Editor-In-Chief/Interview: Marvin Calderon
Creative Direction: Corben “Boslen” Bowen
Cover Photography: Tatum MacLean @zeustate
Stylist: Layla Desjardins @layladesjardins
Management/Publicist: Isaac Markinson
Canadian hip-hop frontrunner Boslen talks his latest single, ‘Sunday Shoes,’ his inspirations, finding his sound on his upcoming highly-awaited new album Pilgrim and more.
When it comes to Vancouver-based artist Boslen, music is literally his everything. From his debut album, DUSK to DAWN to his JUNO-nominated EP, GONZO – Boslen has always delivered standout projects, which has lead to him building a dedicated fanbase and cementing himself as a frontrunner for Vancouver’s rising hip-hop scene. But within the last year, Boslen has remained lowkey, travelling the world and working tirelessly on crafting his new album Pilgrim. Today, he’s ready to make his way back into the spotlight with his latest highly-awaited project and new outlook on life.
His new single ‘Sunday Shoes’ – is the first listen into the world of Pilgrim. Written in his basement in the early hours of the morning in his hometown of Chilliwack, British Columbia, the track draws inspiration from his travels across Europe and Jamaica. Sunday Shoes’ themes of love and gratitude underscores Boslen’s desire to create music that feels both timeless and personal, and is a reflection of who he is today, someone who has become more comfortable with showing vulnerability. “I’m not that artist anymore,” he admits, referring to past personas in his music. “I’m just a completely different person. Corben isn’t that anymore.”
From parting with a major label to returning to his roots in Chilliwack, Boslen credits “stillness” as his muse for 2024. In past years where he’s thrived on a more higher level of energy, he has found that slowing down has offered him a new sense of clarity and authenticity. “When you are someone that is creative and as competitive as I am, and you have to be still, it makes you reflect on not only yourself, but everything you’re doing,” the Chilliwack native shared. His gained maturity through his new phase in life, combined with his recent influences, has funneled into Pilgrim, giving the project an abundance in both sound and meaning. Despite finding what feels like his most authentic sound yet, Boslen won’t be boxing himself in. Being well aware of the expectations to stick to a genre, he’s chosen freedom over convention with his new album, Pilgrim. He likens his journey to that of influences like Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean and Dominic Fike, who have also defied genre boundaries in their works. For now, this alternative, guitar-driven sound, to Boslen, feels just like home and true to himself.
Known for pushing boundaries of Canadian hip-hop, Boslen has built a reputation for blending elements of alternative music with his raw lyrics and has always brought a cinematic flair when it comes to his own visuals. And he says that he isn’t holding back for Pilgrim, which is poised to be even more ambitious. “We got boxers. We got people underwater, we got like 15 dirt bikers, we got all these things. I really wanted the visual to be a circus of dopamine,” Boslen shared on his visuals. “Because I found that that’s what the song kind of embedded. For the rest of the visuals for Pilgrim, I think Sunday Shoes is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Outside of music, Boslen shares that he will be making his acting debut as the lead role in an upcoming short-film, where he will also be producing through his own production company, Don’t Miss Your Window, the same company is behind his music video for Sunday Shoes, which Boslen also directed. The short-film is expected to be released in 2025.
Through his summer metamorphosis, Boslen is on the run to find his authentic self with this album. Pilgrim is said to explore themes of love and self-discovery and he invites us all to run alongside him, tapping into a childlike wonder for his latest project and listening to him not just as an artist, but as a person. This is more than just an album for Boslen, this is him declaring his truest self and he’s confident that his fans will see the depth and authenticity he’s now bringing to the table. If Pilgrim is any indication, Boslen’s new era is expected to be a visually stunning, wild ride.
I had the chance to talk to Boslen in an exclusive interview with XMPL, where the Chilliwack native discussed his inspirations, his latest single, ‘Sunday Shoes,’ finding his sound on his new album Pilgrim and much more. Check out our interview with Boslen and stream Sunday Shoes below.
XMPL: I know you’ve been out of the public eye for quite some time now, completely blanking out your socials. I know your fans are happy to see you back and posting. How have you been, and where are you at this moment?
Boslen: I am much better. I think I’m much more present now with my personal life and my business. The time I’d taken off was much needed, and I think we can never control how long we’re gonna do it for, but it seemed that it was much needed. Where I am right now– I’m literally getting a massage right now. So I’m very relaxed, currently. I’ve just been in the studio countlessly. So today I needed to just relax.
Glad to have you back. I want to talk a little bit about last year, because even though you were pretty low key, you were still pretty busy. You were nominated for Rap Album/EP of the Year at the Juno Awards for your EP GONZO. What did it mean to you to be recognized by the Juno Academy for this project?
We didn’t even imagine an accolade like that happening. I was completely surprised. I was in Sweden at the time, working on the next album, and my manager called me and told me that we got the nomination. I had a wave of just gratefulness, because to even be acknowledged at that level, next to so many talented people… I’m just very grateful. And this early in my career, I was very, very grateful for that as well. So I think what it did, truthfully, was put into, I guess, the people around me, more importantly that I really just got to trust my ideas and I just ran with that.
Early last year, you were also featured on a remake of Serena Ryders’ “What I Wouldn’t Do” as part of Kids Help Phone’s “Feel Out Loud” campaign for youth and mental health. As an artist, how does mental health play into your art?
It’s everything. I think my music wouldn’t be as vulnerable or as truly authentic as it is if mental health, or even speaking about it to the youth, as prominent as it is now. I think even the way I was raised, with my mother and my sisters and my brother and everybody in my family, it was an open household talking about that type of thing. And it felt so natural for me to just speak about it in my music, on songs like “SCARS” or even wanting to be part of that song that did so well.
Last summer, you were featured on League of Legends’ Soul Fighters soundtrack ‘Coming Alive.’ Are you a gamer? And what was your reaction when you got the call to work on that?
Yes. I like more like role playing games. I don’t really like shooter games. I like “The Last of Us,” or like “God of War” – those games that you can dive into a world with details and characters. I like those types of things. But when I got the call for that, once again, I was just very grateful. Shout out to Conrad. He’s a producer from Vancouver, actually, but he lives in LA and he was just telling me he was working on that and a couple of video games. And, yeah, it was natural and it felt right to do. And at the time, then I was much more into music that was energetic and loud and like, aggressive. Obviously, the dichotomy of that compared to now is much different. But yeah, I was very happy to be part of that.
“I think everything you feed into the mind is so crucial in what comes out.”
So, fast forward to this year. What is currently inspiring you in 2024 and are there any artists or even films or works that you’ve enjoyed this year?
I’ll start with what inspired me this year. I think what inspired me this year the most was stillness. I think when you are someone that is creative and as competitive as I am, and you have to be still, it makes you reflect on not only yourself, but everything you’re doing, the why of the decisions you’re doing? Okay, is this working? Why is this working? Why is this not working? And then that bleeds into creativity as well. So that’s what truthfully inspired this entire project, was being still and just working with what I have. More importantly, I think by doing that, it matured me a lot, because I used to be a kid talking to kids and all. I’m a man talking to kids, I think, with the life experience, the woman I’m dating and the people I have around me now is just completely different than where I was. And I guess the movies and the music and everything that kind of funnels into that, just upgrades it immensely. So even the movies I’ve been watching are much more like on the not brain-rot movie, like we don’t just roll on Netflix and throw anything on. I think everything you feed into the mind is so crucial in what comes out. So the music, the movies and TV shows I’m influenced by really affect that. And, I know I was late to the party, but I finished The Walking Dead this year. And I guess the last movie I watched watched was The Matrix, and that was cool. But more importantly, on the music side, I think just Tyler, The Creator. I think him and his Flower Boy project, Frank Ocean, obviously, Channel Orange and Blonde, Dominic Fike’s Sunburn. I think those three projects, even Briston Maroney and Ryan Beatty. They have so much artistic integrity and attention to detail that it doesn’t really feel like they’re trying, they’re just doing and I think that is what inspired this project.
Your new album is notably called Pilgrim, as in traveler or wanderer. So what is the message or the reason behind the name?
The name came after the music, and normally throughout my career, I was taught that was a big no, no. I remember a conversation I had with Anthony Kilhoffer in LA and he was basically giving me advice. He gave the same advice he gave to Kid Cudi. He said, “always have the name before the music.” But this one, I just felt, you know, I wanted it to be from the roots. And I felt like there’s so many ways you can read that word pilgrim. There’s an image that comes to your eye naturally, but for me, what it meant was just what I kind of went through, from leaving a major label, to leaving management, to coming back from LA to, you know, so many things changing in our life. I think that journey, I don’t think it could have been expressed in a better way than that word. And when I found it, I was actually just wrapped the album back in Chilliwack, where I grew up, and I remember I was just searching for something for my music video for Sunday Shoes. We were searching for a prop. And I was just on Facebook Marketplace, and I saw that word. It was from, I think, the 1890s or something, and it’s like, it was “pilgrim something.” And I saw that word, and it was just so provoking to me, because the way it was written back then, I was like, “this is a timeless word.” And then obviously, doing research, it shows that, someone goes on like a religious journey to find something. I’ve read this book called The Alchemist, and in The Alchemist they’re saying how important omens are. And when they’re speaking about omens, they talked about pilgrimage and pilgrims and what they did, and shepherds and all these people that went to find their calling and their journey back in the day. And I think this project and everything that I’ve been through good and bad is truthfully like what that word represents to me.
Tell me about your new single, Sunday Shoes. What was the process behind the song, and why did you pick this song as the first listen to your new album?
The process behind Sunday Shoes was the same process behind 90% of the songs on this project. It was me in my basement in Chilliwack and it was probably four o’clock in the morning. I was just searching for samples, searching for anything to just be creative. And I heard that piano loop. And around the time, I was very, very much influenced by Frank and Tyler. Just how beautiful their music was and I was coming to the point where I just wanted to make beautiful music and not be aggressive, and not put this fake fucking mask on that, like, oh, “Boslen NIGHTFALL, oh Boslen Eye for an Eye,” like, I’m not that artist anymore, I’m just a completely different person. Corben isn’t that anymore. I don’t act like that with my girl or my mom or my friends. So when I was writing that song, you know, the opening lyrics, it brought out the feeling I had when I was in Nice was my woman. I flew her out there for her birthday. I went to Nice, Saint-Tropez and Cannes. And, you know, it’s so cliché to say now, everything’s a fucking cliché, but they’re saying like “you need to travel to find yourself.” And I think when you travel, especially to Europe, and you see the water and the people. And like people in love and just the culture, it opens your eyes. So when I wrote that song, I chose it to be first, because I felt like it was the most unapologetically me. And more importantly, there’s so much depth, like there’s two beat switches – it goes from me painting a picture of me, my girlfriend, traveling the world together, to where I am just being present. And don’t stress about skipping a nine to five, just be happy. I found that with me making the song, I needed to go to Jamaica, I needed to go to Nice, I needed to go to Chilliwack to make this song. And when I was in Jamaica, we were in a very low income area, and there’s a man there speaking religiously, and he told me how important Sunday shoes are. And he kept talking about it. So I wrote a poem about it, and when I heard the piano, that poem kind of came out, and the song kind of finished it.
“I want to make music that I can look back on when I’m 50 and show my son or my daughter and have confidence in it.”
So I guess this kind of ties into my next question, because I remember in earlier conversation that we had, you said that this album was more true to you, and you even just mentioned how you were kind of wearing like this mask. So how would you compare this album to your previous works?
Oh, that’s a good question. I definitely thought about that, and I don’t like to compare, but the only reason why is because when I made Dusk to Dawn and when I made GONZO, that was in those moments what I needed to do and who I was, like, I couldn’t see myself or do anything different. It was so natural to be that “character” as you may. But I found that this project, Pilgrim, and the songs that I have on it, it’s, I think it’s more me than any other project, because I produced literally 90% of it. I wrote it. I have more of my hands on directing the videos, to the cinematography to creating the literal cover arts by burning paper and taping them together to, you know, completely just building this track list on my own, because I didn’t have all the big producers and all the people around me, like I did on GONZO when I was in LA. This project – I had just the people that just genuinely wanted to work with me, and that played to such a much more real project. I found when I was making Dusk to Dawn and GONZO, I would go to LA, I’d go to Toronto, go to Sweden, I’d go to all these different places and places so many different pockets of people. And I’d come back and be like, “Okay, here’s a project.” But it wasn’t cohesive, because there’s so many different pieces and parts from so many different people. But with this one, it’s just like, “Okay, put Kanye West in a room for 11 months and tell him to make a project.” It’s gonna be compared to Kanye going to Rome, and all these people. The reason I say Kanye is because he’s arguably the only other artist I can think of right now that would do the amount of work I did on this project, obsessively.
And I think also another thing is that I’m in love and I think by being in a strong relationship, you learn more about yourself as a man, and how to even speak on women or love or be vulnerable, and you find more of an empowerment. I think before, I would be naive and think it was cringy. I think it was just not what my demographic of “fans” would like. But I was like, fuck that. I want to make music that I can look back on when I’m 50 and show my son or my daughter and have confidence in it. So, yeah, this project is just very me, raw. I don’t know how to better articulate it. It’s very fun and just youthful. And I think, you know, I was actually thinking about this the other day, when I was in Chilliwack, I was driving back, and I parked my car, and there’s these five kids that park outside of my house, and they play hockey every fucking day. And I used to, like, hate it because they’d slap shot my garage door, like where my recording room is and there’s like, six years old and five year olds and stuff, and they’d drive me crazy. But as you hear the album, I sampled so many kids laughter and like fun, playing and stuff, and I think that brought like, youthful energy in it, which naturally was by my surroundings.
You’ve gone through different “eras” in your career, from Dusk to Dawn, GONZO and even Crazy and now to Pilgrim. So outside of Pilgrim, which would you say was your favorite era?
Probably, I think the first man, I think you can never beat your first experience. When I made Dusk to Dawn, it was during Covid. I just signed Capital Records, I had a lot of confidence, and I had a lot of drive to just prove to this new label, this new team, that I was who I thought I was. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. But GONZO, I think it was the most challenging because I was broke and I was traveling, and it was hard.
“I did find a sound. Is that necessarily my sound? I’m not sure. But I know that I’m using it the most because it feels the most authentic to do right now”
So I’d say you’re a very versatile artist. You’re always experimenting. You’re trying new styles and approaches to your art, from rap to pop. So would you say that you finally found your “true sound” with this project? Or would you say that you’ll always be an artist that experiments with their music, like the Kid Cudis or the Tinashes or the Tylers, who are not necessarily bound by genre?
I love that question because I found, like it was a big insecurity of mine in the past that I would hear, even internally, people talking to me too externally. “Bos, you go to rap, and you go to pop, and you go to this, and you go to that” – and I found that it was a strength, but more importantly, yes, to answer your question, yes, I did find a sound. Is that necessarily my sound? I’m not sure. But I know that I’m using it the most because it feels the most authentic to do right now, and that is, like the alternative sound. There’s so much more freedom in it compared to if I were you just labeled as pop or you just labeled this as hip-hop, and you would expect things. And I think expectations along this type of music is what kills the open mind even before listening to it as a consumer. So I know, at least right now where I am in my life, it feels the most natural to just pick up a guitar and sing and not follow “A B, A, B” song structure and not follow, “oh, I have to sing, or I have to rap?” I just use my voice. Okay, what does the song need? And then you provide it as such. And I think that gives me so much more freedom. And I think if we’re honest about the climate of the music industry, we’re praising the artists that are actually cutting through to one day headline, Coachella, and artists are actually cutting through that. John Mayer, Justin Bieber, Tyler the Creator, SZA, all talking about is Mk.gee. And Mk.gee is this type of artist that I don’t wouldn’t necessarily say he follows rules. Or Dominic or Frank, they don’t follow rules. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s cool though.
What can your fans expect from the visuals on this album?
What you can expect from the visuals is the colors and the things I saw in my head while creating it. When I create music, I see images and colors, and I really wanted to emphasize that, especially on Sunday Shoes – this being my first fully directed video by myself. And shout out to Ronan and Kai and Tatum. They produced it with me, when I told them I wanted to do it within 24 hours. And we got, boxers. We got people underwater, we got like 15 dirt bikers, we got all these things. I really wanted the visual to be a circus of dopamine, because I found that that’s what the song kind of embedded. For the rest of the visuals for Pilgrim, I think Sunday Shoes is just the tip of the iceberg. Because Pilgrim, I wanted it to be very close to home and just have that youthful child like eyesight through it, if that makes sense. I wanted to be like, Okay, what is a seven year old see when he feels this song? What are the colors or the feelings that they see? And I wanted to emphasize that of even a kid on a swing, just like It’s the simple things in life.
Vancouver is home to many notable musicians, but there doesn’t seem to be many notable rappers from the Vancouver area. So what does it mean to you to be a standout hip-hop artist, repping for Vancouver, and where do you see the scene in the next few years?
It means everything first and foremost, I’m very proud of where I’m from and very grateful of where I’m from. I’m more in Chilliwack and in the cornfields and the forest than I am in the big city. But yeah, it means a lot. And I think that people here, we get shadowed by Toronto so much, and I think by OVO and XO. They’re like a big brother almost. So I feel like what it means for the future of Vancouver is just that there’s so many talented kids here that have a voice and that want to be heard. Those outliers and those trailblazers, with more and more social media taking over the world – I feel like they just feel more confident, they just rep it. They’re saying you don’t have to run to LA or the New York or something to make it happen, because although there is a ceiling here, there’s still a place to be heard and supported.
My last question for you, what do you hope that your fans and new listeners will take away from your new album?
Man, my existing fans… I hope that they go into it open minded, and they just understand that I’m not the same person that they might have fell in love with as they are, not the same person as I might have spoken to. There’s been a lot of life since I dropped music. And my new fans? I hope they understand that they’re in a for a very long ride. Yeah, it’s gonna be a good ride. And I’m very excited to keep giving them more me, because, music is everything I have. It’s everything I do, every single day. That’s all I ever will do. So I’m excited to just meet more fans and more supporters and people that just see what I create as I see it.
