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Interview: Black Grass
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Mex, now the singular driving force behind Brighton’s Black Grass, is someone you might refer to as “accomplished”. A top tier DJ, he has toured the globe, opening for the likes of Jurassic 5, Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash. In 1997, he played with Portishead at their famous first ever New York gig at the Roseland Theatre with the 30-piece New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He can count Andy Smith and Krafty Kuts among his fans, and his new album “A Hundred Days In One” has drawn praise from such diverse quarters as 1Xtra’s Skitz and fellow Brightonian Will Quantic. We caught him as he trying on morning suits to talk about the new record and what it’s like to be a figurehead of Brighton music.
What have you been up to since you finished the album?
Getting married really. Yep, I’m getting married tomorrow!
Wow, congratulations! Thanks for speaking to me, you must be very busy!
Cheers mate, I’m happy to.
So how long did the album take to record?
That’s a weird one because I did the first album with another guy and now we’ve gone our separate ways. The music that’s on the new album is stuff that’s been lying around for quite a while that needed expanding on and finishing. It’s difficult to say how long it actually took start to finish. About eight months I suppose.
Now it’s all up and together, are you happy with the way the album sounds?
Yeah. I was a bit worried because there are so many different styles on there, I was the same with the first one. I think it’s a bit more cohesive and it gels together better than the first one. It doesn’t hop around genres as much.
Is that because you had a better idea of what you wanted this album to be?
Maybe. It’s kind of weird because people say it’s quite melancholy, which it is, but it was recorded at the happiest point in my life. I don’t quite know how that works.
What’s your favourite track on it?
Probably ‘So Many Ways’ because it’s a real personal song. I wanted to write it for my fiancé and I was very lucky to find a singer who had the right voice to get what I wanted across. That’s from a personal point of view. I love what Jhest did and what Parkie did too. Everyone who’s on there did exactly what I wanted.
You had specific collaborators in mind when you made the tracks then?
No, I didn’t think whilst I was making the tracks that I wanted anyone specific for them. But, take ‘Down And Dirty’, I originally really wanted Skinnyman on it but for one reason or another he couldn’t do it. I got in touch with Micall Parknsun out of blue and he was really good on it. I also played him ‘Line Of Defence’ and he thought that Jhest would really like it. It was one thing leading on to another. It was handy because I was stuck on ‘Line Of Defence’, I needed the emcee to really bring over the mood of the track.
It sounds as if the record took quite a bit of organising. Having once worked as part of a two man team, is it quite daunting to have to do it all on your own? Or do you feel that you have more freedom now?
I feel as if I have quite a bit more freedom. You don’t have to both agree on something necessarily. I prefer working on my own, but sometimes you do need to bounce ideas off other people, especially when you get stuck on a track and you don’t know which direction it’s going to take. But I got a load of other friends who make music, good friends who are quite honest about things, which is good.
You’ve played with some of the most respected people in the industry. Who have you enjoyed collaborating with the most?
You know what, I think pretty much everyone on this album. Everyone’s been so professional. Apart from “So Many Ways” where I had a definitive song that I wanted, everything else came from just giving people beats and letting them do their thing. Everything apart from the Maylay Sparks track was recorded in Brighton. It was really cool, people would just come round, they were very easy to work with.
So you’re still living in Brighton? You haven’t been tempted to move to London?
Yeah I’m still in Brighton, I was born here!
What’s going on with Brighton at the moment? There seems to have been a massive revival of interest in Brighton music. You can’t go out in my hometown on the weekend without seeing a fly for a Brighton DJ or club night on tour.
The whole place has expanded over the last couple of years, it’s nuts really. There have been a lot of people from London coming and living down here whether full time or just on the weekends, there are a lot of new shops opening… Brighton really has changed quite a lot in the last couple of years. Where there’s money, people will go to make money, and it all just picks up from there.
Where do you go to relax?
Well, I go to bed! [laughs]
OK, let me put that another way. What’s the best club in town?
I DJ in Audio every Saturday. There are two floors, a big bar and main club downstairs and a dancefloor upstairs. So that’s where I play. It’s pretty cool, I get to play what I like, the people are cool, it’s nice and easy going. The club downstairs is good too – good sounsystem, nice layout. We’ve had some good nights out there. It’s probably my favourite place in Brighton. I like going to smaller jams too; nights upstairs in pubs and that sort of caper.
Is there anyone we should be keeping our eye on coming out of Brighton at the moment?
Yeah, it’s all eyes on Dr Syntax at the moment!
What’s the plan for the rest of the summer? Are you looking forward to the festivals?
I’m playing the Bestival on the Isle of Wight in September, and another festival in Marseilles, so I got those to look forward to. I’m trying to get a live thing together for a band tour, but I’ve just finished the album and now I’ve got a wedding, so that’s kind of got in the way of planning a little bit [laughs]. I’ll hopefully get on to planning that, doing some remixing for people and making another album soon.
________________________________________
Black Grass, ‘A Hundred Days In One’ is released on August 21 on Catskills Records.
www.black-grass.com
www.catskillsrecords.com
Mex, now the singular driving force behind Brighton’s Black Grass, is someone you might refer to as “accomplished”. A top tier DJ, he has toured the globe, opening for the likes of Jurassic 5, Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash. In 1997, he played with Portishead at their famous first ever New York gig at the Roseland Theatre with the 30-piece New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He can count Andy Smith and Krafty Kuts among his fans, and his new album “A Hundred Days In One” has drawn praise from such diverse quarters as 1Xtra’s Skitz and fellow Brightonian Will Quantic. We caught him as he trying on morning suits to talk about the new record and what it’s like to be a figurehead of Brighton music.
What have you been up to since you finished the album?
Getting married really. Yep, I’m getting married tomorrow!
Wow, congratulations! Thanks for speaking to me, you must be very busy!
Cheers mate, I’m happy to.
So how long did the album take to record?
That’s a weird one because I did the first album with another guy and now we’ve gone our separate ways. The music that’s on the new album is stuff that’s been lying around for quite a while that needed expanding on and finishing. It’s difficult to say how long it actually took start to finish. About eight months I suppose.
Now it’s all up and together, are you happy with the way the album sounds?
Yeah. I was a bit worried because there are so many different styles on there, I was the same with the first one. I think it’s a bit more cohesive and it gels together better than the first one. It doesn’t hop around genres as much.
Is that because you had a better idea of what you wanted this album to be?
Maybe. It’s kind of weird because people say it’s quite melancholy, which it is, but it was recorded at the happiest point in my life. I don’t quite know how that works.
What’s your favourite track on it?
Probably ‘So Many Ways’ because it’s a real personal song. I wanted to write it for my fiancé and I was very lucky to find a singer who had the right voice to get what I wanted across. That’s from a personal point of view. I love what Jhest did and what Parkie did too. Everyone who’s on there did exactly what I wanted.
You had specific collaborators in mind when you made the tracks then?
No, I didn’t think whilst I was making the tracks that I wanted anyone specific for them. But, take ‘Down And Dirty’, I originally really wanted Skinnyman on it but for one reason or another he couldn’t do it. I got in touch with Micall Parknsun out of blue and he was really good on it. I also played him ‘Line Of Defence’ and he thought that Jhest would really like it. It was one thing leading on to another. It was handy because I was stuck on ‘Line Of Defence’, I needed the emcee to really bring over the mood of the track.
It sounds as if the record took quite a bit of organising. Having once worked as part of a two man team, is it quite daunting to have to do it all on your own? Or do you feel that you have more freedom now?
I feel as if I have quite a bit more freedom. You don’t have to both agree on something necessarily. I prefer working on my own, but sometimes you do need to bounce ideas off other people, especially when you get stuck on a track and you don’t know which direction it’s going to take. But I got a load of other friends who make music, good friends who are quite honest about things, which is good.
You’ve played with some of the most respected people in the industry. Who have you enjoyed collaborating with the most?
You know what, I think pretty much everyone on this album. Everyone’s been so professional. Apart from “So Many Ways” where I had a definitive song that I wanted, everything else came from just giving people beats and letting them do their thing. Everything apart from the Maylay Sparks track was recorded in Brighton. It was really cool, people would just come round, they were very easy to work with.
So you’re still living in Brighton? You haven’t been tempted to move to London?
Yeah I’m still in Brighton, I was born here!
What’s going on with Brighton at the moment? There seems to have been a massive revival of interest in Brighton music. You can’t go out in my hometown on the weekend without seeing a fly for a Brighton DJ or club night on tour.
The whole place has expanded over the last couple of years, it’s nuts really. There have been a lot of people from London coming and living down here whether full time or just on the weekends, there are a lot of new shops opening… Brighton really has changed quite a lot in the last couple of years. Where there’s money, people will go to make money, and it all just picks up from there.
Where do you go to relax?
Well, I go to bed! [laughs]
OK, let me put that another way. What’s the best club in town?
I DJ in Audio every Saturday. There are two floors, a big bar and main club downstairs and a dancefloor upstairs. So that’s where I play. It’s pretty cool, I get to play what I like, the people are cool, it’s nice and easy going. The club downstairs is good too – good sounsystem, nice layout. We’ve had some good nights out there. It’s probably my favourite place in Brighton. I like going to smaller jams too; nights upstairs in pubs and that sort of caper.
Is there anyone we should be keeping our eye on coming out of Brighton at the moment?
Yeah, it’s all eyes on Dr Syntax at the moment!
What’s the plan for the rest of the summer? Are you looking forward to the festivals?
I’m playing the Bestival on the Isle of Wight in September, and another festival in Marseilles, so I got those to look forward to. I’m trying to get a live thing together for a band tour, but I’ve just finished the album and now I’ve got a wedding, so that’s kind of got in the way of planning a little bit [laughs]. I’ll hopefully get on to planning that, doing some remixing for people and making another album soon.
________________________________________
Black Grass, ‘A Hundred Days In One’ is released on August 21 on Catskills Records.
www.black-grass.com
www.catskillsrecords.com
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