We Spoke to Faze Miyake About Grime Naysayers and Egypt's Music Scene

In 2011, you couldn’t talk about grime music and not mention Faze Miyake’s jumbo banger "Take Off". The track was big and fiery, resulting in it soundtracking Lord of the Mics 3 and reloading it whenever it came on in the club became a kneejerk reaction.

Since then, Faze Miyake has partnered with Rinse and is readying a new album, while holding down a fortnightly on the label’s renowned station, Rinse FM. I caught up with the producer to talk about Egypt's burgeoning music scene and grime's renaissance.

YNTHT: SO FAZE…do you still consider yourself a grime producer?

Faze: To be honest, I don’t think I ever really have been. I’ve always wanted to make other stuff, I just suppose that because I came up through the grime scene, people just expect me to only make that. But I don’t regard my music as grime, it's a mixture of everything that I grew up listening to.

So if you had to put yourself into one category, what would it be?

I’ve always just put myself down as an electronic music producer. Even down to when I’ve put out my music I’ve tried to market myself within that category.

And how do you react to the yearly trend of saying "GRIME MUSIC IS DEAD!"

They’ve been saying that forever! Grime is the best music in the UK in terms of how broad it is and how it’s always changing. But it’s down to the way it’s handled; people think it’s not the right music to make or the scene to be in. It'll never be dead though.

Right. So what are you working on right now?

I’ve been working on my album with Rinse. It’s coming out in the next few months, I’ve been saying that for ages but we’ve had quite a few setbacks. I’m actually done now though. I’ve got my last session in the next few weeks, after that I’ve just got to wrap up the production side of things and edit everything until I’m happy with it. It should be out over the summer.

How long has it taken to make the album?

To be honest, most of the music on it is actually older stuff that I’d made and had sitting around. A lot of it’s down to sorting out features, just trying to work with the right people that I feel would sound good on my music. Everyone on my album is someone who’s up and coming, rather than people who’ve already made it. Trying to find the right people was the hard bit but I’m happy with who I’ve got on there.

So who have you got on your album? Any features that would surprise people?

I like surprising people so I don’t really want to give too much away, but I’ve given people clues already, so I will say I’ve got CAS and Sasha Go Hard. I’ve been working with Family Tree since I first started so of course I’ve got them on the album too. There are others on the album but that’s all I’ll give you for now, I’ll keep the rest under wraps!

Ha, and how did your partnership with Rinse come about?

I’ve always listened to Rinse, I like what they do. When my music was first starting to pop off I was getting a lot of play at Rinse. I used to go there a lot, I’ve always had a habit of doing that – actually going to places rather than doing everything just over the internet. That way you actually meet people. I spoke to Rat from Rinse and we just got it cracking from there. I just felt like it was the right place for me and what I wanted to do. They offered me a radio show as well so I just went for it.

And for you, what’s the difference between radio DJing and club DJing?

Radio for me is more of a showcase. What I do at clubs is nothing like what I do on the radio. Radio, I’m more chilled out and I just play music I’m feeling at the time or music that’s been sent to me. In a club I’ll go straight at it, trying to moshpit the place!

Ha, so what do you prefer to do?

Clubs, 100%. I like hearing music as loud as possible and getting a bit wavey. You can’t do that on the radio. I like the energy in the crowd and seeing the reaction from one of your own tunes. It helps me know what I’m doing right and wrong for the raves, which is what I prioritise more than anything.

Also, you recently took part in the Cairo Calling project with Rinse alongside Kode9 and Artwork, working with the pioneers of Egypt’s mahraganat music scene. What was that like?

It was cool, they were here for about a week and we were just in the studio with them for most of the time, working on music and showing them little tips and tricks on how to make music. Even though their music is not the same tempo as grime, it’s mostly 150bpm or higher, a lot of it reminded me of old Wiley stuff, especially the drum patterns. It’s traditional Egyptian music but they’ve taken it and made it into a huge street thing but aren’t making any money off of it. So they're trying to find out how to monetise. Right now they’ve got a massive fanbase, they’re almost like superstars out there but they don’t feel like they’re being respected properly, they’re getting millions of YouTube views but aren’t actually making any money from it. It’s really good energy, I enjoyed working with them, they were cool guys.

Annnnd you’ve just got back from playing in Montpellier, France, what was that like?

I got to play the whole spectrum of stuff I listen to and what I like. It’s definitely one of the best shows I’ve played in terms of how much I enjoyed it and the reaction from the crowd. They loved every tune I dropped. There was never a time where they just stood there and looked at you, the crowd was moving the whole time.

How come you haven’t done a set like that in London?

When I’m on the radio I use my laptop and use Serato so I’ve got all my tunes set up and I’ll play a bit of everything. But in clubs, I usually just take CDs because I don’t trust Serato, it’s always giving me problems. [In France] I played with USB for the first time and I loved it. It’s changed my life as a DJ! USB is great, I can just chuck all the tunes on there and it’s done whereas CDs are a bit of a longer process. On top of that, when I do get booked for places here [in London] I feel like they expect me to play certain things but I think now I’m going to try and incorporate everything that I like into my sets. It all depends on where I am and what the crowd is saying.

Finally, how do European crowds differ from here in London?

I’ve done quite a few European shows now and every time I’ve done a big one, I always feel like they appreciate things a lot more than London crowds. London crowds are great though, they know the music a lot more but they're pickier. Not taking anything away from Europe but they’re a bit behind in terms of how quickly the music comes to them so they’ll still be loving stuff we heard about a year ago. I’m doing Fabric in about two weeks and I’m buzzing to do it, I can’t get enough of that club. But, I couldn’t really say where I prefer. I’ve still got a lot of places to see!

Sweet. Thanks Faze!

Follow Elissa on Twitter @ElissaKB

THE RETURN OF THE GRIME INSTRUMENTAL