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  Vee Kay Interview
interview 0583 added 23.11.08 words:
Adjetey Obour
technical:
Spoon
You may know Vee Kay from his work with the Beefeaterz crew and from the Myster-Vee tour, as well as providing beats to a whole bevy of UK hip-hop acts. Now Vee Kay is about to release his first album of his own called ‘Audio Workout’, which is out at the end of November.
From the straight up bangers, to the old school and slightly out there vibe, ‘Audio Workout’ should more than tweak your ears towards the speakers and your finger towards the rewind/repeat to make sure what you heard was right. ‘Bogey Homicide’ and ‘Way We Live’ particularly standing out. The latter track is a nostalgia trip for those that have been into hip-hop since back in the day but also a lesson for those new to the game or at least not as knowledgeable as they think. And ‘Goldwings’ and ‘Bring Me Down’ should be certified and cast in gold, with Wordsmith being someone to look out for. So all in all ‘Audio Workout’ has a good fun air about it, and its an album you can really emerse yourself in.
 How did you get into making music?
I’ve always been into music, right from when I was tiny, there was always something on the hi-fi, from Buddy Holly to Meatloaf, all the way down to Cream and Creedance Clearwater Revival. I guess being around music so much, it makes an impression on you, and when I was at school, I was hanging around with mates who were the same, really into their music. I started of writing raps, mainly battle and braggadocious type bars, and just went from there. I met a producer, we made some tunes, but then we went our separate ways, so I started making beats so I’d have something original to write to. I released a couple of EP’s but then decided to concentrate more on the Production and Engineering side of things, so I hung up the Mic.
Are you looking for to the release of ‘Audio Workout’?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it, obviously it’s been a long time since I released anything on a solo tip, so it’s exciting. I’m not expecting anything massive from it, I just thought it was about time I put something out there. Not to say this is just a throw together project, it’s really not, it’s just there gets a point where you’ve been off the radar for a little while and you need to come back and let people know you’re still around.
How long did it take for you to work on ‘Audio Workout?’
The album took longer than normal, but mainly cos it involves so many artists from all over the country, it’s hard to be in two places at once. I’ve been so busy with other peoples records lately, so my stuff has sort of been pushed to the back for a bit, the Wordsmith album for example, took a long time, just because he’s a workhorse and was constantly recording, every week for about 18 month’s, so now he’s got an album and 2 mixtapes worth of material, and that’s after cutting the tracks down. As well as Wordsmith’s recording, I’ve had a lot of people using my studio, recording albums for Rapskallions and Mr. Loop, a couple of Mastering projects, and lots of Engineering and Mixing, not to mention working as a Music Tutor down in Ramsgate for Pie Factory Music.
I’ve always keep a stockpile of tunes with rappers on, who come down to the studio, so if they come to record some of their songs, I make sure they record over one of my beats as well, not for anything in particular, maybe for a mixtape down the line or whatever, but it’s nice to have a library of tracks from different artists. But for this album, I had a check list of people I wanted on it, and what sort of beats I wanted to hear them on, so it took time sorting it all out I suppose.
How did the different collaborations on ‘Audio Workout’ come about?
All of the collaborations on the album, except Lok Dat, is from contacts I’ve made over the years and from calling in favours from these artists. Lok Dat is a remix of the track I produced on Wordsy’s album. Words, Edge and Parky all recorded up in London , and I got the stems back and re worked the original, and then the remix. Goldwings came about cos Stig and Synners were down in Kent doing a show, so they stayed at mine, and we recorded a really rough version of Goldwings, bearing in mind we’d had a fight with a bottle of brandy the night before, it was a little rough. They re recorded it for me as a possible single, but it just sat there for a while until the album was in the making. The Dead Residents came about cos I needed to get Disprol and Chud onto a track that’d get released. I’ve got a few rough tracks we did a while back, but they’ve never seen the light of day. I’ve known those guys for a few years, we were using the same Engineer while we were both on Sin Nombre, so we used to chill out in the Studio for days, watching Chud smoke himself into a mess.
Do you have a favourite collaboration from the album?
I don’t know about a favourite collaboration, I knew who I wanted on there from the beginning so I knew what I had to do beat wise to best suit the MC’s. I love the Bar Work track with Lowercase and Dialekt, that one really stood out when I was putting the album together. Obviously the Stig and Synners track, that’s a brilliant tune, and EdKut’s mental double time cuts at the end top it off. For an all round track, I’m absolutely loving Way We Live with Cariz. It all sits together brilliantly, from the concept, to the hook, to the cut’s. It’s definitely one of the strongest on there, from someone I consider to be really underrated.
You can really lose yourself in the heavy amount of beats and different lyrical styles. Where do the ideas for the tracks come from?
Ideas for the tracks are usually from the artists I send the beats to. I know what it’s like when you get a beat CD, you’re waiting to hear that one beat that immediately inspires you, gives you the concept for the tracks. Luckily the people I work with have been doing this for a long time, so I don’t need to spoon feed them ideas and baby step them through the process. When I send beats out, I specifically choose certain beats for certain MC’s, something I think they’d fit on or might challenge them in someway. Cariz wanted a double time track, but I wanted to hear him on something more mellow. On the flip side, I played Stig and Syntax a number of beats that were just straight up bangers, but Stig kept going back to the Goldwings beat, so my idea was shot down, and they wrote to that, which worked out better than I thought it would.
Was there a particular sound, or ‘theme’ you were aiming for, or that you wanted on ‘Audio Workout?’
Not really a particular theme or sound, I just wanted something that would reflect my progress in music. I’ve come a long way since The Myster-Vee Tour, and then from the Beefeaterz Album, I’ve been really busy, shut away for the last 2 and a bit years concentrating on other people and other projects, so I thought it was about time I released something. If you listen to the album all the way through there’s every kind of track on there. From the Brit-Core, to Double time, to Golden Age to straight up Boom Bap. I try not to limit myself to one kind of production, working as a music tutor for the studio I have to be able to work in any kind of style, from Hip Hop to Grime, Indie music to Reggae, so that’s been good for pushing the boundaries. I suppose it’s a more Mature record to my last one’s, more thought, better production and ,ore care taken over choosing the people I work with.
I really like the track ‘Way We Live’, and ‘Bogey Homecide’ is something different as well? I was just wondering what those tracks are about and how those tracks came about and also how the collaborations with Cariz, and Dead Residents came about?
The Cariz track came about, as I said earlier, from Cariz wanting a Double time beat, but me wanting him on something mellow and old school. I actually made the beat with him in mind and sent it over to him to write to. Next thing I know, we got this reminiscent track about B Boys and growing up in hip hop, and the next generation of heads not knowing about hip hop from the beginning. I let him run with it and the end result was perfect. Bogey Homecide is a different story. I’ve been listening to Disprol tunes since he was “Eff” on old mixtapes, and I completely trust him to do whatever beat he’s given, justice. If you listen to his catalogue of work, it’s not your generic battle raps or whatever, so when I sent him the beat CD, I pretty much knew which one he’d choose. The fact that it came like it did is wicked. I hope people take it for what it is, which is a fun track, rather than getting bogged down with the whole “it ain’t street” type mentality. Disprol’s always been one of my favourite MC’s from the UK, and then you add Chudd to the equation and what you got is concepts that are a little out there, but it’s good fun, and I’m one of these people that doesn’t need to hear street bars and fake gangsterisms, gimme something that’s a little out there and I’m happy.
Do you have any favourite tracks on the album?
Probably Way We Live, just because it’s chilled out, but then I’m really feeling the Yosh track too. It’s a little hard to have a favourite as they’re all tracks that stood out from what I had recorded, and they’re the one’s I picked to go on the album. It changes everyday, some days I might want to listen to Goldwings, be on a hyper tip, but then I might want to chill out and I’ll put on Why Oh Why. A favourite of most people’s is Third Child, which isn’t a vocal track, it’s just a remix type thing I did of this old track by Billy Eckstine. It’s just got a nice feeling to it, so I thought I’d include it seeing as it had lot’s of good feedback.
How do Beefeaterz differ musical from your solo stuff?
The Beefeaterz stuff was a real challenge. When you’re producing for a group that already has a strong back catalogue and has a wide fan base, we’re talking international, it means you’ve really got to step you’re game up. I must’ve made around 80 beats for Agga and Mac, and each time I thought I was onto a winner, Agga would come back to me and say “I know you’ve chopped it up, and it’s different, but so and so’s already used this, so I need you to dig a little deeper”, especially when we had people like Freestyle and Josh Martinez on the record, these are international acts with massive followings, I don’t want to be the one that let’s the side down with a weak beat or whatever. I was already exhausting all the vinyl I had, so I had to go searching for vinyl shops out in the middle of nowhere, ransack old radio stations and do clear outs at old people’s home’s etc. I ended up with about 4000 records, which I ended up giving away after I finished cos I had no room for it all, so I donated it to local producers who were just starting up. It really helped me mature musically, cos we were working with an Engineer who’s been involved in music and bands like Marillion, so I learnt a lot from him. I also had to mix the whole album in 2 weeks, which was a bit of a challenge, but we got there in the end. Beat wise there was no real difference from that and my solo stuff, seeing as the last EP I made was what got me noticed by them, which led to me producing the majority of their album, they wanted a grittier, break based record, different to the EP before that which was all original compositions, so I was brought in to supply the beats. I think that was the turning point for me, becoming a Producer rather than a beat maker
Are there any rappers or producers that you like that are around at the moment?
Yeah, there’s a lot of people that I’m particularly feeling at the moment. Producer wise it’s Show n Prove, his stuff is consistently amazing, I’ve not heard one beat of his that I didn’t like, and there was so much stuff he sent Wordsy when we were recording that I was just like “damn!”. He came down to do a show in Maidstone, and he and Words came by the studio the next day to redo the vocals for “On The Run”, and he played me some of the stuff he was working on. The stuff sounded amazing. Another producer is The Assembly Worker, he’s the guy I work with in the studio in Ramsgate. He does the production and engineering with Aroe for The Soundmakers, and they’ve released a couple of Mix CD’s (Crown Jewells 1 & 2) that have got a lot of Love, especially from the old school heads. He’s an amazing Producer, recently doing a remix for Morcheeba for their last album, as well as running the Assembly Line Studio. As well as those two there’s another guy who I’ve been engineering for, Mr Loop, he’s got some dope tracks sorted and is dropping his album this side of Christmas. He’s got some great MC’s on some great beats, so I look forward to that coming out and him getting some good recognition. Rapper wise, there’s Yosh, he’s on the album, and was also on Hunger, which I produced, from the UKHH Mix CD. This guy is well rounded, dude can rap, sing, play instruments, there’s not much this guy can’t do really. We’ve got 2 EP’s finished, and I know he’s working on new material, so he’s definitely one to watch out for. Another MC is Spooka, the DnB heads might know of him, he’s constantly up and down the country doing shows, and he’s had a couple of Mix CD’s and EP’s out. We’re doing the new EP at the moment, myself and The Assembly Worker are taking care of production duties, which is good for me, cos it’s not straight up hip hop, it’s double time with a bit of grime and Dnb thrown in for good measure.
Do you have any influences at all, and have they influenced ‘Audio Workout?’
I don’t have anything that influences my music directly, I mean, I have a library of records that I’ll sit and listen through and if something grabs my attention then I’ll start chopping it up and seeing what I can do with it, but I try not to let anything influence the way I make music or whatever. I get influenced by people, and people I work with, but it’s more the fact that I hear what they’re doing, or an idea they have, and it makes me step up and take on the challenge of making everything I do the best I can do it.
What do you have planned next?
I would love to say that I have another record planned to follow this one, but I’m involved in so many other studio projects at the moment, that my next solo project will have to wait a little. Following the Beefeaterz project would have been a perfect opportunity to drop something, but it’s ended up taking two years to get this squeezed in, but I mean, it’s fine. I have so many people coming through the studio, that now it’s time to get them out there and heard. I’ve just set up Sweatbox Sounds, which, I’m not gonna lie, it’s no independent label, it’s just an umbrella for all the people that use the studio to come under, so we got Mr Loops Album dropping next, then after that we got the Rapskallions album, then Yosh’s debut LP, then after that, Yosh’s 2nd EP, those are the one’s for definite. I hate it when you read about albums or EP’s that are dropping, but never come out, so these one’s are done, they’re finished and ready to come out, so it’s just about making sure they each get time to get recognised and shine.
 Also, I’m still doing stuff with Wordsmith, we’ve amassed a hell of a lot of tracks, and I’m sure somewhere down the line, after his album and mix CD’s have dropped, we’ll have our Mix CD/Album put out, either through Sweatbox or Def Ethics. I’ve been working really closely with Def Ethics, whenever they have people to record or whatever, J brings them down to the Sweatbox, so I’m sure that’ll carry on.
As suggested in this interview Vee-Kay's productions are all over the place, check the tracks on the ukhh Mic-Ctrl mixtape, get the Dead Residents and Wordsmith material and keep a lookout for 'Audio Workout', dropping digitally on the 24th November...
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Adjetey Obour
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