As the face of “the new death row” as dubbed by Snoop Dogg, October London is grabbing the attention of new listeners daily. Since 2016, October London has been working together with Snoop Dogg, but recently has grown in popularity with the release of his album “The Rebirth of Marvin”. The name is rightfully fitting as October has been compared on numerous occasions, to soul music icon, Marvin Gaye. We had the opportunity to speak to October London about everything from meeting/working with Snoop Dogg, branching out into other genres, to his. upcoming 2024 tour along with J. Brown and The Shindellas. Check out the full interview on Youtube as well as on our podcast.
YKIGS: How has it been working with Snoop Dogg?
October London:…He would put my music behind a lot of the shows and just it’s been such an incredible experience to be signed to Snoop, and it’s not the old Death Row anymore. It’s the new Death Row. Me being the lead face of Death Row has been incredible. Snoop called me the other day and was like, Hey, man, I just want to let you know you helped build Death Row to what it is the new Death Row. You know what I’m saying? He just said I was doing a great job. So that made me feel good the other day.Then we decided to drop this Rebirth the Marvin album in February of this year. It was slow. It was a slow burning fire and then it just exploded probably around maybe April or May or something like that. It’s just been just an incredible ride.
YKIGS: How do you feel about to constant Marvin Gaye comparisons?
OL: Well, I feel good. It’s a double edged sword because I feel good that I’m being compared to such a great I mean, just a phenomenal artist like Marvin Gaye. But it also is a little nerve-wrecking because I don’t want anybody to think that I’m trying to fill Marvin Gay’s shoes. Those are shoes that can’t be filled. To hear that, it’s a cringey thing because I’m like, I’m not trying to be him. I just happen to just sound like him a little bit on these records because Snoop plays a lot of old school music throughout his compound, throughout the studio. Just that day he was playing a lot of Marvin and just the vibe came into that studio room where I was and I just did it. I wasn’t trying to fill shoes. I wasn’t trying to sound like him, it would just happen that way. But I appreciate being compared to such a phenomenal artist and the “Rebirth of Marvin” was a title that I didn’t even want to do because it was cringeworthy. I was like, Oh, I don’t want people to think something else or something different. But he [Snoop Dogg] was like, no, man, let’s just go with it.
YKIGS: Do you have a specific genre you want to lean towards for future projects?
OL: I want to tap into everything. I think after this second installment that’s… I keep saying it just because I don’t have a title. After this rebirth of Marvin 2, I want to go in… I think I want to go ’80s. I think I want to go ’80s and then jump from ’80s to ’90s and then from there, going to Latin and all that and just work my way around it. I think the next thing after that is going to be that punk, 70s era. It goes into that ’80s vibe. I think it’s a good segue going into that ’80s vibe and then going ’90s vibe. I want to do that. I just want to jump the right way. I don’t want to go from now to later because it’s just too much. I want to just ease my way into it.
We’re looking forward to everything that October London will be bringing us in 2024!