Meet WSTRN, the versatile three-man British collective on a global quest [Pulse Interview]
British collective, WSTRN tells Pulse about formation, new single, 'Never Find/Armagidion,' A&Rs and more.
In 2015, Akelle Charles, Haile and Louis Rei decided to form a collective which didn’t really have a name at first. While chilling in the studio one day, a friend of theirs, their road manager and someone else came up with the name, WSTRN - off a light-hearted comment. But then, something about the name stuck.
The three young, versatile Englishmen are from West London. The three of them are also of Caribbean descent. Haile and Akelle are cousins, and their fathers were in the same Reggae group in their younger years. For that reason, music felt inevitable for Hailee and Akelle Charles.
“For sure. I was in a group [Charles Family] sometime ago, but that’s a chat for another day [laughs],” Akelle says. “And Haile and I are cousins. Even if music was not inevitable, it probably weighed higher on a set list than some other things, you get me.”
While they grew up in the same neighbourhood, Louis’ journey was slightly different. As a son of actor Gary Beadle, he grew up around music. However, his path could have been very different - he could have been a professional footballer. In fact, he did play football for a while.
“My parents had me when they were quite young, so the age difference isn’t exactly huge. I wouldn’t say that I remember the moment I discovered music [laughs], but I think I remember when I found Tupac,” he says. “Then a little while into my life, I started writing music but I was also playing football - I’ve been playing football all my life.”
When it came time to start WSTRN, Louis Rei needed months to contemplate a life-changing decision. “It was something I had to be sure about, but I ultimately went with music because it felt more like the person I was becoming. I’m still scared though - I still have doubts [laughs]. That never stops,” Rei says.
The WSTRN sound
West London, England is a potpourri of different cultures. Britannica calls it the “the multiethnic metropolis.” Asides from the already established African and Caribbean identity, West London also boasts cultural identities of Vietnamese, Kurds, Somalis, Eritreans, Iraqis, Iranians, Brazilians, and Colombians.
“It’s not exactly about one race or ethnicity. You would go around on random days and literally see different people from different parts of the world. It’s not exactly like South London,” Akelle says. “In school, you are randomly listening to people speaking their various languages and creoles. When you are exposed to that, it sort of influences you inevitably, you get what I mean.”
At this point, Haile - who feels like the most recognizable face from the WSTRN - finally emerged from the ridiculously low volume that plagued him in the early parts of this conversation. Through it all, we all laughed about it because earlier, this writer confronted some of his own issues as his device blatantly refused to record.
“When you go around the hood and listen to all these things, it influences what WSTRN represents,” Haile says. “I mean the idea wasn’t exactly to put it all out there, but when you can make it, you just try and do the best you can with all these influences.”
From then on, the WSTRN sound sort of became a potpourri itself. From its debut tape, WSTRN Season and cursory look through YouTube, one would infer that WSTRN is a Rap/Hip-Hop, British Hip-Hop, Trap, Afro-pop, Afroswing, Trapsoul, Reggae/Dancehall and much more.
On ‘Gangland’ featuring SOB X RBE off ‘WSTRN Season 2,’ WSTRN experimented with West Coast Hip-Hop. It then became obvious that WSTRN was after a more-rounded global sound that would reflect all their influences.
“When we want to make albums, we go into a space where we are all in unison. It’s a collective, but we have our respective solo acts,” Louis says. “We trust each other and we have synergy.”
Akelle adds, “Nobody acts like a solo entity. The respect is mutual between us. What we try to do is listen to each other and let the majority of the three of us carry the vote.”
Global quest: Sojourn to Africa
In September 2015, they released ‘In2’ and signed to Atlantic Records. They also blew up just as the Afro-swing wave tore through the UK and new-age, versatile types of rappers emerged.
In 2016, ‘Trap Love,’ ‘In2’ and ‘A-List’ gained lots of ground and WSTRN joined Migos and Krept and Konan to perform at the December 2016 Beat FM Christmas Party in Lagos.
“It was an incredible time for us. We were blown away by the reception we didn’t even expect,” Hailee says. “The crowd reacted well and the people we met treated us well. We’re from the Caribbean, so there wasn’t exactly a culture shock, in that sense [laughs].”
On their 2018 sophomore tape, DOU3LE 3AK came a feature with Tiwa Savage and Mr. Eazi. At track six, the song was titled, ‘Love Struck’ and it was Afrobeats.
“Mr. Eazi had this song titled, ‘Skin Tight’ and it was huge in the UK. Everywhere you go, the song is there. Eazi reached out to me and Stefflon Don to do a remix,” Haile says. “Then I reached back out to him for ‘Love Struck.’ But when we were done, I felt some like a female voice was missing so our A&R got Tiwa Savage. We made the record and shot the video.”
On the sound experimentation, Haile continues, “It wasn’t exactly hard because we all had African friends and we are Caribbean. People always say Dancehall and Afrobeats are similar, but I think they have slight differences in progression, instrumentation, instrument pitch and groove.”
That year, WSTRN also travelled to other countries across Africa. They went to Zambia and even shot their video for ‘Sharna’ there.
“These days, the world is becoming quite global, you know what I mean. We have to explore and show our music as much we can,” Akelle says.
“Africa is not like the UK or America. How African artists will do things will be similar to how Caribbean artists will handle certain things,” Haile adds. “That would probably be because people don’t listen to as much music on Spotify or Apple Music. They might get theirs from YouTube. It’s important to have a global idea of music and reach the people our music reaches.”
While their African experience was good, WSTRN points out that they have good reception in other parts of the world as well. However, Akelle points out that the African experience taught them that sound has no borders and that there could be a market in Africa.
“Our sound can appeal to Africa because we already do a lot of Afro-tinged music. I think it’s a no-brainer,” Louis Rei says. “Women also love our music, you know [laughs].”
But sadly, Akelle got sentenced to prison for four and half years. WSTRN Season 2 was released during that period. During their promotional interviews, only Haile and Louis Rei made the rounds.
But in November 2019, Akelle got out. The first thing he did was have breakfast with Hailee and Louis Rei.
“I got back the night before, so I really wanted to get things done [laughs],” Akelle jokes.
A&R or nah?
The WSTRN sound is very diverse and for that reason, their bodies of work must require a lot of work to make - especially as regards the thoughts that go into the creative process and album sequencing. While this collective can sometimes defer to an A&R on this global quest, they are keen to maintain some creative independence.
The intro to Drake’s ‘Pound Cake’ goes, “Like back in the old days, You know, years ago they had the A&R men to tell you what to play, how to play it and you know whether it's disco and rock… But um, we just went in the studio and we did it. We had champagne in the studio, of course, you know…”
That points to the degree of freedom that the modern artist requires to create at optimum levels. WSTRN is no different.
“We create ourselves and we think we are pretty good at what we do. When you then consider that we’re three, it makes everything more interesting,” Louis says. “Like we noted earlier, we trust each other. It’s not that we can’t take advice, but we would like to create that thing first. The A&R cannot force us to do this or that. We can listen, but in the end it’s down to us.”
He continues, “Of course we are not stupid. When the A&R asks us for certain things and we weigh it, we could try it.”
Going forward
Recently, they released their latest single, ‘Never Find/Armagidion’ features Sai So. The Reggae Fusion/Bashment song documents the conflict between life and a terrible love affair. The song documents a certain type of reality and they believe a few people will relate to it. Its beauty is in the effortless segue between ‘Never Find’ and ‘Armagidion.’ Hailee absolutely rips that hook too.
“We don’t think our sound is stationed. Our new single explores different sounds and that’s what we will continue representing,” Haile says. “That diversity is important. We can’t just stay boxed.”
A major lyric in ‘Never Find/Armagidion’ goes, “The love is overrated so I chose the commas. You’ll never find a man to treat you like me…” The boys say they might release an EP in early 2021, but that isn’t certain at this time.
We might also get a new single before the year runs out. On shows Akelle says, “We will have to look towards COVID and what the time says. We would like to travel to different parts of the world, but COVID is currently around.”
Louis Rei adds, “Thankfully, it’s not as scary as it once was. We’re hopeful.” At this time, no member of WSTRN speaks pidgin, but they understand certain parts.
While Louis Rei’s favourite artist is the late Nipsey Hussle and he listens to his Afrobeat on playlists, but Hailee loves his Wizkid, Burna Boy, Teni, Rema and so forth.
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