Oscar Jerome is one of the many young musicians emerging from the pool of South London talent, and another that demands your attention.
The EP reflects how he feels about the world, the subjects verging from the political to the introspective. “Music is something inseparable from the political history of people. The distorted images and expectations we have of life, religion and sex,” he says of the Western culture he critiques throughout the five tracks. Even Jerome’s aesthetic feels considered, enlisting the skills of his good friend Gaurab Thakali to create the artwork for his two Eps. Thakalu is also an artist whom has projected his critical views of contemporary life into his work.
You get the feeling that music was always the path Jerome was destined for, and it’s been a part of his story since he was small. “I always wanted to be a musician ever since I was about eight years old when I first took up the guitar,” he says. “When I was young, I just wanted to rock out like Jimi Hendrix or Nirvana, but as I got into my teens, my guitar idol became George Benson. Tupac – All Eyez On Me, Steel Pulse Handsworth Revolution’ and The Clash London Calling were pretty important albums for me too when I was growing up.” Later he’d take his schooling at Trinity Label Conservatoire of Music where he began to nurture his gift for music, studying jazz guitar. But education wasn’t for him, and instead, he nourished his skills performing live at grassroots venue Dalston’s Total Refreshment Centre.
Polished and confident, his signature sound is the result of his experimental attitude to music, and live he chooses to play with artists that can readily improvise and take his music to new realms. “I also like to switch up the set, throwing in the odd reworked cover or making new arrangements of the tunes,” he says. “I’m not really about this playing the track like the record thing; I think if you see someone live the experience needs to be its own special thing otherwise you might as well stay home and listen to the track.”
Both as a frontman and bandmate, he’s spent the last half decade paying his dues on the buzzing live scene, working shoulder to shoulder with the first breakout stars of that new world. He’s also part of Afrobeat collective Kokoroko, who recently featured on the Brownswood compilation We Out Here. If the hub of South London has the spotlight on it right now, for Jerome, there’s good reason for this. “There are a lot of great artists making interesting music in London at the moment,” he says before highlighting the influential nature of these little pockets of creativity. “I think what is so good about it is the mix of people from different musical backgrounds influencing each other. Beat makers, jazz musicians, groove musicians, rappers and singers all involved in the same scene.”
