Who is ladé? - In Bloom Interview

Interviewed by Charlie Suter

Photographed by @7pg_ _ _ and @oladoyinn

Please introduce yourself as an artist and set the scene.

My name is ladé, always spelled in lowercase and always with the accent on the É. I’m a Scottish Nigerian producer/DJ constantly experimenting with the way sound can evoke place, time, and feeling. I use music to explore personal and collective histories, transforming memories, longing, or cultural observations into compositions that are both intimate and immersive. I am inspired a lot by abstract/experimental hip-hop but lately I have been exploring ambient soundscapes, trap, and footwork/juke music. I don’t aim to strictly define what genre my music falls into, but I do like and resonate with the tag of 

experimental soul.

What place (specific or general) does your music make you imagine?

An alternate reality in which music is also seen in colour when it’s played. A Surreal Synaesthetic reality. Like if the Northern Lights could produce sound and was in a warmer climate.

If your music could soundtrack a film, which film and scene would it be?

Daughters of the Dust, I love the surrealist/dreamlike nature of the film. I also love the colour grading and the fact that it showcases the heritage of an arguably underrated Afro diasporic ethnic group, the Gullah Geechee. I also like the depiction of generational and collective memory in the film, with the “Unborn Child” being the narrator of it all. Most specifically I’d choose the indigo dye scene as I loved how the past present and future were portrayed here. It starts as Nana Peazant remembering the hands of enslaved people as they’d use indigo dye to stain fabric, the next shot is people with stained hands playing a board game called Mancala. Then the next frame shows one of the island people strolling along the beach, which has been colour graded to have a purple/indigo hue. Finally Nana looks at her own indigo stained hands and prepares an indigo charm she will give to her daughter when she moves away from the island. I think this is a beautiful example of using the same colour to represent different points of time.

What colour would best describe your music and why?

It depends, Nollywood Nightmares is definitely red, yellow and orange as seen on the visuals/posters. I wanted to portray heat to reflect the climate in Nigeria. I also tend to get nightmares in the summer/hot weather. Not sure why. But yeah, I wanted to portray a hot, sweltering surreal climate to fit the nightmares I would get growing up watching these films. Visually though, my upcoming 2026 project (separate from the footwork EP) is mainly blue/indigo, I intend to explore and portray these colours through a lens of hope, celebration and happiness as opposed to the main cultural perception of it which is mainly seen as a colour of sadness and melancholy.

Being from both Nigerian and Scottish descent, are there cultural aspects from both that play a part in inspiring your creations?  If so what are they?

Definitely, so far my Nigerian heritage has taken the forefront of the influences in my work and will continue to do so, particularly when it comes to some of the samples I use, how I chop these samples and also some of the visuals as seen in Nollywood Nightmares. I plan on touching more about my life in Scotland in my 2027/2028 projects. 

Are there any artists that inspire you that you think people would be surprised by?

Bastille, grew up listening to their music a lot as well. I would always get goosebumps listening to their Bad Blood album. Their music helped me a lot through the emotionally confusing parts of my adolescence. 

AURORA, been listening to her music since I was a teenager. I love her voice and ethereal nature. First came across her music in RE class too so shout out to Ms McMahon.

TENGGER, recently discovered their music. Been very into analogue synths lately and I love the fact that they changed their duo name from 10 to TENGGER (meaning expansion of sky in Mongolian) to convey the expansion of their family after their son was born. 

Chief Keef, his Finally Rich album was on constant repeat when I got my first job, before this I’d mainly only listened to indie music or alt-rock but Laughin to the Bank resonated with me so much at the time. It was like a new chapter opened up for me, financially and musically  

It’s fascinating that horror is the central theme for your recent project Nollywood Nightmares. Is this a theme you will continue to explore in your future projects or is there other themes you intend to expand to?

There will be little Easter eggs in my upcoming work for those who actually pay attention to what I do. But the other themes in Nollywood Nightmares like surrealism and illusion will definitely be consistent themes in my future work. 

Who are your dream artists to collaborate with?

In no particular order:

⁃ Solange

⁃ Pretty V

⁃ Jawnino

⁃ Erykah Badu

⁃ MIKE

⁃ Earl Sweatshirt

⁃ Navy Blue

⁃ Precious Renee Tucker