Nyrobi and Chaya Becket-Messam are in their “alt black era.”
The two sisters – who jointly comprise the British electro-alt-rock duo ALT BLK ERA and are kind of hilarious – are riding high on a wave that according to them precedes their own band, and hopefully will outlive it as well.
Pulling from a diverse pool of influences that ranges from Rico Nasty to Slipknot, the two have honed in on a sound that Nyrobi describes as, “rock, but drum and bass, pop.”
“That’s too many words, Nyrobi!” chimes in sister Chaya, who originally had ambitions of becoming a flight attendant until Nyrobi foiled her plans and made her become a popstar instead.
Describing an artist’s sound can be futile in 2026 anyways, where barriers of genre that dominated the label landscape of decades prior have almost entirely dissolved. But with undeniable fingerprints of this bygone time running throughout, ALT BLK ERA is both current and classic. Sonically and visually, it’s a melting pot of genre, culture, and attitude – and the girls excitedly acknowledge it themselves.
“ALT BLK ERA isn’t defined by me and Chaya. It’s kind of everyone who listens, everyone who comes to the show,” says Nyrobi.
Day 2 of Budapest’s iconic Sziget Festival was living proof. The sisters and their bandmates delivered a full-throttle 45 minute electro-rock dance party on one of the festival’s main stages to a crowd that came out of the woodwork and kept the energy high.
Coming down from the set, Nyrobi and Chaya greeted hundreds of fans who waited by the barricade to meet them and grab photos. C-Heads spent the day with the sisters and their crew, capturing their Budapestian triumph in all its glory and having a laugh or three along the way. Read our chat and see the moments below:
Words, Photography, and Interview by Andy Gorel.
Andy: You guys just got off the stage here at Sziget Festival. How was it?
Chaya: It was really good.
Nyrobi: Really good. I’m surprised by how loud the crowd was. Like I heard the crowd through my in-ears, and usually I don’t. I don’t hear the crowd at all, but for some reason I could hear the crowd through my in-ears, so I thought maybe they’re broken. (laughs) And then at the end I took them out, and I was like, “Damn, they were actually piercing through the in-ears.”
Chaya: They were loud. They were loud for sure. And there was this one girl for the whole set who was singing every line. She kind of broke through the noise of the rest of the crowd.
Andy: You could actually hear her?
Chaya: Yes, through the whole set.
Nyrobi: And she was like shaking when we gave her a hug at the end of the show. We gave her a setlist, and her whole body was vibrating. Then she cried into my shirt. Wait, there might be a bit of makeup, like here? (looks down and points at her shoulder) That’s her. That’s her base.
Andy: Did you have any expectations before the festival? You said you played in Budapest once, right?
Nyrobi: Yeah, I don’t remember it ’cause it was such a long and fast tour. I think we were nervous. Festivals are always so much different than your own show, especially ’cause when we toured here it was with Pendulum. And that matches up perfectly because the genres are so broad here; we weren’t sure, like, is everyone walking by maybe not a rock or alternative fan? But it filled up really nicely. It was so much fun.
Chaya: It was really fun.
Nyrobi: I actually had so much fun. I was doing silly little things on stage. Were you doing silly things on stage?
Chaya: I was just like spinning a lot.
Nyrobi: You were spinning a lot!
Chaya: Whenever I’m happy, I just always spin.
Nyrobi: You were twirling. I loved that.
Andy: And so you traveled in yesterday?
Nyrobi: Yeah, yesterday night.
Andy: Did you get any city time in or just go right to the hotel?
Chaya: Straight to the hotel.
Nyrobi: But looking out from the airplane window looked nice. (laughs)
Andy: Is there anyone on this bill, any artists you’re a huge fan of?
Nyrobi: Ashnikko. I am the biggest Ashnikko fan.
Andy: She’s playing today.
Chaya: On the stage that we just played.
Nyrobi: On the stage that we just played! It’s so crazy, ’cause Ashnikko was the first like alternative artist that I listened to. Like ever, that I found myself, that I loved. So it’s kind of crazy to be on a lineup with Ashnikko. And we’re on another one with Ashnikko next week. It’s so weird.
Andy: You have a specific niche of a sound you’re in. It’s like that British alt-pop, but like a little harder with the guitars.
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: You think it’s alt-pop?
Chaya: A lot of people say alt-pop.
Nyrobi: Everyone says it’s alt-pop.
Andy: What would you call it?
Nyrobi: I would call it rock, but drum and bass, pop, and rock.
Chaya: That’s too many words, Nyrobi!
Nyrobi: Well, broadly I’d say alternative.
Andy: Broadly, yeah, sure.
Nyrobi: That’s alternative. I wouldn’t niche it down any more than that.
“Festivals are always so much different than your own show… we weren’t sure, like, is everyone walking by maybe not a rock or alternative fan? But it filled up really nicely. It was so much fun.”
Andy: What artists have influenced that sound? ‘Cause when I listen to it, there are a couple different things that immediately come to mind. There’s the more like pop-punk type stuff, which I think is expected. But then there’s also artists like Charli XCX and PinkPantheress… that modern British alternative pop sound. Maybe that’s my American ears, but when you started this project, did you have a vision? Were there artists that you were really into?
Nyrobi: I feel like this is going to sound so cringe, but I would phrase it as the artists that we found along the way, as part of the journey. So, we were making alternative music like really naturally. Maybe we were just a bit edgy, I guess.
Chaya: We were very edgy.
Nyrobi: It wasn’t in an alt-pop way, but we grew up in a very, like, mainstream school. It was pop, like straight Capital FM. (laughs) So we didn’t listen to alternative music, not even a little bit.
Chaya: You know what? The alternative artist that we listened to is Twenty One Pilots.
Nyrobi: And Billie Eilish.
Chaya: And Arctic Monkeys.
Nyrobi: Arctic Monkeys, that was the edgiest like, “I’m edgy, I listen to Billie Eilish.” That was hella edgy, right? And it wasn’t until we left school in 2020 because of the pandemic that we actually had time to explore music more broadly than what was played on the radio.
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: Then I found Ashnikko. Then people said, “Listen to Bring Me the Horizon. Listen to Slipknot.” And we were able to kind of build up a music taste outside of mainstream, which was nice.
Andy: And this was as you were teenagers, you’re saying? When you found alt music.
Nyrobi: Like really late teen. I was an adult.
Andy: How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?
Nyrobi: I’m 22.
Chaya: And I’m 19.
Nyrobi: So we released our first song at what, 17 and 14?
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: I was probably 18 learning about Slipknot and Bring Me the Horizon.
Andy: Classic. So, the Twenty One Pilots stuff… maybe you’ve seen it. There’s actually a viral photo of my little sister and Tyler Joseph from 2013. It made the rounds on Tumblr and Instagram for years.
Nyrobi: No way!
Andy: Yeah. I saw them in 2012 for the first time, and I really loved their two independent albums and Vessel. All that is to say, when you got into Twenty One Pilots, what era of Twenty One Pilots specifically?
Nyrobi: It was when they were played on the radio.
Chaya: It was “Stressed Out.”
Andy: So the Blurryface era?
Nyrobi: Yeah. It was when it was mainstream.
Andy: And they’re playing tonight.
Chaya: Yeah, and I wish I could see them. I really want to hear “Drag Path” live.
Andy: Have you seen them before?
Chaya: No. I always watch their live clips on YouTube.
Nyrobi: I love a live clip on YouTube.
Andy: The first time I saw them, they opened for Walk the Moon and Neon Trees. It was like a $15 ticket in like a tiny little place. Twenty One Pilots came out. Nobody knew who they were. They had skeleton morphsuits on.
Nyrobi: Wait, what year was this?
Andy: 2012.
Nyrobi: 2012?!
Andy: Yeah. And the ceiling was like as high as this. (points up to standard height dressing room ceiling). He comes out and jumps over the piano…
Chaya: Of course he does.
Nyrobi: (laughs)
Andy: And they open up on “Ode to Sleep.” Everyone was like, “What the hell is this band?” Like, we didn’t even see their faces. I saw them again in that same venue’s basement a few months later. They co-headlined with a great band called New Politics. There were like 100 people there, maybe.
Both: That’s so cool.
Nyrobi: That must feel special for you though to be like a part of the journey.
Andy: Yeah, it was cool. I mean, all this is to say I saw them like six or seven times between 2012 and 2014. And I haven’t seen them since, but tonight I will.
Nyrobi: Why not?
Andy: I didn’t like much of the music after Vessel.
Nyrobi: Oh, you’re OG only.
Andy: Yeah, nothing pretentious, just the music changed a bit. But not to stray too far here.. That alternative sound. I mean alternative is in your name.
Nyrobi: Yeah, that’s really important.
Andy: Was that a conscious decision?
Nyrobi: Yeah, and it might have been ’cause alternative wasn’t a common word for us. Being alt and identifying as alternative was a brand new concept to us, so that’s kind of why we wanted it in the name ’cause it was edgy and it was cool. (laughs)
Andy: Yeah. (laughs) ALT BLK ERA.
Nyrobi: Yeah, and it just felt like ours. We felt that it was like to belong to something. I don’t think we wanted it to be about us. We didn’t want to be called Nyrobi and Chaya. We wanted to have something with “era.” ALT BLK ERA isn’t defined by me and Chaya. It’s kind of everyone who listens, everyone who comes to the show.
“I don’t think we wanted it to be about us. We didn’t want to be called Nyrobi and Chaya. We wanted to have something with ‘era.’ ALT BLK ERA isn’t defined by me and Chaya. It’s kind of everyone who listens, everyone who comes to the show.”
Andy: I think it’s a great name. When I first saw it a while ago, I felt like I immediately kind of knew what it was. I thought, “Oh, it’s like it’s two young girls from the UK who are black, and like alt music, and make alt music. It’s an era.” And I think it speaks for how times are changing and how demographics are shifting.
Nyrobi: When did we come up with it? We came up with it in maybe 2020 or 2021?
Chaya: Yeah, when we were about to release our first single.
Nyrobi: Yeah, so we were like 14 and 17. It’s kind of like it’s almost like picking an Instagram handle when you’re a child. (laughs) But it’s way more serious.
Chaya: Yes! And we got to make sure it lasts, though.
Nyrobi: Yeah, ’cause we were like, “Are we going to be okay with this name when we’re 30?” We had a few different options.
Chaya: We did. I can’t remember them, though. I wish we could remember.
Nyrobi: I don’t remember them. I wish we wrote them down. I think ALT BLK ERA, it’s like how you said it. It was our first taste of being alternative, and we’re black. We felt that it’s kind of like a new era. And listening to artists like Rico Nasty, or Denzel Curry, who were like that alternative rap… I mean Rico does rock now and stuff, but it was like the alt black era, so that’s why I say it’s not me and Chaya. There is just an alt black era. It was obviously bubbling way before, you know, when we were even little darlings. But yeah, we just wanted to be a part of something and create something that other people could be a part of as well.
Andy: And how does that feel now, a couple years later? How have you seen it? Do you feel a part of a broader movement?
Chaya: I think so. I think even with just being alternative and a bit of a misfit, like with our fans looking into the crowd, even at festivals like this, you can see who we draw.
Nyrobi: Yeah, especially at our shows. It’s like Europe black era (laughs).
Chaya: Europe black Era! (laughs) Everybody’s black Era.
Nyrobi: It just feels way bigger than we are, which is so nice.
Andy: That’s the beauty of it. So now you’ve got a couple more festivals and shows this summer, right?
Nyrobi: Yeah. Frequency Fest is next.
Chaya: Next Saturday in Austria. And then we have, I don’t know which one’s first, Germany, Reeperbahn Fest? And then we’re supporting Vukovi at the Manchester O2 Ritz.
Andy: Do you have any favorite countries that you’ve played so far?
Chaya: It’s going to have to be Prague for me.
Nyrobi: Prague? What happened in Prague?
Chaya: Rock for People. And the Prague Pendulum show was amazing.
Nyrobi: My favorite place was…
Both: Cologne.
Chaya: (laughs)
Nyrobi: I’m a Cologne girlie.
Andy: And why is that?
Nyrobi: Umm… I think the crowd was just like liquid.
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: Not even for our set, look at me, spewing nonsense. (laughs)
Chyrobi: No, you know what? It was the most liquid in our set.
Nyrobi: But that was like the first time that I actually got to watch Pendulum’s set on the tour. How it worked was we did our set, we packed up, and we had to get to the next country, ’cause it was literally like country, different country, different country. So it was a really tight ship, but I got to watch the first like five songs. Just so good, I was freaking out. Um, yeah, our set was really good as well.
Both: (laughs)
Andy: What about playing in UK? Is that still like the top for you guys?
Nyrobi: Oh… dare I say it’s almost the same? Because we’ve been so fortunate with loads of people knowing our songs when we go internationally. I think there’s something special about a hometown show, of course, like playing Nottingham or in any of the northern places. But everywhere’s good. Southampton’s good. London’s good.
Andy: Do you notice a difference north and south?
Chaya: No, everywhere is good, ’cause even Bristol… and that’s right down south.
Nyrobi: I think globally it’s just been really good for us. Around the world we’ve just had such good receptions.
Andy: Have you been to the US?
Nyrobi: Yeah, we went to Texas last year.
Chaya: Yeah, March last year.
Andy: South by Southwest?
Nyrobi: Yeah! And that was like an industry thing, but they still were like jumping and like…
Chaya: We supported Duckwrth, didn’t we?
Nyrobi: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Andy: Duckwrth! I haven’t heard his name in a while. I met him, had to be almost a decade ago when I lived in LA. I met him at a pool party at my buddy’s house and hung out for a bit. I remember him and his friends being really nice.
Nyrobi: Did you? He’s so nice!
Chaya: He’s really nice. But yeah, that was a very different experience to what we thought it would be…
Nyrobi: Yeah, and that whole Duckwrth show literally was alt black era.
Chaya: Oh, yeah, that was like the alt black show of South by Southwest.
Nyrobi: It was the first-ever alternative black showcase.
Andy: Cool!
Nyrobi: So that like defined alt black era.
Chaya: Yeah, and the crowd was like really good.
Nyrobi: The crowd was so good.
“We’ve been so fortunate with loads of people knowing our songs when we go internationally. I think there’s something special about a hometown show, of course, like playing Nottingham or in any of the Northern places. But everywhere’s good.”
Andy: You know, now I think it’s becoming more common… but like 20 years ago and before that, there were a lot of times where I would listen to a band, and the frontman was black or there were black band members… like alternative bands. It stood out back then. When I think of the UK and black alternative, I think of Thin Lizzy. They’re an Irish band from like 50 years ago. Do you guys know Thin Lizzy?
(girls hesitating and puzzled)
Nyrobi: Uh-uh.
Chaya: No, I don’t.
Andy: Okay, this was in like the ’70s. Do you know that song… (sings) “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
(silence)
Andy: You don’t know that? (pauses and looks over at tour manager who is working on her MacBook, grinning and shaking her head). Anyways… (laughs)
Nyrobi: (sympathy laughs)
Andy: The lead singer of that band was black, and in the ’70s in the UK that was like unheard of pretty much. In the US, obviously, rock and roll had like black roots in the South and everything, but in the UK I think it was a little rarer. Are there black alternative artists that – when you came into this era where you got into alt music – that you looked up to, or that you still look up to?
Nyrobi: I think Maxim from The Prodigy. I mean, it’s questionable whether he’s alternative, but for me he is.
Chaya: He is.
Nyrobi: ‘Cause you know, drum and bass isn’t really like an alternative genre.
Cheya: They won that Kerrang! award for like best rock act without a guitar.
Andy: Yeah, Prodigy’s like electronic alternative kinda…
Nyrobi: Yeah, edgy, and with the white makeup and stuff. He inspires me. And then obviously Rico Nasty, I think she’s just so cool.
Chaya: Yeah, I think the same for me, Maxim.
Nyrobi: Maxim, so much aura. So much aura.
Chaya: So much, I can feel it through the screen.
Nyrobi: Infinite aura. How many times have we seen Prodigy? Twice?
Chaya: No, only once.
Nyrobi: Don’t say once. I feel like I’ve seen them twice. Are you sure?
Chaya: No, we’ve just seen the one on YouTube.
Nyrobi: We’ve literally only seen them once?
Chaya: Yeah, we saw them in Leeds.
Chaya: Don’t take that away from me, don’t take that other show away from me, Chaya, I’ve seen them twice. (laughs)
Andy: You’re like her secretary over here, keeping all your notes.
Both: (laughs)
Andy: So funny, but you’re sisters?
Chaya: Yes.
Nyrobi: Three years apart.
Andy: Okay, and do you have other siblings, or just you two?
Nyrobi: Just us.
Andy: I get that vibe. Take me through the dynamic, like… who’s the more organized one?
Chaya: I’m way more… (laughs)
Nyrobi: It depends on what it comes to!
Chaya: I think I’m still more organized though. I just choose not to do it. (laughs)
Nyrobi: (laughs) Okay, so when you don’t do things, I’m the more organized one.
Chaya: Yeah, but I feel like whenever you do stuff, I’m like, “I would have done that in a better way.”
Andy: All right, that’s enough, girls. We’re going to stop this conversation before it starts a fight.
Both: (laughs)
Andy: Who’s more spontaneous?
Nyrobi: Oh, definitely Chaya.
Chaya: No, but you went on that motorbike with many cars! (laughs)
Nyrobi: Oh, I did. No, I thought you meant mysterious. I’m just like… “spontaneous?”
Chaya: Definitely you.
Andy: Who had better grades in school?
Chaya: Nyrobi.
Nyrobi: I was like top of the class for the subjects I cared about.
Andy: The subjects you cared about, which were?
Nyrobi: Drama, music. I was like A* drama, music.
Andy: Yeah, creative arts.
Nyrobi: Yeah, and everything else, I mean I was really clever, like sometimes I’d pop out just to show them that I’m clever, and then go back to sleep. (laughs)
Andy: Were you guys musical as kids? Were your parents musicians? How’d you get into writing songs and making art?
Chaya: I guess it was from… well, us together; it was probably from the karaoke machine and…
Nyrobi: That was singing songs.
Chaya: …and the iPod.
Nyrobi: And the iPod. That was singing together.
Chaya: But writing songs…
Andy: Singing songs on your iPod, you say?
Nyrobi: Yeah, on karaoke, we used to be Katy Perry.
Chaya: Sing King Karaoke.
Nyrobi: Sing King Karaoke!
Andy: That first Katy Perry album is one of the best of all-time.
Nyrobi: Majestic piece of work!
Andy: One of the Boys. “Mannequin,” “One of the Boys,” “Thinking of You.”
Nyrobi: Yeah. What else? And then I started writing poetry in primary school. I was pretty good at it. That’s what I’m saying. I’ve been good at poetry for time.
Chaya: You were really good at English.
Nyrobi: Yeah, and then I think I just started singing. But because of the age gap, in primary school – that’s like such a big deal. ‘Cause when I was in year 5 – when I was singing more properly – Chaya was in year 2. So it was kind of like me trying to convince this 5 or 6-year-old that we need to sing together, and we’re going to be so good. And everyone says sibling harmonies are the best. And she’s like, “I’m going to be a flight attendant. I want to be a flight attendant.” I’m like, “No, you don’t! No, you don’t, you don’t even know what it’s like!” And then you went to…
“When I was in year 5 – when I was singing more properly – Chaya was in year 2… And she’s like, ‘I’m going to be a flight attendant. I want to be a flight attendant.’ I’m like, ‘No, you don’t! No, you don’t, you don’t even know what it’s like!'”
Andy: (laughs) Wait, you were like 8 years old, and you’re like…
Nyrobi: (laughs) Yeah, I was like, “Flight attendant – NO!”
Andy: (laughs)
Nyrobi: And then when she got a bit older, like a few years later, she was like, “No, but I want to be a real estate agent.” I was like, “NO! You want to be a musician! Not real estate!” So it was like…
Chaya: It was gaslighting.
Nyrobi: (laughs) Yeah, and a lot of horror stories about real estate, like, “That’s a terrible thing to do, and no one likes real estate agents.”
Andy: Spitting out the life lessons, and you guys were like 10.
Chaya: Yeah, basically.
Andy: That’s great.
Nyrobi: Yeah, ’cause I think I’ve always known what I wanted to do, and fortunate enough to have like one path.
Andy: I always tried to convince my sister too. She was so much better at music than me when we were young, though I was the one who did it professionally for a bit.
Nyrobi: How old is she?
Andy: She’s in her 20s now. But when we were younger, I was learning to produce and play all these instruments. I was always the one trying to convince her…
Nyrobi: “Girl! Get on it! What are you doing?!”
Andy: She sang, she played piano well. I was always like, “Why aren’t you…” like… but I lost the war. She never joined.
Nyrobi: You didn’t start her young enough.
Andy: No, she started when she was young; I was the one who started late. But I’m just saying, like you were saying to her… My sister was like, “I think I want to be a lawyer,” or like whatever.
Nyrobi: Noooo!
Andy: I get the struggle, is what I’m saying. But you must be a good salesman ‘cause look, she’s here.
Nyrobi: I know.
Chaya: Nyrobi owes me about 50 gobstoppers.
Nyrobi: Oh, I do! ‘Cause when I first went into secondary school, I was like 11 and Chaya was maybe like 8. There was a leisure center at the top of the school, and there was a gumball machine. I’d be like, “If we do this show… If you do this show with me, I’ll get you 10 gobstoppers.” I had never… (indiscernible fast British mumbling)
Andy: You never gave her a gobstopper?
Nyrobi: I owe her about 100. I would be like, “I’ll give you 20 if you do this one thing.”
Chaya: (laughs)
Nyrobi: And then when she got like to like 13, I was like, (forceful, angry tone) “Get on the stage!”
All: (laughs)
Nyrobi: No gobstoppers needed.
Andy: So to wrap up. Your album Rave Immortal came out last year. There was a five-song EP, Our World, this year.
Andy: Take me through this EP. This era you’re in right now. How does it compare to your older stuff?
Nyrobi: I feel genre-wise, we’ve always been a band that you never know what we’re going to do next. Like, if you go listen to our catalog year-by-year, you would never guess what the next genres and sound clashes are going to be. But before we even released album one, we were already in the studio writing album two. We just decided that it felt a bit disingenuous to release album two when we had so many things to say about everything that was happening in the world and how scared we were. And I think how scared our community was as well in terms of, like, just the uncertainty.
So we wanted to release something that reflected it’s okay to be confused. That’s what “Tissues” is about, like it’s okay to cry and be upset. You don’t have to just pretend. And then “Our World,” being the title track, that was just to kind of bring it back to say we are not in control of our world, but our individual worlds we are. We can choose who we interact with, what things we put our energy into, and spread love and uplift other people. That’s what we wanted to do, just uplift and bring as much love into the world as we can.
“We are not in control of our world, but our individual worlds we are. We can choose who we interact with, what things we put our energy into, and spread love and uplift other people. That’s what we wanted to do, just uplift and bring as much love into the world as we can.”
Andy: What about when you’re writing your setlist for shows? Are you usually mixing it up, or is it more or less the same?
Nyrobi: We mix it up. We are chronic mixers.
Chaya: Not really.
Nyrobi: Only just recently we’ve got like a 45-minute set.
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: Before, every single show was a different set.
Andy: When you’re drawing it up… you’re mixing the older stuff with the newer stuff. Does it feel different? Do you feel like you ever have any problems putting them together? Is it like a puzzle? Or does it all just flow together? What’s the process like?
Nyrobi: I think it depends on the festival.
Chaya: Yeah, because we do like one general one, we kind of have to like… when you get all the festivals, and then you have to like figure out the mean.
Nyrobi: Yeah, like what is the average person going to like? But then if we did, like Download Festival, for instance, we’d do more heavy-leaning stuff. I don’t think we would do like “Lost In The Back Of My Mind” at Download.
Andy: Right.
Nyrobi: But we do it at the festivals ’cause it’s like a nice in-between, like the poppy-rocky stuff.
Chaya: Yeah.
Nyrobi: And I think for the big stuff we like to doctor each thing in a specific way.
Chaya: Oh, yeah.
Nyrobi: Like Glastonbury, Reading, or Leeds – everything’s really specific.
Andy: You have these festivals coming up. New music? What’s next? There was an album in the works, but it became the EP?
Nyrobi: Yeah. No, that was a completely different set of songs ’cause we’re like, “We have to just talk about that right now.” We’re still working on album two. We’ve got about 10 out of 12 done.
Chaya: Yeah, it’s nearly done.
Nyrobi: It’s nearly done. It’s coming out so good.
Andy: So probably coming out next year if all goes well?
Chaya: Yeah, maybe end of next year. Maybe.
Nyrobi: But I think we’re going to redo some collaborations.
Andy: Like you on other artists’ tracks, or them on yours?
Nyrobi: Them on our tracks, which I think is so exciting. And another message in our world was not limiting it to the UK, or English-speaking countries. Have we got an English speaker on there? Like someone from an English-speaking country?
Chaya: No.
Nyrobi: No one from an English-speaking country will be on this collaboration project. (laughs)
Andy: Really?
Nyrobi: We didn’t purposefully exclude them, don’t get me wrong.
Chaya: No.
Nyrobi: It just hasn’t happened.
Andy: Do either of you speak other languages?
Both: Learning.
Nyrobi: But I think we wanted to be more global ’cause we listen to so much international music.
Andy: Same, I listen to a lot of Hungarian music and Spanish-language music. And some Russian-language music.
Nyrobi: I love a bit of Russian music, I do. I love a bit of post-war music. Do you know about Anna German?
Andy: She’s old school, yeah.
Nyrobi: She’s got some bangers. Do you listen to Russian rap at all?
Andy: Not much. Mostly rock, like 2000s and 2010s alt stuff.
Nyrobi: Oh, send me some Russian stuff. Have you got a playlist on Spotify?
Andy: I can send you some stuff.
Nyrobi: Thank you, I’m interested in that. But I think we’ve tried to go as global and as broad as possible – with young artists as well, and some more older. It’s just exciting to work with other people, I think. And everyone’s been so nice. ‘Cause a lot of people tell horror stories, like, “Don’t meet your idols” and stuff, like that. But I think we’ve lucked out with everyone so far.
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