Woofer Music boss, DJ, producer and now rapper, Faze Miyake has always marked himself out as a bold and immediately recognisable talent in UK music. Though he got his start in grime (he credits early production "Take Off" as his breakout), Faze is now as much a hip-hop producer as he is a grime producer. In 2015 he released his self-titled debut album via Rinse, followed by a string of singles and EPs. His most recent drop was the five-track Evo EP which featured guest spots from Belly Squad, Splurt Diablo, Torai and Qendressa—you can take a listen to that at the bottom.
Today, in a recent interview with TRENCH magazine, Faze let slip that he had begun work on his follow-up album. Details on that are scarce, but he did drop a few other interesting nuggets in the interview. Scroll down to read Faze's thoughts on Fruity Loops, Dirty South rap, trap and cutting his teeth as a producer.
On music lessons at school: I used to DJ and MC at my youth club, then I started recording with people I met in college and started writing bars. I used to get kicked out of music classes for being a pest [laughs]. I never really cared for the classical side of music... Maybe in the future, I'll learn how to play guitar or piano.
On learning to produce: Them times, on Fruity Loops, you had something called a pattern. Imagine having a page in a book, you write on it and then turn the page. On Fruity Loops, you kind of have the same thing—pattern 1, pattern 2—and I remember I was trying my best to make this whole beat onto just one pattern because I didn't know you had other patterns. So I was going hard thinking this is the whole beat, but it wasn't going anywhere—it was just the same loop over and over! It took me two years to learn how to find a new pattern.
On blurring the lines between grime, UK rap and Southern US hip-hop: When I went out to Miami in 2010, Rick Ross tunes like "MC Hammer" and "Blowin' Money Fast" were getting reloads and shit and, sonically, they sound like grime—the tempos and vibe of them. So I tried to add a bit of that to UK rap, which already has grime elements in it. When I came back from Miami, the first tune I made was "Take Off" and Lex was a big inspiration at that point in my career.
On the possible new album: I'm not gonna lie: I'm in album mode right now. I won't say when it's coming out, but just expect something crazy.
