10 Questions with... Natoflorine
Welcome to '10 Questions with...' where we ask people 10 questions about the cool stuff they are doing. For this edition, we are asking South London rapper Natoflorine about his era-defining EP 'South London Therapy' with Scottish producer Trem.
1. Who are Natoflorine and Trem?
Natoflorine: I am a writer, rapper, artists, a performer, anything you need me to be. A ventriloquist with the bars. Trem is a bad boy producer, filmmaker and curator. From my perspective, one of the greatest at what her does.
2. How did you two meet?
Natoflorine: We met at university. Never really knew too much about each other until we started speaking about music and realised how much we connected and how our outlooks were very similar on life as well. Just perspectives aligned. And then eventually, after some years of just vibes and talking about stuff, doing a couple radio sets which started at university, we locked in with a studio.
I heard some crazy beats. I didn't really know Trem made beats like that. He showed me a couple, but the new stuff I was hearing after, not seeing each other for a little while after uni ended, after like a year or so, yeah, I saw some craziness. Absolutely craziness, and I just had to spit on that shit, and it just made sense.
3. What is it like working with each other?
Natoflorine: It's a vibe, man. It's interesting. It's dynamic. You learn a lot about each other as well and how we react to certain things and it's quite constructive. There's a lot of times when we're like, arguing on something, but like, you know, that's the beauty of it. It'd be kind of boring if we but agreed on everything and had the same ideas. Just enjoying a journey, man. Managed to make a lot of beautiful music, a lot of tunes that you're gonna see.
4. Why South London Therapy?
Natoflorine: It makes sense. South London, when I born and raised, Trem since coming to the UK, living in southwest. I feel we both love it round here. you know what I mean? Love the energy, love the vibes of the people.
Obviously, I'm the one writing shit, so a lot of my lyrics were just centred around south and the beats kind of told a story in themselves and were quite cinematic, so we thought might as well, you know. Let's just make the whole concept about living the trials and tribulations and vibes that come with living in South and just being from South and just, yeah, how much it means to me and how much it means to a lot of people.
5. What influences the EP?
Natoflorine: Gyal.
6. How has the reception to the EP been?
Natoflorine: The reception has been good, man. It has been vibes, been what we expected, and it's been extra nice hearing. Having a serious body of work, we think it's like the best I've done since I've been making music and releasing it. I feel like a lot of people feel it resonates and appreciate the artistry that we brought to the table with this one. You know? It's not perfect, but we’re trying.
7. What is next for Natoflorine and Trem?
Natoflorine: Bare stuff. I can't even get into that. Bare projects, just keep your eyes peeled. Keep your eyes peeled this year. We're not stopping. We're not relaxing.
8. Will we see Natoflorine and Trem live?
Natoflorine: Of course you are, very soon. That's all I'm gonna say.
9. What did a normal weekend look like for you two 10 years ago?
Natoflorine: Damn, I was like 14, 10 years ago, so I was either going to link my mates at the park or something or shopping centre. Beckenham, Kelsey Park where I used to go to school. Bromley, Crystal Palace, Goals Elmers End. That's really where we were at. Trekking up to see some mates on the other side of southeast.
Playing football, man, playing Xbox, lots of Xbox, lots of COD, lots of FIFA, baking off, lot of time just watching, listening to music in between all of that as well. Chilling in my room a lot as well. Just being vibes with all my ones. Watching bare films, studying shit I love, really, without even realising I was studying. Just looking into stuff, literally all the same shit I do now, we just go out and get fucked up now. And I don't play games anymore.
10. What do you hope to achieve 10 years from now?
Natoflorine: I'm gonna have a real impact on people's lives through music and use the music to, you know, touch people and reach spaces where I can really make an impact. I want to do some festivals, of course, you know, want to have some projects out, some really good projects as well for some sick people. It's my favourite artists.
I want to achieve so many things. It's hard to think of right now. Sitting on my own record label to put other artists on, especially those that kind of overlooked and keep doing what we're doing, man. You want to be successful, but it's just a day by day process, so kind of got rid of aiming for shit in 10 years from now. Just have just have a sort of vague idea that I want to perform better, a bit at fucking festivals, Glastonbury, main stage, craziness, vibes up, big production, craziness, sick. That's when I know like, yeah, we've done all right. We done all right.
We would like to say thanks Natoflorine for partaking in this interview and hope more from this new era of his journey. You can follow the Natoflorine and Trem story here:
Instagram: @natoflorine
Instagram: @tremmmendous
Reporting for SIBLING RADIO,
Bubbler B