Lookman Adekunle Salami (known as L.A. Salami) has announced two London shows in July in support of his new single ‘The City Nowadays’ which you can hear above and comes out July 8th.
Having only picked up the guitar a few years ago after being given one for his 21st birthday L.A. Salami is set to release his debut album later this year on Sunday Best, and plays the following London dates:
July
Mon 4th LONDON, Slaughtered Lamb
Mon 11th LONDON, Servant Jazz Quarters
Recording the album in one week at Urchin Studios in Hackney, London (“I wanted to get it live; I’m not interested in the tracking thing”), L.A. worked with engineer Dan Cox and producer Matt Ingram, who he was introduced to by old friend and touring partner Lianne Le Havas.
The first taste is the single ‘The City Nowadays’; an energetic tumble of ideas and influences, mixing beat poetry, chain-gang blues, hip-hop and pithy one-liners. As L.A. explains, “I call my music postmodern blues. I’ve always loved the blues, and I think of this album as my version of blues songs. ‘The City Nowadays’ is like that.”
Alongside the single are the more folk tinged tracks ‘Day To Day’, on which he plays harmonica like he was born to it, ‘Why Don’t You Help Me’ and ‘I Can’t Slow Her Down’ – both beautiful folk songs in the Nick Drake tradition which this brand new guitarist plays with astonishing skill.
“I want to portray modern life using the past as a vehicle,” concludes L.A. “I love Sixties and Seventies music, that’s where my heart is. But I don’t want it to sound of the past, I want it to speak of now.’