Swindle

Hey Swindle! How are you doing today?

Yeah good, it’s only just starting really. I’ve got the studio starting in a little while, so I took an easy morning haha!

Nice, as are we… How have you been coping with these continuously mad times? Where were you based during lockdown?

I found it quite difficult in certain parts. The lockdown actually was the reason for my latest album ’The New World‘, so had it not been for a global pandemic, this record just wouldn’t exist! It was a total reaction to it. That paired with all the social unrest, the conversations around Black Lives Matter and the constant polarisation of the nation. Everybody’s just getting stretched to either side of the line in the sand. So it just came to me, as we’d all been so separate and finding it hard to create, why don’t I take everyone away on a studio holiday. We stayed somewhere for a week. It was supposed to be like a musical retreat where we just go and reconnect, write some music and figure out how we enter the New World. That was at the end of the text that I sent to all the artists and that’s how the title came about!

That sounds sick! Where was the studio based?

It was at Real World Studios – Peter Gabriel’s studio in the West Country. Very inspiring – people like Kayne, Beyonce and Alicia Keys have all recorded there. It’s probably one of the only studios in the country that was big enough to have that many people there in a safe bubble and its my favourite place to record in the world. I listen to the album and I can hear the swans on the lake and the scenery, I just love it.

Please describe your sound in five words:

Always proud of our history. And the reason I say that is because when I create music, I like to tap into all the traditions of soul, funk, jazz – just great black music from yesterday year – and use that to move forward into what I hope is a new sound. Always pay homage and respect to the people that came before us.

How did you first discover music? Was there a particular artist/producer you were inspired by?

Music has been a part of my life since I guess I was born. My dad was a guitarist and a keen jazz enthusiast, so I was brought up on good food haha! I remember discovering G-funk through Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ and finding my way into all this West Coast hip-hop, which then lead me onto funk, which I’m crazy about. I also remember hearing jungle for the first time on pirate radio by accident with my older brother, hearing an amen break beat at 170bpm and just having no idea what it was and I just lost my mind. I was probably about seven and then after that, that was all me and my brother were interested in; trying to find that sound again.

Your latest album ‘The New World’ fucking slaps and there are some amazing collaborations on there, if you could collaborate with anyone – dead or alive – who would it be?

James Brown. I would love to work with James Brown. When I work with Ghetts, I tap into to the way I would work with James Brown. We’ll sit there and watch James Brown kick a mic stand up and down and then we’ll make the tune haha. Also, you know, Stevie Wonder! Also in terms of reachable people I’d say people like Anderson .Paak – we’re working towards it so watch this space!

Amazing! How did you go about deciding which artists you wanted featured on each track?

For me it’s about having a broad look at the spectrum of UK music. For example, I love working with Kojey Radical, who is sitting next to Maverick Sabre, who’s sitting next to Poppy Ajudha, who’s sitting next to Joy Crookes – do you know what I’m saying? I love all these artists equally and as individuals, but together it just creates something special and I just believe this music couldn’t have been created in any other scenario. It just took that combination of people to make it happen. Also, to be honest I’d invited people during lockdown, wanting to lean into them and pick up some inspiration. That’s where I started with those people.

I’ve now realised that my strength is building relationships with people. If I don’t understand the person that I’m working with, I can’t paint their vision. So as soon as I’m ripped away from people, I’m not as good haha! I can make beats all day long on my own but my real strength is how to bring people together and create a creative environment.

What’s your production process like?

It’s very different depending on what I’m working on. One thing I enjoy about taking on the executive producer role for some of the other artists is that my role changes per artist. With Kojey Radical, when we first started working on his album that’s about to come out, he was like “I need you here the whole time to make sure that its always music. When we’ve got other producers coming in and other things going on I just need it to be music all the time,” and that’s my role there. With Joel Culpepper, it was about helping him to thread all his ideas into one sound and building that sound. We went and watched documentaries on Motown in cinemas and did all this research and we figured it out.

For me and my music… my albums are like my imagination on record, but the collaborations have been a driving force for me with the last 2/3 records. The further I go down that road, the more it shows me just how many possibilities there are just from collaborating with different people.

What advice would you give artists and producers starting out in the music industry?

Something my dad said to me is you’re never smarter for not knowing something, so always be willing to learn. So much of my time is spent trying to learn, whether it be music theory, production techniques or watching interviews with people that have achieved things that I would like to. Learning is the antidote to any kind of ‘writer’s block’ that people talk about. There’s no such thing as ‘writer’s block’! If you’ve come to the end of all your ideas, go learn some new stuff and it will come. The other thing is to just keep going. If you believe in what you’re doing; whether that’s something that is represented in the mainstream or not, you just have to contribute what you think is missing and believe in it. That’s it.

Are there any emerging London-based artists/producers you’d recommend?

Emmavie, she is incredible, she had my favourite EP of last year. She sings, produces, writes her own music and it is top level stuff. Ling Hussle, on a R&B vibe. Sam Wise and obviously Joel Culpepper.

What are your plans for 2022?

Contribute as much as I possibly can. I feel so satisfied with ‘the New World’ and how that’s going. I know that’s gonna have its own journey and find its home over the next year or so. In this time, I’m working with lots of new artists, trying to share and work on other people’s projects as opposed to putting myself first, I wanna put other people first.

Any final pearls of wisdom?

I always tell myself dips come before hills when things are feeling difficult and you’re going through some discomfort, it’s usually because change is on the horizon. Where you have the choice I think its important to embrace that and create your own reality around your own ideas. Manifestations are a very real thing. I often think about how my life has gone and so many things that have happened to me, these were dreams of mine and now its here. I really believe that if you believe, you can achieve it. There you go.

Very wise indeed. Thanks so much Swindle! ❤️

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