AfroPop's Rising Star

While others were possibly screaming at each other, Nina, Jezmi Fehmi, and Sam Fenton were screaming in chorus — the trio became a band during shelter-in-place curfews, not long after the three of them started living together. Fehmi and Fenton came from “Double Virgo,” while Nina came from her solo project “Nina.” I like to picture them writing woozy lyrics across dirty dishes; something, if not everything, about their sound does not strike as polished, yet it's almost annoyingly precise in its patronage.

Titles are as vague as their noise is amorphous, and the ambient appeal stretches across all four albums — Quarrel, bedhead, Tracy Denim, The Twits — and as the band hits the road once more — all across America.

Nina— Sorry for any noise. We’re on the motorway.

Turn on the camera!

N— OK. I can do that.

Where are we headed?

N— Asheville.

What did you dream about last night?

N— I have the most meaningful memory: we’re on a boat, really shallow water — like aquamarine — there’re a lot of stones all around us and small islands made of crystals. We approached a medieval church, it had a cross at the top that was made in stone, carried by columns, it was backlit by the sun so it looked very majestic. And then we swam in the water.

And that was it?

N— That was it.

Jezmi Fehmi— I had a very desert based dream because I watched the new Mad Max trailer yesterday. It was very sand. It was very hot. Perhaps it could also have something to do with the van, or the fact that we’re headed to the desert soon….What did you dream about?

I don’t. Or well, I guess I do but I haven’t woken up and actually remembered a dream since I was a teenager. It sucks, but then again I don’t get nightmares either.

Sam Fenton— I had a nightmare once that I had to reset an exam, I hadn’t done any homework to prepare for it and as I looked down at myself I was sitting there all naked.

Does it hold relevance? Does what you dream ever add up to something?

SF— 100%

JF— I don't think they do.

N— I feel like it helps you process stuff in ways that sometimes feels more true to yourself. Once we’re so fed with experiences and expressions throughout the day — especially while being on tour, for example — dreams are then like a digestion system. But for the mind.

Does bar italia have any dreams in common? What's the goal.

SF— Food. The next coffee. Soccer.

Then you’ve already made it.

JF— I guess so. We’re currently driving past a place called Kernersville, in North Carolina, which means that we’ve definitely made it as far as I’m concerned.

N— Once the vultures are circling around you. That means you made it.

Likewise once people start inking bar italia onto their bodies? Your response to fan tattoos were that you were “going to be gone next year anyways,” while a tattoo is eternal — where are you going?

SF— You’ve got to live like you’re going to be gone next year.

That sounds very "yolo"?

JF— What it means to me is to appreciate everything that’s happening or not happening right now. It could be gone..

SF— Yolo is destructive, what I’m talking about is about maintaining the value of your life. To not take anything for granted. 

Not even Kernersville.

Are you good at living in the present, then?

N— Working on it, that is our common goal, if you like. Sure it kind of gets harder to stay present as the attention grows, but at the same time it gives you a better understanding of what's happening around you. Also, to be around the right people who can make you process whatever it is that's going on.

Or, to be on the road? Touring in all its madness but isn't the road quite calming?

JF— I sleep in the car. And everybody wants me not to. I snore, a lot.

P— I love driving past a new bridge, that’s always a perk. I’m especially fond of a bridge that’s under construction, when one is overlapping the other. It’s like spaghetti, or a Jungian dream.

Do you have a favorite bridge?

SF— Liam’s favorite is Under The Bridge Downtown. Personally, I’ve burnt all my bridges.

Liam— My second favorite bridge is in “Joise” though; when it goes from the D minor to the E minor... do get you that one?

Let’s just say I don’t think I’ve driven across it.

N— We’re just making puns…

I’d like to blame the reception. But maybe I’m not British enough.

We’re going to hit an exit for you, just leaving the highway… hang on.

Puns aside. I’ve read too much about your sound — “mello vocals”, “conversational croon”, “hardcore howl” — whatever, I prefer just listening to the actual noise. Instead of putting sound into words, describe bar italia in a feeling. Or form. Or flavor. You get it.

SF— Spicy. It's spicy.

As in curry, Indian spice, burning type of way?

JF— No, no, no. Spicy as in hot, as in red hot chili peppers.

SF— Like a scotch bonnet under your eyelids. That’s how we’d taste. We’re the flavor you can’t get off your tongue.

And where is this scotch bonnet played out? In what setting do you envision your music, other than the stage?

JF— Somebody told me, quite recently, that they lost their virginity to a bar italia song.

N— Someone sent a message saying they went down on their girlfriend while listening to us.

To what song?

N— No specifications, it’s just “to your music.”

So the environment is inevitably the bedroom? Or a virgin could get lost anywhere, really.

JF— Whatever works for them. I think the female cunnilingus is, specifically, the setting.

SF— Male cunnilingus!

JF— Oh right. Did I get that wrong?

Where is it exactly?

N— The setting is any cunnilingus. We don't discriminate.

Music for sex.

N— Yes.

Cool.

SF— Thank you, for fuck's sake.

I heard that Jezmi doesn't like music at all, not even your own music, which…

JF— When I said that it had been a really long day, and..

What do you then do when the rest of us turn to music? To cry, to rage, to feel, to escape, to isolate, to relate?

JF— I do the same, I listen to music. I’m not much different from anybody else. However, what I meant is that I often find music much more interesting as a phenomenon, as something to read about — I like biographies or autobiographies of musicians, it’s history in general — in comparison to just listening. But music is still my soul's emotional playground.

You were all pretty quick to jump to defense just now, have you had it with people perceiving you “wrong,” if there’s such a thing as right or wrongs?

N— I mean, we’re only human so, naturally, certain things will get to you personally, perhaps there’s been some stuff in the past. But as a band, no. I’d say we’re quite good at not worrying too much, about being things we aren’t.

Previously you were mysterious for not speaking to the press, whereas now, supposedly, you’re rude for not speaking to the audience? I think it's sympathetic not to clutter the ambivalence with meaningless chat while performing.

N— We rather have the connection to just be real. Instead of repeating the same phrases over and over again, out of the light, we’re just seeing if something comes up. And, if it doesn't, we hope that the set is good enough to stand on its own.

Cool.

N— Cool.

Define cool?

N— I don’t know if I have an answer.

JF— I’ve got one. Cool is something that makes people engage with something in a way that interests them for a reason they don’t know why.

SF— Cool is when you don’t give a shit. Like cigarettes and drugs and nothing else. And sex is cool. The coolest people I know are asexuals.

JF— They claim to be but are seemingly sleeping with about seven people at the same time.

Is that uncool? What’s uncool?

JF— ...art.

N— Could you not Jezmi? You don’t have to destroy one genre every interview. We’ve got music covered — we hate music! Now art is covered — we also hate art!

What about bar italia art? I’m not referring to your past exhibition but the little doodle making up your logo. What’s the story?

N— No, you can’t ask any questions about him. The doodle is not even off the record but never on the record.

Well just tell me this, is he crying? Meditating? Who’s the artist?

N— That's a secret. You’re free to ask anything but not this. He’s doing a face massage. That's all.

JF— He’s meditating.

SF— Washing.

Washing his tears away?

N— No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There’s no tears. It’s massaging its face. It's lymphatic drainage.

Post tour vibes or real desperate house vibes?

Both.