NEONE the Wonderer is an artist based in Wolverhampton, UK, whose music defies conventional boundaries within the R&B and Hip Hop landscape. NEONE's musical journey began in the Grime era, but it quickly became evident that his interests were not confined to a single genre. His work showcases a broad range of eclectic influences, from mythology to sociology, weaving a rich narrative that explores life's complexities and shares them with his audience.

NEONE is known from participating in Sofar’s artist residency program in London, a transformative experience that expanded both his creative and professional horizons. The residency offered NEONE not only a chance to perform and collaborate with other artists but also a moment of introspection, revealing the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead in his career.

As he continues to navigate his path, NEONE remains committed to his artistic journey, ever curious, ever evolving, and always ready to share his unique stories with the world.

When starting your music journey what influences and artists inspired you the most?

I'm going to say my music journey started when I was in school, my biggest influences were my family. Mom always encouraged us to dive into whatever our interests were, mine was art and music, and she is nothing short of an inventor coming up with new concepts and ideas to this day. My brother started getting into music because of football injuries and became a Grime MC, he would record every set on the radio and had shoe boxes filled with tapes categorised into a library of Grime from different crews and different locations alongside his own. The stories he would come back with of the adventures left me in awe, he was living out a movie! I think another important influence was my Uncle, he instilled a lot of values into us, regularly exposed us to nature, and he's the reason that I'm so into mythology whether it was computer games, books or films. I can still hear him cussing me saying "Mek sure you end up on the TV playing your keyboard!". In terms of artists, I was influenced by Busta Rhymes, D double E, Griminal, Ears, The Fugees, James Brown. I found my interests going towards Blues, Soul and Classical while my family added the Reggae, Hiphop, Jungle, and Garage etc.

What has been your favourite track you’ve created so far, and why does it stand out to you? 

I'd like to say every new song is my favourite, but I think I'm most proud of the songs that took the most effort and had the most challenges, research and intention around it. One of those is RagJazz, I wrote a whole essay theorising genre fusion to justify making it. RagJazz is a fusion of Reggae, Jazz and Grime which I'd been working on for probably 7 years? When I started the initial idea for it, I was working with a Reggae band who told me "that's not Reggae" and tried to fix it. I left it in the lockers for a while and revisited it only recently to finish what I started. This was actually the inspiration for another song 'Nose Dive' so it made sense that if Nose Dive did well, I should finish the song that allowed my sonic ideas to form

If you only could listen to one song on repeat for eternity, what would it be and why?

Abusey Junction by Kokoroko. That song will be played at my funeral. It's emotions captured in a jar. The song is what happiness and tears sound like. I feel like any emotional processing i'd need for the rest of my life happy or sad is embodied in that song

If you could collaborate with any artist who would it be and why?

At the moment, my ambition is to collaboratively build a community, for me, that is through Grime fusion. I want to bring back the ciphers that I grew up in, but I want that community to grow with us, we've matured so I want the sonics to mature with us. Grime is resurfacing in a new way, you can see it from artists like Namesbliss and Deeriginal, producers like parkland888. I'm a fan of the movement, and I want to contribute to that.

What message do you hope listeners take away from your music?

I think each song has different intentions behind them, but the overall message is to look within and enjoy the process, I make music to educate and entertain, the lesson is on oneself.

Do you have any upcoming projects that our readers can look out for?

I'm currently working on 2 projects that are part of the same chapter. 'BXP' is a Grime instrumental E.P which takes classic Grime beats and re-envisions them to sound like 70's movies. I'm aiming to bring back that nostalgia and pay my respects to the genre that I learnt so much from while I work on my main project 'Blaxploits', a fusion of time, the 70's Blaxploitation cinema as if it were today, I've been working on the demos for a couple years now and I can't wait to take it into the studio.