Talking to: Treasure
Born in North West London, Treasure has been making music since his early teens. Treasure's family relocated to the countryside in the early 2000’s, trading busy city life for suburban serenity, a feeling present in his music; Treasure’s sound doesn’t easily fit into any boxes. His eclectic music tastes and obvious joy in subverting the norm shine through; a left field and intelligent take on trap, r&b and hip hop, visiting glitchy jazz, playful production and soulful harmonies along the way. Treasure, a.k.a Kelvin Beyioku, wears his emotions on his sleeve and invites listeners into the conversation; creating a space where you can rest at ease.
Celebrating the release of his latest EP Plebeian, Treasure talks to us about childhood, his Nigerian musical roots, inspirations and his next project, for which he will be transforming into Treasure Bloom. His music is blossoming and moving on, and he’s inviting us along too.
It’s lovely to get together for a chat with you, I bet you are quite busy at the moment promoting a new album?
I’m quite busy, mostly just working, I have just come back from work, I am a mental health support worker, so I do really long shifts.
Tell me a little bit more about yourself.
I have been producing music for about ten years. I started in a metal band and then I decided I wanted to make music that felt more like me. So I went down a long road of making r&b, trap, psychedelic rock, anything I could get my hands on really. I built my own home studio and since 2017/2018 I have started up this Treasure brand. I have been experimenting with a lot of different styles of music; it's like I can’t really seem to focus on one genre, because I get bored too easily. Recently, my musicality is an exploration of what I can do with the tools I have at hand really. Everything is always constantly changing, my living environment is always changing, so I kind of cope through music.
Where are you at the moment, what is your living situation looking like?
I am in Stevenage, just outside London. I did a stint in London when I was a lot younger and since then I have grown up between Stevenage and Buckinghamshire.
Are you involved in the London music scene?
I know more people involved in the music scene in London, but I definitely try to stay connected to Stevenage. There’s not a massive community of musicians in Stevenage, but those that are here, we often collaborate together and bounce ideas off each other. But, yeah, it’s definitely more London based, and I work with a lot of people in other cities and abroad as well.
It's a lot easier to connect worldwide nowadays isn’t it?
Definitely! The project I am creating at the moment, it has got collaborators from LA, from Russia, Israel as well, so it’s just all over.
What project is that?
It’s Treasure, but it's basically the next iteration of Treasure. I feel like I am becoming more crystallised in my thoughts now, basically coming out as a new artist, still connected to Treasure, but called Treasure Bloom. I’m slightly changing my artist name to signify the change in musicality and the change in aura, basically
Tell me a bit more about who you are collaborating with on your next project.
I’ve worked with a producer in LA called Tyler Turner. He has done work with Baby Keem, he’s done work for the late Juice WRLD. He produced a track for me and I took it away and made it my own, that's going to be coming out. There’s a guy from Russia who is currently based in Israel called Mellow Mnd, and I have a track where he basically programs all the drums; he’s really good, inspired by people like J Dillah, Mad Lib, Flying Lotus.
Having listened to your new album and your older work, I am really impressed by how you are bringing in that experimental layer and making things sound a bit different. I would be really interested in hearing more about your musical upbringing; tell us a bit more about what your music life was like growing up.
I didn’t come from a musical family as such, but when I was living in London I would always be surrounded by music. My parents on a Saturday or Sunday would wake up early, and we would be doing our chores, and they would always be singing; loads of praise and worship songs, a lot of Fela Kuti, a very famous Nigerian musician, a lot of r&b like Aaliyah, a lot of rap like Tupac. And when we were living in London and on our way to church we would listen to a lot of music and my mum and dad would be singing along.
I didn’t start getting any musical training until after I moved to Stevenage, I was about ten years old. But for whatever reason, my mind wouldn’t pick up what they were teaching me, I wasn’t as aware of music as I am now, so I kind of sat on those lessons. Then it came to secondary school and I started getting into a lot of Fallout Boy, Panic at The Disco, a lot of rock bands, a lot of indie rock bands, because I think I wanted to start listening to stuff I shouldn’t have been!
I begged for my parents to buy me a guitar, and they bought me a small classical guitar and a cheap keyboard, so I started just playing around, but I didn’t really start to learn music until I was around thirteen or fourteen. Then one of my friends decided we should start a metal band, so we started learning theory, started messing around and practicing at each other's houses, and that kind of spurred me to do music at GCSE. It just made me realise that music is something I really want to do, whether I make a career out of it or not, it doesn’t matter, I just wanted to be on the music scene.
I was in a metal band until the age of sixteen, then I realised there is so much music out there, and that I wanted to make music that was more calming, more soothing, with elements of craziness, but music that felt more like me. So I started learning a lot of music theory, I started messing around with loads of different genres, and it turned into what you see now; a kind of beautiful mess I like to call it!
Just going back to what you mentioned about growing up, I know you mentioned Fela Kuti, is your family background Nigerian?
So, yes, Nigerian, and we are a part of the Yoruba tribe, the most populous tribe in Nigeria, so yeah, they are very musical people I would say. My Mum to this day is always singing so it makes it hard to record music, but I think I know where I get it from anyway!
Do your family support the music you make as well, do they enjoy it?
Yeah, definitely. I remember when I was just starting to learn guitar I did a little show for my parents, so I was just thrashing around the living room playing random chords, and my mum looked at me and she said ”I like what you are doing” (she didn’t) “but it sounds like a mess”. Fast forward maybe eight or nine years, I have become more adept at making music, and every time I am making something new she will knock on the door and tell me “yes, so this sounds really good”. Every time I get played on the radio she is always there to listen; it’s lovely to be honest.
What plays have you had so far? Who has picked you up and showing interest in what you are doing?
Initially I had support from people on the London scene like Reprezent Radio. Jamz Supernova is supporting me a lot, she is doing so much for the scene right now, I am hoping to work with her. Also my local radio station, BBC Radio 3 has supported me as well.
Moving on to your latest release Plebeian, what is it about? I’ve read the press release, I love how you say it is partly inspired by literature you have read, but it would be good to hear in your own words what inspired the album.
There is no clear concrete ethos behind it, it's more an amalgamation of tracks and demos I want the world to hear before I start doing other things. So each song, each section, has its own meaning, something people can take away from that. With Conversations with Friends, I would say that is the only piece that is based on literature. I read Sally Rooney’s book Conversations with Friends and also Normal People, and I was so impressed with how she was able to evoke emotion, so I took Conversations with Friends and attached my own meaning to it.
So me and my closest friends, we went through a period where we would just adventure; we wouldn’t drive, we wouldn't take any public transport, we would just walk around, and just explore forests and the land around us. A lot of it would centre around these long conversations we would have, just trying to make sense of the world we were coming into, as teenagers, just leaving school. That song is based on our aspirations, who we wanted to be, just appreciating the fact that we have our dreams, we have the people we want to become, but none of this lasts forever so we need to appreciate the here and now. That's the most important song on the project for me.
Then, What We Do In The Dark, it's more playful, and it's really funny; it's basically about trying to make somebody be unfaithful because their boyfriend isnt around. That's all I can say about that!
In terms of the production, I like bringing that hip hop element, those drum machines, that very lo-fi rustic feel to my songs, so that is something I will be bringing with me going forward. You are going to be hearing more upbeat tracks, it's not going to be all very mellow going forward into my new projects.
Then I have got a few skits, the Plebeian skit, a kind of transitory track, and then Heist at the end. Heist is basically like a confession to myself, trying to let go of the ego, let go of how I am meant to be. I thought that was a great way to end the project, so I can kind of create new music in an entirely new world.
So Plebeian is a demo project that has its fingers in loads of different pies, it’s basically a beautiful mess, and I thought it was the best way to close off Treasure.
What’s coming up next for you? You’ve talked about your new project, but is there anything else exciting coming up we need to be listening out for?
Over the next few years, I would say, keep an eye out on the projects I do release, because I am upping the ante with every single one. The next project is quite ambitious, but the ones after that will probably become even more leftfield. Leftfield in the sense that it will be unlike anything you have ever heard before, but it still feels close to home.
Any closing thoughts for our readers?
I think I say this all of the time, but if there is anyone listening to my music thinking that maybe they want to do something creative, or “maybe I want to put myself out there”, I would say just do it. We live in times where anything is possible, so just be free. Nothing has to be perfect any more; I think the most important thing is that you are doing something with all of your heart, that's it.
Recipes
