thecocknbullkid
By Ferrari Sheppard
Blending references to sex, death and depravity with unforgettable melodies and hooks, up-and-coming British pop singer thecocknbullkid (aka Anita Blay), goes for the jugular. Blay has been receiving an exceptional amount of attention in the UK—she’s already headlined
Glastonbury’s BBC Introduction Stage and toured with Santigold and CSS. It’s exciting to see where thecocknbullkid ends up next. Check out our interview:
StopBeingFamous: So what have you been up to today?
thecocknbullkid: I did a bit of kickboxing. I’ve been writing. I finally have a day off.
SBF: What inspired you to name yourself thecocknbullkid?
CBK: It’s a slight play on calling myself a bullshitter. People can interpret it the way that they want, but it’s nothing horrible. I don’t know if it translates in America, but over here everyone knows what it means. It’s quite an English phrase. It just means to make
something up, basically.
SBF: What was it like growing up in your parent’s house? I understand they’re from Ghana, but they’ve lived in the UK for quite sometime.
CBK: Yes, they’re from Ghana. My mother is definitely more of the traditional sort. She’s very god-fearing and her values are quite conservative. My dad is a lot more free; he is less conservative than my mother, and he’s not as religious. The thing is, I grew up half of
my early years with my mom and dad, but when they split up, I lived with just my dad. So, I had quite a liberal upbringing from that point on. I think I needed those two balances.
SBF: So what did your parents think of your emergence?
CBK: Oh, like I said, my father is really cool; he’s always keeping little clippings from articles about me. He drives the bus, so they’re always newspapers circulating on there; he always keeps the newspapers or the magazines. My mom is not so enthusiastic, she was always more academic. She wanted me to finish school and blah, blah, blah. I think they both are more relieved that I didn’t squander anything, which is always in the back of my parent’s mind. I think they’re more relieved I didn’t pop out a couple of kids.
SBF: When and how did you first start making music?
CBK: I've always been into music, and I’ve always done it in one form or another. I got a keyboard when I was about eight, and I started messing around on that. I’d write little stories, and write lyrics and stuff. When I was 16, I joined a studio in the north of London. I was basically there every day of the week, writing, recording, and working with producers.
SBF: What were you like in high school?
CBK: I wasn’t necessarily popular, but it’s not like I didn’t have any friends. I was quite insecure. I was really fat when I was younger. I was huge—that was the bane of my existence. I always had friends though. I was extremely outgoing with people I knew. Later, in my teen-angst period, I got really down. I stayed that way until my early twenties, and then I got really into the music—and kind of used it as a tool. A lot of what I do now is drawn from that period.
SBF: I assume you haven’t made music professionally your whole life. What’s the worst job you ever had?
CBK: Oh, I’ve worked in a billion call centers—that’s in my past. You know, you make cold calls to people’s houses. I hated it, I absolutely hated it. You just call people up and ask them the most banal questions. No one likes to be called at their house, no one—especially if you’re asking them stupid questions like when did you last get your windows done?
SBF: Mentally and emotionally, where were you when you wrote the song “I’m Not Sorry”?
CBK: To be honest, I don’t know. [Laughing] I write retrospectively. One of the things I’ve done is fall into the place where I can write in the moment because it’s the most painful thing to do. If you’re feeling down about something, it can be really tough to write about
it. With “I'm Not Sorry,” I wrote it about a year after experiencing a dark period. I felt really angry. It’s quite an angry song. It’s about being unrelenting, and saying what you want to say.
SBF: Does it pertain to a romantic relationship?
CBK: No, no, it’s just a general feeling. Growing up, I was quite angry at the world. Angry doesn’t have to be ugly or anything like that. What I tried to do was take every awful emotion a person could ever feel, and make it beautiful.
SBF: What is your zodiac sign?
CBK: Gemini. A quite typical one, as well.
SBF: The concept for the video “I’m Not Sorry”—how did it come about?
CBK: It was a joint collaboration with the director Ollie Evans. He did my first video as well. When we did the second video, we had a load of ideas that we bounced back and forth. He wanted to do something less camp and bouncy than he did for my first video, “On My
Own Again.” The song sounds a lot darker, and I thought it would be…Obviously with the first video you can see my interest in David LaChappelle, with all the bright colors and highly produced style. We still wanted to keep some of that sort of brightness.
SBF: Your debut album is called Querelle. It sounds French—what does it mean?
CBK: It is French. [Laughing] It’s named after the film by Jean Genet—the film’s called Querelle [de Brest]. It’s my favorite film. It’s not the most mainstream. It’s based on a love triangle.
SBF: At this point in your career, what would you say is your core vision?
CBK: There’s so much. As each day goes by, I want to astound people. I’ve read a book by Paul Arden called Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite, and basically it says that if you just astound people, there’s not much they can say about it. Every day, I feel like a bubbling cauldron of energy. End of Interview.
