AntsLive is determined to be a flag-bearer for a model new expertise of UK rap stars. The north London artist thinks previous the frameworks laid by rappers sooner than him, as confirmed throughout the Wes Anderson-style music video for his breakthrough single, ‘Amount One Candidate’. The clip has been omnipresent all through social media lately, garnering over 1.3 million TikTok hits alone. All via, the 23-year-old raps over trumpet flares and potent 808s whereas galloping on a horse in opposition to the large, luscious backdrop of the Italian Alps.
“I’ve on a regular basis been a assured little shit! I solely had horse driving courses for only a few days sooner than taking footage the video. Throughout the video, it’s like I’m attempting to level out a day throughout the lifetime of AntsLive,” he tells NME over Zoom. “The instructors instructed me it wasn’t attainable to check quickly, nonetheless I discussed, ‘Nah, we’re galloping innit!’”
The video presents a great deal of notion into the rapper’s persona, as a result of it accommodates a nod to his lifelong soccer workforce, Arsenal – who’re presently experiencing a worthwhile streak in tandem with Ants himself. At one stage, we see Ants carrying a basic Arsenal shirt, sooner than dressing up as legendary footballer Ian Wright by sporting a gold tooth and a flat cap.
‘Amount One Candidate’ is the centrepiece of Ants’ newly-released debut EP, ‘Solely a Matter of Time’. After engaged on it for the “best part of a yr”, Ants believes now could possibly be the optimum time to showcase this enterprise to the world. “To put the EP out correct now feels good,” he explains, beaming with delight. “Not solely by means of timing, nonetheless it seems like the fitting second in my life to be glad with a physique of labor like that. It introduces me to the game and showcases stylistically all the sounds that I want to uncover going forward.”
NME caught up with Ants to debate his singular inventive imaginative and prescient, the important thing to continued TikTok success, and the importance of making himself stand out in opposition to completely different rappers.
NME: The place does your stage title come from?
“All my people title me Ants! It’s an abbreviation for my title. And AntsLive, properly, ‘reside’ comes as part of an abbreviation for ‘Ants reside by my speaker’. I confirmed thought of certainly one of my bredrins my songs and he was instantly like, ‘Yo! Ants reside by my speaker!’ – and it caught. Moreover, clearly throughout the UK people know that when saying one factor is ‘reside’, it’s like saying it’s ‘lit’. Livest throughout the metropolis – I want to embody that.”
How has the music that you just simply’ve listened to all via your life influenced the music that you just simply make?
“I don’t even have any borders with what I be all ears to, and it’s on a regular basis been like that. Some days I be all ears to solely 50 Cent, and completely different days I be all ears to indie rock or one factor! I could not basically do a deep dive into an artist or model, nonetheless I like listening to utterly completely different sounds. If it evokes a way in me, then I’m attempting to convey that. The tape is form of versatile and there are most positively some blended influences.
“I moreover don’t overthink what I do after I make music, and I don’t exit of my method trying to find points to encourage me. I merely devour a great deal of music and each half that I make is normally created from an pure feeling of what my mood is, and who I’m throughout the room with. If I hear some chords or an 808 pattern and it triggers a way in me, I can merely incorporate it naturally. What conjures up me is solely the feeling of making music itself and attempting to transmit that feeling.”
Credit score rating: Zek Snaps
Sonically, the songs in your new mixtape are so numerous. Would you say that you just simply’re attempting to create a particular AntsLive ‘identification’, or are you merely experimenting?
“Every, to be reliable with you. I didn’t deconstruct what I wanted my songs to sound like as I was making them. Nonetheless after I put each half collectively, it merely made sense for me. I merely felt like these had been the right songs, sonically, to level out the place I’m correct now. The issue that brings each half collectively is solely me, which sounds truly cliché. I try and be my real self as so much as attainable. Whoever is finding out this, once you had been to be all ears to the tape completely you’d understand.”
How would you say you’ve grown as an artist since you first started out?
“After I first started making music I was trash! I’ve a line in ‘Don Corleone’ that claims, ‘Stand up throughout the studio, this ain’t my first rodeo’ – that’s for precise. I’m throughout the studio each single day rising my expertise set.”
“I had a concrete imaginative and prescient to make a UK anthem with ‘Amount One Candidate’”
What had been the precept influences for the ‘Amount One Candidate’ video?
“I’ve to shout out the director Tom Emmerson, he’s a genius. I’ve to supply a great deal of credit score rating to his imaginative and prescient. We made a video prior often called ‘Tweakin’, and it had a singular actually really feel, so we wished to transpire that into this. I’m a believer in music motion pictures normally. It’s a dying paintings, people don’t basically put in as so much time and effort anymore. I actually really feel like because of people devour music in any other case with streaming. Nonetheless I want to make movement footage that accompany the songs, they deserve it.
“I had a concrete imaginative and prescient to make a UK anthem with ‘Amount One Candidate’, notably with the brass and horn sounds. I didn’t actually really feel like a UK artist had explored that sound completely and combined it with rap. As shortly as you hear these trumpets it’s an unlimited monitor, and after I made it I despatched it to my supervisor and we knew it was the one.”
Was the basic Arsenal shirt throughout the video out of your particular person wardrobe?
“Certain! Come on you Gunners! I’ve to shout out this explicit particular person throughout the YouTube video suggestions, nonetheless any person noticed the Ian Wright vibe I was going for with the gold tooth, cap and Arsenal shirt. It was a bit easter egg I put in there for the Arsenal followers.”
How else does your love of soccer come into your work?
“I grew up collaborating in a great deal of soccer, and I actually really feel identical to the mentality, self-discipline and focus in sport all translate into my music. These are points I learnt from my first coach in soccer.”
Credit score rating: Zek Snaps
You’ve been pushing this video on TikTok. Do you’re feeling there’s an expectation for artists to promote their work on this method?
“No pressure. None. My producer gave me some good advice. I didn’t truly understand TikTok, nonetheless he talked about, ‘TikTok is like taking footage throughout the open gymnasium. No one will see when you miss, nonetheless all people will see when you hit.’ That’s my advice to anyone. As shortly as he talked about that to me I merely thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ll do 5 TikToks a day, each single day.’”
When you look once more at your occupation to this point, what makes you’re feeling proud?
“My have a look at Learning Competitors merely over a yr up to now. Going onto that stage and seeing truly 10,000 people who didn’t know who I was… I gave the effectivity of my life, and I acquired plenty of of messages from new followers saying that I was their favourite performer of your complete weekend. So that truly validated [my live show] for me.”
What’s subsequent for AntsLive?
“I’m dropping a enterprise masses forward of oldsters suppose. The ball goes to keep up rolling. In case you lot are having enjoyable with it – then perception me it’s going to get larger. I’d like to have the flexibility to do a European tour, the imaginative and prescient has on a regular basis been to take this worldwide.”
AntsLive’s new mixtape ‘Merely A Matter Of Time’ is out now