Q&A: In Search of Self With Asha Imuno
KNOWING YOURSELF AND BEING PRESENT — is easier said than done. Unpacking everything from your daily habits to your childhood traumas takes more vulnerability and honesty than most people are aware of, and channeling your insecurities into art for public consumption is another step up the stairway. Inland Empire rapper, singer, and producer Asha Imuno’s two singles “PUSHING BUTTONS” and “DID I CALL IT A BAD TIME?” heavily tease the emotional virtuosity of his forthcoming debut album, PINS & NEEDLES. The latter single was recently released in mid-September, complete with a music video.
The single’s audio and visual aspects are short, sweet, and impactful. For a song that doesn’t reach the two-minute mark, there’s a whole lot of candy to work with. The infectious vocal loop and horns (co-produced by Imuno and Zach Ezzy), the quick-hitter verses from Imuno and ATL artist Rizz Capolatti come together with the subtle beat switch to congregate into a bite packed with flavor.
The Angel Orozco video portrays Imuno in different careers, from welding to being buried under paperwork at his corporate job.
Luna chatted with Imuno to interpret his “free-flowing process” of creation and career-building. Read the interview below.
LUNA: What have you been up to lately?
IMUNO: I’ve been finishing my debut album. It’s been a multi-year journey that’s had a lot of twists and turns. A whole bunch of my life has been placed into it, so I’m reflecting on it by going back home. I’ve been spending as much time as possible being reflective and present in these moments. I’m not on some lofty, ungrounded, crazy, heavy-type stuff, but making sure that every little moment is fulfilling.
LUNA: How far along are we in the album process?
IMUNO: It’s not fully mixed and mastered, but the actual music and tracklisting are 1% from being done. A lot of songs have completely changed over the last month or so.
LUNA: How does it feel compared to releasing your 2020 mixtape, Good News? It’s a mixtape as opposed to an album, but how differently do you feel about the release of PINS & NEEDLES approaching?
IMUNO: There’s a different level of appreciation for the growth that’s happening right now. It’s been a long time since I’ve curated and made these songs feel like a world or home. I still feel like myself, but I feel the most “myself” in this process. The ideas and concepts are realized more naturally. I found my voice, literally, but also in everything else we do.
LUNA: Who’s “we” in this scenario?
IMUNO: My closest friends helped me realize that ideas are — for the most part — still on board. We’ve all grown alongside each other by feeding off each other’s energies beautifully and honestly.
LUNA: How did you learn everything you did about music? Rapping, singing, producing, etc.
IMUNO: From an early age, music was always normal to me, more than anything. It’s always playing in the house, my mom’s always singing, and my grandparents are always playing instruments. I realized in early high school that it was an anchor that I fixated on.
After being in a concert band, jazz band, marching band, and doing composition, I started making beat tapes. I realized that I just wanted to hear somebody’s vocals over it so I said, “Why not me?”
LUNA: And how did you learn production?
IMUNO: I was very student-minded and explored a lot. I would watch 9th Wonder’s Rhythm Roulette video over and over again to see how he chopped that sample or watch the Justified documentary to see how niggas interact in the studio. Of course, it also took years of collaborating over the internet, moving to LA, finding a community of people that I could bounce off, and intermingling in these styles. It didn’t lock in my style, but it found more of my palette and allowed me to get better as a songwriter and musician.
LUNA: When it comes to your music, how do you find which spots you allocate your talents? Why find producers or features when you can do it yourself?
IMUNO: I’m a firm believer that you have to do it outside a vacuum. I can produce, write, sing, rap, arrange, do the artwork, and all that shit is great, but I feel like many others don’t have a platform to showcase their talents. It motivated me to get out of my four walls and see what else people who aren’t that far away have to offer.
LUNA: “DID I CALL IT A BAD TIME?” follows the release of “ PUSHING BUTTONS.” How does it feel to have two very different songs with different tones released back to back?
IMUNO: It’s a perfect shift of energy. The most important thing to me is to show where my heart is and to give a window into where I’m at as a human being. I report on the world around me, which is why I make and write music. At the same time, there needs to be fun moments where everybody is cheesin’ and bouncing. Those two songs tease the full range of feelings, textures, and experiences that are displayed across the whole album.
LUNA: You worked with Angel Orozco for the videos of both singles. In "DID I CALL IT A BAD TIME?" you portray different jobs before showing the real Asha. What bullshit jobs did you work before music?
IMUNO: Not too long after I first moved to LA, I worked in a bar at LA Live by Staples. They lowkey had me doing stuff I wasn’t supposed to be doing because I wasn’t 21 yet. Folks would come in drunk, jumping on the counter and doing all kinds of crazy shit. I also worked as a fry cook at one point — making chicken sandwiches, smoking with my co-workers, stealing food. I have definitely never been a welder or worked an office job.
LUNA: How’d it feel to act like you did?
IMUNO: It’s funny as hell. It also gives people another way to see themselves in what we’re doing. The video kind of frames it in a way that it’s not all that serious. Regardless of what you’re doing, everyone has a feeling of obligation to do this thing that supports you. Whatever it is, the moment will come and go, so you make it something you enjoy and find some silliness in.
LUNA: What’s your favorite line in the song?
IMUNO: It’s when Rizz says, “Pop out with something out a pageant / Pop out with something out of Magic / No look, I pass her like Magic / Voilà, new racks, I do magic.” That shit is just hard. It doesn’t have a specific meaning to it but he’s just one of the coldest out and I think will go down as one of the coldest. His flow is just immaculate.
LUNA: Any specific line from you?
IMUNO: The first few lines, “Used to walk around like we run the whole city / As of late I been out the damn picture.” That’s really how it’s been. Everyone constantly asks me how I’ve been, what I’m working on, where I stay now, or whatever the case may be. I’m an obsessor about anything that I work on and love and sometimes it finds me literally out of the way. The lyrics put on a front of celebration — put everything to the side when you feel the energy of this song and have a good time.
