Roundhouse Rising Interview: Mz Bratt

As we told you at the beginning of the week, today is marks the start of Roundhouse Rising, a festival for young people who are interested in getting into the music industry, curated by the Camden Roundhouse. Tonight at the Roundhouse Studio Theatre is the Rising Showcase gig, featuring emerging artists such as YGLU, Azekel, Lovelle, and Dizzietron. Heading the line-up is an old favourite of mine, Mz Bratt, who has been part of the underground urban music scene for years, despite being only twenty-three years old. We caught up with her at Atlantic Records HQ to talk about how she got into music.

I first got to know you when you were on the T4 programme ‘Musicool’ in 2007. How did you get into it?
It was actually through MySpace. T4 messaged me and asked if I wanted to audition for a show they had coming up. I auditioned, and we had to perform a track but at the time I didn’t have any as I didn’t have a studio to record in, so I somehow put something together and got through. Then we had to move into a big house together for a while and it was crazy.

What did ‘Musicool’ teach you?
I learnt about the professionalism of the industry and about work ethic. Every day we did singing, acting and dance classes – a lot of intense work.

You’ve been doing this for years considering you’re so young. How do you think your music has changed since you started when you were fifteen?
I guess over the years I’ve been experimenting and trying to find myself musically. I’ve matured in that I used to talk about having a band hair day and being late for school, but now I talk about going out and having a good time.

Like I picked up how on how the lyrics to ‘I Can’t Stop’ from your Elements mixtape talks about your whole music career (‘I started with one mic at fifteen with a big dream and fun times…’, ‘Phase two was word of mouth, I met a guy who had heard my sound, and he thought he could turn it round, so we teamed up and we worked it out…’).
You know your stuff.

I run to your mixtape sometimes.
That is well cool.

[I start blushing a bit - so shouldn't have told her that!] And when did you get into music when you were growing up?
My dad was an MC. He was in a group called Spiral Tribe, so listening to him was my first experience of that kind of live, raw music. I grew up around that and my dad did influence me a lot, but also all of my cousins were MCs, rappers or DJs, so music is definitely in my family.

Was there a specific moment when you realised that music was what you wanted to do professionally?
Yeah. I was always MCing in school with the guys, and we had a big MC battle – that was the first time anyone had heard me MC. I ended up winning but at the time I had no confidence at all and I was so shy, but after I won I realised that I wanted do this.

Was there a place you could go to when you were younger to practise your music?
There was youth club after school every Tuesday. We didn’t have a studio, though – we just used to rap to each other. Then I met a producer called Terror Danger who had his own studio; I didn’t have any money at the time, so I’d have to walk two hours from my house to his studio and back, but it was worth it because I got to work with some amazing grime artists.

How do you think the government’s cuts on arts education will affect young people?
Young people in general need medium through which to express themselves. As a young person I always found it hard to talk to people about how I felt, so I would write lyrics about and perform. Young people sometime lack the confidence to open up to people about how they feel, and the arts is a great way of expressing yourself. I wonder where teenagers will go to let out their energy. It’s a bad thing, but what can we do? It’s great that The Roundhouse is doing this, though.

How did you get involved with Roundhouse Rising?
They contacted me about it, but I’ve always been going there. I use the studio there quite a lot and I rehearse there. It gives young people the opportunity to use their facilities cheaply, which is a good thing.

More musicians now are focusing generally on their creative output as opposed to solely music – taking control of things like music videos, artwork, styling – do you do the same?
When I started doing music, a lot of people were dictating to me what I should be doing. I signed to Universal at eighteen, I was young and just happy to be signed and putting music out. I guess as I’ve gotten older I’ve realised that it’s my music and my message; I’m a brand, so I’m going to be perceived by the things I put out. And I don’t want to do things that don’t reflect myself or what I stand for. Of late, I’ve been more hands on. Although I have Atlantic Records supporting me, I do a lot of things myself – I put the mixtape together, sorted the artwork. For my last video, I knew how I wanted it to look and let them know my ideas. Me and Dot Rotton did a track together called ‘Speeding By’ and we flew out to Magaluf and got our friend to film the video with my camera.

Roundhouse Rising is all about inspiring young people with music. Which artists inspired you when you were growing up?
People like Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, Michael Jackson.

The classics.
Yeah. And old school hip-hop like Wu Tang and Tu Pac.

Are you inspired by anything other than music?
I’m a huge film fan, and my best friend is a photographer so he’s always showing me cool blogs. I tend to take inspiration from film and photography visually rather than using it to inspire my music.

It was announced that Lembit Opik is starring in a music video for a band called The Good Suns. That got me thinking about novelty pop acts and how people like Jedward have so much success without having any actual tangible talent. Does it kind of annoy you that they can exist amongst credible artists in the charts or does it not bother you?
My personal opinion is that those kinds of people are taking a liberty. We take our artistry seriously, so I guess it’s nice to have a bit of lightheartedness. I always find that novelty artists never have longevity anyway.

So, Madonna played at The Superbowl.
Yeah, I saw it!

I haven’t seen it yet. What was it like?
It was odd. But good on her – she’s really old and she’s still doing cartwheels on stairs! It was a very active performance. She was thrusting into the air and being very sexual as Madonna is, but it was good to see someone of her age that active.

If you were in charge of the Superbowl performance, who would you choose to play?
Me! Nah, joking. It would be wicked to see a British artist who could do an energetic performance like Madonna… Jessie J.

You’ve collaborated with people like Dot Rotton and DJ Zinc. What do you get from collaborating with others that you wouldn’t necessarily get from working solo?
Me and Dot are really good friends – we know each other on a deeper level so we always have good, meaningful conversations. So when we did ‘Speeding By’ I felt comfortable to be open and honest lyrically, and he brought that out of me. Working with Zinc – well, he’s a legend and he brought his energy to the whole vibe to the song and he brought energy out of me.

Any new artists you’d like to collaborate with this year?
I’ve been collaborating a lot with beat boxers.

What advice would you give to kids who are wanting to get into music?
Take advantage of the internet – YouTube and Twitter make it easier for people to access your music. It may be hard at times and people might tell you down and that you’ll never make it, but if that’s really want to do just stick at it. People told Drake he’d never make it, but now he’s one of the biggest artists in the world.

Does accessibility to music programmes on computers and social media mean that there’s more competition for musicians now?
Yeah. But there are a lot of people who will start and just give up; very few keep going, and if you are part of that minority then eventually it will work for you.

What are your plans for 2012?
I’m recording my album at the moment, and I’m bringing out a single called ‘Falling Down’ in April. I’m creating merchandise this year too.

-Bronya Francis