Loyle Carner: Art as a means to tackle sorrow, ADHD and the realities of life.

On stage, referred to as Loyle Carner, Benjamin Coyle-Larner is a south-London rapper, songwriter and composer who surprisingly believes being inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive is actually the most fascinating feature about him. The idea behind “Loyle Carner” goes way beyond a simple artistic creation or an alter ego, it instead is a nod to his own dyslexia which more than reflects his acceptance towards his condition.

As an ambassador of English hip-hop, Ben’s life resembles to that of a poet: Give a voice to humanity’s feelings and emotions in a beautiful and eloquent way, this is what allows his music to be so genuine and sincere. His words are a manifestation of how complex conflictive human behaviour can be, and his attempt to articulate human angers and aggressions is ultimately art in its purest form.

It was not until 2017 when Loyle Carner arrived for most of us with his debut album Yesterday’s Gone. Although nowadays many hip-hop artists are working upon frivolous matters such as money, drugs and women, deep-thinking Loyle Carner uses his soft-spoken flow to talk about the realities of financial debt, the importance of family and the absence of a loved one. In “mean it in the morning”, he reflects on the reality of having to stand and respond for debts and other things in life despite the several struggles and strains people go through daily. On an interview he gave for British GQ in 2017, he mentions “Sun of Jean” is the most important song on the album as it has fragments of poems made by his mom and his dad (who passed away in 2013 from an epilepsy-related seizure). In the song he managed to bring up both his mom and dad together and sort of immortalize them so to come up with a song that well summarizes up the whole concept behind Yesterday’s Gone.

2 years after the release of his debut album he’s now back with a very well-achieved second masterpiece titled Not Waving, But Drowning. The whole idea behind the album’s title comes from a poem written by Stevie Smith in 1957, it tells the story of a man who was drowning while the people nearby thought he was just thrashing around as he always did. Coyle-Larner then argues on another interview he felt so identified with it because in life there’s always a lot of things going on behind the scenes that are not shown, the other side of success is always so far beyond from being true, people think you are waving when in reality you are just drowning. We as listeners can clearly perceive a more adult version of the artist on the second album, the whole concept behind it is built upon the framework of responsibilities and concerns as a constant burden, he might not have to pay back a student loan but respond for a mortgage, or even figure out a way to buy a place for him and his missus and matters of this sort.

Ben is an artist who has gone through a lot as a teenager and young-adult, being a mixed race has definitely widened the view he has not only about music but about life as well. As a kid, he couldn’t feel identified with an ethnicity in particular, “you feel like you’re nothing, but if I’m nothing, I can be anything and everything”. From a very early age he was being exposed to lots of Jazz, Funk and Soul and listening to musicians like Pharaoh Sanders, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but also hip-hop from Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Such two different types of music styles engraved in his head defined his jazzy, soul-baring and confessional style. Years of experiences and ventures have changed him and made him evolve throughout the pass of days: The making of new music can’t be a recreation of old stories, truly understanding how to capture the many moments in time is what allows him to come up with new meaningful letters each time.

As part of his efforts to deal positively with ADHD, he and a friend founded a teaching school called Chili con Carner which aims to help kids with ADHD deal with their condition. He argues writing is a release, just like cooking, you don’t have to think about anything else while you’re doing it.

Music is the channel through which Ben has been able to bleed out his creativity and express himself in a disarmingly honest way, it has helped him put brutal experiences into perspective and understand there is always a way out. In today’s world, it is definitely not a pleasant experience to open up and share all types of truths about one’s life, however, Loyle Carner didn’t really care about how daunting it was going to be and instead used art to clear his mind out in such captivating way that makes us feel alive and hoping to listen more.

Written By: Juan Camilo Quiroga

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