fyoum is a Swedish musician who really started to get his praise after joining the Soundcloud Collective user-177606669. While this collective is mainly known for being an account for hyperpop artists to post on fyoum does not necessarily fit into that box. Boiling it down to a single genre fyoum is an indietronica artist, but even that does not truly do his music justice. Exploring elements of hip-hop, jazz, bossa nova, indie and even the occasional foray into hyperpop fyoum is one of the most versatile artists putting music out right now. Surprisingly though, fyoum actually got his love for music in a very different manner than most. From age 6 to 16 he competed in international hip-hop dance competitions. While he always loved music he never picked up an instrument and instead decided to become a dancer. He did this for 10 years until during a school project where his group was making a video game he lied and said he could do all the music and sound design. He then had to force himself to figure out how to play the piano, use a DAW, and understand MIDI. After receiving an A on the project he finally fully started to dip his toes into music production. Now at only 23 he is one of the most exciting artists emerging into the light of the greater music scene. Read below to get a glimpse into his mind beyond music and then stream his discography to fully get a sense of his talent.
What would you do if you walked into your home and there's a tiger in it?
I’d probably run the fuck out of it. Call the police maybe. I wouldn’t want them to walk in and have the tiger start eating them though. I’d make sure they know what’s going on so they can get a tranquilizer gun or something. I would wonder how a tiger got to Sweden though. That would be very very rare.
What would your job be in medieval times?
I think I’d be like one of those jesters or some shit. Figure out how to play music with something for the king. I don’t think I would live too long. I think I would die because I said something stupid to the king. Make a bad joke or something. But I’d rather be a joker than a peasant.
If you could have your own reality tv show what would it be about?
There would be a bunch of cameras all over the city that I live in. Then they would just be watching me all the time but you can only hear my inner monologue. When I’m walking around the streets I look at people and I think “Jesus Christ that person is probably going to fucking kill me or something.” I’m just so scared to go outside, even though I do. So I think it would be fun if people hard how fucking scared I would be. Call it ‘Jacob on the Street Being Very Scared of People and Shit’
What's your favorite synthesizer and your dream synthesizer?
My favorite one is probably the OP-1 just because it’s so fun. You can bring it wherever you want and it has like 16 hours of battery life. It can hold like a whole album on it too. Like ‘WORLD ENDS WITH YOU’ was made entirely on the OP-1, I didn’t use any other synths. My dream synth though? There’s so many… I think maybe the Prophet 6. I’ve seen Thundercat and a bunch of other artists use them on stage. Or an Elektron Monomachine. One of my friends let me borrow his and I need to give it back but I really want one for myself. I know SOPHIE used it a lot in her music and made some really crazy sounds.
If you had to fight Donkey Kong or Shrek, which one would you fight?
Shrek would be funnier to fight because Shrek is funny, but Donkey Kong is way cooler. If I got some cool powers like Mario, like I could jump up and hit him in the head with my boots, then Donkey Kong. Otherwise, it’s Shrek because he’s just funny to look at.
If you are allowed to go scuba diving anywhere and you like had the skills to do so where would you want to go?
I want to go to the Bermuda Triangle. I’ve just heard that everyone who goes there dies, and I would really like to go there and not die. And people would be like “Woah, that's so cool!” But only if I knew I was gonna survive. If I was gonna die I don’t think that would be super cool.
How would you change your life if you knew you were gonna live to be 200?
I would probably chill more. I think I’ve always been a very stressed out person, my dad was too. So I think I got some of his genes there. But I would probably just take a chill pill. Chill more. I think that would really benefit me and my mental health. It’d be a lot better than me constantly stressing and trying to figure things out while I’m still so young. I’m already working on that but if I knew I had another 180 years then I could really chill.
What music trends would you like to see come back?
Bossa Nova or Muzak. Either would be so sick because Bossa Nova fucking rocks and Muzak is just so nice. I think listening to the Dead Rising mall music just on repeat for a week would be amazing. It would be so cool if people were like “Hey let's go to the club” but then the club wasn’t playing anything but Bossa Nova and Muzak.
What's your ideal chair?
I have 2 ideal chairs. One of the best chairs is IKEA's super cheap chairs, I think it’s called the Billy Chair, I’m not sure. It’s such a boring chair but it really is timeless. But if I was going for something comfortable that I would rather sit on generally it would be one of those really pricey office chairs. I don’t know what brand but just a really nice office chair that's made out of leather that would be great.
If you could be friends with anybody from animal crossing in real life, who would you want to be friends with?
Coco. When I was like 12 or 13 my mom bought me Animal Crossing New Leaf for the 3DS and one of the first characters I got was Coco. I just thought she looked so cool and since then I’ve always made sure to have Coco in my Animal Crossing towns.
What artists do you think people reading this should check out?
Definitely dylazy they’ve been such a good friend to me for all these years and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. Then another one of my friends from soundcloud, Invictus (Universe), he makes a lot of retro trap beats and stuff like that and he’s so good at it. Then I would love for people to check out one of my favorite artists, Frensi. I found her music when I was like 16 through a Machine Girl remix and I just love her music. It’s very jazzy like shibuya-kei bossa nova stuff and she’s been a super big inspiration for me.