Since its July release, “Wasteland,” Brent Faiyaz’s dark, introspective R&B album, has been one of this year’s more polarizing releases. Some have criticized the disc’s length and skits, while others have praised its honesty and cohesive narrative. In 2017, Faiyaz’s debut album, “Sonder Son,” announced a major new voice in R&B, and “Wasteland” seals that initial hype. As an independent artist, Faiyaz is one of the genre’s buzziest artists, with his album reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart despite its independent release via Lost Kids, Venice Music and Stem Disintermedia. He’s also tipped to pull in several Grammy nominations this year.
You recorded “Wasteland” during COVID and during a time of political unrest. Since then, how would you say you have spent time healing?
I haven’t stopped mashing the gas. I feel like once I finished recording, that’s when all the busy work started taking place. The moment I finished it, it was “go” time on everything. From the video shoots to pop-ups to radio runs to interview to photo shoots, that’s really when all of the real work takes place. I’m really just now starting to live in the aftermath of putting this body of work out. But I never stopped going to the studio, either. I’m still cooking up new music, I’m still working on another project and I’m still doing other things in the meantime.
It seems like you’re very much online and aware of the discourse surrounding your artistry. How has social media shaped the way you create and share music?
I love being able to be so direct with my audience, being able to talk directly, communicate directly and make announcements. Even when I do a pop-up, I can just post the location two hours beforehand, and by the time we get there, everybody shows up. Also, I can see the excitement; I can gauge what people are checking for and what songs people gravitate toward. Social media has definitely become a huge part of the way that we rode this whole shit out. Since the beginning of my career, and with being independent, being able to be so direct and transparent with the fans is one of the most important [components].
Quentin Tarantino inspired a good portion of the album. This is particularly noticeable on a track called “Jackie Brown.” How did you get into his films, and why did you choose him as a muse for this album?
I’ve been into Tarantino films since I was a kid. “Pulp Fiction” was one of my favorite films growing up, and the “Kill Bill” series, all of those movies were mad fire to me. I liked the violence, and I liked the overly emotional dialogue. I liked the protagonists, especially the fact that a lot of them were female in a lot of his films. “Jackie Brown” was one of the movies I was watching during COVID on repeat. Besides the fact that Pam Grier was fine as shit in that movie, I also liked the fact that they stay by the beach in L.A., and I stay in Venice. Cinematically, I liked the shots and I liked the colors. For whatever reason, when I watch Tarantino films, it just makes me want to make music. Something about the images just puts sounds in my head. Tarantino’s the GOAT. Cold as fuck.
Why have you chosen to remain independent all these years?
When you talk numbers and percentages, it just doesn’t make too much sense for me to get in [the studio] with producers of my choice and creatively make all this music on my own, then give up so much of a piece of the pie on the back end. It’s just common sense. I think a lot of those deals — like motherfucking 80/20 splits and [artists] getting 20-something-percent royalty rates on music that they write and produce themselves — just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s just simple math.
