This week we talked with Leave Nelson B to discuss his track “Seen It All!,” as well as the various influences behind his burgeoning production style. Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, the musician’s work as a lab tech, and time spent overseas in the military, are also crucial components to the artist’s expanding aesthetic. He explains:
“I work in a lab for a 24-hour trauma center in the middle of Cleveland during the night shift. Test blood, urine, and other body fluids for various chemicals, hormones, disease, and tumor markers, and STDs. In the Air Force, I was an Aircrew Flight Equipment Technician. I deployed to various places, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and, luckily, South Korea. Seen a fair share of danger and felt quite a bit of fear. Spent all of my time overseas.”
“Seen It All!” reflects Leave Nelson B’s time in the trenches. No stranger to stress, and the pressures of being on the front-line, here he transmutes those difficulties into warm and evocative creative expression. Based on a sample from Kicksie‘s track “Blind To It,” “Seen It All!” goes from hushed and self-reflective to celebratory and extroverted with the drop of a stylish and slinky beat. This week we chatted with Leave Nelson B via email to discuss the cut. You can read the interview after the Spotify embed below.
LETV: Your musical styles and aesthetics seem to borrow from a lot of different subcultures (hip-hop, punk, industrial, e-pop). How do you juggle all of these influences?
LNB: My influences are far reaching and various and sometimes very obscure. I own every Nine Inch Nails, Wu-Tang, and Deftones records, so it is a large pool of styles of not only music and writing and song composition to inform you, but different schools of thought for mixing and mastering as well. I am not ashamed of what I like. I love King Princess and Kesha as much as I love The Roots and Daft Punk, and they have records that are great for different, but valid reasons. When I started doing music, I thought of myself as a hip hop musician. There are even some verses from me on the internet floating around somewhere. As time went on though, I wanted to try new things and experiment, and that made my sound more full and rounded.
LETV: Is there one main influence that you feel stands out, or that you try to make stand out the most?
LNB: Definitely. My label CEO and I have on more than one occasion discussed the importance of Old Dirty Bastard’s “Return To The 36 Chambers” and how it informs us as musicians and not to mention the fans we are of that album. That LP had it all, jams for the ladies, hard core raps, ODB and his wife arguing over him singing. It’s one of the few albums that had no progenitors to it, there was nothing like it before and its imitators do not capture the magic and genius of that body of work. That LP is really one of one, and I do not think it gets the credit it deserves.
LETV: Being an instrumental musician, you have the challenge of your music not immediately being “about” something to the listener, just because there are no lyrics. Is “Seen It All” about anything, or is it more of an essence, or vibe?
LNB: “Seen it All” was made shortly after Kicksie released “All my Friends” last summer, and I was struck by “Blind To It” on the first listen. It is really one of the first songs that progresses linearly for me. As much as I like the nuance of what I do and what a song could mean, this one does have something in particular about it. There are multiple things at work. First, I wanted to impress Kicksie with the track, and I sent her the demo version of the track when I got it done and it sat that way for months. Then last December I juiced it up, and gave it a full treatment. I wanted to create something that was warm and welcoming and ended in a better state than it began. Essentially, this is soundtracking the last breakup I had and the therapy I went through after the ensuing mental breakdown. I am a better person after that, and that has to be enough for me. Some things you can never get forgiven for, but that’s not the end of the world. Sometimes we have to be the bad guy in our story. In my case, I was probably that guy for about 10 years.
LETV: How does your life outside of music affect your writing? Do you keep your “regular life” separate from the artistic process, or does it seep in?
LNB: It gives me inspiration and informs my choices for samples and vocal chops. But sometimes I just want to make dope shit! As a black man, “No Respiration,” from my second 2020 album 3.0, was a reaction to the George Floyd slaughter. How I go about my daily working life however is separate from when I put my music hat on. I am a medical lab technician and a damn good one at that. Though some friendships have come from the community of artists I have found myself around, and I am very thankful of that happening.
LETV: What should we look for from you next?
LNB: A new single on the last Thursday of every month this year. I got some great features I am working on that I hope I can confirm soon. 4.0: Banshee, my next LP divorced from this singles project, should be out in less than a year as well. There are also some collaborative projects that I am working on that I can not wait to announce. I always stay busy.
