually realised that people were listening to it, and it wasn't just my mates, and people would message me and people were saving it, that was the first time I was like ‘do you know what, I can release, I can do this’. I started getting emails from labels, A&R’s, all that shit, and as a kid, that was just mad reassuring. It was like an affirmation, so I think that fuelled my passion to perform and record. I think the first time that I realised I could do it as a career was when I dropped ‘About Time’ that had ‘Breathe’ on it, I recorded from my bedroom, dropped it, and then when ‘Breathe’ started picking up and getting playlisted and doing well, I think that's when I was like ‘do you know what, this is what I love’. 

You didn’t release for a couple of years, what was that about? 

It was a mix of things. On the one hand it was good for me because it gave me time to sit on things and look at what I was making and think about my direction. There’s a beauty in not rushing things. I dropped ‘Breathe’ and at the time I was at uni, and so it was like tryna study, and do sessions, and still work as a musician was all just getting a bit nuts. I dropped ‘Better Days’ in 2020, when I went to release next it was 2021, and COVID just fucked everything to be honest. It was just difficult because I was so frustrated that all I wanted to do was show people what I was working on and perform live, but it just felt like the wrong time.

How would you say your sound has progressed since that first EP, to the new one? 

I think it's a whole different experience because the first EP was just raw. It was recorded in my bedroom, it was beats I’d either been sent or found or made myself, whereas, between then and now I've had the opportunity to jump in the studio and have sessions. I feel like I have more of a freedom to tailor it to exactly what I want and to get my vision across wholeheartedly. Sonically, I think the first EP was still a lot of rap infused with melodic and indie pop, whereas this EP was just a bit of an experiment.I think it's progressed but it’s not confined. It's developed into more of an experiment. 

How would you kind of define your style? 

My style is a mashup of going between a multicultural London and a liberating seaside town, Brighton – quite quiet, where the music when I was growing up there was indie, whereas in London it would be like grime, hip hop, American hip hop, and then, on the other side of it. My style is a mashup of everything hip hop, indie, R&B, and soul. It's a new outlook on the possibility of hip hop.

How do you think you stand out? What’s special about you? 

You’ve got to be unapologetic, I feel like following any bandwagon won't cut it because people can see the honesty. I feel like I just stand out by making the music that I enjoy. People don't have to like it, but if they like it, they like it. I’d rather people resonate with something that's wholehearted in myself, rather than doing something that anybody else is doing. I feel like there’s space for it, because there's a lot of UK rap blowing up, but in terms of like a mixture of indie, because there's not really like a huge mixture of indie with hip-hop.

One thing that I love about new music, is the positivity. I was going ask if that reflects your persona, but I can already see it does. 

This EP was recorded at a time that was dark for a lot of people. I feel, inadvertently, I've tried to channel as much love and positivity as possible, because I see music as my escape. The way that I do that is jumping in the studio and making something that takes me away from whatever is going on. One thing I want to do in the future is show the side of me that isn’t positive all the time, but for this one I just wanted to bring as much of myself and as much of the vibe as possible. 

What are you trying to convey with your recent single Home Alone?

It was the first track that I recorded on guitar, and it was hard not to see it as a romantic song for someone, like an open letter. I just wanted to make something that people could dance to. The way that I got it out of my head was getting it on a track. I had it trapped in my head for too long to not make it something, and then once I put it on a beat, it just had to come out.

If you were introducing yourself to a new listener, what track would you play them? 

If it was out of the tracks I’ve already released it would be between ‘May Snow’, because that track means so much to me, and ‘Breathe’. They’re the songs that represent me as a songwriter, and display what I believe in.

What is next for you? 

We’ve got the fourth track to round off the EP, I’ve got my next headline show late September, we’re looking at around the 20th at The Finsbury. We got another show at Café CoCo, which again is gonna be late September, an intimate one, which is gonna be like an invite only thing but for the fans, so like any new listeners or old listeners can come down, you can catch me @SiddersMusic. Apart from that, just finishing off the next project, big fucking vibes.