The hailed musician gives praise to Black gay love on his new album Deacon
Photography
BRAYLEN DION
Words
HELEN JENNINGS
Serpentwithfeet is feeling all kinds of warm and fuzzy on his sophomore album Deacon. The new work is dedicated to Black gay love in all its most tender forms, from sexual and romantic to familial and platonic, and is very much a reflection of the artist’s current state of mind. “I’m just really relaxed right now,” he tells me on a Zoom call from Los Angeles.
It’s certainly a sonic and emotional evolution from his 2018 album Soil, which was also about queer love but of the more anguished kind. With melodramatic lyrics of heartbreak and longing soaring over grandiose gospel and R&B-infused experimental sonics, his accomplished debut throbbed. Deacon is no less deep or magnificent, his voice still gliding from delicate falsettos into the fleshier depths of his timbre; his melodies remaining steeped in soul. But this time around, as hinted at by his 2020 EP Apparition, serpentwithfeet is ready to make “grown and sexy” music that comes from a place of self-love.
Baltimore boy Josiah Wise grew up singing in Pentecostal choirs while listening to Brandy and Janet Jackson. He studied classical singing and developed his craft in Philadelphia and Paris’ music scenes before moving to New York and releasing his first EP Blisters in 2016. Since then, he’s collaborated with artists as diverse as Björk and Ty Dolla $ign and received wide critical acclaim for his singularly beautiful fusion of the sacred and profane.
With Deacon, he’s also giving us what we’ve all been missing during lockdown – a sense of calmness and emotional wellbeing that only comes from unreservedly opening yourself up to joy. Standout features come from Nao on new single ‘Heart Storm’, which likens love to a magical tempest, and Sampha and Lil Silva on the gentle and tingly ‘Fellowship’, their ode to friendship. Elsewhere we go from the first date to the bedroom to meeting the parents. This is an artist who’s now happy to be happy. So, let’s get into those feels…
Mously wears Sapamina vest and shirt, Kadi Crochet hat.
Helen Jennings: In your 2018 interview with Nataal about Soil you said, “My songs are me trying to figure out my dating life.” With Deacon, it sounds like you’ve got it all worked out.
Serpentwithfeet: I don’t know if it’s ever possible to have it all figured out. But you do learn some things. Before getting into this album, it’s important to talk about the first song I wrote once I moved to LA in 2018 - ‘Receipts’ featuring Ty Dolla $ign. On that song, I was writing about my experience of being loved and taken care of, and learning how to accept that. It’s about not being sceptical when people are being caring and thoughtful. That’s the greatest lesson. That cancels out a lot of drama. People have been really great to me actually. They always have been, I’m just better able to recognise it now.
HJ: What’s helped you turn that corner – getting to a riper age?
SWF: Yes, and being a better listener. I’m sure there are people out there who have strange motives but I can’t live my life beholden to the idea that everyone is a charlatan and taking advantage. It’s an exhausting way to live. Now I’m just like, I’m not naïve, but if you are being kind then you’re being kind. Period.
HJ: The album is devoid of sad break-up songs. That’s a bold move for a fan of R&B.
SWF: Simplicity is the name of the game this time around. It’s like, we went out to lunch. The salmon was fabulous. Loved the risotto. Also, I liked his outfit. He was cute. End of song. That’s the album. It’s very basic in that way. It was important for me to make something not so meandering. It’s just straight ahead.
HJ: How is that simplicity reflected in the musicality of the album?
SWF: It gave me a lot of permission to play with the sonic palette. I love playing with different reverb effects, and delay, and having live instrumentation and electronic stuff together. So, we have guitar and piano and ambient things all going on.
HJ: Is this paring back a result of leaving the hype of NYC for the beaches of LA?
SWF: Yes. I am definitely becoming a beach boy. I can’t lie. I’m also a lot more disciplined about working out and all of that. It’s a little cliché in that way but listen, that’s what I am on.
HJ: Why call it Deacon, after the modest Christian church position?
SWF: I’m thinking more-so about the energy of the deacon rather than the deacon himself. Typically, the men that I know are calm, self-possessed, peaceful. Who knows peace more than the deacon? That’s the energy I wanted to employ for the album.
HJ: Your choral energies are still resonating throughout too
SWF: As long as I’m on this earth, I will always be a choir boy at heart. That’s going to show up in my music, no matter what.
HJ: Can we break down some lyrics. I love ‘Hyacinth’ and the way it acquaints this flower to the ideal man: ‘But those who sleep with flower by their head / Wake up with a lover in their bed.’
SWF: The hyacinth is such a beautiful plant. It’s my favourite plant. If you put one in your home, good lord the whole place smells of it, which I love. In Greek mythology, it is the name of a mortal that these two gods [Apollo and Zephyrus] were obsessed with. They both fought over this homeboy and killed him by mistake. And with the blood he shed, Apollo created a plant and called it Hyacinth. So, the story of the plant is very gay, which I didn’t know until later. Of course, my favourite plant is a gay plant.
When writing the song, one of my spiralling thoughts was about who, outside of your friends and family, would love you better than a plant in your home? Maybe your blankets, or your sink faucet that sees you flossing and checking yourself out in the mirror. But also, your plant, it’s a delicate living thing that might know me pretty well. I want to know what it would be like if this fragrant flower turned into a full-grown man.
HJ: On second single ‘Same Size Shoe’ you’re also on the subject of the type of man who fully understand you.
SWF: He’s a guy that is not afraid to take up space and to fight for what he believes in. That’s the line – ‘Never seen fighters with lazy fists’. If you have strong politics, if you have conviction, if you are grounded in your blackness, you are going to show up in a certain way. It’s about loving Black men who are rooted in their feelings.
HJ: And then on ‘Wood Boy’ we’re between the sheets. This is a song all about carnal pleasures.
SWF: Yes. Absolutely. It’s in the chorus – ‘He’s stacking that wood / Just like he should / got my wood wood boy’. I intended for the song to be jubilant and jocular. When me and my friends are out, and one of us goes home with a guy, the next time we meet it’s ‘Okay you met that guy last week, we know he spent the night’. That’s the sort of levity I wanted to put in the song. It’s not super explicit but it’s colloquial and silly.
HJ: We have two songs named after men – ‘Amir’ in DC who tells corny jokes and ‘Malik’ in Atlanta ‘who wears socks with his sandals’. Are these recollections of real-life encounters?
SWF: These are fictitious.
HJ: I’m disappointed.
SWF: Sorry to burst your bubble but you won’t find these guys’ numbers on my phone. I wanted to write about those first beautiful moments when you meet someone. Amir is me meeting a guy and I’m just like, where do you live, are you vegan? I think we have a connection; can I take you out? So, the song is a bunch of, not pick-up lines, but just talking to someone and trying to get their number because you might not see them again.
HJ: Are you good at chatting up guys?
SWF: Um. Maybe. If I think I have a shot, I don’t mind approaching. I’m not shy that way. But if I don’t think they’d check for me, I just keep my body language open. I’m going to keep the antennae up as they say. It’s always that dance.
HJ: What’s your best pick up line?
SWF: I’ll go up and say ‘How you’re doing?’ I’m simple. I don’t have pick-up lines like the ones from the TV shows. Maybe I should learn some.
SWF: Like, ‘Is your father a thief?’ That’s a good one.
SWF: What happens next?
HJ: ‘’Because he stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes.’
SWF: I should try that actually.
HJ: You should. It’s yours. And ‘Malik’?
SWF: That’s about getting to a club and seeing someone and them seeing you as well. You’re still in the parking and it’s like, right, let me park this car, put money in the meter, get in line and get in there. That first 10 minutes of hoping he’s not here with his boyfriend.
HJ: You don’t have to get liquored up to approach him?
SWF: No, I have to be sober when I ask what his name is.
HJ: What’s the most tender lyric on the album?
SWF: It’s got to be the first line on ‘Old and Fine’ – ‘Love that you call everybody’s motha, mama’. I’m thinking about a very specific kind of Black man who doesn’t say ‘How you doing Miss Brenda?’, he says ‘How you mama Brenda?’ That’s the kind of thing my mother loves. That level of familiarity is the way to her heart. She’s going to be pudding. The guys I’m dating are thinking about what they are you going to call their partner’s mama. It’s really sweet, it warms my heart.
HJ: Has your mum heard the album yet?
SWF: She hasn’t.
HJ: How come?
SWF: She wants me to bring the physical vinyl to her, she wants me to sign it in front of her. She wants the pomp and circumstance. She doesn’t want a web link. It’s a whole thing, which I love, so I’ll do that for her.
HJ: Glad to hear it. Do you break down the songs for her?
SWF: No. She likes the drums and doesn’t think about the lyrics so much. On the last album ‘Messy’ was her favourite so I’m sure whatever song she likes is the one with the most drums.
HJ: Where should the rest of us be listening to this album?
SWF: I don’t want to dictate but I would suggest sitting on a comfortable rug with some floor pillows is one scenario. If you have a patio or back yard that’s number two. Or riding in your car but it has to be a sunny day with the windows down.
HJ: Would you recommend playing this album to seduce someone?
SWF: Maybe. But I can’t guarantee you’ll have any luck. Start with ‘How are you?’ Then ‘Is your father is a thief?’ and if that doesn’t work, then play them this album.
HJ: Finally, are you in love right now?
SWF: Try to be! Try to be…
Deacon by serpentwithfeet is out now on Secretly Canadian.
Discover it here
Words Helen Jennings
Photography Braylen Dion
Visit serpentwithfeet
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