Ghostpoet on his second Mercury Prize nomination: “I was half asleep, I thought it was a dream”

As the Mercury Prize creeps ever-closer (here’s those nominations, fyi), we figured it was time for a quick catch up with a few of the nominees, in order to capture their crazed, excited, possibly drunken haze of emotions in the wake of the announcement last week.

Ghostpoet’s no stranger to the Mercury. His debut album ‘Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam’ was nominated back in 2011, and he’s since sat on the panel of judges, too. He was conspicuously missing from the panel this time around, so the nomination for ‘Shedding Skin’ was surely a dead cert. It’s not just the politics of picking the panel (try saying that after a gin) that hinted at his inclusion though - back in February we pinned ‘Shedding Skin’ as “Ghostpoet’s masterpiece” in our 4-star review, before quizzing him on the “more observational” aspects of the record.

Our quick, post-Mercury-nom catch-up with Obaro is below, and if you fancy delving into Wolf Alice’s plans for the ceremony too, you can check that here.