The Masculine Appeal Of Million Gold
Million by Rabanne raises the bar with its intense, sensual notes. The fragrance reimagines masculine allure through an audacious blend of sandalwood, cardamom, and bergamot, with none other than Moses Sumney as its muse.
We got a word in from Sumney about his musical influences, getting started, and his first encounters with fragrances, which surprisingly, weren’t a great experience. I’m not sure any teenager has had a great first encounter with trying to smell good.
What was your earliest memory of music? Did you listen to a lot of music growing up? What kind?
My family is from Ghana. My dad exclusively listened to reggae music and my mom exclusively listened to gospel. I remember a lot of church music and a lot of Bob Marley. In Ghana, there’s a lot of Reggie Rockstone, and a lot of Peter Tosh, and just a lot of music about liberation. All of that was very big in my household. At the same time, I hated my parents’ music. I was like, “turn this off.” Of course, now I completely love everything that they listened to.
Back then, I was actually very into country music. I listened exclusively to country radio—contemporary ‘90s country music—probably from when I was six or seven to when I was 11 or 12.
There’s a station in Southern California called KFROG. If you liked country, you could not listen to anything else. Whenever we were in the car, I was like, “I got to hear my Garth Brooks.” I think I just never felt constrained by genre. Obviously, people would be like, “Why does this liSle Black kid like country music?” But especially being Ghanaian-American as well, my identity was just always a mixture of things. I think that was really reflected when I started to write music.
What was the best advice you got starting out in music?
I started writing songs when I was around 12 years old, but I was very secretive and shy, so I didn’t start performing until I was in college. I went to UCLA, and I started performing on campus and eventually at bars around town. The best advice I got starting out was probably that I should find my sound, or else someone would find it for me. I think that’s the best advice that someone gave me. Because when I first came on the scene, there were a lot of industry folks trying to work with me.
One would say, “You’re a pop star.” Another would say, “You’re an R&B star.” And I was just like, “I don’t think so, at least not right now.” You’ve got to really know who you are, or else other people will decide for you.
Your music is often about defying expectation. Why has that been important to you? What was something people expected of you that you sought to defy?
In the early days, there was this idea that I was going to be an R&B artist because I like my little riffs and rhymes, and because I am Black. It was such a limited view. I think I always wanted to defy the idea that I had to make any one type of music. With each project I create new boundaries. I reach new heights, and create new expectations from the audience. And then, for the next project, I seek to defy those new expectations I just created. It’s really important to me to continue to evolve and explore new things. Now, after a couple albums, I think I’m next going to make an R&B project because I’m like, “Let me show you all what I actually would do if I was making R&B music.” So that’s my next.
What do you love about fashion? How does your mood inspire your outfits?
I very much have a uniform. I only wear black, whether I’m going out or staying in. But within that, there is actually a lot of range. I love having a consistent relationship with clothing. For me, the number one rule is that everything I wear has to be comfortable. I don’t wear anything, ever, that’s not comfortable. Pretty much every outfit I have I could go to sleep in. Getting dressed is very easy for me. Well, sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s hard because everything’s black and I can’t tell what’s what. I’m like, “Wait, is this a shirt or a pair of pants?”
And what do I love about fashion? I love the opportunity for self-expression, and I love that sometimes when I have a good outfit on, I feel like I have a little secret. I’ve got this thing that’s just mine. I think that’s where autonomy begins, honestly. What we put on our bodies is directly connected to how free we are or aren’t.
Who are your fashion icons?
Grace Jones. It’s always been Grace Jones. I would say my two style icons are Grace Jones and Malcolm X—two people I share a birthday with. I love telling people that Grace Jones is my mom and seeing how far I can get with it that. When you think of Malcolm, you think of the suits and the glasses. I think it’s really important to have an iconic, consistent look that people identify with you.
If someone were to draw a caricature of you, how would they do it? And then with Grace, I think about the grace with which she dressed, but also the way she challenged gender norms. That’s so important to me.
In that vein, weirdly—bear with me—I also think of Marge Simpson a lot. I know what she’s wearing, what she looks like. I can draw her. If you draw an outline of her, I know who you’re talking about. I think about fashion in that way. When I’m constructing how I look, I think about the cut of my clothing. I also love André 3000!
When was the first time you encountered a Rabanne fragrance, and what are your memories of that moment?
Honestly, I think it was not that long ago—probably some point in the last five years. I had always seen 1 Million, but I think the first time I actually smelled it was when a friend of mine was wearing it in the studio, where senses are heightened. I was like, “Well, what is that?”. It was a woody and, dare I say, masculine scent. I thought it smelled great. I was like, “all right, I need that.”
What do you like about Million Gold?
I live most of the time in the forest in North Carolina, in the woods. I really love natural scents and scents that remind me of home and of nature. But I think what I like most about the new Million Gold is actually the woodiness of it.
Do you have tips for men in choosing a fragrance?
My tip for men with fragrance is that the most attractive thing is for someone to smell you when they’re near you. I think it works better for a woman to walk into a room and for people to notice how she smells. But for men, I think it’s nice for a scent to remain a little bit of a secret. To wear a scent in a way that makes someone want to come near you because that’s the only way they can fully enjoy; to use it to draw people in.
My other tip would be to work to find the scents that smell good on your actual skin because, obviously, our bodies all produce different pheromones. And so it can be a bit of a task to figure out what mixes well with your natural scent.
Do you have a personal mantra?
I feel like I have so many and yet I’m suddenly like, do I have any at all? My mantra, really, is to tell the truth. And that just means in the way that I dress, in the way I speak, in the way that I make art, and the way that I show up every day. Telling the truth really frees you.
How do you define “success”?
I define success as doing whatever the hell I want, when I want. So, I feel like I’m halfway there, honestly. But we’ve all got to answer to somebody, I guess.
What’s your favorite way to wear fragrance?
Never on the clothes. It’s always on the skin. It’s behind my ears and a bit on the sides of my neck. And then, I like to have it on my wrists. If someone gives me a hug, it’s like, “Oh, what’s that?”
What’s your earliest fragrance memory?
My earliest fragrance memories are bad, but in a funny way. I don’t think my dad or my mom were huge fragrance people. My sister and my mom definitely had their perfumes. I think my earliest fragrance memory is being a teenager and going to school and trying to impress girls and just being like, “What do you wear to impress girls?” I’d just spray a shit ton of cologne on myself. At the same time, my body was changing and I was developing a natural scent. That was really horrifying when combined with all that cologne.
