Israel Adesanya is one of the most famous UFC fighters of his generation, but there’s a lot fans don’t know about him.
That’s why he decided to make “Stylebender,” a 2023 documentary that brought viewers closer to the man behind the fighter than ever before.
“Israel Adesanya is an out-of-this-world fighter who is as complex as he is powerful. This film follows the Nigerian-born, New Zealand-based MMA Champion as he grows his legend,” the film’s official description read.
Following the release of the official “Stylebender” soundtrack late last year, Adesanya and the score composer, Arli Liberman, told Rolling Stone AU/NZ about the making of the soundtrack in a recent interview.
“He used my voice to make sounds, he used my voice to make beats, to make melodies, and it was unique, I’ve never seen anyone do that with my voice,” Adesanya said.
“I can’t sing, well, not very well. I wouldn’t dare try to sing in front of people for entertainment, but the way he made my voice sound for certain bits of the movie to convey those emotions in those scenes, it’s obviously genius.”
Adesanya and Liberman worked together during multiple recording sessions at the latter’s studio in West Auckland.
“Every single piece is either dominated by his voice, or it has two or three layers of his voice in there,” Liberman revealed. “I was listening to Izzy speaking a lot and I was really compelled by the timbre of his voice and the way he was talking. He’s got a really beautiful speaking voice when he’s doing those one on one interviews.”
Liberman had nothing but kind words for his collaborator.
“I was just so impressed by how fearless he was artistically and how he liked to surrender, he didn’t mind being in the weird zone, he was happy to jump on the ride and just let it happen,” he said of Adesanya.
“I think the majority of us don’t realise [it’s] not just dedication and discipline, the hard work, it’s just allowing yourself to think differently and allowing yourself to embrace your difference and your weirdness to actually be you.
“He’s incredibly genuine and when we were working together, I’d say to him, ‘Hey, can you do that, or can you do that, can you say this, can you say that,’ and he was just going for it and he was just doing whatever was asked. There was never a moment of him saying, ‘I’m not sure about that,’ he was just going for it and he just fully understood it.”
Streaming information for Stylebender can be found here. Listen to Liberman’s official soundtrack here.