Heyo, my name is Genesis Owusu and I covered
Anarchy In The Uk by the Sex Pistols for Like A Version.
I chose to cover this song because I felt like the energy of it and the lyrics that
I altered really encapsulated what I was feeling all throughout 2020 and prior and
after as well. It's got a solid energy of rage that's really valid that I don't
feel like should fizzle out or just stay in the 2020 instagram trend.
I heard the song for the first time when I was like five years old playing Tony Hawk's
Pro Skater 4 and that was one of the songs on the soundtrack and it's always stuck with me.
I wanted to alter it to something more relevant. I wanted it to be current and pertain to you know
the the massive cultural events that were happening last year and that continued to
sustain to this year such as he George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests.
Being a black man in western civilisation I feel like we're constantly wronged and then
expected to be the bigger man or the educators and stuff like that and the feelings of like rage are
invalidated and I feel like those feelings are extremely valid and should be allowed to
be exercised and put out into the world. We went through so many variations of how this
song could go we originally wanted a chorus of African Ghanaian drummers. We went through
like a Bossa Nova variation like a little Prince funk version but at the end of the
day we really just realised like it's a punk song and it should be a punk song.
I've got a bit of a super group going. I've got my man Kieran J Kalinin on guitar, Jaunty from Stones
Throw on rhythm guitar and Touch Sensitive on bass synth. My manager Andrew Clipple
on keys and Julian Sudek on drums. We ended up putting this version together about two days ago
and we really solidified it like yesterday so it was punk in the chore sense.
I was pretty nervous to do Like A Version. It's such like an iconic thing and just growing up
there were so many different ways I thought I would have been doing this like I would have
been doing like a Pharrell track with like gospel choirs and all this other stuff but you know like
life in 2020 especially has taught me that you have to expect the unexpected.
My favourite Like A Versions were probably obviously like Denzel Curry
Bulls On Parade and Childish Gambino's So Into You.
Those connected to me for the same reason but with like kind of different outcomes
in each and that was kind of like the soul and the passion of them. They really exercise what that
artist is trying to get through energetically in those tracks so I really appreciate it.
Feelings are valid and they don't always have to be logical like I say
they shot my brother right into the ground so can you blame me to want to see it burn down.
Sometimes it just gets to be enough. Enough is enough and also still celebrating deaths
of my first nation powers all because of some old f***ers in a parliament house. It is what it is.
My standard is the only thing that matters to me so I want to do a good Like A Version but only by
my standards like if you hate it cool whatever like that's what I was nervous about just doing
something that I loved and that stood up to the Like A Versions that I personally loved so
it was a really fun experience and I think I achieved that goal for myself.