Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Good evening, everybody. It is midnight on January the eleventh,
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. I'm not sure if this is going to
Speaker 2: pick up on my mic or not, but my neighbors
Speaker 2: downstairs have just come home and they are laughing hysterically,
Speaker 2: which is the norm. Actually, they tend to come home
Speaker 2: around midnight, laugh their heads off for about five minutes,
Speaker 2: and then it's dead silent, and that's the only time
Speaker 2: we ever hear of them. I don't know what they're
Speaker 2: doing for the rest of the time. I don't know
Speaker 2: if they're just working up to this one big joke
Speaker 2: that comes at midnight and then they laugh at it
Speaker 2: for five minutes and then they're gone. I don't know.
Speaker 2: They're nice people, so I don't mind. And as neighbors go,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's not too bad, is it. But welcome
Speaker 2: to the first episode of Midnight Chats for a new year.
Speaker 2: We're currently eleven days in. I hope it's going well
Speaker 2: for you. I feel it's going okay for me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no huge complaints there. But let me tell you
Speaker 2: about tonight's guest on the podcast. Craig David is someone
Speaker 2: who you may well think is kind of an unexpected
Speaker 2: one for us to feature. But the truth is that
Speaker 2: the music of Craig David is something that's very dear
Speaker 2: to me and to most people who are in their
Speaker 2: mid thirties now who grew up around that first wave
Speaker 2: of UK garage. I was going to clubs for the
Speaker 2: first time around ninety nine two thousand and UK garage
Speaker 2: was the sound of my town. South End on Sea
Speaker 2: went really bit on it, and a lot of that
Speaker 2: was thanks to Craig David and the artful Dodger and
Speaker 2: rewind released in ninety nine. The following year, when Craig
Speaker 2: released Born to Do It, his debut album, that was
Speaker 2: game over like it was the only thing that was
Speaker 2: played in South End at least, Craig David was everywhere.
Speaker 2: When I was seventeen, you couldn't escape the guy and
Speaker 2: you either embraced it and had the best time, or
Speaker 2: well there wasn't really an awe that was it. You
Speaker 2: just had to stay in otherwise. So Craig David's music
Speaker 2: is very nostalgic for me. This conversation is essentially two
Speaker 2: guys in their mid thirties reminiscing about the Olden Days.
Speaker 2: Craig does also have a new album coming out this
Speaker 2: month called The Time Is Now. We hardly get onto that.
Speaker 2: In fact, I don't think we get onto it at all. Instead,
Speaker 2: we spent our time together talking about the streets we
Speaker 2: took about him moving to Miami and essentially his return
Speaker 2: via his TS five show, which started out in his
Speaker 2: apartment in Miami and went all the way to the
Speaker 2: Pyramid stage of Glastonbury last year. Thanks very much to
Speaker 2: Craig for coming on the podcast. He really was as
Speaker 2: nice as he sounds on this and thanks to you
Speaker 2: for listening and downloading this episode of Midnight Chats. We're
Speaker 2: now back on it, so there will be a new
Speaker 2: episode every other Thursday for the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: We're going to try and fit in some extra ones
Speaker 2: in between as well. Please do subscribe if you haven't already.
Speaker 2: And before I leave you with Craig David, let's just
Speaker 2: see if I can get this on the mic of
Speaker 2: them having a better time than me? Could you hear that? No?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Just realized I've turned into the creepy
Speaker 2: guys recording people downstairs, so I'm going to stop now.
Speaker 2: It's the trainers. We were talking about training. You're you're
Speaker 2: a trainer guy, are you? Is that your thing? Like you?
Speaker 2: But you buy a lot of trainers.
Speaker 3: I kind of tend to sort of want to like
Speaker 3: a certain style. I kind of then buy into a
Speaker 3: lot of that style. So for at the moment, it's
Speaker 3: like the Adidas n nds. Back in the day, it
Speaker 3: would have been like the Reboot Classics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've just bought some new Rebok Yeah. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: they've kind of come back full circle right here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it doesn't feel like there's a lot of
Speaker 3: that resurgence of certain brands I'm seeing like Theodorus and
Speaker 3: yeah yeah, FeelA, Yeah, it's all come full circle, just
Speaker 3: all champion as all like the Champion one doing like
Speaker 3: a collaboration with like a very cool brand like off
Speaker 3: White or something like that kind of I was thinking Champion. Yeah, wow, people,
Speaker 3: how times have changed? Is this amazing? Yeah?
Speaker 2: It's yeah.
Speaker 3: So at the moment, the nds again a lot of
Speaker 3: love cool.
Speaker 2: How many trainers have you got.
Speaker 3: Do you know what it's I'm definitely over one hundred
Speaker 3: trainers sort of scattered about all over the place. But
Speaker 3: I think that the reason why I got so like
Speaker 3: turn a little bit of a training fanatic is because
Speaker 3: my first real pair of trainers wasn't Nicare Hachis the Originals,
Speaker 3: which I wish I could have kept original in bas
Speaker 3: right now you could have the original box now and
Speaker 3: oh man, but I saved up all my pocket money,
Speaker 3: got seventy quid in It was like that was seventy pounds,
Speaker 3: where I'd like took time to get seventy pound going
Speaker 3: into the store put them on. It was a whole moment,
Speaker 3: like putting them on, hoping no one christened them when
Speaker 3: I walked out of this thing, and I used to
Speaker 3: scrub them with some this brush I had and the
Speaker 3: whitener and all the stuff I used to do. So
Speaker 3: I think once I was able to go out and
Speaker 3: buy a couple of trainers, I was like fulfilling that
Speaker 3: kid in me. He was like, what you can buy
Speaker 3: trainers now? Yes, we are going to Good BUYE you know, yeah, yeah, yes,
Speaker 3: that's me.
Speaker 2: We had Mike Skinner on this podcast and we didn't
Speaker 2: talk about this on the podcast, but I know for
Speaker 2: a fact that when the streets were yeah that peak
Speaker 2: he had this deal with Rebuke with Rebok Classics, did it,
Speaker 2: and they would send him a new a brand new
Speaker 2: pa every Bok classics every day. No, it would arrive
Speaker 2: at his house a brand new really every single day.
Speaker 2: That's kind of too.
Speaker 3: Much, right, I mean every day is like yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean that that's a blessing in disguise, you getting them
Speaker 3: every single day.
Speaker 2: So he'd like so that throw and the band like
Speaker 2: when he was on tour, the band they had rebook
Speaker 2: on their tour bus and stuff, and did.
Speaker 3: He have the same Was it the same, like he's
Speaker 3: a white pairs white payscause I mean every day, I
Speaker 3: mean that's gonna I think so.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean I'm guessing like you could have
Speaker 2: chosen like whatever, whatever the workout pluses or whatever. Of course,
Speaker 2: but he would or the band had to wear them,
Speaker 2: and because they had so many, they would throw them
Speaker 2: into like they would take pairs.
Speaker 3: No, they were them guys. So they were almost like
Speaker 3: the crowd was just like this is like heaven get
Speaker 3: Rebot classics, Rebot pumps, man, they've come back. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: seeing the Rebot pumps coming through. And they were like legit,
Speaker 3: like you had rebopped pumps back in the day. I
Speaker 3: like the streets Man Muskin as Wicked Man. We were talking.
Speaker 3: I was talking to Danti recently and we're just talking
Speaker 3: and we just came into the Streets and we both
Speaker 3: said at the same time about blinded by the Lights.
Speaker 2: That's the one as well, that's the original.
Speaker 3: Parate material and tunes, but that tune puts you into
Speaker 3: a place, and just the video that accompanied it was
Speaker 3: just right and lyrically just you know, almost I mean
Speaker 3: they were they were big, but it's almost way ahead
Speaker 3: of their time because there's no one that, for me,
Speaker 3: has come and filled those shoes. I feel it's going
Speaker 3: to be dropped a record now, which I'd like to
Speaker 3: think the Streets will do something again now. I think
Speaker 3: it would be huge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that song in particularly that bass sound, it encapsulates
Speaker 2: what it's like to be in a club.
Speaker 3: You're just like it's proper rape. But it was slowed
Speaker 3: it was slowed down. It wasn't like a full on's
Speaker 3: the way he did it. Yeah, I agree with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just announced some shows street shows, so they
Speaker 2: sold out in like three seconds, you know, but he's
Speaker 2: doing kind of small venue. I think next year is
Speaker 2: going to be the he did. He announced the tour
Speaker 2: for here of like five dates or something. They sold
Speaker 2: out in like a heartbeat, and I think, like, I
Speaker 2: think that's the start of things. I think.
Speaker 3: He came. We did a Tears five one of my
Speaker 3: Tears five shows, part of my Poor Party that I
Speaker 3: was doing in a Beefer, which we're going to do
Speaker 3: another twelve weeks next year, so if you want to
Speaker 3: come through, I thought that was just announced, right, so
Speaker 3: if you want to genuinely, it's like so much fun.
Speaker 3: But Mike Skinner performed at that on the closing party
Speaker 3: the tunes and was this his? Was this his Tongua
Speaker 3: party or yeah? So then the tunage that he was playing,
Speaker 3: and I was just like part of me. I just
Speaker 3: been a fan of his music, thinking, you know what,
Speaker 3: you've got to get on the mic again. Man, there's
Speaker 3: like you've got this gift. It's that poetry in motion
Speaker 3: man the way. So if they're doing the streets kind
Speaker 3: of shows again, I'd like to think there's just a
Speaker 3: tip him.
Speaker 2: I think there's something in there even on.
Speaker 3: This podcast, just to be like, if you're listening to
Speaker 3: my please get on the mic. I know you may
Speaker 3: be in a different stage. Even if it's a two
Speaker 3: three tunes. Let people know that that you you you've
Speaker 3: still got that because like that skill set ridiculously.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He's also put out some things under this new
Speaker 2: name called The Darker, the Shadow, The Brighter the Light. Right,
Speaker 2: you should check that out on Spotify. And and he's
Speaker 2: on the mic. Then there's a few tunes up there today.
Speaker 2: Thanks man. And he's got a podcast with Key I'm
Speaker 2: guessing you met Merkage Dave. Yeah, those two do a
Speaker 2: mad podcast called peak Times. And you kind of need
Speaker 2: an urban dictionary to like to navigate through it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like it's a whole different language, but it's really good.
Speaker 2: I checked for that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like, this is what I'm
Speaker 3: learning to like new things to hear about his podcast
Speaker 3: about him dropping like the street shows. Are they already
Speaker 3: done the Street shows?
Speaker 2: Or they're in like April time? Okay?
Speaker 3: Cool? After yeah, somebody knows someone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're here at Sony is this can you
Speaker 2: remember the would you have come into Sony way back
Speaker 2: in the day or because I know were you down?
Speaker 2: You were down the street at Atlantic right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I did well. First I was at Wild Star,
Speaker 3: which was half owned by Telstar Records, I used to
Speaker 3: do all the compilations and by Capitol Radio. So it
Speaker 3: was the first kind of like collaboration between two and
Speaker 3: then then then I was signed to it went through
Speaker 3: Atlantic but in America, so that was that was that part. Okay.
Speaker 3: Then I was with Universal for a second. Then now
Speaker 3: obviously was with so with Insanity and Sony. But I
Speaker 3: remember walking into the Sony build like but it wasn't
Speaker 3: this one. It was when they were in a different place.
Speaker 3: And it was funny because that was when my little
Speaker 3: not mixtape but mixed by CD that had walked away
Speaker 3: on it and didn't have filming in or seven days.
Speaker 3: It had rendez Vo I think on there too, kind
Speaker 3: of a cover of Human by Human League.
Speaker 2: Okay, is this this is before this? This is before
Speaker 2: we went before this.
Speaker 3: Is like, this is happening around about the time we
Speaker 3: started to do things. But no, but it would have
Speaker 3: been on that CD. Yeah, it would have been before
Speaker 3: because I remember people were sort of talking about, yeah,
Speaker 3: this guy's a garage thing going on. This is artful
Speaker 3: dodge of things happening in the garage scene. But I
Speaker 3: remember walking into Columbia, like walking in and seeing his
Speaker 3: marble floor man looking up and seeing like that's in
Speaker 3: his child plaques. And there was Will Smith at the
Speaker 3: time when he was having this huge all the men
Speaker 3: and black stuff he was doing Mariah Kerry and was
Speaker 3: thinking this is the spot. And I was going there
Speaker 3: to have a meeting about possibly being signed, and then
Speaker 3: I'd go to see Wild Star and Colin Lester, who
Speaker 3: was the guy who came down to Salanton and was
Speaker 3: looking to sign me at the time, who's now been
Speaker 3: my manager for like seventeen years, which is how the
Speaker 3: crazy how that story unfolded By walking into his office
Speaker 3: and I was like, man, is this really this is
Speaker 3: what this company is like really about? I mean, it
Speaker 3: wasn't bad. It was just like it just looked like
Speaker 3: an office like that someone put together.
Speaker 2: And going into like a kind of recruitment at reads
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess that was that kind of look. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we you know, it's sort of like little little dividers
Speaker 3: between those that are sort of been put up real quick,
Speaker 3: and there's a little boardroom and and I was like, now,
Speaker 3: I was thinking, okay, but the weirdest thing is that
Speaker 3: looking back over those seventeen years, is that It was
Speaker 3: the best decision I've ever made, because even though Sony
Speaker 3: they kind of wanted to do a development deal at
Speaker 3: the time and they weren't quite sure and they thought, oh, well,
Speaker 3: maybe he's only got one tunes walking away, and that
Speaker 3: was cool. He was the first only person that said
Speaker 3: to me, you know what, we can do an album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll do it.
Speaker 3: We'll do we'll do single deals on the table. These
Speaker 3: other guys are just talking about, like, I'm sure if
Speaker 3: they're gonna put a single on table, but you come
Speaker 3: back with a couple of songs, there's an album there
Speaker 3: for you. And he stood by his word because when
Speaker 3: I came back and said I've just written the song
Speaker 3: called fill Me In, and he's like, oh, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: I see now, and yeah, there's just tuna just done
Speaker 3: with it called seven Days, and then check this one
Speaker 3: out and he's like, okay, okay, right in that kind
Speaker 3: of vibe, it's like shoving a pen and you're just like,
Speaker 3: you know what we talked about the apples, Let's make
Speaker 3: that happen a little quicker. I was going on the holiday,
Speaker 3: but let's maybe do before the holiday. And then it
Speaker 3: all panned out, so it's just like it's been a
Speaker 3: mad one, like coming now back in the Sony building.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that first when you first were coming into
Speaker 2: buildings liked this, you were like seventeen eighty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was living a dream man. You come from
Speaker 3: a council state, like in so Dantan just thinking, man,
Speaker 3: coming up to London is like a day out, you think,
Speaker 3: but to go park up and you're going in seeing
Speaker 3: the crazy things like I saw like Darkest when like
Speaker 3: before the sort of island sort of like days and
Speaker 3: being like him being top boy there. I was going
Speaker 3: into Columbia and BMG, and it was just mad to
Speaker 3: think that I remember Puffy, Oh that one I thought
Speaker 3: only thought about the other day. Right. I had a
Speaker 3: phone call to my manager at the time and it
Speaker 3: came through and he was I was at his house
Speaker 3: and he said, oh, yeah, Greig Puff, Daddy's on the
Speaker 3: on the on the phone and I was like, that's joke,
Speaker 3: cause he's a bit of joker at the best of times. Anyway,
Speaker 3: love to wid me up with stuff. Yeah, he gave
Speaker 3: me the phone and I know Puffy's voice, I mean
Speaker 3: you know certain voices. Yeah, when I heard it, I
Speaker 3: was like, you actually for real. I mean this is
Speaker 3: someone I've grown up on. Bad Boy Entertainment, the Tourist,
Speaker 3: Big One, twelve, Faith, all these artists, and Puffy's on
Speaker 3: the phone saying, listen, bro, we're loving the vibe, love
Speaker 3: the music that you've got going on. We'll send us
Speaker 3: send my jet over to come pick you up, bring
Speaker 3: you over. You can come and check out how the
Speaker 3: bad Boy family is over here. And I was like,
Speaker 3: what is going on here? What?
Speaker 2: What points?
Speaker 3: This is? What?
Speaker 2: What's what's? How's he found out about you? At this point?
Speaker 2: Is this?
Speaker 3: Like? This is when? So at this point?
Speaker 2: Now grown up?
Speaker 3: At this point, I think we got to the point
Speaker 3: where film in seven Days has been released. We were
Speaker 3: on the cusp about to release one to do it
Speaker 3: but the prediction everyone saying, oh, it's looking like it's
Speaker 3: gonna be a number one albums. It's kicking off. So
Speaker 3: he was like on the phone, real.
Speaker 2: Puffy knows something, man, he knows something's up.
Speaker 3: Imagine that one minute you're watching the Top of the Pops,
Speaker 3: just chilling, just relaxing back and have your tea, just
Speaker 3: like no, it's just have a little food. You've got
Speaker 3: Puffy on the phone talking about jets, come over see
Speaker 3: the bad Boys family. You're thinking, is this one big
Speaker 3: joke going on here? Madness? But yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2: Did you go and see it?
Speaker 3: Do you know what? It never ended up. I never
Speaker 3: ended up going with Puffy in the end. It's like
Speaker 3: Atlantic really strong at the time and Craig Cowman, who
Speaker 3: was like there was like we gotta make this happen
Speaker 3: and it felt like the right place to be.
Speaker 2: But have you met Puffy since?
Speaker 3: I met him a couple of times, but only it
Speaker 3: was back then. It was around those sort of times and.
Speaker 2: Did he live up to like your childhood idea of
Speaker 2: what yeah was he was still Puffy?
Speaker 3: Then it was Puffy, I mean then it went to
Speaker 3: Diddy and then more recently loved a few different things,
Speaker 3: but like it's Puffy man, Like, it's just when you
Speaker 3: look at someone who the music I was listening to,
Speaker 3: Like I said that listened to the tourist Big and
Speaker 3: definitely his involvement of leaning uh not Toys BG into
Speaker 3: songs like one More Chance or Juicy or Big Papaware
Speaker 3: or more R and B. And then you think then
Speaker 3: Mary J. Blige was involved, and then you think of
Speaker 3: one twelve and then you think of Faith Evans, and
Speaker 3: you just think of Lil Kim, and you just think
Speaker 3: of the nineties R and B hip hop bad boy.
Speaker 3: That bad boy was running the show, and you're there
Speaker 3: and I'm there speaking to him thinking, and then what
Speaker 3: he's gone on to do is a career. I've just
Speaker 3: got to rate him. He just somehow always kept himself
Speaker 3: current and at the same time with the Sean John label,
Speaker 3: like saending Forbes, he's like one of the matter. He's
Speaker 3: accumulated money wise as well. So I'm just like, gee,
Speaker 3: what a guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 3: He knows a few things. He knows a man and
Speaker 3: knows a man who can put together a few.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can hook things up. So you back here?
Speaker 2: Are you living back here now?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I'm back back back from Miami.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still my home's there. But like for me,
Speaker 3: I had to let there was a real I had
Speaker 3: to let go of about two years ago of that
Speaker 3: kind of thinking that it was living in Miami and
Speaker 3: that living a dream and all that stuff. And don't
Speaker 3: get me wrong, it was I fulfilled a huge part
Speaker 3: of what I wanted to do in terms of sports
Speaker 3: car and the apartment and everything. I was just like, wow,
Speaker 3: someone was off. Man. I just felt like it was
Speaker 3: like this is all not this is not the place
Speaker 3: to be. It was very transient as well. It's like
Speaker 3: people coming in out and out for holidays. And the
Speaker 3: music scene was very heavily edm or heavy hip hop
Speaker 3: like real just just trap. It wasn't really a sort
Speaker 3: of in between. And then as soon as I moved back, man,
Speaker 3: it was almost like everything aligned. You walked into that
Speaker 3: radio station with mister jam and corrupt and something connected.
Speaker 2: I mean, what we miss it when when you were there,
Speaker 2: even when you even maybe when you first moved moved
Speaker 2: out there, because you were there for like eight or
Speaker 2: nine years, right.
Speaker 3: It was about four or five years.
Speaker 2: Were there moments like what was the thing that you're thinking?
Speaker 2: I missed this from back home? Pubs? For me, it
Speaker 2: would be pubs, like because I like the States, but
Speaker 2: they don't do nowhere does like a British pub, do
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like this's culturally so far and like I couldn't you know,
Speaker 3: you want to talk about we were talking about we
Speaker 3: bot classics or.
Speaker 2: Just like frames of references.
Speaker 3: Talk about garage music forget that that's that's not even
Speaker 3: gonna reminds of conversations I was going to ask. Was
Speaker 3: like the certain things you just couldn't have, And I
Speaker 3: felt like when you can't sort of reminisce about certain things,
Speaker 3: and also more importantly, that my friends and family were
Speaker 3: so far away. It was just like you get friends there,
Speaker 3: you do a different kind of friends that someoneould be
Speaker 3: closer than others would be like there because they wanted
Speaker 3: to go party with you, and that's kind of their remit.
Speaker 3: And there's other people who would be like you wouldn't
Speaker 3: call them up if you got stuck on the motorway
Speaker 3: out there. They'd just be like, oh, the answer machine
Speaker 3: sort of keeps kicking in all the time. But when
Speaker 3: you're throwing a house party, the real quick to be like, okay,
Speaker 3: yea on my way over, man, what time should I
Speaker 3: be there? It's one of those ones, and so you could.
Speaker 3: I knew how to differentiate between what was going on,
Speaker 3: and there's a few that would just were solid, but
Speaker 3: it was just I needed to be back in the mix.
Speaker 3: If it's the food is the food, if it's the
Speaker 3: what's on TV, like it's basic things that I just
Speaker 3: felt like I needed. As soon as I did, it
Speaker 3: was like, oh right, we're back in that zone. And
Speaker 3: then I started to meet sync up with the right people,
Speaker 3: all these like young up and coming sort of producers
Speaker 3: and stuff who would talk to me about rewind the
Speaker 3: film in and be really like passionate and flat. I'd
Speaker 3: be flatted by what they're saying, like, oh, man, back
Speaker 3: in the day, you were so amazing, man, and it
Speaker 3: would be you were all the time. It'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was you. I loved it when you used to
Speaker 3: and I'm thinking I'm standing. So I use that opportunity
Speaker 3: to sort of walk into the booth and literally transform
Speaker 3: into this fifteen six year ol kid again and just
Speaker 3: give everything on the mic, hoping that they might press
Speaker 3: the talk back button and see what they say. And
Speaker 3: I'd wait because I would add lib in my life away. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was like giving everything anything I could, like man,
Speaker 3: and then you hear the but impressed idea this, oh
Speaker 3: you still got it, bro, you still got it? Or
Speaker 3: that for me was enough to slowly sort of let
Speaker 3: that candle burn into sort of this roaring flame. And
Speaker 3: then I just continued and it started to unfold it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and people like now, like thing is about born
Speaker 2: to do it and UK garage and like you're saying
Speaker 2: about like how like that here you can reminisce with
Speaker 2: people about it and people hold it so because I'm
Speaker 2: barely a year younger than you and could I grew
Speaker 2: up in South End, yeah, and it was all garage
Speaker 2: like it. It is my form formulative years, you know,
Speaker 2: like the first time I was clubbing, the first time
Speaker 2: I went into a club, first time I got drunk,
Speaker 2: first time I embarrassed myself in front of women. Of
Speaker 2: course was to your music. There was there was a
Speaker 2: time when, like, I mean, you could have been the
Speaker 2: mayor of South End, but I don't know if you
Speaker 2: ever Did you ever do a PA in South End?
Speaker 3: Do you know what I would have? You must, I must,
Speaker 3: I must have come through because I was doing Because
Speaker 3: at that time I was doing it wasn't just a
Speaker 3: London PA I was doing. I was doing it all
Speaker 3: over the game. I remember, like my mate picked me
Speaker 3: up in his yellow Ford Fiesta. We play a little
Speaker 3: rosie games closer than close on the way up there,
Speaker 3: getting ourselves gassed before we got come up and then
Speaker 3: literally loud machino outfit Rebot classics on I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: loud Moschino outfit that's so loud that there's no real
Speaker 3: need to have the tags still on it, just with
Speaker 3: the Mochino, just to reinforce again that it's Mostreno those
Speaker 3: days go up there singing my heart out to what
Speaker 3: You're going to Do was the first tune, and then
Speaker 3: when it got to rewind one was funny because that's
Speaker 3: someone I performed it live. It's like the first people
Speaker 3: didn't really want to do so, like they'd be cool
Speaker 3: with the verses because it was like it was on
Speaker 3: the two step flex. It was cool as soon as
Speaker 3: it went to the baseline in the chorus, and it
Speaker 3: was at halftime people were like, I'm supposed to like
Speaker 3: is this a slow jam now?
Speaker 2: Or am I.
Speaker 3: Supposed to just bob my head? And I love it
Speaker 3: because that's sort of it put it into its own lane.
Speaker 3: I mean you remember that time, yeah, because I was
Speaker 3: just like, now, trust me, you're going to learn about
Speaker 3: this baseline, like at some point it's going to hit
Speaker 3: you like it did when I was back in my
Speaker 3: home in my flat playing it, rinsing it through my
Speaker 3: big subspeaker in my bedroom my whole, my whole like
Speaker 3: block of flats knew about Rewind very early on.
Speaker 2: You must have been to some pretty tasty is what
Speaker 2: we'd call them back tasty tasty because we had like
Speaker 2: who came through. We had like Oxide and Neutrino, so
Speaker 2: they came and played a classic rough club, really rough.
Speaker 2: But is there anywhere that stands out? Like I remember
Speaker 2: a night in.
Speaker 3: Do you know what? Actually from around your manner at Cocoa?
Speaker 3: So this time it was Camden Palace. Oh right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: so I remember going there. That place was vibe. The
Speaker 3: baseline was like the system they had and they're still
Speaker 3: We did there recently and man, that sub will take
Speaker 3: you so when you will take off with it and
Speaker 3: on stage you are almost like floating on that stage.
Speaker 3: I could feel it when I was there. This time around,
Speaker 3: I had to turn it down. It was almost like
Speaker 3: making my whole situation, the whole depth thing jump. It
Speaker 3: was like mad and the Coliseum which was sort of
Speaker 3: South London that was wicked as well, because that was
Speaker 3: very much where I've got sort of vague kind of memory.
Speaker 3: But going up there and doing Rewind and and obviously
Speaker 3: actually film me in like the early film me in,
Speaker 3: not like the one that everyone sort of there was
Speaker 3: parts of it that I did in a little It
Speaker 3: was like a dumbplate thing I was doing and people like,
Speaker 3: who know about that? But yeah it was sick days.
Speaker 2: So so TS five in a sense, is anyone listening
Speaker 2: who might not know what it is just yet. It's
Speaker 2: kind of like that old school thing, like it's you
Speaker 2: on the mic. You're DJing as well, yeah, and you're
Speaker 2: performing your tracks, but you also like chuck out just
Speaker 2: some big hits as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I wasn't at Glastonbury this year, but I watched. Not
Speaker 2: like when I'm at Glastonbury, I'm always having a good
Speaker 2: time when I'm not at Glastonbrie, I'm always quite thankful
Speaker 2: I'm not there. But this year, yeah that's it. But
Speaker 2: this year, for the first time, I watched all of
Speaker 2: Glastonbury from my sofa, and there are a few more
Speaker 2: and it's the one time I think I really wish
Speaker 2: I was at Glass and ry on. One big moment
Speaker 2: was your set. There was there was like a few sets.
Speaker 2: There was also like I watched the Katie Perry set
Speaker 2: and I thought that looks like fun, thatoks like that's
Speaker 2: what Glastonbury should be about a bit of everything, you know,
Speaker 2: like not just like dreary bad. Yeah, but you're you
Speaker 2: did the Pyramid stage this year. Is that the first
Speaker 2: time you've been.
Speaker 3: No, I've done the year before. I played on the
Speaker 3: Sonic stage. Okay, Silver Hayes, but that was the first time,
Speaker 3: I mean even born to do it. Days at the
Speaker 3: peak of the album, we never did Glassmer. I think
Speaker 3: it was different time.
Speaker 2: It was just exactly and now they've kind of loosened
Speaker 2: up a bit since I think it's kind of opened
Speaker 2: this floodgates to like be kind of more inclusive and better.
Speaker 3: You got storms he was performing one of the other stages. Well, yeah,
Speaker 3: totally different flex tho.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So the set that you did at Glastonbury,
Speaker 2: you kind of did half with the band. They did
Speaker 2: half of FI and TS five. So you started this
Speaker 2: in your home in Miami, Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? TS five was it was the name of the apartment,
Speaker 3: so there was like there was t S one, two, three,
Speaker 3: four five, and I think they would call them Tower
Speaker 3: suites right for whatever reason. And then people would like
Speaker 3: when they were coming over for the house party, they'd
Speaker 3: be like, oh, yeah, we're coming TIS five tonight, and
Speaker 3: I just ran with it. It was just like you
Speaker 3: know what, because people like asking me the question now,
Speaker 3: like oh, so amazing idea and how did you how
Speaker 3: did you come up with the idea and what did
Speaker 3: it all mean? And I was just like, it just means,
Speaker 3: this is the location if you don't know where to go.
Speaker 3: TS five is the location for tonight. And people were
Speaker 3: texting it out and it took its own because it
Speaker 3: was a very exclusive sort of little party that was
Speaker 3: thrown in my part, so it's just for you and
Speaker 3: to mate. It was just literally for ten of my
Speaker 3: mates at first who were just going to come around,
Speaker 3: have a couple of shots, play a few tunes and
Speaker 3: life is good. But I love how things are lying,
Speaker 3: like when you pull out from the puzzle. It's incredible
Speaker 3: how the story is sort of unfolded, where them messing
Speaker 3: around with my playlist where one minute playing like some
Speaker 3: hip hop and some Biggie juicy, and it was all
Speaker 3: cool and there was a nice time, and it would
Speaker 3: literally flip to Macarena or some kind of mad I'd
Speaker 3: just be like, guys, how does this work? And I've
Speaker 3: had a couple of shots right now, so I shouldn't
Speaker 3: even be able to realize what's going on here, but
Speaker 3: I can hear that, and it's just like it's always
Speaker 3: I get that adrenalin rush where you've become really sober
Speaker 3: real quick. You're like this, dug, this can't happen. So
Speaker 3: I tried to rein it back in, like, guys, you
Speaker 3: like you poured the drinks and you calm yourself down,
Speaker 3: and I'll take this little part of the music back,
Speaker 3: which then led to me getting a little DJ setup,
Speaker 3: which then they were like, Okay, if you want to
Speaker 3: be mister DJ now playing the tunes, you need to
Speaker 3: grab a little mic.
Speaker 2: You should be like, this is my house.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean there was part where I did have
Speaker 3: to tell people a few little things about themselves, but
Speaker 3: they'd be like, yeah, I have another shot, and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden they all got buried. The next thing,
Speaker 3: you got mike, next thing. You know that, more people
Speaker 3: were sort of starting to come through because of inviting
Speaker 3: some friends and stuff, and I was cool with it
Speaker 3: because I was like, I've got this beautiful pad, but
Speaker 3: you got to open it up at some point and
Speaker 3: enjoy it. Can't just be like if youthing looking all
Speaker 3: perfect and cushions all looking. So I was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, whatever, And I got an amazing housekeeper was there,
Speaker 3: and she'd always somehow we'd leave and then come back
Speaker 3: after going to a club, and it did look like
Speaker 3: the party never happened, and it built to like we
Speaker 3: were getting to nearly one hundred people in my house.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of people when you think
Speaker 3: about it. But my friends there, they knew that they
Speaker 3: had to respect it was my home. So if you're
Speaker 3: going to invite some people, they need to respect this
Speaker 3: my home, not come in and just mash up the
Speaker 3: whole place. And thankfully they did. And what progressed in
Speaker 3: the Tears five set was people would say, oh, can
Speaker 3: you perform one of your tunes. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: that's gonna be playing his own tunes in his own house.
Speaker 3: That's not the one I'm gonna play other people's things.
Speaker 3: And then of a sudden, like very pretty girl comes
Speaker 3: and said, oh maybe this over seven days. Let me
Speaker 3: just do a little verse for you. Then if I
Speaker 3: let me just do a little verse for that, which
Speaker 3: then sort of progressed to the whole song. And then
Speaker 3: but it's crazy when I think about it because that
Speaker 3: was the first time where I started to add a
Speaker 3: couple of my tunes in. Then I started to add
Speaker 3: a couple of my new bits that I was working on,
Speaker 3: just to kind of test it. Fast forward then two
Speaker 3: years for two three years even. I then had my
Speaker 3: first show in Oslo and Shapes, and that was the
Speaker 3: real test to see if the house by in Miami
Speaker 3: would translate into this hipster area and and seeing the
Speaker 3: crowd go off. At the time, I didn't have any
Speaker 3: new music. I mean when the Basim Jobs was just
Speaker 3: starting to I think had early versions of it. I
Speaker 3: played that Mario, let Me Love you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: I saw that. I saw the lighter crew in there
Speaker 3: and the gun thing came up, and I was thinking,
Speaker 3: for Mario, let me love you. This it was. I
Speaker 3: felt confident by it, but other people were like, you
Speaker 3: can't do that. Bottle was gonna come flying at you, right,
Speaker 3: But this is the and I knew at that point
Speaker 3: something could happen. And then it moved on to We
Speaker 3: did Shapes and kept it there and moved on. Then
Speaker 3: it got to obviously to Cocoa, and then we did
Speaker 3: the Bricks and Academy more recently, So it's been a
Speaker 3: progression to see that house party can work.
Speaker 2: It's wicked and crowd wise. Is it people of our age?
Speaker 2: Is it like people who remember those those tracks?
Speaker 3: The maddest thing is both there were people who came.
Speaker 3: There were definitely people who've been the first time around
Speaker 3: with me were there for sure, and that and that
Speaker 3: love that I've had because I know I could tell
Speaker 3: that people were just like, thank you. You actually played
Speaker 3: the tune. Like most DJs just want to play the
Speaker 3: latest songs all the time, but you actually went to
Speaker 3: a throwback tun that we all loved and nobody really
Speaker 3: wants to play anyone. But then when it started to
Speaker 3: progress to the point where I added new songs in
Speaker 3: so when the bass sun dropped, then happened, and then
Speaker 3: there was nothing like this with Blonde, And then we're
Speaker 3: moving up to Ain't Giving Up with Cigar, Like all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I'm starting to see a younger crowd
Speaker 3: starting to come to the shows. So by the time
Speaker 3: we did Bricks and Academy, I literally was seeing like
Speaker 3: fourteen to fifteen year old kids with the twenty five
Speaker 3: year olds with the people who our age. And then
Speaker 3: it went to the arena tour, well, I saw everything.
Speaker 3: I saw people who've been like from the start. I
Speaker 3: saw like, but the moms and dads of the ever
Speaker 3: I was thinking, this is a man's that I didn't
Speaker 3: expect this time around. I was like, maybe people with me,
Speaker 3: they'll get this. But to see a new generation literally
Speaker 3: discovering me, saying, oh have you heard of this new
Speaker 3: kid called Craig David loving that I'll be that new
Speaker 3: kid for as long as you want. That's all good
Speaker 3: with me.
Speaker 2: Like in Miami, are people would people be into like
Speaker 2: the UK garage stuff? What would you be playing? Like
Speaker 2: before you before you know, the pretty girl comes out
Speaker 2: and says, hey, are you going to do film me in?
Speaker 2: Like would you?
Speaker 3: They were? They learned real quick how to like the
Speaker 3: UK garage stuff. But yeah, because it was a bit
Speaker 3: like you're going to get some UK garage in my house, right,
Speaker 3: So this is sort of when you pass that door,
Speaker 3: you know you're entering into my musical world. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I think that was what the best part of TIS
Speaker 3: five is that I didn't really sort of allow it
Speaker 3: to conform to being a sort of a Miami based
Speaker 3: party because I used to go to a few house
Speaker 3: parties and see it'd be very heavy EDM lead and
Speaker 3: then you go to a club and it was very
Speaker 3: kind of like DM, which is totally cool, but I
Speaker 3: was like, now you're gonna hear some garage tunes and
Speaker 3: you're gonna hear me spitting a few bars over a
Speaker 3: garage tune and be like, oh, that's kind of fast
Speaker 3: not and their reference point maybe would be Twister or
Speaker 3: Bone Thugs and Harmony that were doing those kind of things.
Speaker 3: And then I drop a couple of tunes that like
Speaker 3: of the latest tunes there that they'd be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: you went to that big hit pop tune that I
Speaker 3: wouldn't have necessarily played back in the UK. But the
Speaker 3: way it's played out has turned into something that actually
Speaker 3: when I was in Southampton and I was DJing on
Speaker 3: the South Coast before born to do it, I was
Speaker 3: using my techniques twelve ten's in vinyl doing the same
Speaker 3: thing that what TS five is. I mean, that's the
Speaker 3: maddest things like I you've come full sir. Yeah. I
Speaker 3: didn't incorporate it because it using vinyl was too long
Speaker 3: to set up to like to have the head phones
Speaker 3: on and get the mix right, I mean technologies move
Speaker 3: forward where you kin have sing buttons and serato and
Speaker 3: you can. So my thing is on the go. No,
Speaker 3: I'm so fast. I'm like I can mix into tunes
Speaker 3: like there's so many bedroom DJs you can do that.
Speaker 3: So that's fine, But to mix it in and quickly
Speaker 3: into an instrumental jump out of the booths, get on
Speaker 3: the mic, let me do a free styff boom right
Speaker 3: back round. Let's go into another tune that from me
Speaker 3: is TS five, it's not. Let me have a couple
Speaker 3: of shots, turn around and have a chat with a
Speaker 3: mate and then mix the next tune and that's not
Speaker 3: my Yeah, but yeah, you learn you hone your craft
Speaker 3: from vinyl. Man, when it starts to jump and you're
Speaker 3: there and the crowd's looking at you, and you're like, right,
Speaker 3: fight or flight. So one hand is trying to find
Speaker 3: another bit of vinyl because obviously this one's warped. The
Speaker 3: other hand is on the mic, freestyle in some madness,
Speaker 3: crowded like, oh what's the vibe? Me sweating like I'm
Speaker 3: in a sauna, thinking that I gotta somehow get this
Speaker 3: tune backing without mashing up the whole situation. And then
Speaker 3: you pull it off and then after someone comes to
Speaker 3: he says, man, that was sick. Or you did the
Speaker 3: acapella thing and then you went into it and then
Speaker 3: why are you sweating? Sweating? If only you knew, That's
Speaker 3: kind of why tears five For me now is like
Speaker 3: if I'm saw in my zone and it's a bit
Speaker 3: of a breeze because I'm like, I've done the hardback on.
Speaker 2: I could do this all day. Yeah. Have you did
Speaker 2: you stick around at Glastonbury afterwards? Did you make make
Speaker 2: a weekend of it?
Speaker 3: We did another show, like a little discreete show. I
Speaker 3: remember the name of the oh Man, can you remember?
Speaker 3: Can you remember the name of the place that I
Speaker 3: played in? I did a separate show in Glastonbury. We
Speaker 3: did a little low key one after that. Look at
Speaker 3: me is already telling me you have no idea what
Speaker 3: we were talking about. Yeah, after the main set, I
Speaker 3: did another one. Alex but all good.
Speaker 2: They doesn't know what Glastonbury is.
Speaker 3: It's your first. Don't worry, man, I'll introduce you to it.
Speaker 3: It's like a festival. People can walk around there. There's
Speaker 3: a couple of accident performance It's yeah, do you know
Speaker 3: what we did a small tears five one okay, and
Speaker 3: I just let loose with tunes. It was I almost
Speaker 3: took it to a different place where I just I
Speaker 3: did a jungle set part of it. It was like,
Speaker 3: good twenty minutes of jungle, my favorite tunes from that era.
Speaker 3: Then went into some of the R and B. Then
Speaker 3: gave him some of the some of the tunes that
Speaker 3: any knew. But yeah, and I'd done the wellet and
Speaker 3: boots and had to look around getting the mix the
Speaker 3: year before when I did the Silver Hell.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, how did you find that it.
Speaker 3: Was a wicked man? It was lowkey because it was
Speaker 3: low key. I just did my thing. And then it
Speaker 3: got a little bit on top when loads of people
Speaker 3: started to like recognize and I was cool with it.
Speaker 3: I'll do selfies all day long. It's like it's cool.
Speaker 3: But then someone saying, well you can, yeah, it's selfie
Speaker 3: the whole day up, But there's a stage up there
Speaker 3: that's calling your name. If you don't get on it soon,
Speaker 3: then that's the end of that. And I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: and maybe I do have to move through it, but
Speaker 3: I'd love that you didn't have to go to a
Speaker 3: stage and seeing that play, you'd probably know better than me.
Speaker 3: Actually haven't gone to Customer a few times that you
Speaker 3: can go. There's an arts and crafts fair over there,
Speaker 3: and there's some masslage thing getting over there, and then
Speaker 3: someone's having a house party of raving the tent, and
Speaker 3: then you just find things that you didn't know, and
Speaker 3: I think that's what makes that place exciting absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, two more things. One, you're still a
Speaker 2: very young man.
Speaker 3: Oh I, I was got a year on you.
Speaker 2: I feel old. Do you feel how are you? How
Speaker 2: are you enjoying your thirties?
Speaker 3: I feel a bit like Benjamin Button. Yeah right, it
Speaker 3: feels like now I can't control the outside, so I
Speaker 3: don't know what's going on there. That's that's another story.
Speaker 3: But in terms of how I feel inside, I feel
Speaker 3: like the kid again, h who started doing all this,
Speaker 3: because I think the wisdom of seventeen years so far
Speaker 3: has told me. And the reason why I called the
Speaker 3: album Time is Now is just enjoyed this journey because
Speaker 3: I had the moment of going to Miami and fulfill
Speaker 3: the dream and the sun the car Sports Live or
Speaker 3: the sports cars and all that stuff. But I needed
Speaker 3: to be back where it all started again, and I
Speaker 3: was very happy to be in a dungee low lit
Speaker 3: studio with some eighteen year old kid who's going to
Speaker 3: show me about oh yeah, back in the day stuff,
Speaker 3: and then having to be in the student make new
Speaker 3: tunes that I wanted more than being the glitzy life.
Speaker 3: So I think that what I've realized is that actually,
Speaker 3: when you're present and you're living in the moment, you
Speaker 3: start to notice that you can still have dreams and
Speaker 3: aspirations and desires, but they're not Oh, it's going to
Speaker 3: be better. When I get that it's going to be better.
Speaker 3: When because all the things that you got when you
Speaker 3: said it's going to be better, Yeah, I mean you've
Speaker 3: got those, You got the trainers you wanted. Oh man,
Speaker 3: you got them. They're on your feet. How do it feel, Matt?
Speaker 3: It feels good? But why are you already talking about
Speaker 3: some next ones? And now the ones you got on
Speaker 3: your feet already got dashed in the back of the
Speaker 3: cupboard life. You'll keep doing that, and there's a point
Speaker 3: we have to stop and be like, I get it.
Speaker 3: It's actually about enjoying the journey A long way.
Speaker 2: I did that with an England goalkeeper top. Really it
Speaker 2: was like the old school or old school really Peter
Speaker 2: Shilton gloves, remember the yellow one and one in my
Speaker 2: football team. A kid had it I called Chris had
Speaker 2: it and I was like, I want that. Sh want
Speaker 2: anything in the world, And I just wanted it, and
Speaker 2: I got it for like Christmas on my birthday. As
Speaker 2: soon as I put it on, it was dead to me.
Speaker 2: But do you know what I mean? Yea one on
Speaker 2: the back, the umbre on the and the base of
Speaker 2: the one.
Speaker 3: I know exactly what I mean.
Speaker 2: I want. I want now that I'm talking about it,
Speaker 2: I want it back again now because I've not got it.
Speaker 3: We would have a look and it's and it's probably
Speaker 3: now talking about all this resurgence stuff across a fortune, probably,
Speaker 3: but you're right, it's not. It's that thing of.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 3: It's some of the look the same thing, but grander scale.
Speaker 3: You look for the house, you find the house, and
Speaker 3: then all of a suddenly, like someone says, no, no, you
Speaker 3: can't have that. Yeah, it's someone's already put an offer,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden you want it batter than
Speaker 3: you get it. And did I do it? Because I
Speaker 3: was a bit hyped or because it's not quite and
Speaker 3: I think there are a few of those experiences along
Speaker 3: the way. You start to ease yourself back and realize
Speaker 3: that it is the enjoyment and the thrill of wanting it,
Speaker 3: but you don't necessarily need to have it, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, because once you have it, isn't that that
Speaker 3: isn't the thing, the defining part of it. Isn't that is?
Speaker 3: This is the the journey of it and free, free
Speaker 3: with it at the same time. Yes, you get it,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's that's real good.
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