FINDING PEACE IN THE CITY WITH OSQUELLO FOR PS PAUL SMITH HAPPY + STAN RAY
Photography By Rhys Williams
“My hair is more interesting than my face most of the time,” says Fabiano Lewis, aka Osquello, as he poses like a well trained model, hitting iconic poses without being prompted as he wears the PS Paul Smith Happy + Stan Ray collaboration. A straight-faced yet open minded musician, he cites listening to the likes of Nina Simone and Sun Ra is what has informed his sound. With long hair and striking features, he’s a conventionally experimental character, inspired by everything everywhere, allowing unexplainable moments to mark checkpoints in an ever blossoming career.
The pseudonym used by the Italian and Kittian entertainer emerged from an encounter with American comedy Napoleon Dynamite — an exemplification of Osquello as an individual, and a musician, always deep in thought, but constantly creating room for moments of spontaneity. “Before I ever even watched the film, or knew anything about it, I saw a picture of Pedro on Twitter, his vacant looking face really resonated for some reason,” says the artist. “I looked into his eyes for like 30 minutes, and just felt like his name would be Osquello.”
Newsflash: it wasn’t, but hearing him describe it, it feels as though he was looking in the mirror, and the name Osquello just felt natural. Thus, the alias was born. “I was 14, completely imaginative, it just came into my head and there we go.” At the same time he was beginning to experiment in his Dad’s “Little music room”, producing instrumentals on beat making software Reason before “One thing turned to another”, and he arrived at this point, almost a decade, four EPs and a plethora of experiences later.
It’s a journey that Osquello embraces, as quite the explorer himself, much of our conversation is taken up by chat of travel and distant lands. Whether it’s getting rejected from a Wetherspoons in Leeds, or travelling to LA by himself, he tells stories openly and honestly, painting pictures with words the same way he does with music: “Even though I recognise how mad of a privilege this is, there was a point where I was getting on so many planes it felt like I was on the bus,” he tells me. “The world is our home. We’ve gotta utilise that.”
And when jetsetting, he’s managed to fill those stopovers with memorable musical moments, labelling the release of ‘Osqstock’, his first LP/album, as his most defining project. Serving as a reminder and a testament to his strong self belief and borderline stubbornness when making music, never rushing until it feels fully ready, ‘Osqstock’ was a thought that was only published seven years after its initial conception: “I was keeping this concept and album, because I wanted it to be done right. There’s literally cover art that was done when I was 14 by the same artist [Will Hockney] that did it when I was 20. To finally see everything done the way I wanted it to be? Amazing and beautiful.”
Spending a whole seven years on the project also allowed a natural growth both personally and professionally, opening the door for Osquello to collaborate with individuals he’d admired, even when he was just little Fabiano from Finchley. “I was working with some amazing instrumentalists like Jack Allen and Grifton Forbes Amos and one of my favourite singers of all time, Terry Dexter. [I took pride in] The fact she wanted to be a part of something that was so personal.” It’s also an indication of the strength and longevity of the music Osquello creates, although not the biggest name by numbers, he’s able to find people who buy into his vision. It’s not many who can boast a joint EP with pioneer and all-time drum ‘n’ bass legend, Goldie, but their three-track collaboration project was one of the moments where Goldie stepped out of his jungle to create something that lived closer to the peripherals of hip-hop.
The next crossroad on Osquello’s trail is a forthcoming EP entitled ‘Romero’, which is designed to be received by live audiences and listeners at home. A step away from frequent live shows following his sold-out show at Jazz Cafe at the back end of 2020 has allowed him to look to present ‘Romero’ in an alternate way, describing what people can expect as: “A newer and different live experience, trying to make it more engaging for the crowd, doing things with equipment on stage and making the experience more transparent.” We’re expecting tickets to fly, and we’re pretty sure it will be an experience to remember.
Other long term goals include moving to Lisbon, but not before shaking up the musical landscape of London. Osquello is on a mission to “Build a community around soul and funk that resonates with a much younger crowd,” and open people’s minds to nicher sounds as opposed to what’s simply trending.
He wouldn’t be Osquello if he didn’t mention his next trip across the globe. Whilst he’s next heading to Montreal, he hopes to hit Brazil soon, as the title of his next single borrows heavily from the native language: “It’s called Paz na cidade, which means ‘Peace in the city’, and the whole goal of the next project I’m working on is to find peace in the city, travel round different places, make all this music, with Brazil as the last point.”
With plans to embark on a multi-stop journey that ends in Brazil, it’s a matter of how, not if, Osquello will arrive there. We’re excited to hear about what he encounters on the way, as we can expect an album in 2023 that is a soundtrack to the turbulent journey Osquello is diving head first into.
The full collection is now available at
www.paulsmith.com/uk/discover/collaborations/stan-ray-ps-happy-workwear