PRESS/KI PRICE
As a teenager, Bobby Vylan would hunker down with his PlayStation 2, fiddling with beats on Music 2000 or ripping through high scores on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. He was baptised by gaming soundtracks, which bombarded him with souped-up songs from Blink-182, Green Day and System Of A Down.
Creative inspiration, however, hit closer to home when UK garage crew Musical Mob flexed their DIY grime flair with their 16-bar loop hit Pulse X, released in 2002 and made on the PlayStation. Suddenly, Bobby realised that art could come from anywhere.
“I had a PlayStation, so if they could make that, then I could make that too,” he says. “It made me realise I had something creative inside me wanting to get out.”
Today, that kid is one half of Bob Vylan, the East London duo whose scathing lyrics and sledgehammer mix of grime, hip hop and rock, and explosive live shows, have positioned them as the UK’s most incendiary band. We meet the singer and guitarist in a high-ceilinged tea-room in Shoreditch, East London on a cold January afternoon. He’s casually dressed in a heather-grey jumper and trousers, long dreads spilling past his shoulders, and sipping a decaf oat milk drink (he’s a staunch vegan).