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Joscha Creutzfeldt:
Right now you`re touring europe with "Upwards"
and your album has been out for a while, can you already
sum up if it turned out to be true that it`s more efficient
to put much love into an album, you called it "labour
of love" in an other interview?
TY:
It´s definetely doing something, it`s definetely
turned out for the better in regards to how I was thinking
about music. When we went to do the album we just closed
the door on what UK-HipHop was doing and just focused
on making music, putting our influences and inspirations
down into a piece of music. And I begin to feel that
people really get what we`re trying to do, what we`re
trying to achieve - it seems to be like a slow burner
but that`s fine.
What I have about making hiphop music right now, if
I´m given the opportunity to do it properly, is
to make something that will stand with what others have
done in the 60`s, 70`s or 80`s in our genre. So I`m
not necessarily trying to do something as great as the
Beatles did, but I`m trying to be as serious as the
Beatles were about what they were doing, musically.
And I`m definetely feeling like people are acknowledging
that.
At the same time they`re acknowledging that, saying
"this is good", I think it means they must
have been bored or been feeling like "hey, there`s
nothing going on" before, which is not good. So
if I´m shining it`s not good really. It`s good
but it`s not good at the same time. It kinda says what
other people are doing...
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
"Upwards" seems to be quite the right title,
afterwards! For me this album has been refreshingly
different in comparison to the other stuff out there,
especially hiphopwise. Would you agree that "upwards"
is a good description for the overall spirit that`s
present on the album?
TY:
Definetely, I mean I´m probably gonna make s***
music from now on, to be honest. When we did this album
it just all worked together, just like "OK".
When we did the album, we wasn`t even thinking about
a title, but the energy with the people / artists I`ve
been working with has all been about progression. Let`s
just really move on from the situation we have in england,
and just do something interesting, really represent
ourselves and stop waiting for a major record company
to come and save us, cause it`s not gonna happen. They`re
not interested.
So when we did the music the energy behind it, the
energy behind people coming, paying cabs to come being
at the session, paying to just come, taking days off
work to record vocals, travelling into the country...
Everybody was thinking along the lines of progression,
so it`s kind of transpired as this project has been
kind of just showcasing the intent of artists and musicians
from around europe, `cause it wasn`t just people from
the uk that recorded the album.
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
For the "Upwards" album you decided to work
with only one producer (Drew Horley), could you try
to describe your relationship and how producing has
been like with him?
TY:
What it is, I didn`t decide to work with one
producer, I decided to produce the album myself and
with someone else. So me and Drew made all the music
together (apart from "Hot Spice", which was
recorded by Jokerstar who showed me the beat and I was
like "Yeah, I take it", like a Jay-Z move
"gimme that beat, Kanye"...) We really made
the music together, songs like "Groovement"
started in my house, "Expectations" started
in my house, "Oh You Want More"... We started
putting everything together and there was nothing...
I don`t know how to really put it to you, all of the
drum sounds, all of the samples were my samples, some
of the sequences were my sequences, and then we just
edited them and developed them together. Not like sitting
down, making music together and Drew is like "TY,
do you think you can feel on this beat..."
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
Any guest appearances you dreamed of, anything you would
have liked to realize on the album that didn`t happen?
TY:
Well, if we could have mixed it abroad, maybe we would
have done that. If we could have mastered it abroad,
maybe we would have done that.
But as far as the people are on the record I couldn`t
have wished for more, everything felt right, I didn`t
need Barry White to come in really, it was cool. I felt
very satisfied with the project.
First I was very very aggressive with the label about
the record because they (at the time) didn`t understand
what I was trying to do. So they where like "Hey
Ty, aahhm, you`ve got a record that you`re not rapping
on, aahhm, that`s not happening, aahm, aahm, we cannot
do that..." I was like "NO, I Produced the
record, like Quincy Jones NOW, is that OK?
But it was cool, that`s my people, and Will Ashon is
a phenomenal A&R and boss, phenomenal, he really
got vision, he puts his mortgage on the line for art
what we`re doing, I`m definetely up to him and felt
good about it, then.
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
You`ve been on tour with Tony Allen, what is it like
to work with someone like him?
TY:
Working with Tony Allen is like, well, how can I put
it: when you`re working with a band sometimes it`s like
"yeah yeah yeah", sometimes you have to drop
it and you`re like "fuck, no". NOT WITH TONY
ALLEN, you can`t say that. It´s Tony Allen, he
was making music that you`re parents danced to, OK.
I mean, it`s a different scenario, it`s great.
I think for me that was probably the turning point
in doing this album, `caus when I had the opportunity
to work with Tony on tour and do certain things I also
recognised the fact that he picked me, `cause he came
looking for me, wasn`t like "house next doors -
you wanna tour? - alright, come on boy".
He came looking, he heard somebody in the voice and
for an enigma in nigerian culture as far as that music
thing goes, to pick up someone and say "YOU",
you`re somebody man, I need to connect with you, you`re
the right one - for him to do that I had to kinda put
on my tuxedo and just be "whow, you know what?"
I was just tryin` to be here with a hoodie but maybe
I just need to flex a little bit, maybe I need to start
showing some muscles, maybe put my foot on the table...
It just made me feel good about stuff, and I think
working with an artist like Tony just really boosts
your confidence. It`s like working with Sting, Barry
White, like working with Marvin Gaye if he was alive,
it`s just amazing - "OK - THiS iS DiFFERENT"
As rappers or as musicians we`re like "it`s cool,
yeah, we`re into what we`re into" - but we`re recognised
as being in a box. When someone who`s important enough
"to be in history" for what he`s done or what
he`s been a part of turns around and says to you "I´m
watching you Sonny" - it`s like all of the sudden
the light goes "Ahhhhhhhhhhh" and you have
to start doing the moonwalk all day (LAUGHTER BiGTiME).
That`s what it`s like, so, it`s really good and definetely
been a turning point in my career.
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
Also a turning point in your career seemed to be the
response you got on "Awkward", which was produced
in the mental state of "maybe not getting a proper
release" (with all your stuff before that didn`t
see the light). In how far did the success of "Awkward"
and the things that followed the album (see the Tony
Allen issue above for example) elevate your musical
outputs or change your approach towards music?
TY:
The approach has always been the same, the approach
has always been trying to be honest. Not necessarily
being completely honest,`cause if I was completely honest
about everything I think girls would run a mile, for
what you`re really thinking...
The turning point for me was when I went home, cause`
when I went home to africa I realized that people would
cut their arms off just to be abroad here, to get an
education. I realized that if I`m gonna do this music
thing then I reallly need to step with it and stop being
happy to be in the background, step in the middle of
the dancefloor and be... John Travolta, really. Literally.I
realized that I have to take more pride to it and that
was the turning point really.
Putting "Awkward" out was the result of taking
it more seriously, but also not being sure of whether
people would like what you`re doing. But the response
to "Awkward" and the response to me as a life
performer being abroad has been so amazing that its
completely turned around how I do things, and it made
me actually do it full time and take it seriously. It
is what I do, it is my living, I`m not gonna turn around
and say I´m a fuzzy ballerina dancer, cause` I´m
not. Get that image outta your mind, it`s hiphop, that`s
what I do.
A lot of the times people talk to me about "hiphop
is this", and "you`re a bit alternative, you`ve
done this or that". To me I´m a hiphop artist
from the UK who most people recognize as being there
and connected to the people that were in there from
the beginning to now, in that link. So if there`s anyone
that can say "what happened in 1984 or 1994"
I could tell you - I´m a hiphop head, so for me
to make music and do what I`m doing for people to call
it "alternative, it`s a bit this and that"
- I don`t see it as bit this or a bit that, I see it
as hiphop. My forebearers are DJ Pogo, DJ Bizznizz and
people like that, they were there when it started with
hiphop in the UK and they were also part of the first
UK/european people to go overseas and make America pay
attention by doing certain World DMC championships and
all that sort of thing.
And one of the things that they always impressed upon
me is the idea that hiphop is supposed to be DJ`s playing
in the club, a mix of people just getting down, enjoying
it. You can play some different styles of music and
it`s cool, its all about the vibe. But what`s happening
is that it has very become like this.
It`s all the same, I can`t do that, I can`t go to a
club and hear hiphop only, or hiphop only a particurlar
persuasion all night, I was fall asleep, on the bouncer.
Just bored, sorry, it needs to be more for me.
Joscha Creutzfeldt:
You once said that hiphop can be transferred into any
kind of music. That`s exactly what I thought when I
heard "Wait A Minute"as the instrumental heavily
reminded me of broken beat/westlondon productions. Any
uptempo broken thing like that in the pipeline?
TY:
When we did "Wait A Minute" we didn`t even
think about broken beat. I mean, a lot of the people
I know are in fact the people that are making that music.
bugz in the attic, all those people, that guys hold
me in the headlock all day. I don`t even go to those
dances, but I respect what they`re doing and I like
the music. I think West London broken beat is an amazing
thing, it`s all over the place.
Me and Drew did "Wait A Minute", but we`ve
never made a broken beat record in our lives and we
probably never will. It was just a vibe, you could call
it a funk record with a kind of digital hiphop sound,
somehow. The same thing with "Groovement",
just a kind of almost "latiny jumparound funk sort
of vibe" with an element of digitalness to it,
that`s what happened. That`s what we will continue to
do.
What we did with the record was make a record that
had the influences that are around us. Tony Allen is
floating around in the background, the latin thing,
spoken words&the hiphop thing are floating around
in the background... These are all kind of peripheries
of where I`m sitting, as a person who wants to be creative.
So I was just basically taking those or allow myself
to be influenced by them and brought those things to
the table. Not whole, but just sampled them as hiphop
artists in NY would sample P-Funk because they grew
up on it and their parents had the records. Or jazz,
because their parents had the records. My records, my
peers happened to be Roni Size over here, Goldie over
there, broken beats over here, Dizzie Rascal over here,
soul&funk over here, Omar over here, Bassment Jaxx
over there... It`s a lot, I`m in trouble.
Thank You: TY, Eska + the incredible live band for
a great night, Ben@TurntableJazz and Olski
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Familiar
with his "Upwards" album? Hope so. Ever witnessed
him and his great band live? Better should.
