Sound Of 2025: Ezra Collective are 'keeping music real'

If you deliberation Ezra Collective's euphony is life-affirming, conscionable hold until you conscionable them successful person.

Tumbling into the BBC's Maida Vale studios, the set are boisterous and charming, the benignant of radical to greet a cleanable alien similar a long-lost cousin.

Bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso has a room-filling grin and a zest for beingness that infuses his music.

"We're conscionable trying to bring thing affirmative and joyful to whoever volition listen," helium says. "So thing that exposes america to much radical is ever gratefully received."

Today, that means the honour of being named runner-up successful the BBC's Sound Of 2025.

The yearly poll, which has been moving since 2003, has tipped everyone from 50 Cent and Adele, to Raye and Dua Lipa for success.

Ezra Collective's summation to the database comes comparatively precocious successful their career. They've already won the Mercury Prize, for their 2nd medium Where I'm Meant To Be, and past November, they became the first jazz enactment to merchantability retired Wembley Arena.

But to their minds, the set are inactive newcomers.

Koleoso recalls the thrumming strength of making his Wembley debut.

"Fifteen minutes earlier the gig, I made the horrific mistake of speechmaking the partition backstage," helium says.

"They'd enactment up the names of everyone who'd played determination earlier us. So it was like, 'OK, Beyoncé played here, and Jay-Z and Stormzy and Madonna… And present it's Ezra Collective's turn'."

If they were intimidated, it didn't show. The quintet crook assemblage information into an artform, venturing retired into the assemblage and making fans portion of their ensemble, astir similar a New Orleans parade.

Reviews were ecstatic, calling the amusement a "masterclass successful musicianship" that near "every azygous idiosyncratic with a grin connected their face."

As a result, Ezra Collective's sanction volition beryllium added to the Wembley Wall – but Koleoso wants it to person a radically antithetic effect.

"Wouldn't it beryllium large if, successful 10 years' time, immoderate set is getting intimidated by Beyoncé and Madonna, and past they spot our name, and they're like, 'Oh yeah, they came into our schoolhouse to bash an assembly - truthful we'll beryllium fine'?".

Community and philharmonic kinship is Ezra Collective's instauration stone; 1 that tin beryllium traced backmost to the younker nine Tomorrow's Warriors, wherever they archetypal met successful cardinal London successful 2012.

The foundation offers grooming to musicians who can't spend backstage tuition, with a peculiar absorption connected "those with a inheritance from the African Diaspora and girls, who are often under-represented successful the euphony industry".

"It's wherever I met my champion friends," says Koleoso, who remains a passionate protagonist of younker clubs.

"Not to get excessively deep, but however bash you hole home unit oregon the antheral termination rate? You thatch a 14-year-old lad however to woody with rejection, however to emotion people, however to power anger, however to respect others.

"Youth clubs tin assistance with that. By the clip someone's 24, it's astir excessively late."

When Koleoso archetypal visited Tomorrow's Warriors with his member TJ, they'd already formed a choky bushed conception successful their religion band. In fact, Femi had been playing drums since helium was four.

"Maybe I'm somewhat biased, but I deliberation the drums are the champion instrument, due to the fact that you tin spot what's going on," helium says.

"When I ticker our horn section, I'm proceeding thousands of notes, but I'm lone seeing 3 valves. It doesn't rather marque sense. But with the drums, you deed them and they marque a sound.

"I privation everything was arsenic elemental arsenic that."

Tomorrow's Warriors introduced Koleoso to jazz, a genre he'd antecedently considered elite and inaccessible, and to his aboriginal bandmates James Mollison (sax), Ife Ogunjobi (keyboards) and Dylan Jones (trumpet).

Together, they ripped the genre rulebook to shreds, magpie-ing elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime, reggae, Latin, R&B, highlife and jazz to make a dependable that bulges with possibility.

"We're the shuffle generation," explains Koleoso. "We perceive to Beethoven and 50 Cent comes connected consecutive after. That influences the mode we attack music: We emotion jazz but astatine the aforesaid clip I emotion salsa too, truthful wherefore not effort and get that successful there?"

After playing their archetypal gig successful a Foyles bookshop, they released their debut EP, Chapter 7, successful 2016, and a debut album, You Can't Steal My Joy successful 2019.

Then Covid hit.

"We were meant to bash a satellite circuit but soon aft we arrived successful New Zealand, we were told get backmost to London due to the fact that the satellite was collapsing," says Koleoso.

Lockdown inspired their 2nd album, but alternatively of introspection and gloom, it's an immensely energetic record, fuelled by the committedness of post-pandemic reconnection.

"What we recovered was we had each other," says Koleoso. "It felt similar we were meant to beryllium together, and we made arsenic galore tracks arsenic we could that articulate that."

When it won the Mercury Prize, the follow-up was already successful the bag.

Dance, No-One's Watching was recorded implicit 3 days ("one was conscionable mounting up") astatine Abbey Road Studios, with the set inactive somewhat worse-for-wear aft a play astatine the Notting Hill Carnival.

The thought was to seizure the excitement of their unrecorded amusement nonstop to portion – with an assemblage of household and friends to halt them obsessing implicit the technicalities of recording.

"What you're proceeding is very, precise real. We conscionable played it and past had a perceive back, and were like, 'Yeah, enactment it connected a vinyl'."

That's wherefore the medium features a short, aborted show of Ajala, with Koleoso instructing his bandmates to play harder connected the adjacent take.

"A batch of radical deliberation that's a skit, but it was a precise existent moment," helium says. "I wanted the opus to spell off, but it didn't, truthful we stopped and tried again.

"Those things are precious, due to the fact that they volition ne'er hap again.

"There's a batch of things successful the satellite that don't consciousness existent enough, but euphony shouldn't beryllium 1 of them."

In opposition to its predecessor, the medium is immersed successful the existent world. Themed astir a nighttime retired successful London, it celebrates the ineffable powerfulness of dancing and losing yourself successful euphony with different people.

There's adjacent a opus titled N29, aft the nighttime autobus Koleso utilized to drawback location from nights retired successful London.

Anyone who's braved 1 of those 3am rides location volition recognise the song's substance of post-club euphoria, random conversations and the backdrop of imaginable violence.

Koleoso says his archetypal acquisition of that liminal world came aft his precocious schoolhouse prom.

"Our schoolhouse got 1 of those fancy small boats connected the Thames and everyone paid their £20, which, for a authorities schoolhouse successful Enfield, was an awesome nighttime out," helium recalls.

"This was astatine the tallness of grime and funky house, truthful I'm conscionable having the champion clip successful my life, dancing connected this vessel successful a suit… past I missed the past conduit home."

In a clip earlier Google Maps, it took a portion to find the close bus. When helium yet clambered connected board, it was carnage.

"I grew 10 years successful that 1 journey, bash you cognize what I mean?" helium laughs. "I saw waaaay to overmuch life!"

His tendency to papers beingness successful each its messy, fantastic glory is the album's core.

"In 2022, we got to question the full world. We had astonishing nights successful New Orleans, connected colourful streets with truthful overmuch going connected that it's hard to describe.

"And you'd think, 'How bash I get this feeling into a song? I privation idiosyncratic successful their level successful Edmonton to get a glimpse of this.'

"Or you'd spell to the shrine successful Lagos and beryllium like, 'I request to convey the feeling of the shrine to idiosyncratic who lives successful Cardiff.'"

Ezra Collective's ever-growing assemblage suggests they've successfully completed that mission.

But there's 1 idiosyncratic who'll beryllium surprised: Koleoso's A-level euphony teacher.

"Here's the secret, I got a D successful music," helium confesses.

"I was beauteous embarrassed, due to the fact that it made hard to person my parents that playing euphony was gonna beryllium OK.

"But what it tells you is that exams tin find 1 benignant of intelligence, but they're not the be-all and end-all.

"If determination was an exam successful shutting down shows, I deliberation I'd bash amended than a D."

Amen to that.