Q&A With Artwork
Magnetic Man live at Trinity, October 2010 by Khali Ackford
Louis: How do you feel about playing in Bristol at such a historic venue as Trinity, which is best known for being at the forefront of the rave scene in the 90's?
Artwork: Love it. Bristol is like the proper home of Dubstep, you know what I mean. They love music in Bristol - it's a great place for music - it's an honour to play here, especially at a place like this. Its kicking man - I love it!
L: Which musicians would you say influenced you most as youngsters?
A: Jimi Hendrix, and this is weird, Thelonious Monk - my dad use to play a lot of that. A lot of jazz, so John Coltrane, Charlie Parker. And then I was in to early house music, Steve Bignell, that sort of put me on to the electronics side of music.
L: In this time of uncertainty, such as the financial crisis, war and unemployment, is there an underlying message in your music that you're trying to get to the people?
A: Yeah, let's have a good time and stop F***ing about! Hahahahaha
L: How do you feel about signing for Columbia Records and your current success?
A: it's amazing, it's been a bit of a roller-coaster the last year - it's been a pretty stunning sort of time. Have been doing Magnetic Man for four years now and been doing Dubstep for ten years so it's been a long journey, little steps all the way. So it's not like suddenly doing nothing, then all of a sudden we're on Columbia - it's been a long journey.
L: How did the collaboration with the talented American artist John Legend come about?
A: When we signed to Columbia we spoke to our publisher, and we said, “look we're on Columbia now, we got this beat” and we said “who can we have on it? Its really soulful” and he said “I'm going to ring John legend” and we was like “yeah right sure you are”. Next thing, he phoned up and said “I got it- I got the vocal”. I got to say, John legend is super talented.
L: I have to say I Need Air is a total banger - what do you feel about people saying it is a strong candidate for the anthem of 2010?
A: There's loads of good music out there, lots of different styles, so it would be lovely if people did think that. It's great because you work in the studio and you don't know how everything is going to be received you know, so when you play it and you hear the crowd sing it back too - yeah, there's no other feeling like that.
L: Your track featuring Katy B, Perfect Stranger has opened your fan base to a more trendy audience, Funky House Crowd. What do you feel about that?
A: Music is music - there's only two types of music - there's good music and bad music and Katy B makes amazing music and we try to make the best music we can. All genres are melting at the moment, everyone is going from all different things, it's more about UK based music - everyone getting into every thing. You can go into a club and hear five or six different types of music in one night you know, and it's usually UK and usually a lot of bass, so it's great - it's good.
L: What do you feel about Dubstep Genre -excuse the pun - 'stepping' into the commercial side of the music industry?
A: I think it's like it's become more popular and if you got good music and people will say to their friends “yeah, listen to this” it's going to be popular. I think its great. To see and hear that stuff on Radio 1 - it is amazing.
By Louis Smith, October 2010
