We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Haf N’ Haf a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Haf n’ haf, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was an LP called “Jive Talk” I released in 2020,
The genesis of this 12 song album began with an assortment of instrumentals sent to me by a Toronto-based produced named emperor bohe in 2019. He heard my music & reached out to me with interest in collaborating and as soon as I heard the beat pack that he specifically curated to match my style, I was hooked. This was right before I took a trip to Cuba with my lover at the time so I have fond memories writing and listening to his beats on the plane, beaches & on the balcony of my hotel room. I was awestruck by how skillful, engrossing and just plain cool his production sounded. This was obviously the work of someone who had also been obsessed with music all his life. Over the course of the rest of the year I led the approach towards us creating a full length album. We had multiple sessions at his Esplanade apartment near the Old Spaghetti Factory & I would spend much of my free time conceptualizing and writing what would be my most vulnerable & impactful creative project to date. The week prior to finally recording the vocals I took a trip to Tennessee which would unexpectedly have a major impact on the creative direction of the project. In Memphis I was privileged to witness the incredible musicianship, stage presence and soul of the local musicians performing at venues on Beale Street. Experiencing the blues being played in its purest form was something I was not privy to in my hometown. I spent ample time exploring sites of musical and cultural significance & on my last day in Memphis I made a point to visit the National Civil Rights Museum. An incredible institution literally constructed from the Lorraine Motel, the harrowed site of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination. The museum itself was designed with the shell of the motel and the very balcony MLK was shot on, intact with vintage cars in the parking lot for a realistic feel. It was there I spent hours perusing the museum, spending time which each exhibit, passionately reading & learning more than I ever cared to in any previous visit to a educational institute. It spoke deeply to my black heritage in a way that I still can’t quite express in words. I learned more about the Atlantic Slave Trade and black American history than I had learned in all my years of schooling and googling the web. I left that site a different person & swore to myself that I would use album I was working on to celebrate my roots and black history in all its glory. I flew back to Toronto a few days later and immediately began recording at Sandbox Studio the next day, fired up by my newfound enlightenment in the south. I enlisted a California based visual artists I had admired on Instagram for years to create my cover art which turned out to be a beautiful experience. It was the most I had ever spent on a single piece of art but the results were worth every penny. Receiving the painting in the mail and unwrapping it felt like Christmas. Upon release I collaborated with a local cocktail bar to have a release party show where I performed the entirety of the album with each featured artist. The bar even had special menu for the evening that included specialty cocktails named after records on the album. Over the course of the following year I was incredibly humbled by the feedback and interest I received in the project. The effect it had on myself and listeners completely validated not only my time and effort spent on the project, but also my entire creative career as a whole. I am mighty grateful for how it all came together as it truly felt like a righteous manifestation supported by the creative community around me.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Joshua Bourgouin-D’Aguiar and I am Toronto-born and based artist also known by my stage name, “Haf n’ haf”. I am of afro-Caribbean (Guyanese) and European (Irish) ancestry that partially inspired my nickname. My mission as an artist is to ultimately inspire others to spread love, feel the full spectrum of their emotions, prioritize mental physical & spiritual well being, strive towards individuation and become closer to God by recognizing our own oneness with the universe. I started songwriting at eleven years old, having spent plenty of time freestyling with my cousins over beats we downloaded illegally on Limewire. What began as a carefree practice in writing silly diss tracks to make my friends laugh and love poems to girls at school evolved to me ultimately writing my own songs. The first time I publicly performed was in grade six for a school talent show and the feeling it gave me made me realize that musical expression was what I wanted to champion for the rest of my life. From then on, the course of my entire life has been influenced by my artistic journey and my love for the arts in general. When I was stabbed and hospitalized at age 15, I saw the impact the trauma had on not only myself but the people around me. It brought plenty of unwanted attention which only further motivated me to strive towards being an artist, rather than a victim of my circumstances. I released my very first mixtape in my senior year of high school which I remember selling in the cafeteria. Since then I have performed countless shows, opened for major acts as well as producing, promoted & headlined my own mini music festival, released music videos and plenty more independent endeavors. Although to this day I have always kept a day job in order to fund my dreams & thrive, I have proven to myself that you do not need to come from wealth in order to lead a fulfilling & successful career in the arts. I believe what sets me apart from others is my work ethic, my vulnerability, my obsession with the arts and my insatiable drive to remain as genuine as possible in all that I do. Although I have no formal musical education and barely a grasp on music theory, I can comfortably write any genre of music and perform in the pocket with musicians of all backgrounds and ability. I keep a home studio wherever I reside I’ve personally bankrolled, recorded and premixed and arranged every single musical release of mind. I’ve also stepped into the audio/visual world of live music as my day job in order to lead a life that is constantly infused with an appreciation for art. I still have plenty more goals in terms of achieving my own standard creative excellence but I could die happy tomorrow knowing I’ve never abandoned my dreams and intrinsic purpose in this lifetime.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think non-creatives might struggle to understand why I spent so many years of my adulthood pursuing a career in the arts despite the fact that to this day it has not yet afforded me enough financial profit to live a comfortably privileged lifestyle. This misunderstanding is because many of us are programmed from an early age to believe that success is largely defined by how well someone is doing monetarily. This false belief negates the fact that some of the happiest people on earth are born into and live in abject poverty. This is likely due to the fact that these folks have found fulfillment outside of earthly possessions and material wealth. This is not to say that money is inherently the root of evil, but rather alludes to the fact that there is far much more to life than to financial success. Within this western world that is highly influenced by capitalism, it is easy to forget just how valuable concepts like a proper diet, sense of community, belief in a higher power, connection to nature, individual purpose and healthy relationships are in regards to our individual well being.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Personally I think NFTs are a scam perpetuated by financially savvy folk in order to fleece well-intentioned people out of their money under the guise of “building wealth quickly” while as the same time “empowering artists”. Similar to the approach of multilevel marketing, they convince people (who are encouraged to convince others) that investing in this novel form of digital property. Similarly, the whole concept of cryptocurrency also seems promising on the surface but runs the risk of being handled nefariously by those looking to take advantage of investors’ ignorance.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://likethecream.com
- Instagram: @hafnhaf
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hafnhaf
