By Keith Walsh
Listening to the debut album by LAW ABIDIN CITIZ3N, one gets a sense of passion and disorder, channeled and controlled by wild arrays of beats, melodies and sound bits. Influenced by his chaotic 90s upbringing in London housing projects where some of the only constants were his mother, his older sister and a steady stream of Nickelodeon television content, Ian Oak-Reid had a lot to overcome before coming to mastermind his brilliant debut album SCUM (Self-Centered Urban Male). My review of the album is at synthbeat.com .
In those UK housing projects, violence was a nearly daily occurrence As Oak-Reid approached adulthood, the UK rave scene nearly destroyed him. Thanks to grace and tenacity, he turned his life around, got sober and earned several degrees, including in Music Technology, and law, establishing himself in business. SCUM (Self-Centered Urban Male) is a sly, triumphant album that takes all of his chaos and pain, transforming demons into dance music.
Though there’s definite darkness in his music, the essential messages are constructive, shaped by loyalties earned in his formative years. He writes: “Being raised by a single mother and only a sister, no other family, you begin to see the sheer strength of women, their intelligence, strength and versatility. I wish for men, especially inner-city men from London to really feel comfortable in their own sexuality and manhood to fully appreciate, love and respect a woman, in more ways than just sex.”
I was eager to chat with Oak-Reid myself and get the straight dope. SCUM (Self-Centered Urban Male) was recorded on Oak-Reid’s 2015 Apple computer with vocals recorded at Old Street Studios, which previously hosted Placebo and Killing Joke. Luckily for us, he was available for a Q and A.
Popular Culture Beat: Beside the Nickelodeon shows and your older sister, could you tell me more about the positive influences that motivated you to get your education — parents, ministers, teachers, and the like? Who are they?|
Levi Oak-Reid: The lack of stability was the prevailing positive influence to get educated. My mother, although talented and intelligent, doesn’t hold much on paper, thus, in a modern world, that means you get nothing. Absolutely sick and tired of moving schools 14 times, once even a week before my GCSE’s to Ireland, and then back a month later, I realized that this is not a life I want for my future children, or my future wife, as a man, I feel it is my responsibility to provide the fundamentals to my community for them to be able to be able to focus on their particular talents and skills and prosper. Of course, they could do it themselves, everybody is capable, I just feel it’s an honor and a privilege every man holds.
Popular Culture Beat: How did you get your musical education? What instruments did you start on?
Levi Oak-Reid: Music Technology Level 3 and Media Production Level 3 at Lewisham College, South London. Now Southwark College, right by The Old Vic, an infamous creative hub of really talented artists. I cannot play an instrument. I am really eager to learn guitar and have been putting the feelers out for a good teacher.
Popular Culture Beat: When you found out you could make music on a computer, how did it change your life?:
Levi Oak-Reid: The revolution will be fought with a book, and a similar tool is music, it was just a weapon to pick up and use. I’ve started a book club, the first week is Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning.
Popular Culture Beat: Please tell me about your gear/DAW/any analog gear outboard? What’s your favorite synth? Effect? Drum machine?
Levi Oak-Reid: Logic Pro, I think my favorite synth has to be The Moog Grandmother and the Korg Minilogue XD. Favorite drum machine is the Korg Volca Drum.
Popular Culture Beat: With all of the dangers of the rave scene, would you still consider it an ok outlet for young people?
Levi Oak-Reid: The most immediate danger is mainstream clubs and mainstream commercial music that absolutely degrades and belittles man against man, man against woman, woman against man, woman against music. It’s clinical, it’s dead, it is not sentient anymore. Raves are free, no particular order. The dangers of the rave scene are not the drugs but the quality of the human experience that those people are using to disassociate from. It is not as simple as saying ‘drugs are bad.’ There is a reason, we are the only species that abuses recreational substances. Have you heard of rat park? Rats in isolation were given cocaine laced water and normal water, when alone, they always went to the cocaine, however, when put in with a community, they only ever touched the normal, natural water. It is illegal to own only one hamster in Switzerland.
I am not understating the detrimental effects of drugs, nor promoting them, but to focus on the secondary matter when it is caused by a prevailing primary fundamental would be disrespectful to current persons still addicted.
The real message is that you do not need drugs to enhance or run from the human condition. If you feel the need, then something has gone drastically wrong and you need introspection. Look how happy a dog is, look how filled with adoration a baby’s eyes are when their parents come home from work and pick them up, I do not promote or dis-promote drug taking, I promote the reality that neither is needed. There is a third option, a continued high until passing into the next dimension.
Alcohol is poison. I am sober 100%, Although I never had a problem with alcohol and could happily relish here and there, I adhere to strictly avoiding it 100% of the time as it literally not only poisons the body physically, but the mind, the soul and the aura. How can one be a conduit for something greater when they are poisoning themselves? Basically caking vaseline onto an antenna.
Popular Culture Beat: When you get your Theology and Religion degree, what would you do with it?
Levi Oak-Reid: I’ve got the security of a Bachelor of Law LLB, International Wealth and Investment Management diploma awarded by the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments and many more, thus, I am fortunate to be able to pursue a new education that will purely and solely enrich my soul, genuinely interest me and fuel me significantly. Everything leads back to the same river, every religion, so I am going into this with one singular motive, to get more of an idea of what that River is.
Popular Culture Beat: You said you would like to relocate to Belgium. Why Belgium? When have you been there?
Levi Oak-Reid: Not Belgium itself, very close, in Europe indeed, but I really plan to disappear for a year once the tour is over. It’s been a ride.
Popular Culture Beat: Who are your collaborators on SCUM?
Levi Oak-Reid: I wrote, produced, arranged and sung SCUM in its 100% entirety, there is nobody else involved in any manner. Apart from the engineer who mastered it at Old Street Studios, London. This is great as apart from paying out on the samples to the brilliant talent I’ve been honored to pay tribute to on the album, I own the masters, the copyright and all else, this is also the same set-up that will be given to any artist that signs to Reid and Write Publishing. I own 100% of the firm, and am looking for an investor to come onboard so we can expand. Even if now it’s just product endorsements, such as healthy partnerships like a Mocktail brand etc.
But in all honesty. The collaborators are the pioneers who have come before me, anybody that’s really put their foot over the line, The Stone Roses, Joy Division, Ian Curtis?!!!….Have you seen how he moves onstage?….He’s on another plane. Even to the Spice Girls, the fact that Geri Halliwell can take herself from Watford, to the biggest girl band ever, to a country wife only wearing white is basically Shakespearean. When you have no role models, you really must look up and look around. I also seem to be attracted to the underdog. And it is not always who you assume the underdog actually is.
The Punk movement was a direct reaction to poverty and the awfulness of a post-Thatcher world. Art shows what is missing from people’s lives. During the war, it was stability, hence how well put together everybody and everything was, then post-thatcher, people rejected the stability and started wearing spikes around their throats and shaving their well kept hair. One day I’ll look back at what my art says about me and what I am lacking, although, I don’t take any credit, I don’t see it as any reflection on me, my personality or psyche, I see myself as no more unique as a coat hanger in a wardrobe, and with that little bit of metal, I’m able to tap into a frequency and channel, be a conduit for something much bigger and greater and more important than my ego could ever wish for itself on a personal level.
“Self-Centered Urban Male” Official Website
Law Abidin Citizen Link Tree
SCUM (Self-Centered Urban Male) Album Review At Synthbeat.com
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