The vibes are relaxed and the mood is set in the room where Porcelain Id, also known as Hubert Tuyishime, a Rwanda-born singer-songwriter, is about to get on stage. House plants decorate the stage to create an intimate setting and although the audience is small, that doesn’t take anything away from their big stage presence. Their facial expressions and modern dance moves pull you into their world and enhance the strength of their songs.
The night is opened with an instrumental piece, and then moves on to the first song of the evening, ‘Brilliant’, a mellow song that consists of acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and keys, where the melodica, an instrument that mimics horns, is added for the live version.
It becomes clear that folk is a big inspiration for this artist in the songs that follow, ‘You Are The Heaven’ and ‘Adam Coming Home’. But Porcelain Id doesn’t let a singular genre define them, as their music touches soul, blues, electronic, and many more. They like the sound of raw guitars and that becomes more obvious as the night continues.
Hubert tells us that their favorite song on their album, which was released in February earlier this year, is ‘Low Poly’. This is a song about a friend they love dearly and their cocaine use. A theme that’s the result of a life finding yourself. On the road of discovery, Hubert has found that music has a therapeutic value for them, as they write songs about being queer, love and loss, and feeling like an outsider. Their creatively worded lyrics give meaning to their emotions and feelings and allow them to express themselves and give their deep thoughts a place, while simultaneously being abstract enough to be accessible to their audience and give them space to give their own meaning to the songs.
Two other songs that carry such heavy messages are ‘Muschel’, which is about the times after George Floyd’s murder that left the artist speechless about the whole ordeal, but ultimately resulted in a sanction for their emotions, and ‘Vlaanderen’, a song about the experience of being queer and feeling like an outsider in your own family while in a strange country, as the artist moved to Belgium at a young age.
During these beautifully meaningful and rich songs, the audience seems infatuated and listens patiently. During the more upbeat songs such as ‘Cellophane’, some audience members let loose more and even start dancing a little. Hubert tells us that what makes a show successful for them is when people let loose, and show a bit of themselves during a set, so their mission is complete tonight.
After the show, there is a little stand set up to buy their new album in LP variant and have a little meet & greet moment with Porcelain Id. We do not know what their future holds yet, but we’ll be following along and we hope you do too.
Written by: Lani Anna
Photographed by: Lani Anna
Edited by: Marieke Weeda
