On collaborating with a choir at the 6 Music Festival:
Loyle: It’s kind of a bit secretive, but I think everyone knows about it already but we had some nice long rehearsals yesterday with the choir to begin to push the music further. We’ve been playing these songs live for a long time now and to give them new leases of life is quite exciting for me. That’s one of the things. I’ve got some friends coming with me.
Lauren: Talented friends would we say? Musically talented friends?
Loyle: I only have musically talented friends at this point in my life!
On releasing personal music after lockdown:
Loyle: When I first started making music, this album, I didn’t think that anyone was necessarily going to hear it because of lockdown and [I questioned] whether or not I would even release it. So I had pictures in my head of what I would do if I played it live. And [it was] everything and more. Just so nice to be in the real world after being online for so many months.
Lauren: It’s interesting that you said you might not release it. Why was that, was that just pandemic situations or was it what you were writing about?
Loyle: Where I was at with it creatively, I was figuring out how I wanted to keep doing this – I’ve been doing this for a minute now and I feel very lucky to do it – but I wanted to make sure I was looking after myself first and foremost. So I thought, should I put this out? Will it stress me out if this is out there, is it too personal? I was glad I did ultimately.
On naming his album after his dad’s car
Lauren: Is it right that Hugo was the car that you were sitting in in that track?
Loyle: Yeah, that album was named after my father’s car… My dad taught me to drive over the lockdown and it became a really incredible space for communication and the repairing of generational trauma I guess and it felt very fitting to zero in on the micro of the story – and it’s the car.
On becoming a father
Loyle: Everyone thought I was going to be a lot more censored with what I was making [after becoming a father] and I think I became less censored because I really wanted my son to get a full picture of what it’s like to grow up like me, because he will. And to see what it was like for me growing up for the last 28 years. So I felt more of a duty to reflect the times more explicitly than I had before.
Loyle: Before, you don’t really think about it, you’re just thinking for yourself. You’re the main character in the movie. Now I’m very much just the extra in my son’s movie!
On talking about having ADHD
Lauren: The conversation [around ADHD] has moved on and you were very much a big part of starting that. How does it feel? Do you think about that?
Loyle: I don’t think about that, it really means a lot to me though. I guess I was just telling the truth when I was younger. But I’m very moved to see [how] a lot of kids always come up to me and they want to talk to me about it and they feel like they’re able to be themselves because of the cooking school we have or they’ve seen videos of me talking about it. So I’m very glad that people younger than me are being cut a bit more slack and are able to be themselves. I’m deeply moved by that.