“If you took Justin Timberlake’s music and sent it to space, and then it got a lot of gamma radiation and it came back down to earth and it was like the Hulk, that’s my music.”
Meet ONUR, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter whose mum might be beating Kris Jenner at the momager game. With his mum playing classical music in the car, and his dad blaring out Michael Jackson when he was a child, the genres fused together, gifting ONUR with a talented, musical mind which sees him creating unique, Electronic/R&B styled tracks.
Saturday the 4th May saw ONUR take to the stage at The Social Club, London, for his Millenial Rhapsody’ EP Launch. With a sold-out gig attended by some famous faces such as Inesa De La Roche and Armstrong Martin, it was no secret that ONUR’s new EP had been loved by many. With his cheeky, beaming grin, ONUR, the talented artist who can mix anything and everything together and still create a rare musical experience, sat down with Neon Music for an exclusive interview.
Tell me a bit about yourself and how you got started?
I guess the initial seed was there because of my mum. When I was around four years old she would play Classical music in the car and I’d sing to it. My dad would play Michael Jackson and I’d also sing to that so I always had a connection to music, I just didn’t pick up on it till I was eighteen. I picked up a guitar and when I started writing songs I knew that this is what I wanted to do.
You recently released your EP ‘ A Millennial Rhapsody’, what are some of your favourite tracks from the project and why?
They’re all my babies! You can’t pick between your kids, can you! If I had to and the song that means the most to me is Millenial Rhapsody because it was a b**** to make! It was definitely more of an art piece than a song to me, but that’s not saying I don’t like the other songs, I love the other songs, they’re all great (laughing).
As a young musician, what do you find hard about being in the music industry?
Money just popped into my head! Yeah definitely money, but I’d also say trying to prove yourself to people, once you do that you’re fine. Also trying to explain what I do to someone as it’s a lot of genres put together.
How would you describe your sound to somebody that has never heard you before?
If you took Justin Timberlake’s music and sent it to space, and then it got a lot of gamma radiation and it came back down to earth and it was like the Hulk, that’s my music.
You have mentioned before that ‘Millennial Rhapsody’ is to do with current politics such as Brexit, do you feel as a young person that your opinion isn’t valid and do you use music to express your feelings?
What’s funny is I’m not actually a political person, I feel that there is a lot of resentment and that’s what annoys me. It’s not that they don’t listen, they listen but then they say we are wrong. The world is falling apart and they’re doing nothing about it. I just really felt like I had something boiling in me and I said it.
What artists do you look up to and who do you wish you could collaborate with?
Prince. Straight up. Bring him back, Prince is the dude.
Tell me about your process when it comes to creating a song?
There isn’t one! I do it all in my bedroom on my own! Ideas just come to me. I have a lot of ideas on my phone, either a beat or a chord progression. It’s kinda like connect the dots for me, old ideas will meet new ideas and it just happens.
What is next for you? Festivals, new music?
(Fake hair flip) Be famous!! One day Haha, I hope. I have more gigs coming up, I’ve got more projects on the way and stuff boiling. I just wanna keep gigging and getting people to know what my music is, it’s important for people to see in person what my music is.
With ONUR’s music described as something sent from space that turns into the Hulk, I think ‘A Millenial Rhapsody’ is something we all need to listen to.