Isis Salam Doesn’t Care What You Want

It was almost three years ago when Isis Salam ditched Toronto for Berlin, looking to reinvent herself after her electro-rap duo Thunderheist imploded in 2010. Since then, her ex-partner Graham Bertie found success as a forward-thinking techno and house producer under the name Nautiluss, while Salam discovered a niche for herself overseas as a vocalist. She's also begun producing beats herself, and recently dropped the video for "Let Go", her new single with Kruse and Nuernberg on Exploited Records.

We caught up with her on a rare visit back to Toronto, and managed to get her for a few minutes to answer some questions about her new life and career overseas.

THUMP: You were supposed to go to Berlin for a month, and now it's almost three years later. What happened?
Isis: When I got there, part of me was really relieved and another part of me was really scared. Although I was going there just to visit, I got rid of all my stuff because I had just moved, and I had been staying with a friend for a month before I left. So I was in this weird limbo where I didn't really have an apartment to come back to. It was a good opportunity to test out Berlin.

The first night I got there, the guys from VICE heard that I was in town, they immediately invited me to a party that night, so I ended up seeing all the people I'd met when I'd first been there with Thunderheist. I'd actually made real connections with these people, and I think that's what gave me the feeling that I could actually just stay there.

Knowing I had friends there that I could say were people that I considered close, made me feel really safe. It was a relief, because I really needed to get out of Toronto. I'd been there my whole life, and I'd never lived anywhere else other than Toronto for longer than a few months.

When you first got there, were people still expecting you to do Thunderheist songs?
I think with any artist who becomes successful doing a certain thing, people expect you to always do that. But if you want to be someone who is growing as an artist, you don't want to keep doing the same thing, because you get stagnant. That's how I'd been feeling; like I'd been typecast in the movie that's my life, and I was tired of playing that role. I thought maybe moving might help, and it did.

I never felt like people expected me to keep doing that same thing in Berlin. I felt like I could do whatever I wanted, I could reinvent myself. I felt like people just wanted me and my personality. I think when you have that language barrier, rap music becomes more about the charisma and the character. It seemed like as long as that was there, people were happy with whatever the fuck I did. As long as it was Isis, it was fine. That allowed me to really take the time to figure out what I wanted to do.

Before you left Toronto, you were trying to focus more on singing, and less on rapping. What happened?
I think at the time that was more me rebelling. When Thunderheist was done, it felt like people in Toronto expected me to keep doing the same thing, but without Graham. That was never my intention. What we had was unique, because it was what we had together. What I have now is unique to who I am now. I think that pressure is what made me feel like I wanted to go as far left as I could, just to see if I could do it, and to cleanse my palate.

I do think that people these days are a bit more flexible though, and expect artists to be more fluid than five or ten years ago. Or maybe I just don't give a fuck anymore.

I will make music forever, because that's what I've always done. That's what moving to Berlin made me realize: that regardless of anything, this is something that I do because I just can't help it.

Did you see Graham when he played Berlin?
Yeah, he reminded me to do my taxes. Graham is a good guy, but I haven't seen him since I've been back in Toronto. I've heard he's doing really good stuff, though.

It seems like he's had to reinvent himself as well.
I think everybody does when you leave a band. When you become successful as part of a duo or a band, there's a brand that's connected to that. You want to be able to let people know that it was part of what you did, but only part.

So what's coming up next for you?
I just got confirmation that DJ Sneak is doing the remix for the next single, "Nasty Girl." I'm all about being a feminist, so I really hope that people will understand that song as being pro-woman and that people aren't offended by it. But who even listens to the lyrics anyway? A big thing about where I'm at right now is that I've embraced my sexuality, and I think that song came from that headspace. I think with women, as soon as you get into that sexual territory, people are like "is that all you're about?" Or "are you using sex to sell?" Why the fuck not? I'm hot, why not? Use what god gave you.

Follow Benjamin Boles on Twitter: @benjaminboles

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