THE INSIDE TRACK
How was your experience of the studio?
I felt liberated in the studio. It was great to have someone I could completely trust, who had done all this before. It was a lovely experience. He took a lot of pressure off me. I was really worried about making an album, I didn’t even know where to start so Jim [Abiss, producer] made me feel more comfortable. He was almost like a counsellor.
You recorded with RKD2 in Philadelphia for ‘Learning Lines’, what was that like?
It was mad, as it was the same room The Roots used and Justin Timberlake made ‘Justified’ in there! It was pretty surreal, we’re these three, white, middle-class English boys in a proper hip-hop studio surrounded by these guys all blinged out. We felt very comfortable and the guys there really dug it. It was such a contrast to the warm, homely vibe of Jim’s place in London. It was like we were moonlighting, like ‘we’re hip-hop now, proper gangsta’.
Are you worried that being lumped in with the rest of the LDN crew might be limiting at all?
It’d be limiting if I didn’t have the talent to pull myself out of it. I hope I do. It’s all very flattering, it’s not like I’m annoyed about it but it’s something I definitely hope won’t be here in five years time. When I got asked to do the NME cover with Kate [Nash], my initial feeling was ‘maybe not’ I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it but it’s one of those things, it may never happen again. So I’m glad I did it.
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