Wu-Lu

Miles Romans-Hopcraft was born on 8 January 1990^[a] in Brixton, South London, and raised there.^[1] His mother, Hopal Romans,^[2] is a lecturer and contemporary dancer, and an alum of the Alvin Ailey American Dance School.^[3] His father, Robin Hopcraft, is a trumpeter and co-founder of the London reggae fusion band Soothsayers. Romans-Hopcraft has a twin brother, Ben, who plays in the bands Childhood, Warmduscher, and Insecure Men.^[4] Both twins guested with their father's band as preteens, with Miles playing bass which is his primary instrument.^[3][5]

Romans-Hopcraft listened to a large variety of music genres growing up, finding music from his parents, skateboard and graffiti culture, and video game soundtracks. These genres included hip hop, grunge, alternative metal, pop-punk, and underground electronic genres such as drum and bass, UK garage, broken beat, grime, and dubstep. He discovered an interest in turntablism and sampling after watching the documentary film Scratch,^[3] starting to DJ himself at age 13.^[1] He also produced beats with a drum machine, sampling records which his mother gifted him. Romans-Hopcraft's first musical projects were as a dubstep producer under the name TJ Mileage and as one half of an atmospheric hip hop duo called Monster Playground.^[5] He eventually settled on the name Wu-Lu, which he says reminded him of the Amharic word for water, "wuha", taking it because he didn't want to be "confined to any shape."^[5][1]

As a teenager, Romans-Hopcraft spent a lot of his time at a local skate park, picking up on the personalities of the older punks who frequented there. He said they took him under their wing, having an "'I don't give a shit' attitude" but "always look[ing] out for the youngsters." When he enrolled at the Brixton music and media school Raw Material, he took that attitude with him, tutoring other students in music production. After leaving the school, he worked at Alford House, a youth club in Kennington.^[5]

Romans-Hopcraft self-released his debut album as Wu-Lu, Ginga, in 2015. He also self-released two EPs, 2018's N.A.I.S. and 2019's S.U.F.O.S.^[6]

On 21 November 2021, Warp Records announced their signing of Wu-Lu and released his single "Broken Homes".^[7] On 4 May 2022, he announced his debut album with Warp, Loggerhead, which included "Broken Homes" and four other singles.^[6] The album was released on 8 July to a positive reception, receiving an 83/100 average score from review aggregator Metacritic.^[8] It was nominated for Best Punk Record at the 2023 Libera Awards^[9] and Best Independent Album at the 2023 AIM Independent Music Awards.^[10]

On 4 April 2024, Romans-Hopcraft announced his third EP, Learning to Swim on Empty, and released its lead single, "Daylight Song".^[11] The EP features contributions from poet and artist Rohan Ayinde and author Caleb Femi.^[11] The second single, a dub-influenced song called "Sinner", was released on 1 May.^[12] The EP was released on 17 May by Warp.^[13] It uses a recurring motif of water, drowning, and floating, with Romans-Hopcraft saying "Life throws us in the water all the time but always know that it's a myth that we can't swim – keep pushing."^[14]

Romans-Hopcraft lives in a Brixton flat with his brother Ben,^[2][1] around the corner from where he was born.^[1] He has multiple tattoos, including one of an executioner and one of Goku on his lower leg.^[1]

Wu-Lu is known to cover numerous musical styles through his work, and has been called "genre-agnostic".^[15] Songs of his have been described with such disparate genres as grunge,^[7] post-punk,^[7] dub,^[7] trip hop,^[16] alternative rock,^[17] drum and bass,^[18] folk,^[18] screamo,^[18] heavy metal,^[19] drill, jazz,^[15] garage,^[20] art punk,^[20] abstract hip hop,^[21] skate punk,^[21][4] downtempo,^[22] lofi hip hop,^[4] textural jazz,^[4] and plunderphonics.^[4] Wu-Lu said he didn't know what genre to refer to Loggerhead as, suggesting that "maybe the name Wu-Lu will become a genre in itself."^[5] He has often been connected to the South London jazz scene, due in part to his collaborations with jazz musicians Nubya Garcia and Zara McFarlane.^[3][1]

His lyrics touch on subjects including racism,^[18] gentrification,^[18][21] economic inequality, and mental health.^[15] He described his personal connection with these issues by calling his hometown of Brixton sugar cane being turned into white sugar, where "all the nutrients and joy are being refined out of it into something that is unhealthy."^[5] Wu-Lu's music has been noted for an adherence to the punk ethos he grew up with,^[5] sharing punk musicians' compulsion to speak truth to power.^[6]