Rising musician, Dominic Noah Bouchard Watson, better known by his stage name Noah Bouchard, is a Welsh hip-hop artist who relocated to London in 2016. Specialising in alternative hip-hop, he is recognised for his lyrically focused tales and vulnerability, addressing personal anecdotes and other experiences. His debut album, Love Of My Life, was released in March 2024- a concept album reliving his journey of self-acceptance, forgiveness and appreciation for the world around him.

From inspiring influences to exciting new ventures, we caught up with Noah to find out more.

What kind of music do you want to create for your audience?

My goal is always to make music that feels like an honest and sincere depiction of my character and thoughts. It’s a challenge to expose yourself so much to an audience but it also feels like complete freedom, and I think that is what I enjoy most in my music and the music I listen to. For myself, this mostly takes the form of gentle, introspective hip-hop, sometimes with a jazz or experimental twist, but it can veer off in all sorts of directions depending on what feels right.

You’ve regularly worked with another local artist, Harry Jowett. When did you two start working together, and how did it come about?

I met Harry a few years ago through our mutual friend, photographer Eric Aydin-Barberini. I remember him mentioning that Harry made music in a similar vein to myself. Harry sent me some demos he working on a few weeks later, and I was blown away. I’ve made sure to keep him close since then! I think the first song we officially released together was my son Going Grey, where Harry added some vocals and saxophone. I really like how that song turned out, so I’m glad we’ve managed to keep creating together in the years since.

What would you say are your main influences?

Musically, there’s too many to name, but Kendrick Lamar, Little Smiz and Andre 3000 would be big ones. I tent to get compared to Loyle Carter a lot too, which is a big compliment. I also love the writing of artists like Nick Cave, Phil Elverum and Kara Jackson, they certainly set a level of poeticism in songwriting that I aspire to reach. I think in terms of general life and mindset, Rafael Nadel is a good example. I think it’s cool to be motivated for greatness yet maintain humility and grace in the way he has through his career. I’d like to carry myself in the same way. And, of course, my biggest influences are my friends, family, and the world around me- those people and the experiences I have with them are the main inspirations for my songs and writing.

Your song, Pantomime has had over 3 million streams on Spotify. What’s it like seeing those kind of numbers?

It’s been lovely to see Pantomime reach people across the world and bring joy to their days. I don’t focus too much on the numbers though- I’m more concerned with the impact my music has on people and the experience I have when creating and performing it.

Any advice for aspiring musicians?

Learn about who you are as a person. Think about how to display what makes you unique and consider why you want to make music. I think that’s all a continuous process, but if you can at least keep these things in mind, then you’ll create something pretty authentic.

Do you have any exciting upcoming plans?

I’ve just released my debut album, so that’s pretty exciting for me! It’s called Love Of My Life and it contains my favourite songs I’ve made yet, telling my story of finding appreciation and love for life itself. I’ll have a few shows coming up soon too, including some in Wales, so it would be great to see some of you there!

Find out more about Noah’s work via his social media channels: www.instagram.com/noah.bouchard or www.linktr.ee/noah.bouchard