'Raising the flag' – a convo with Ayo
Ayo is an Ipswich musician with a growing audience, BBC Introducing support, and a reputation for energetic live performances. What sets him apart is where it comes from — and who it's made for.
There is a version of a music career that is entirely about the individual. The brand, the numbers, the algorithm. Ayo is making a different kind of argument — that the best music doesn't just find an audience. It finds its people.
He grew up in Ipswich after moving from London as a kid. For the last seven years he has been making music — writing every day, playing piano, building something quietly and consistently in a town that doesn't always notice what it has until it's already left.
Earlier this summer he was on the BBC Introducing stage at Latitude Festival and performed at Ipswich Music Day. He has a growing online audience built around community-driven visuals and local storytelling, and a track — Late Night in the IP3 — that became the one song people reach for when they want to explain what Ipswich sounds like to someone who doesn't know it - I'd say so anyway. There's a satisfying energy when you're listening to a song and you know what ends the artist is describing.
He is, in the Latitude Festival's own words, an artist with "feel-good energy and community-driven visuals." In his own words: "I am still waving the flag for Ipswich."
How It Started
His parents were told he had a real ear for music in primary school. They said: do something more academic. So he did. But the music didn't go anywhere — it stayed through high school, through rap battles after the bell, through sixth form, until it turned into something he couldn't ignore anymore.
The move from London to Ipswich as a kid was a shift. London is cultural, loud, (arguably) saturated. Ipswich was different — quieter, more particular, its own thing. He took a while to settle into it. And then he did. Ipswich became home in the way places do — gradually, and then all at once.
What pushed him to start taking music seriously wasn't ambition in the abstract. It was a gap he noticed. He looked around at what was coming out of Ipswich and couldn't find anyone making music he could point to and say — yeah, that's it, that sounds like here. So he decided to be that person instead.
What made you start making music properly?
"I always felt like I could try my own stuff. But especially with all the music that was coming out, I didn't really see anyone making music that I could be like — yeah, they're doing good music out of here. So I just felt like, why not me, I guess."
Late Night In The IP3
Late Night in the IP3 is the track that did it. Built around Ipswich — the places, the postcodes, the specific texture of living here — it became the song that kept coming up whenever people talked about music from this town. Not because of an algorithm. Because people from here heard their own lives in it and sent it to someone who would understand.
"I just wanted to gas up Ipswich," he says. "I just thought of loads of Ipswich stuff and condensed it into one." The feedback surprised him. "It's very hard to do something well here. So I think it was just good to have something where everyone could just come together and relate to it."
That connection — between music and place, between an artist and the people who live in the same postcodes — is what Ayo comes back to.
"With rap, with Ipswich, I can talk a bit more and say what I feel. Whereas with singing and Afrobeat, I can just vibe and dance."
The Part Nobody Mentions
Ayo has been doing this long enough to know what the job actually involves. And the job, he says, is much bigger than most people think when they start out.
What do young artists not realise when they're starting out?
"That it's not only about the music — which is really annoying. When I started it was kind of a bit about the music, but now these days the music is only like 20% of the whole thing. You need to do promotion. You need to work on your brand. You need to work on social media. You need to see how it's going to be rolled out. Normally you'd have a label to do that, but you need to have at least a finger in each of the parts so you know what's going on."
His position on this is clear — it's not a complaint, it's just the job. "You can't hide away from it. You just got to know what to expect. If you really want to push and do all this new stuff, you're always going to have to go the extra mile — because everyone is doing the same stuff. You just have to find a way to do something different."
His Message To You
We closed by asking Ayo directly — what would he say to a 16-year-old sitting in their bedroom making music and wondering if any of it is worth it?
Ayo has been making music about Ipswich since before Ipswich was really listening. Latitude. Ipswich Music Day. Projects out in the world. The town is listening now. That's kind of the whole point.
Ayo is a musician and artist based in Ipswich. Don't Be Shy is out now. This interview was conducted by 1473 and has been edited for length and clarity. (and for the pleasure of your reading)
