With over 8 million streams and counting of his debut LP Marbled, Abhi the Nomad has only begun his journey as an artist, but he’s already something of a world traveller. Born in Madras, India, the emerging rapper lived in 8 cities before he was 18 years old, due to his father’s job. Although the constant movement allowed him to experience life in cultural hotbeds like Hong Kong and Beijing, it wasn’t until he secured a student visa to attend Cal Lutheran University in California that he found the stability he needed to begin pursuing his craft in earnest.

But that stability would be short-lived. Even after graduating and securing a job in his field of study, Abhi’s entry in an immigration lottery was unsuccessful and he was eventually forced to return to India. After making his way to France, he grabbed the attention of the iconic Tommy Boy Music label, and his reputation as a skilled and eclectic wordsmith began to take shape. Now living in Austin thanks to a talent visa granted to him following the success of Marbled, Abhi is determined to make a lasting mark. After years of upheaval and restless wandering, the weary nomad may finally be able to put down roots.

But first comes more travel. In celebration of his of his newfound freedom and artistic triumph, Abhi recently embarked on his first ever tour of North America alongside his friend and frequent collaborator Harrison Sands. Dubbed the American Alien Tour, the span of dates includes a performance tonight at Vinyl in Midtown. Ahead of the show, we spoke with Abhi to get his thoughts on performing live, his impressions of Atlanta, and what fans can expect once he takes the stage.

How much of Marbled did you make with live shows in mind?

None. I’m approaching a lot of the newer stuff with live shows in mind. I know certain artists, certain genres as well, are based off how much the audience is going to feel this when I play this live. DJs, EDM artists, for example. I don’t really want that to diminish the integrity of an album through and throughout. Instead of doing something sort of soft and super melodic, I could always go with something a little more banging and upbeat and easy to sing along to for live shows, but I don’t always go that route, because I can’t really force myself to do a specific thing.

You’re playing Vinyl at Center Stage, which can be a very intimate space. Why did you choose that venue?

When we were setting up the tour, I told my agency to find the most intimate venues possible. I could be playing these crazy 500 cap rooms and possibly fill up half of it. I’d rather not do that. I’d rather have a small room and have it be packed and everyone in there be a huge fan of my music. Just kind of give everyone a good sound as well. A lot of big rooms are super boomy. They’re not really acoustically present. All I really care about is good sound.

Abhi the Nomad

Credit: Levi Thompson

How much time have you spent studying other live performers?

In person, not a lot. Mainly because a lot of the time I was doing this music stuff, I was too broke to afford tickets to go see people that I actually wanted to see play live.

Who do you look up to for their own live shows?

A lot of my influence comes from really energetic rock bands, rock performers who kind of jump around the stage and do that whole shtick. I was kind of pulling from that before hip-hop got really energetic on stage. In the 2000s, [hip-hop] was a pretty boring genre to watch live. I’ve had first-hand experience with that, too. I just try and pull from people who are extremely energetic on stage. The performance is more than just the recorded audio.

What’s your impression of Atlanta as a musical city?

Atlanta? That’s where everything’s happening right now. A lot of my favorite artists are from there. Childish Gambino. Pretty much every person that’s trending—they either got their style from or are from Atlanta directly. It’s a booming hub for hip-hop whereas the West Coast has Kendrick Lamar, and Toronto has Drake. Atlanta has the highest number of artists on charts in hip-hop.

What is your favorite trap song?

I really like “Look Alike” by Blocboy JB and Drake.

How similar—or different—are Atlanta and Austin?

I’ve never been to Atlanta. As a city, I wouldn’t know. Musically, Austin is very rock-centric. I kind of like it here. Like I mentioned before, I take a lot of influence from rock music. I’m really into the rock music scene. I love the music culture and the scene out here. It’s all live instruments. It’s a city filled with up-and-coming musicians. SXSW is wild every year. Love it here. It’s crazy. Atlanta would be more hip-hop centric from what I would figure.

What can fans expect from an Abhi the Nomad show?

They can expect a lot of their favorite cuts. I’ve been posting on Instagram trying to figure out what people want to hear. They can expect exactly what they ask for. They can expect a lot of throwbacks, too. Some of the OG fans would like to listen to stuff from my first EP live. Definitely will be playing a lot of older stuff. I’ll be playing some brand new, unreleased, never heard of music, too. I haven’t done that. I’ve never played unreleased music live, ever. I’m excited to do that.

How did you link up with Harrison Sands for this tour?

Harrison Sands! He’s sitting right here. We’ve been homies for quite a while. He was my RA back in college. I was always making music and stuff. After he graduated, he was trying to get into it a little more. He came over and we started making music together. We’ve been working together quite a lot. You’ll find him on a lot of my tracks. He does the backing vocals for pretty much every song.

Could we hear your performance over Migos’ “Slippery” in Atlanta?

Oooh, maybe. That might be the perfect spot to do that, actually. I really like a lot of the beats the Migos use. When I listen to rap, I listen to extremely “lyrical, miracle, spiritual” shit. I’m super into flows and cadence. I wanted to bring that to that sort of beat. It’s been done before. It’s always fun to take something that’s been worked into a minimal song and just kind of bar out over it. It was very spur of the moment. I never thought I would be shooting a video for it. I showed my friends and they all thought it was super tight and I thought, maybe I should just do this.

Abhi the Nomad will perform tonight at Vinyl alongside Harrison Sands. Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is $15. All ages.

More Info
Web: abhithenomad.com
Facebook: @abhithenomad
SoundCloud: @abhithenomad
Twitter: @abhi_thenomad