Boko Yout is the outsider infiltrating the mainstream. The genre-breaking Swedish artist, born Paul Adamah, has been nominated for Newcomer of the Year at the Swedish Grammis, Artist of the Future at the P3 Guld Awards, and for a Music Moves Europe Award. All of which is even more remarkable given his anarchic sound which feels both devilish and dangerous: a maelstrom of Odd Future’s eccentric experimentalism, the alt-rock oddity Yves Tumor and the punk-funk groove of LCD Soundsystem. And yet this riotous, in-your-face energy is countered by a positive message: inclusivity, self-fulfillment, and becoming the best version of yourself.

 

All of which shines brighter than ever in the 27 year-old’s upcoming debut album ‘GUSTO’. Each track imagines Boko Yout experiencing a different therapy session with the eccentric Dr. Gusto. It allows him to “confront my shadows – everything I try to avoid within myself, and everything that prevents me from moving forward” like a battle between the two extremes of his character: the side that wants to hide his flaws away from the world, and the other that wants to confront everything head-on.

 

The long-form self-therapy session is, he affirms, is “a sonic manifesto for living with love and intention.” And Dr. Gusto is his guide – but also his self in a bolder, braver form. “Dr. Gusto is a manifestation of my soul, and the voice I heard that pushes me towards individuation. He’s a way to sit down with myself and really come face-to-face with everything I’m avoiding.”

 

Naturally taking such a deep dive into his myriad of memories, wounds and vices suggests that Boko Yout is a complicated character. He was raised in Örebro by his Togolese father and Mozambican mother, and being black in a heavily white city gave him an outsider’s perspective. But more impactful was Sweden’s Evangelical Free Church. You could easily pass its HQ on the outskirts of the city without noticing it, but its heteronormative influence was omnipresent – and it certainly doesn’t feel welcoming to anyone whose sexuality lies outside those confines. “I was very closeted,” he now admits. “I was very afraid of my sexuality and my identity.” And so his feelings of being an outsider only intensified.

 

But it wouldn’t be accurate to summarise his early life as simply a succession of struggles. His eyes light up at the memory of his father hosting jam sessions for the local African diaspora: djembe drums and shakers clattering away, and the infectious energy of highlife. It wasn’t long until he unlocked his creativity, too. His brother guided young Boko into making beats, which in turn lead to production and then recording his poems as raps on top of the music – those lo-fi hip-hop beats becoming the foundation for the artist that he is today. And his creative compulsion stretched into other fields, too: anime, manga, claymation and Lego animation.

 

Boko Yout moved to Stockholm to study at The Royal Institute of Art, where he’s still enrolled in a Free Arts course. “The way school and education is structured is not the way I like to lead my life,” he states, smiling at his subsequent disclaimer, “but I try to bend it my way.” He certainly twisted it in a direction where he could kick-start his music career as he studied. He debuted with the psychedelic post-punk of ‘NEWS’ and went into bedroom pop drum ‘n’ bass with ‘ANXIETY’ leading into his debut EP ‘AS SEEN ON TV’, and then onto ‘90s trip-hop with the ‘Griot’ EP, a collaboration with producer boerd.

 

Yet ‘GUSTO’ takes things further. It dives into Boko Yout’s psyche as if he has trepanned his consciousness and edited his misfiring synapses. Take the lead single ‘IGNORED’. Born from his art school experiences, it’s inspired by two statues outside its entrance: a lion and a boar. The lion, he explains, “Is the mindset that art students arrive with. They enter as lions with a fiery passion and obsession with their craft, and wanting to learn more. But the boar represents the pessimistic version of yourself that comes out at the other end.” It’s a metaphor for the classic art versus commerce dilemma: the great art that comes from the heart of the lion, or the commercial compromise that comes with accepting that some – even most – creatives have to play the boar.

 

The rapidfire mania of ‘9-2-5’ replicates the intensity of ‘IGNORED’, while its themes are a continuation of its conflict. Simply: what happens in the very real possibility that Boko Yout was expelled from the Royal Institute? “I would have to find a job because my student loan would be fucked and I wouldn’t be able to afford my rent. I used to do a lot of gig work and freelancing and worked at IKEA, but I can’t join the rat race. It’s definitely a privilege to be able to do something else.”

 

What does the song conclude?

 

“It definitely pans out with me not finding a job,” he chuckles. “I’m not really hiring material.”

 

Other songs target more specific areas of his experiences. ‘BOYFRIEND’ confronts and embraces his sexuality, especially his desire to accentuate his femininity in a body that looks more alpha male  And ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ is symbolic of an under-the-influence desire to be vulnerable in the moment and share his inner dialogue, while balancing the urge to “just crash out” with a mini self-destruction that doesn’t fully awaken his demons.

 

It’s the recent single ‘IMAGINE’ that encapsulates the album’s wider themes: an introspective journey through identity, perception and psychological liberation: “The ego is a prison; this track is an attempt to free oneself from it, to view one’s life experience as a spectrum rather than fixed lines. The verse embodies the imagination that longs to dream. At the same time, the chorus represents reality, which constantly seeks to segment, clarify and restrict.” He continues on how the project provided him with personal catharsis: “It’s like a long purge, or being exorcised. It’s about facing everything I feel: the shadows and the ways that I’m restricting myself, and asking, how can I find the joy through this?”

 

As for what he would like it to mean to others? “I want to remind people, both through the music and the art around it, to approach life in the same way. To see their self as someone they negotiate with, and someone they really need to take care of. It asks the big questions. How do you reach a way of life that serves our highest passion, dreams or needs? How do we heal? How do we not suppress ourselves?”

 

The more you learn about Boko Yout, the more you encounter unresolved mysteries. How does this mild-mannered character become a whirlwind of expression during live shows, as witnessed on tour with Viagra Boys? Why are his band dressed as scouts? How does the West African tradition of vodún inform his aesthetic?

 

That mystique is part of the magic. Each track has an other worldy allure to guide you in Boko Yout’s philosophical and often surreal universe – but what you’ll experience in those three minutes is only a fleeting snapshot of one of the most distinctive, world-building new artists around. There’s much more to explore, to learn about, to question. Which is representative of ‘GUSTO’ as a whole – it’s an essential record, but it’s also an insight into an open-minded approach to life and how to live it.