INTRODUCING TOWNEWEST [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]
BY BRENESSA ROACH | MAY 25 2023
Townewest is a boy band from the Valley consisting of permanent members Jonum and JeanLuc (also known as Bouquet). They made their debut on December 15th, 2022 with the single “Softspoken” which was one of their pre-release tracks for their debut album Save Sara which came out on February 14th of this year.
Today, Townewest came out with their beat tape album Garden Audience, which is a collection of neo-chill, hip-hop and drum/bass songs.
With the collection of songs that Townewest has out, we find that their music has something for every listener to enjoy. We had the opportunity to interview Townewest to get to know more about them and how they came to be.
THE BEGINNING OF TOWNEWEST
As Bouquet says, “Townewest is a boy band”. A boy band that does your typical boy band things, but at the same time, it’s not like your regular boy band. Jonum says, “I’m gonna rip my homie Justin (Justin Trash from CLUB BOYBND) and say that it’s a rotating boyband because what it is, it’s mainly us, but we have homies coming in and out and making music or whatever.”
Townewest came together around the end of 2022 through mutual friend Russell Groovy, who is another member of the boy band. Bouquet says, “We met because of him when I was working on some weird Halloween shit at the time”. Jonum continues, “We went to a bar and we said, ‘let’s just start a boy band’ and that’s how it began”.
CREATIVE PROCESS
Since Townewest is a rotating boy band, their music often has various sounds depending on what each person brings to the song. As well, their creative process all varies and we were wondering how they agree with what songs to put out that fit their sound.
Bouquet says, “I make music usually in the morning or daytime and at night. I just be making shit and sometimes, I’ll have stuff that I’ll bring it over [to Jonum].” They emphasize that it’s important for them to not overthink their sound or creative process too much, but still having the goal of getting somewhere with their sound. Jonum adds, “Usually JeanLuc comes together with some ideas like a beat or a song and then I kind of put everything else together with it. But at the same time, I make some beats and I just pop in whatever feels right”.
In terms of how they come to an agreement with the songs, Jonum says, “There is no agreement. We just sign a contract and thankfully, no one cares. We’re all splitting 50/50.”
DEBUT ALBUM SAVE SARA
Save Sara is the debut album of Townewest. It’s an album that includes 7 songs. Prior to the release of it, Townewest released “Softspoken” as their first pre-release track, followed by “BIG HEAD” – which was a collaboration with Bachyard Ghost.
They released both “Softspoken” and “BIG HEAD” based on the fact that “these songs were the most cohesive to be a single [on its own]” says JeanLuc. Jonum adds “It’s a bop”.
We also had to ask Townewest about how their collaboration with Bachyard Ghost came to be. Bouquet states, “ He’s the homie! We met in E-sports, if that’s believable.” Followed by that, Jonum says “Working with Backyard was really cool. He’s good friends with JeanLuc and so it was a very organic connection. He came through to the studio and oh we had sushi on deck. We gave him sushi then he wrote. Literally that man just sits at the desk and doesn’t talk to us for like 20 minutes and writes”.
Jonum says that so far, “Softspoken” is his favourite song. He talks about how after his session creating the song, he was so happy and couldn’t stop listening to it. He went to his girlfriend who was in his room and said “I think we made something crazy today.”
NEW BEAT TAPE GARDEN AUDIENCE
Garden Audience is Townewest’s newest release from today. The beat tape consists of 8 songs and the sounds are a mixture of neo-chill, hip hop and drum and bass sounds. If you don’t know what a beat tape is, it essentially is a collection of unfinished instrumental productions by a producer.
Jonum describes Garden Audience as “a collection of nostalgic and unique beats we put together to tie into the themes of a space odyssey and simulation of love. We took lots of inspiration from Toonami and how it acts as a programming block for great animes and shows. You could say that the tape is like a commercial break for your reality and for our music which usually has vocals and storytelling. Our goal is to give our audience a full art experience not only with music, but also with visuals and story. Stay tuned for more art soon 👀👀.”
Additionally, the cover art for Garden Audience was sketched and outlined by Bouquet and he had his girlfriend colour the picture and put it all together. “We’re so lucky 💗” Jonum states.
You can listen to the album here.
DREAM COLLABORATION
Now every artist has someone they would want to collaborate with and in Townewest’s case, Bouquet says for their sound “definitely Joji”. Jonum on the other hand says “Keshi. It’d be cool to do a feature with Brockhampton or someone like Kevin Abstract or Matt Champion. Something like that.”
THE FUTURE OF TOWNEWEST
Townewest is a growing boy band with many artistic and business goals. Bouquet talks about how their main goal is to open a convenience store in a town west of itself. He says, “although we have a lot of good projects that have a lot of cool fans, my goal is to have art experiences like galleries and visual media that tie into the branding and community of Townewest. Music is just part of the puzzle and we’re trying to see the big picture”. As for Jonum, he says, “I want to do a lot of shows. I want to focus a lot on our brand and definitely want to have different music videos (which you can expect something in the near future). I’m just saying basic ass answers right now, but I definitely want to sort of have a movement like an art movement.”
Essentially, both boys want to have a bunch of different artists come together whether it be for music, visual, media, etc. and just tap in to all create something crazy and write a lot of things with it.
Check out Townewest on Instagram: @townewest1, @imjonum and @jouquetjord
Also check out their Spotify page:
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