‘5 Questions With’: Knomad Spock
“There’s a symmetry [in Irish & Somali music] that makes sense when you listen to music that genuinely expresses something of our humanity and the human condition.”
Knomad Spock (or Sam Elmi to those who know him outside of the musical sphere) is an enigmatic, multi-faceted Neo-Folk artist who’s putting the genre firmly back on the map. An elusive British-Somali poet, rapper, and singer-songwriter, who explores musical genres as extended analogies for his own multiethnic heritage, he’s as deeply rooted in the northern British working-class community that raised him, as he is in the Somali nomadic traditions of his inheritance. As a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and in true nomadic keeping, he blurs the borders between punk, rap, folk, jazz, and the avant-garde. This year he’s presented us with his first offering ‘Egypt’, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming debut album set for release later this year, watch out for this artist on the rise.
Read the feature below…
Interview by Danielle Temeng
EQ: Hello KS, welcome to EQUATE. First off, I wanted to know a little about the background of your artist name – it’s an interesting one. How did you come up with it and what’s its meaning (if any)?
KS: Why Knomad Spock? I feel very nomadic. It’s part of both the Somali and Irish cultures that make up my immediate heritage. As for Spock – I’ve always been a Trekkie. I’ve always had my eye on space. I released a record under Nomad and realised late that there are more nomads on Spotify than in the Gobi Desert. Slap a K on the front they said (but unfortunately half the nomads on Spotify got the message). I was looking for something to go with Knomad – it was Knomad Blax for a while. But that wasn’t sitting with me. Spock landed out of the blue really – cool under pressure, governed by logic, upstanding – all the things I’m not and would love to be. Knomad Spock – space wanderer, intergalactic camel herd, and all of that!
EQ: Which artist inspires you most musically?
KS: I love artists that take risks in reinventing themselves and refusing to play it safe – Radiohead for Kid A, Four Tet after Rounds and again after Everything Ecstatic, Björk, the Beatles, Mark Hollis, and Talk Talk. I’m a massive hip-hop head, a punk at heart, and between the ears. Malatu Astatke, Amjad Ali Khan, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, Six Organs of Admittance, Lichens, John Fahey, Flying Lotus, Maurice Ravel, Miles Davis, the Coltranes, Ali Farke Toure… questions like this are like infinity puzzles as the list could go on and on and on forever. I’m a student of music that paints moods and pictures – it’s been done so well, so differently, by so many!
“I think the key to our creative process is to be guided by where the song wants to go and to get yourself out of the way of the process as much as possible.”
– KNOMAD SPOCK
EQ: You’ve recently released your new single ‘Egypt’ and it did not disappoint! It’s got this haunting aspect to it, yet it’s smooth and really draws you in with the guitar hook, and your vocals of course. Can you tell us a little about your creative process of making it?
KS: Wow! I’m really glad you like it! I’m not a very competent guitar player and wrote the main riff to this song while I could barely play. What I know on guitar has mainly been learned through exploring the instrument guided by my limitations. I listen for true emotion when I’m jamming and compose what I can with what I have.
Jamie is a master guru trained musician and so was able to craft this wonderful arrangement around a pretty simple but catchy riff and vocal. He’s crazy humble and patient enough to bear through my sloppy playing to find the gem of the idea in the mud. It’s pretty much how we work. The first iteration of this song had the same riff with a different vocal and Stew Baxter (LIFE / Hinterland Creatives) did the arrangement. It’s really different and has a wicked bounce to it – I really like it too!
I think the key to our creative process is to be guided by where the song wants to go and to get yourself out of the way of the process as much as possible. Serve the stanza and not the author and you’ll always have a stronger poem!
EQ: You’re of British-Somali heritage and also creatively express yourself in poetry too. How have the mixing of cultures influenced your music, and how do your other creative expressions all contribute to your artistry and sound?
KS: I’m finding that the older I get the more enamored I’m becoming with global folk music traditions and how rooted they all seem to be in the same spirit. Irish and Somali folk music seems to share so many similarities I love being able to join some of those dots. There’s a symmetry that makes sense when you listen to music that genuinely expresses something of our humanity and the human condition that I struggle to describe except to say that I feel it very strongly between the Somali and Irish traditions.
In terms of mixing the two traditions in an overt way, I haven’t started down that path yet despite really wanting to work more explicitly within the two traditions. I am hugely influenced by both. My sense of rhythm and harmony is somewhere between the two traditions.
Many (dare I say, most) of the finest poets in the English language were Irish, and Somali is a language so rich in its poetics that there was no need for a written script until the 1970s. They are both storytelling communities and that is, for me, the essence of culture – a shared repository of stories.
EQ: How had COVID affected your creativity in the past year, and what can we expect from you in 2021. Is there anything, in particular, we should keep an eye out for?
KS: COVID is an ongoing disaster of monumental proportions. It feels wrong to link any successes and achievements to it. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’ve never been more creatively busy. I completed and published a poetry pamphlet, released an album, recorded another 2 … done more soul searching this year than Mowtown A&R [laughs]! I’ve had higher highs and lower lows this year than any I can think of. I think it’s been very surreal for everyone, particularly now. Everyone’s at breaking point which is why the arts are more than ever the crutch we lean against as a society. I feel there is a responsibility for each and every one of us to reassure someone else, that it’s okay to feel like shit right now, to be confused and lost with where we are. We knew this would be a horrible winter back in February 2020 when we named the album ‘Winter of Discontent’ but better days are coming. ‘Of Spring’, the second album we finished in COVID, is an exploration of that.
Watch his latest visuals for single ‘Papillon’ below…
YouTube/KNOMAD SPOCK
Stream ‘Eqypt’ HERE
Keep up with Knomad Spock on socials
Instagram: @knomadspock
Twitter: @knomadspock