I was lucky enough to catch up with Drayco McCoy and Joy Oladokun, two musicians who will perform in the I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll (IMRR) festival on May 18 in Indianapolis. As you may have read in my blog post, I’ve been a fan since middle school. This new festival means a lot to the city, so it was fun to chat with artists from the lineup.
First, I chopped it up with Drayco McCoy, front person of Inner Peace, which performs at 1 p.m. Inner Peace is an Indy-based hardcore band that formed in 2022, and has taken the city by storm. I’ve followed Drayco’s rap career for a while, since the first Chreece hip hop festival in 2015. I remember moshing to his set in the now non-existent Pizza King in Fountain Square.
McCoy shared some of his inspirations when creating music.
“I’m inspired by competing with myself,” McCoy said. “I listen to myself, old Inner Peace or Drayco McCoy records and figure out what I want to do better. I get inspired by figuring out new ways to say things or just soul searching and figuring out what I’m interested in and what points I want to get across.”
McCoy shared a bit of his excitement about being featured in the IMRR festival.
“I realize I mainly listen to a bunch of underground rappers so I’m excited to get to learn more about the artists on the lineup,” he said. “I like Gary Clark Jr. I’ve been trying to learn guitar. One thing about being in this hardcore industry is there’s not a lot of Black bands I’ve come across. I’m super ready to be inspired by what I see. I like to take notes.”
Inner Peace is working on new music, and McCoy said he’s learning more about hardcore fundamentals and trying to push their sound.
“We’ve got a new tape finished, and I’m trying to make as many songs as we can, so we can keep flooding for the next few years,” he said. “Our sound is unique and I want to make it grow.”
McCoy also released a rap album, “I Know You Hear Me,” on May 14.
“Look out for more Inner Peace and more merch. We’re hopefully going on tour soon so we can take over the world and spread peace to everyone,” McCoy said.
He ended the interview with something I’ve heard him say for the past decade. “Eat something healthy and tell someone you love them today,” he said.
Joy Oladokun: “I feel like this festival was made for me.”
I also caught up with Joy Oladokun, a festival headliner who performs at 3:15 p.m.. She describes herself as a singer-songwriter.
“I grew up listening to a lot of confessional music from Paul Simon to some Nigerian artists, and music where people were talking about their feelings over guitar,” she said.
Oladokun said she makes music that reflects the times. She referenced a Nina Simone quote.
“Hopefully being at a festival is a time where we can just make music and encourage people to go back in their communities and do good.”
“I live my life and I try to live as a normal person in the world,” she said. “I try to make music that sonically and emotionally reflects that. Is it easy to categorize? No. But, it’s always heartfelt.”
While looking at a picture of Sister Rosetta Tharpe holding a Gibson SG, Oladokun talked about her music inspirations who also include Jimi Hendrix and Tracy Chapman.
“I grew up in a small town and only saw pictures of Garth Brooks, John Denver and Tim McGraw with guitars. For me to see a picture of Tracy Chapman, someone who looks like me, playing guitar just opened a whole new world,” Oladokun said. “The Nigerian artists I looked up to like Fela Kuti are men, so Tracy just opened the doors like, ‘You can be a female guitarist and not apologize about it.’”
She recorded music at Electric Lady Studios, commissioned by Hendrix and founded in 1970 in Greenwich Village, N.Y.
“It really is obvious that he was trying to make the music of his heroes and the music that he grew up playing, using the tools he had available to them to bring it into a new era,” Oladokun said. “I think, ‘What would Nina Simone do if she had technology?’”
Oladokun is finishing her record about a hard time she went through in 2023.
“In a moment where people wanted me to get in a room with hitmakers and process my feelings, I went the opposite direction by renting a studio here in Nashville and holed up by myself and wrote a record,” she said. “I’m excited to play this weekend because I get to pick some of my favorite songs to play for people.”
She said she was caught up trying to find her place in the hierarchy of the music industry, but she’s found her sweet spot – and said she loves her job as a musician.
“My favorite thing in the entire world is to get high and play the guitar,” she said. “If I could do that, every day forever, I would. I am at a point in my life where I get to.”
Oladokun, who remembers thrashing in mosh pits at shows her mom used to drive her to near her small hometown in Arizona, said she’s ready for the IMRR festival.
“I feel like this was a festival made for me. I think more than folk music, I resonate with rock and roll,” she said. “I feel like how country is having a come-to-Jesus moment by being confronted with how Black its past is–rock and roll is having a similar vibe.”
Oladokun said she wants people to take care of themselves.
“It’s a weird world right now with things going on from Drake and Kendrick going after each other, from Congo to Sudan to Palestine,” she said. “There’s a lot of real shit happening on the planet. Hopefully being at a festival is a time where we can just make music and encourage people to go back in their communities and do good.”
Ariana Beedie is Mirror Indy’s community journalism director. Follow her on Instagram at @ari.beedie. Want to join Documenters? Learn more here.
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