Mystro Interview

Certified Banger: Ok, we don’t need the basics; everyone on the site should know who you are already.

Mystro: Hopefully!

CB: You’ve just come back from Australia and New Zealand. What’ve you been doing there?

Mystro: Just causing more trouble really man. I had to do a festival called Splore in NZ and around that we managed to hook up a few more gigs in Auckland, Wellington. We flew to Australia to do Sydney, Brisbourne and Melbourne just to make it more of a trip. You go all that way, man, it’s gotta be done. I did a bit of writing too but I was just thinking of you lot in the snow really! I went there and did a tour, promoted the ‘F.D.T.’ EP and it went well man. I got some interest for future releases later on in the year to get out in NZ and Oz in terms of distribution and licensing so I’m definitely happy about that.

CB: So you said you did a bit of writing out there. Does it inspire you in differently when you’re out there?

Mystro: Yeah, I got some features, some paid work to do so obviously the inspiration for that was there. But it’s a good time to get away form the hustle and bustle and sometimes you need that – to not do any writing, maybe to do a bit of reading but to be away from the constant phone calls – do this, do that, blah blah – the sort of London life. I always end up writing on the way back; the journey back is when I do a lot of writing.

CB: It’s a long journey…

Mystro: Yeah it’s a long journey man. A lot of sleeping, a lot of eating, a lot of writing, a lot of movies on the plane. Yeah, it’s a mixture man but I do get inspired to write. There might be a month of not really writing and the next two months I’ll be writing pretty hard so…it’s just time to breath in and out. If you do constantly write you end up saying the same thing and that’s what you hear from people who claim they write all the time.

CB: So what’s the scene like over there? To someone who doesn’t know it seems like they look up to our scene?

Mystro: Yeah. When we had our golden age, 99-04/05, that was definitely a period when we were getting out there quite a lot in terms of releases. Obviously, we had the Lowlife thing going on, Skitz and Rodney P going on, Roots Manuva… Ty. A lot of artists have been over there, touring and whatnot. I was lucky enough that I got out there before our scene got a little flaky. When I first got out there I felt like how we were in ‘98 or something where the homegrown stuff started to slowly outsell the imported stuff. Whilst I was there UK stuff was doing real well, underground US stuff was doing really well, and then now it’s like the Aussie stuff has taken over. The scene in healthy but the difference is they have a festival circuit as well. In the summer a lot of the artists get big on the festival front and get that crowd. There is a little different but it’s pretty similar – the integrity’s there too.

CB: Do they get all the crap as well?

Mystro: Yeah, they get all the overground stuff but they don’t get our crap because they don’t really get it, they don’t understand it. I don’t need even need to go into names but certain people have been over there and flopped. That’s because its not really their lifestyle. Their lifestyle is a lot calmer. The hip hop they’re into in Australia which we’re not that into is like the west coast underground stuff. Jurassic 5 are bigger than The Roots out there and that’s because of the laid back, sunny, good time kinda thing although the East Coast thing does come out over there too. We’re into the faster stuff because we’re in the cold. They’re into stuff that’s a bit slower because it’s like “Bro, it’s hot man, we just go for a beer bro” [insert Mystro’s wack Australian accent there].

CB: Moving onto forthcoming releases…

Mystro: Yeah, OK, I got the ‘Digmund Freud’ EP coming soon with production from DJ Flip, DJ Swerve and Jehst. That’s the mellow side of what I do. I wrote it as a self help thing. I came back once, I’d been a way for three months, I was like raa, the scene has changed – a lot of people giving up, lot of people in a depressed state – people didn’t seem that happy. The idea came up, my friend DJ Debris was calling my Digmund – the idea came up to do a self help book. I already had the track ‘Round My Way’ – you know how everyone’s like “yeah, yeah, raa, raa round my way this and that happens” – I was saying like that but in a less offensive way so that even though people are crooked or whatever you still might wanna come round and see me. ‘The Blue Planet’ thing is about how we’re living, how the scene was in a way whilst mixing it up with talking about fish. I’ve got a track with Maverick Sabre called ‘Don’t Worry’ – that’s probably the track that got it going with the style of what I wanted to do. The chorus is like “If it ain’t life or death, don’t worry about it”. – that;s the message of the whole ‘Digmund Freud’ thing.

Then, I think I’ve got enough tracks to a ‘Tip of the Mysberg 3’ and then drop ‘Mystrogen’ the album. There’s material on there that’s pretty accessible, not like me watering what I do down but I think I’ve kinda got that formula on lock where I can still be proud of what I’m doing but people in the club can take it, people on the radio can take it – it’s easy to listen to and not too hardcore. There’s a mixture of everything, you’ve got the ‘Music Mystro’ EP which is more the party kinda stuff, you’ve got ‘F.D.T.’ which is more hardcore, underground and this ‘Digmund Freud’ EP is the thoughtful, mellow side and ‘Mystrogen’ will embody all of that.

CB: The TV thing, ‘Mystro Investigates’, how did that come about?

Mystro: A couple of the Spine TV crew are ex-King Fu management and it came about where this guy said “I want you to do a show called ‘Mystro Investigates” and I was like “How d’ya mean?” and he was like “Y’know, where you just investigate stuff!”. So yeah, we’ve just been coming up with mad ideas, different concepts – it’s a thing where you get an idea of what you can do around the UK. There’s a bunch you can do. I get to do a bunch of stuff that I might not never have known nothing about and people get to see it and maybe they wanna do it, maybe not. It’s a bit of fun ‘cause I like doing comedy too. We get to bring out the comedy side of things but we’ve gotta be careful – we’ve gotta be respectful – we can’t disrespect their establishment.

CB: I think you got a good balance. Which was your favourite one?

Mystro: So far? Still the horse riding man. That was a bit surreal. I’ve ridden a horse before but it was bareback. I wasn’t bareback, the horse was bareback! I watch it now and again and I’m like “Raa, that was surreal” – riding around London on a horse! There are many more to come man – we’ve been shooting ahead of ourselves.

CB: Are you allowed to say what?

Mystro: That’s classified information, if I tell you I’d have to tie you to the back of my horse and…

CB: OK, I’ll do one more: what’s an average day in your life?

Mystro: Wake and bake, breakfast, brush my teeth, jot down a few rhymes. I sleep and think of a lot of stuff so I wake up and write down some rhymes that I might of thought of…(A guy rides past on a neon blue BMX, playing some 50 Cent or something through a tinny phone speaker and making siren noises.) F**kin’ hell, what was that? I want one of them bruv! Police ain’t got nothing on that! Er…then I get on email and twitter, you know me I’m a natural born twitter. But most of the day if I’m not writing a whole song I’m jotting bits of ideas. Maybe some recording but I like to record a lot of stuff all at once. Unless it’s demoing, I do a lot of demoing so I can learn it.

CB: Yeah, I don’t know how you remember it.

Mystro: It’s practice; you have to practice it. Some people have photographic memories. How did you learn songs you know the words to? You just keep listening to them and keep rapping them. Yeah the average day is creating man – I’m addicted to it.

CB: So…any last shouts?

Mystro: Shout out to Jargon, the Natural Born Spitters’ stuff is coming soon. We got an EP and a mixtape in the pipeline. You know where to follow me on Twitter! Spread the word man - there are a lot of people showing support which I really love but I prefer you tell other people how good I am than me. I don’t wanna be getting a big head about it – I’d rather you tell a bunch of other people who might not never know nothing about it. Peace man - thanks to everyone for supporting.