During his video interview with Alt Philanthropy in March this year, LA D.I.Y. and warehouse circuit regular Robert Tilden explained how he decided on BOYO as the stage name of his solo act. The first part of the inspiration for the name choice came from being the youngest child in the family, while the second part came from a ‘spiritual reading’ by his friend’s mother. He was told that there was a sweet, “innocent little boy inside of him” that he could not keep repressing, and the experience proved to be transformational enough to stick with him.
Part of the appeal of the work that BOYO has put out so far - his debut LP Control (2016), an EP (Machines), the single “Good as Gone” - does lie within the refreshingly heartfelt, candid and unassuming way in which he crafts melancholic confessional songs about his personal experiences. In press photographs, Tilden rarely stares directly into the camera’s lense. He can be seen with a bougainvillea bouquet in hand, or . The album artwork for his upcoming second LP looking downwardsobscured by leaves and a white sheetMe, Again (January 2018) is a faded and slightly disfigured photograph of him as a child, looking up in earnest while dressed in formal attire.
This is not to say that he sings about ‘typical’ youthful experiences. His debut LP addressed his “struggles with drug addiction & substance abuse, anxiety issues and the destruction of close personal relationships” in a way that is often surprisingly mature and self-aware for a 20-year old. The midtempo fuzzy ballad for the title track for his second LP, for example, captures a timeless sense of withdrawal from the world to recover, and to regain a sense of one’s self: ‘Sleep for days/ And lay in haze/ Regret my ways/ Feel a change/ I just want to feel/ Me again/ I just want to be with/ All my friends’.
Tilden’s lo-fi brand of noise and fuzz pop has earned him comparisons to Deerhunter, Ariel Pink and Ty Segall, as well as comparisons to The Strokes. (He cited Elliott Smith, John Lennon and Julian Casablancas as his “holy trinity” of musical influences). “Insomnia”, the other available glimpse of his forthcoming LP, is reminder of his aptitude for distinctive off-kilter melodies. There’s a sense of unease and anxiety here, with is partly a response to one’s chorus of doubters and naysayers (‘When they tell you no/ I don’t know if they’ll come around’). The song builds up to a weirdly exuberant release in the chorus, where Tilden’s vocals are pitched up. The accompanying music video, which was directed by Nathan Castiel, presents an intriguing narrative of technology-enabled voyeurism, wish-fulfillment and personal transformation. It is the kind of trippy and thought-provoking music video that you have to see if for yourself.
