Melbourne-based Immy Owusu and Sensible J have teamed up for Spiritual War, an EP that feels less like a polished studio session and more like a late-night jam inside a cosmic time machine.
Their sound is a ride through ’70s Zamrock, Afro-funk, and psych-soul – think crunchy guitar riffs, hypnotic grooves, and just the right amount of weird to keep you hooked.
Recorded at J’s House of Beige studio in Melbourne, the EP finds Ghanaian-Australian multi-instrumentalist Owusu and South African-Australian drummer-producer Sensible J (best known for his work with Sampa The Great, REMI, and Cool Out Sun) tapping into a shared love of African psych-rock icons like WITCH and Amanaz.
Owusu plays guitar, percussion, recorder, and sings, while Sensible J handles drums, bass, and keys. The package is rounded out by guest vocalists including New Zealand rapper Mazbou Q, who adds fresh colours and textures across the tracks.
To mark the release, the pair sat down to trade stories, from their first musical obsessions to un-Googleable guitar gods, studio chemistry, and the eternal question: is there such a thing as a mid Hendrix take?
Read the full conversation below.
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Immy Owusu and Sensible J’s Spiritual War is out now via Hopestreet Recordings.
Artist on Artist: Immy Owusu and Sensible J
Sensible J: Immy Owusu, who are your three favourite guitarists?
Owusu: I have to say it’s a mid answer, Jimmy Hendrix is up there. Pretty generic answer.
Sensible J: Don’t ever put mid and Jimi Hendrix in the same sentence!
Immy: Haha I guess not! Because he’s the king, what else can you say? And he was groundbreaking for the time, especially for an African American to be prominent in rock music at that rock RnB divide. What he did was really unconventional at the time, did some cool weird stuff with his 7th’s and his weird chords.
Sensible J: And inventing effects, getting his engineer to invent effects which are now on pedal boards. Crazy!
Owusu: Yeah true. So the second one I don’t actually know the name of the guitarist, but he’s from a band called Colomach – it’s a Nigerian funk Afro rock band.
Sensible J: Are they on one of your monthly Spotify playlists?
Owusu: Yeah they are, I have never been able to find the guitarists name, but a lot of their distorted sounds have really influenced the tone of my guitar. The way they play is like a trumpet (plays trumpet noises) which is pretty sick. They are from Nigeria or Togo or somewhere near there. It’s probably one of the most iconic Afro rock albums that I’ve listened to. So yeah good shout out to those guys. And the third guitarist – I really like Tosin Abasi from Animals as Leaders. They’re a prog band.
Sensible J: With the crazy drummer, Matt Garsker. I watched a bunch of drum videos with him in it. Ridiculous dynamics for quite a heavy band. Lots of ghost notes but crazy fills. And sick groove. Sorry it’s about the guitarist!
Owusu: Amazing dynamics in the band, really melodic. Not heavy for the sake of being heavy, it has lightness and beautiful flourishes in it. Tosin Abasi – he’s pretty cool. He did a guitar clinic in Geelong a while ago before they got really famous. And I didn’t go for some reason, but got into them because I saw the posters everywhere.
Owusu: OK J, what was the song that ignited your passion for music? Was there a specific song in your life that is like, wow that was a turning point.
Sensible J: George Benson’s “Breezin'”. My Dad used to always play it, but before that I liked Michael Jackson and got a Queen record given to me by my Godparents when I was 4. I reckon around 7 or 8 I heard that George Benson record heaps, and one time I was like “wait this is really cool”. As a kid I liked the drum sounds, and the patterns that the drummer Harvey Mason was playing. I used to read the back of the records and that changed my ears to music, because I was more of a rocky/pop Michael Jackson fan. And George Benson was kind of a weird thing for a child to listen to.
Owusu: Absolutely – I don’t think I had heard of him until I was like 22.
Sensible J: Exactly. But it’s his biggest record, and apparently Jazz purists hate it because he won a Grammy for it. It’s a very popular record. I remember as a kid really loving music and listening to that record non stop with headphones. And listening to the orchestration.
Sensible J: What is your favourite place you have visited and why?
Owusu My favourite place in the whole wide world. I remember my Centrelink security question was what was my favourite place to visit and I said “my mind”. Haha so lame. I remember being 18 and thinking… yeah this is so deep.
Sensible J: I might have to use that as a password or something.
Immy: Yeah, I’m just gonna stick with that one.
Owusu: What are the difficulties of working with me J?
Sensible J: Haha that’s hilarious – I’m gonna start a riff. Difficulties? There hasn’t been any! That’s the honest answer. Hmmm could I make up something? You’re not difficult. It’s just easy! I can’t even be funny about it! This is a wanky answer – we didn’t spend enough time making more and more music while we had the time! Whenever the time is right we’ll be back doing it again. It’s a corny answer haha – but it’s been a great time.
Sensible J: This is a stock standard question, but I want to know what your furthest musical memory is. It can either be a song, an album or a situation. I know your parent background and there is obviously lots of music in your household. When was the first time little Immy’s brain was like “awww there’s music and I wanna mess with it!”.
Owusu: My first musical memory is my first memory which is my mum singing to me in the cot! She would always sing the same songs. She would start with Kumbaya, and then she’d sing this song from this musical that Kate Cebrano was in that was called Godspell. And it was the last song she’d sing before she’d put me to bed, it was really sombre. And it was the last song she’d sing before putting me to bed.
Sensible J: Damn, that is so crazy that you have an amazing memory. Sometimes it’s a curse because you’re also remembering something sad as a kid. Did it make you stay awake longer?
Owusu: Yeah, I think so. You just feel sad and then you’re out.
Sensible J: Was that musical mid 90’s?
Owusu: Yep I think so mid 90’s.
Sensible J: I think I have the booklet for it! The program. I kept a stash of all the books and programs of all the gigs and concerts I went to and I think I have it. I’m gonna ask my folks! You’ve got an amazing memory.
Owusu: I can remember when my Dad and my Uncle Kwame built my first bed too. So that’s why I know it’s not bullshit.
Owusu: Okay, what is the biggest misconception people have about making music?
Sensible J: I don’t like to speak on behalf of other people, but I feel like some people think it’s like a party environment in the studio, and when they come in it’s just me and I offer them a tea. Over the last 20 years, I feel like a lot of folk who are not always in the studio rock up thinking it’s like in the video clips they’ve seen. Beer and booze and people smoking in there. Which hasn’t really been the case for any sessions that I‘ve done over the years. Does that answer the question?
Owusu: I can’t say I’ve ever gotten lit in the studio. I did get a little lit once but then it gets derailed so quickly.
Sensible J: When you hear stuff back later and you go…
Owusu: Yeah haha. But it doesn’t mean it can’t be a good hang. You can not be getting lit in the studio and can still be a good hang.
Sensible J: And that about getting lit – that can be a bonding thing, you might not keep doing it. You might be closer for it so when you meet up again and the chemistry is there.
Owusu: The experience was nice and the hang was nice. And that’s more important than the music. The music happens as a result of the hang.
Sensible J: Yeah exactly – you and me did a lot of talking about the music and liking the music without recording the music. And then when the recording happened it was quick!
Owusu: That’s it!
Sensible J: How did your approach to the writing and recording of this EP with me differ to your previous record LO-LIFE! and the current record you’re working on now?
Owusu: It’s pretty nice just working with one other person, and very flexible when you have two minds in the room. It’s a good feeling, you can experiment more and be freer. With LO-LIFE! it was still trying to figure out a sound. This was so much more fun and making whatever kind of music you want to make. Which is what it should be.
Senible J: I know you brought the songs as demos on guitar pretty much and lyrics. Is that how you wrote with LO-LIFE! or was anything born in the studio?
Owusu: I think I brought all the songs just like that, and they were propagated with peoples styles in the studio. For example an old song of mine “Doom Elevator”, I’ve played that for years as many incarnations, and with my old band it was like a Chilli Peppers style song, and now you’ve Sensible J-ified it, and I just love that process. Your human impression on the music is just really cool. And I really like it. It’s above the instrument. You’re not a producer, you’re Sensible J and you’re communicating through production.
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Owusu: How has the music industry and its processes changed since you began working in the industry?
Sensible J: Biggest change was digital streaming around 2015. I remember sales reports coming through and it would be physical copies and digital streaming numbers and sales. Like buying an album on iTunes. That doesn’t happen now! No-one really knows where it’s going and what it’s going to do. It’s an industry that’s been flipped on its head. It’s a different way to spread the music, but there needs to be a different way for people who make the music to be compensated. I haven’t been heavily involved industry-wise because I’m independent, I just make music and release it and work with people I know which has been cool.
Owusu: Fair point. I like a lot of the people that I know that really enjoy the material and vinyl version of the music. We live in a little bubble I think.
Sensible J: You’re going to a deserted island. I know you play around 10 instruments, but you can only take one with you forever. What are you picking?
Owusu: I feel like a kalimba because it’s the perfect instrument for that setting, it would be really good as a lonely, isolated somber instrument ringing out by yourself. Sitting on a beach *sings like a kalimba* and just wait for oblivion to hit you.
Sensible J: There’s a film clip idea in there!
Immy: It’s sort of like the Sankofa music video isn’t it!
Sensible J: I want a field recording of you sitting on an island playing the kalimba. It will be like the lullaby that put you to sleep! If you’re leaving for an island I’ll give you one of mine.
Owusu: Haha thank you. Here’s my last question and I feel like i’ll know the answer to this, but if there is any artist alive or dead you could collaborate with who would it be?
Sensible J: Erykah Badu. I’m the biggest fan and I love all of her albums. I love all the different sonic directions she’s gone. And I feel like she’d be awesome to record and make music with. She seems very free. I could throw any beat up and yeah I could be wrong. I don’t know anyone who has worked closely with her but I get that impression. Whatever you’re throwing at her it would be fun!
Owusu: Do you have a mix tape or beats ready to go?
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Sensible J: They are ready in a G drive on my phone! And I would send them if I ever met her and an opportunity arose. That is my easiest answer though! If there were two I would love to play drums with Jimmy Hendrix!
Owusu: Imagine a Jimmy hip-hop record! That’d be pretty cool. Here’s a bonus round, if Jimmy hadn’t died at the age of 27, what kinda music do you think he’d be making now?
Sensible J: Probably would have produced Taylor Swift’s recent album. Haha. He’d be like 70? Would he still be touring? Or a Sly Stone thing, becoming reclusive. Like Shuggie Otis.
Owusu: I feel like he’d be a recluse.
Sensible J: I think he would have stayed on the guitar. I don’t think he would have gone hip-hop. Some guys from that era have embraced it. He could have become a huge fan and became a beat maker! He would have had a crazy guitar tone with all the things available now.
