VivaOla & Jimmy Brown on Their R&B Roots and Borderless Collaboration ‘RIGHT/WRONG’

VivaOla, an R&B artist born in Korea and raised in Tokyo, released his second full album, APORIE VIVANT, in March. His progressive style, inspired by Bryson Tiller’s album Trapsoul, has generated a great deal of buzz, and he recently released a new song, “RIGHT/WRONG,” which features Jimmy Brown, a globally active R&B artist based in Korea. This is the second collaboration between the two, following Jimmy’s 2022 song “bag on you,” on which VivaOla appeared. The borderless style of “RIGHT/WRONG,” with lyrics switching between English, Japanese, and Korean, embodies today’s music environment, where music has global reach.

Billboard Japan had the opportunity to talk to these two artists, whose roots lie in R&B but whose creativity crosses genre lines and national borders.

To start off with, VivaOla, could you introduce Jimmy Brown?

VivaOla: Jimmy’s an artist based in Korea who releases songs in English, with an eye toward fan bases in North America and Europe. He’s been a part of the global R&B scene for a while now, so I’d known about him for a while, but a shared Korean acquaintance of ours put me in touch with him. In 2022, I was a featured vocalist on his song “bag on you,” which I recorded remotely, without ever meeting him in person. We finally met for the first time at Shibuya in August 2023, when he came to Japan on vacation. I grew up listening to R&B from the 2000s and the 2010s, and I could feel that same musical influence in his vocals and songs. His music really resonated with me, and when I found out later that the “Brown” in Jimmy Brown came from Chris Brown, one of his favorite R&B singers, it made perfect sense.

Jimmy Brown: Thank you. I think VivaOla’s appeal lies in his beautiful singing voice. When I was working on “bag on you,” I knew that it would be a great song if I could get his voice on it, so I asked him to be a featured artist. The song was positive to begin with, but his addition increased those vibes, and I love how the song came out.

VivaOla: I work a lot with Kenya Fujita from Bleecker Chrome, who appears as a featured artist on my new album, APORIE VIVANT, and he was also talking about how he had to “catch the vibes.” It made me realize, again, that it’s more important to catch that vibe rather than the sound or style of the song. In “bag on you,” money represents love. Money’s a sensitive topic that I handle in my own works, too. I used a lot of trial and error in writing “bag on you,” and I was able to tie it all together with the message of loving someone so much you want to give them everything, even if you don’t have any money. I’m glad that Jimmy and I were able to arrive at that same message.

Tell us how you went from collaborating on “bag on you” to, two years later, featuring Jimmy on your own song with your second collab, “RIGHT/WRONG.”

VivaOla: For me, 2022 was a year of collaborations, but out of the many I did that year, “bag on you” was my favorite, in terms of the mix, the lyrics, and the vibe. Following the release of APORIE VIVANT, I’ve written a lot of songs with producer Kota Matsukawa (founder of creative collective and label w.a.u). I knew one of the songs would be even better if we had a featuring artist, so I consulted with Kota about who we should go with, and we were like “Jimmy Brown would be great, wouldn’t he?” After releasing “bag on you,” I’d met Jimmy in person and gotten a feel for what a wonderful person he was, so I wanted him to collaborate with me on one of my own songs. My songs are about all kinds of topics, like our internal struggles, but the theme of this new song with Jimmy was straightforward: love. Kenya and I worked on the songwriting together, and we both talked about how we wanted to write a song that would excite Jimmy.

In “bag on you,” Jimmy depicts love in a positive way, but “RIGHT/WRONG” feels more in line with your style, VivaOla, not necessarily depicting love as always positive.

VivaOla: Right, it’s a little bit dark. But even though there’s this dark part, as you point out, the verse section is ultra-positive. I was hoping Jimmy would use a Chris Brown-like vocal approach, and I was really happy to feel that Chris Brown feeling in his verse section, where the groove is in double-time.

On your latest album, APORIE VIVANT, which came out in March, you embodied the spirit of trap soul, inspired by Bryson Tiller. What sound approach did you use on your new song?

VivaOla: Stylistically, I carried on the feel of APORIE VIVANT, but while the actual sounds are trap, I wasn’t fixated on the music itself being trap. That’s why I didn’t use the rapid-fire rapping of trap, but instead tried for a more alternative rap feel, like Frank Ocean.

Jimmy, what do you think of VivaOla’s music?

Jimmy Brown: It’s got a very modern sound. If you listen to our verses, you’ll be able to hear the things we have in common and also our differences. For both of us, our roots lie in American R&B, but there are some major differences in how we stretch out our voices, the parts we stretch out, and how we use our vocal cords. Before I was exposed to R&B, I grew up in the Korean countryside, listening to [traditional] Korean ballads, which I think influenced me. Likewise, I think VivaOla was influenced by his experience with rock and jazz, before he got into R&B. But I don’t think these are things we’re consciously trying to bring out, they’re part of our respective characters, the products of our backgrounds.

VivaOla: In my case, I often overthink my singing approach, so I end up circling around to singing without thinking about it, but Jimmy doesn’t overthink things, he’s a very genuine artist. The two of us are alike in that neither of us is really all up in our own heads when we’re singing, but my approach is the exact opposite of Jimmy’s. I think that’s what draws us to each other, and our approaches harmonize within the same song.

So you’re more of a producer-style singer-songwriter, VivaOla, while you, Jimmy, are more of a natural-born singer-songwriter. And your contrasting styles resonate in “RIGHT/WRONG.”

Jimmy Brown: I’m a very simple man (laughs).

Can we look forward to hearing more collaborations between you two in the future?

VivaOla: “bag on you” and “RIGHT/WRONG” were positioned as one-offs, with each of us appearing as featured artists on each other’s songs. If we work together again, I think it would be fun for us to go into the studio together, creating music from the ground up and releasing it under both of our names.

—This interview by Yu Onoda first appeared on Billboard Japan. It was conducted in Japanese then translated into English

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