I had a bit of a Devil In The Distance day yesterday. I was in the studio recording a brand new heater fajita when Tego came in having just listened to 'DITD' in the car driving around Clapham and Wandsworth and such places, we reminisced a little bit. Then we finished the recording and played about on Spotify for a few minutes, listening to Flight Of The Conchords songs and 'Never Scared' by Bonecrusher. Then we watched the trailer for 'Where The Wild Things Are' and that Twitter cartoon Akira linked yesterday. Damn that was funny. As we ran out of things to do on t'internet we thought "Let's see if 'DITD' is on Spotify?" and of course it was. Fucking leaching thieving tarting plebs that you are! I hate you! All of you. Stealing from my kids! My kids! They can't eat broadband speeds you bastards! They can't drink those Sony adverts you get every 45 minutes or whatever it is (although...). I kid of course, fucked if I'm making a penny off my album -Watch, I'll have a hit one day and my backsales will go through the roof- so I listened to some songs and reminded myself why I love the album. Not in an ego kind of way, but I was reminded how much I focused on it and how much heart actually went into it. Then this morning I got this email from my "Piff Co-D" (word to The Sun's slang break down a few weeks ago) from my uniform days Olufela...
"Just a quick note to say “Firstborn” is a CHOON!!We were going to do 'First Born' as a single instead of 'Superhero' but there was panic about me releasing two consecutive singles with pure crippling honesty back to back. Not from the label, we all wanted 'First Born', we never wanted to play the "Urban" game but outside forces weighed too heavy in the radio race and the decision was taken before we even had a chance to fight. I love 'Superhero' I really do, I love all the remixes too (especially the ones the label forgot to release with my homeboys Akira, Example, Skinnyman and that dude I've never actually met Jammer) but how amazing would 'First Born' with a video as crisp as the one we gave 'Superhero' be? Ho hum. I sometimes think about finding some renegade young bucks with cameras to film some videos for me from 'Devil In The Distance' but the way the industry works these days, an album could never have the kind of life-cycle I wish mine had. I'm just proud of what I did manage to do, and knowing that songs like 'First Born', 'Carry Me', 'Get By (Be Good)', 'Goodbye' and 'Devil In The Distance' really did reach some people. Not as many as I'd have liked but those it reached seemed to like it.
I think u should make it a single.. video and everything. A lot of folks will relate to the lyrics! Me thinks...."
I still don't want to play the "Urban" game. I don't really want to play any game with my music, which makes it hard to compete, but the time I've taken since the album has allowed me to record a lot and discover exactly which direction I'm going to go in with my second record. I don't know if I'm 100% there yet but I know I'm close. So many stupid trends have come and gone in the time I've been putting out music and I'd like to think I haven't jumped on any of them (Grindie jumped on me). So with the current, tight clothes, funky-house, dub-step, dance routine, autotune pop try-hard shit controlling playlists I feel as out of the loop as I ever have done. I think that's a good thing. I know I'm better than those guys on a purely technical level, I just need the success to prove it, and I won't prove anything unless I do it on my own terms. I owe you guys everything so I'm going to keep you fed with mixtapes (I think I'm working on one now, not fully decided yet, it's all original material but I think it might be a tape) and I'm toying with the idea of doing a Saigon style 'Album In A Day' type thing with Jack and throwing it on iTunes but rest assured I'm sitting on at least 20 new songs that you've never heard. This blog post kinda went off on a tangent didn't it? I really just wanted to tell you my album's on Spotify and those of you who haven't bought it (either because you're cheap or because you hate iTunes- I understand) you can now listen to it completely on Spotify. I urge you to do so. You may have as much fun listening as I did.
(That's one of my alternate 'Devil In The Distance' covers by the way. I think it's kinda decent)
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1 comment:
imagine my shock when i'm scrolling down ur blog for post i haven't read and i see a bit in the middle sort of highlighted and i'm thinking... "that looks just like the email i sent marv"... hold on!! still tryin to decode what "Piff Co-D" means tho.. LOL!!
i meant wot i said still! superhero was a good song too and its all jokes and that but when i heard Firstborn i thot.. RAAAAAA!
"... i felt bad for her she thot he was the one;
she gave him 7 years, a daughter and a son..."
dont let anyone put u in a box mate! urban, indie.. they're just neat little labels people like to put on things for their own benefit, not yours!! think about this... alicia keys could have been out on road a few years before she released "fallin" if she had taken a deal that she'd been offered earlier but she would have been made into a britney style pop princess tho.. of course she told em to go f**k themselves. thank God she did!!
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