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23.08.13 MusicWeek 21
Victorian traditions and had a bit of money off the back of the war so they were living lavishly and just having parties and painting and making jazz music. The way people acted in the 1920s was very similar to how one acts when they are twenty, in terms of lessons - you’re experimenting in order to prepare for proper adulthood and the punch line is that 1929 is the great depression and everyone whinges about turning 30 so it makes sense.
Have you ever felt discredited musically by the media or brushed off as a joke act? JS: Not a joke act, but I think when you’re ultimately a very positive act it’s harder to be seen as credible. It’s almost like when someone’s miserable and just sings about being miserable everyone’s like, “Yes this is genius.” I don’t know anyone who’s been happy about things that has ever been fully credited – maybe Stevie Wonder, he seems quite happy. But, even after 35-40 years of continually amazing songs, people still wouldn’t necessarily jump to Stevie Wonder if you’re talking about all-time legends. You talk about fucked up people who died. I would have loved our first album to have been submitted for the [Barclaycard] Mercury [Music Prize] on the basis that I don’t know any other acts who are making positive hip- hop. People try and question whether we are even hip-hop on the basis that we’ve got short, snappy chorus-orientated songs but there’s rap in it and a drum beat - what more do you want? No-one took it and thought, “Ah yeah, no-one’s making music like that”. PJ Harvey won a Mercury award because she was
fully revolutionary with her political views. Alt J’s is like the most sporadic, ambient, hard to decipher album and I love it but it’s incredibly introverted and I think that’s what people seek - people like an element of mystery. And we’re quite straightforward like, “Yo, this is what we think.” It’s not deceptive enough. Maybe clarity is our downfall. I think, because we were so happy, people thought that we were a product or we’d been manufactured or we were gormlessly happy - happy because we’re doing fuck all because everyone’s doing shit for us. You have to seem like you’re continually stressed for people to be like, “They must be having a terrible time - I like them.” I just think it’s a weird aspect of the human psyche; I’ve got my money on us releasing some depressing fourth album and it being huge. Harvey Alexander-Sule: In three albums’ time we’ll be crying. JS: Yeah, we’ll be whinging. I’ll probably be a victim of the industry. Drug-obsessed or some shit.
Would you say this album is more serious than your first one? JS: Yeah, it’s still tongue in cheek but [it’s more serious] in terms of musical expression.
How much input do you have in the writing and producing of it? JS:All of it. Other than sometimes someone will put together a piece of music and we’ll take inspiration from it. But even on this album the reverse happened as well - we’d come to the producer with an idea lyrically and the music got built around it, and we’ll say that sounds good or it doesn’t sound good.
LEFT Roaring 20s Rizzle Kicks second album is out on
September 2 via Island
JS:A little bit more yeah, but hip-hop at the minute is still misogynistic, it fucks me up. That whole ‘bad bitch’ thing I don’t get at all - it’s all so egotistical and money-orientated. I like to think people are more aware of equality and women’s rights but I think there’s definitely some huge grey areas. I feel like it’s young women that are more aware of female rights rather than this generation as a whole. There’s a part of this generation that is just hugely ignorant because of how accessible everything is. Instead of reading a book or watching a decent film you can just watch bullshit - that numbs a lot of young minds.
“When you’re a positive act it’s harder to be accepted as credible. I would have loved to have been submitted for the Mercury Award. Maybe our clarity and straightforwardness is our downfall” JORDAN STEPHENS, RIZZLE KICKS
How important do you think it is to have that control over your output? JS: It depends how you feel about music. I’ve always thought music is something that you create for yourself, you want to impress yourself and keep breaking boundaries, so it’s just natural to write your own. I’ve got nothing against artists who have songs
written for them because maybe if more minds create something it makes it better than just one mind. There are certain situations where someone like One Direction for example... I know they don’t really like writing much of their stuff but at the same time they’re a lot of fun. Their job’s different isn’t it? They’re gaining their happiness and passion from a different side to music. But I think you reap more rewards if you’re as near to a 100% part of your own creative process as possible.
Your lyrics don’t have that misogynist attitude that is sometimes found in hip-hop, do you feel like that attitude is improving with your generation?
How did you avoid it? JS: I’ve just never rapped anything like that. In Brighton [where Rizzles attended rap and performance workshops with charity AudioActive from 2006] the subject matter was much more creative. Everything was so conceptual in weird and wacky ways. I remember this guy who produced a track on our first album making this album about a fairy tale he’d written, everyone played a role in the fairy tale, and he wanted me to be this half- man/half-goat, it was weird but that was him accessing different parts to your life. You’re using rap to create something that wasn’t just like: “Ahh, sick you’ve got this and that”, it was like “Welcome to this world of fucking weirdness.” It was always a challenge to me: ‘what’s a weird topic I can talk about?’ Our new music could be way wackier than it is. You have to rein it in a bit.
Have you got your sights set on the US? HA-S: Yeah, but we don’t want to actually have to do anything. JS: We don’t want to do any work. I just want someone to take over a copy of Roaring 20s, play it, and suddenly we’re huge in America. We want to make a ripple so big in the UK that we follow it there - rather than try and completely start from the ground up.
What would you change about the music industry and why? JS: I’d take it back to the ‘90s so we can have huge budget videos and crazy parties where everyone has sex with each other.
MANAGING RIZZLES: ‘I’M HOPING THIS ALBUM CAN REACH DOUBLE-PLATINUM’
Rizzle Kicks manager Joey Swarbrick reveals his album expectations and international ambitions for Roaring 20s:
What are the ambitions for The Roaring 20s? It’s a continuation of their debut – which was quite mature musically. I think it's probably a better-rounded record so I’m hoping we can reach double-platinum - that’d be the ambition. They’ve started from a higher point this time.
Are you going to start moving into the international market? Internationally we've got really good support from [president at Island] David Massey at the top, [chairman & CEO,
Universal Music Group International] Max Hole and [Island UK boss] Darcus Beese. The challenge is for people to understand they’re a unique British act rather than a rap act, like Florence or Mumford or Adele.
What’s the strategy internationally? We’re looking at moving into Europe in January, then Australia and we've been to America and held preliminary talks out there. But we have to make
sure we nail the UK market first. They are career artists - they're 21 years old - so if we don't go to the US properly until they're 24/25 there’s no problem with age. We don’t expect them to disappear any time soon, we’re letting it grow at it’s own pace.
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