M. Yesekaon - ON THE ROAD (Album) + Interview
"ON THE ROAD", a hip-hop album inspired by a road trip across Europe. It’s a concept piece that blends storytelling, travel, and lyricism, with each track representing a different emotional stop along the journey.
We caught up with M. Yesekaon after becoming one of the winners for Novembars last year on JOIISOL’s beat. Since winning he has released his album ON THE ROAD.
1. So tell me how did it all begin, what sparked your passion for music?
I started wanting to intake more music when I started high school really, just listening around. I guess you do that then to find your tribe as you’re becoming older.
I didn’t start making music until my uncle died in 2020 and it sort of brought what I wanted in perspective. Whether being ‘cringe’ was really an acceptable excuse to live a life without trying. I wrote poems but never felt musical; you can learn anything. Colwyn Bay isn’t Compton but Hip-Hop is about representation. So we’re out here.
2. How would you describe your sound?
I think it’s definitely influenced by that 90’s Boom-Bap sound, that rhythm of expression. I’m quite mellow in my delivery though, I’d prefer to just tell you the ideas and let you feel what you feel. The production I concoct can drive anywhere because I never know how it’s gonna turn out – there’s no ideas that spring into my mind that I have to get down – there’s trial and error in experimentation and when it’s done, it’s abandoned.
3. Who/what do you consider to be the biggest influence on your music?
I was turned on to Hip-Hop by my uncle Dino who just copied his entire music hard drive to a separate one for me to listen to: that music was Nas, N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., MF DOOM etc. Hooked on 90’s Hip-Hop in 2010 and I lived in how it sounded, how it could be anything, the wordplay, the stories, the samples. So, I found myself listening to that at the beginning, and then as I got older, I found my own tastes: Loyle Carner, Nix Northwest, Kendrick Lamar, The Streets, Mac Miller etc.
(The biggest influence on my music might be my mum though, who let me use a part of her house as a recording studio for 3 years to be honest.)
4. What’s the proudest moment to date for you as an artist?
Just this week actually we’ve hit some milestones:
14th – 19th July 2025
On Monday I release the new project (ON THE ROAD), Wednesday me and the studio/collective I work at (UAM - Underground Artist Movement) was included in an exhibition at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff for their 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop in Wales (curated by Kaptin Barrett). There’s a picture of me in a Hip-Hop exhibition in a museum, kinda mad. The same day I was announced as the support act for Souls of Mischief on the 9th August in Bethesda which is a full circle moment for me and the music I know. Then two days later, a track from the new project was played on BBC Introducing Wales. Trust, feeling blessed this week.
5. Name three things you can’t live without?
Okay.
1. Rizla
2. Headphones
3. Coffee
6. Name 3 people you would love to work with and why?
Lemme think…
Loyle Carner: The vibe he brings to his tracks, clear. But even the newer stuff where it’s personal and agitated, the feeling in his poetry stays the same. He personifies ‘One day I’ll find the right words and they’ll be simple’ and I think that’s a skill a lot of people can strive for.
Pitch 92: I think he’s one of the UK’s best and I’ve been listening to his music for a long, long time.
Conductor Williams: Hip-Hop that feels like it’s melting in time. His music is like the tape-deck is too hot for the fire he’s cooking with and I mess with the raw and imperfect. Reminds me of life I guess.
7. You released your album this year called “ON THE ROAD” talk us through your new work and what we should expect in the future?
“ON THE ROAD” is a hip-hop album funded by Youth Music UK, and two years in the making. Blending jazz and soul samples, it was originally envisioned as a sonic travelogue charting a road trip across Europe in an LDV Maxus, but the album gradually transformed into something more abstract. Over time, the clear memories of the journey dissolved into hazy impressions, and the idea of the trip became a kind of personal mythology - part fiction, part feeling.
In the future, I’m working with UAM on their Artist Development Programme, producing tracks for young artists in North Wales and giving them a step up the ladder which wasn’t there when I started (especially in this genre). We’ve created a community and we’re gonna keep making music, keep putting on shows, keep pushing the boat from the Bay.
8. What’s the best concert you’ve been to and where was it?
Souls of Mischief, 2023 – Manchester, The Blues Kitchen
9. What’s the album you’ve played more than any other?
Mac Miller, Swimming
10. Do you have any advice for our readers who may be trying to play the mad game of music?
Perseverance beats talent,
Perfection is the enemy of good,
& You have to be in the room to hear the conversation
