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 Man Like Me songwriter, Johnny Langer |
Homegrown man like me
INTERVIEW: MAN LIKE ME
CAMDEN three-piece Man Like Me are made up of Johnny Langer and Pesk Duffy, two friends who used to sit next to each other in class at Acland Burghley school, and Edwin Laliq, Johnny’s one-time babysitter. They are currently supporting Jay-Z-approved rapper Lady Sovereign on tour. They will play the Scala on May 19.
CC: How did you start?
MLM: We only started to perform about a year ago – I had tried to learn keyboard and drums and I couldn’t do it. At 17 I got a computer and wanted to write drum and bass and house music, but it just turned into this – pop music. (How did you get signed to the Non-Stop label?)
I was writing songs, it was just a hobby but as soon as Edwin (Laliq) played them to the label they wanted to sign me. I used to work as a landscape gardener and a barman at the Pineapple pub (in Kentish Town) but getting into music was a natural thing.
I wanted to get someone else to sing and just produce but I couldn’t find anyone – so it ended up being me.
I never wanted to be the frontman but now I love it.
CC: When did you first think ‘this is a big thing’?
MLM: We did V Festival last year, and performed to about 4,000 people and I was still working as a gardener. We did the show that night and the next day I had to get up early to sweep leaves.
CC: What are the best and worst things about Camden?
MLM: I love Camden. Thought I didn’t like it but I love it now – everyone else is in Hackney and Old Street, all the fashion, music and art seems to be there. I like the way Camden’s past that trendy thing of the 90s – it’s all over the shop now, it’s like a themepark here. You can hideaway. And there’s so many groups of people, you’ve got the middle class, lower class, crackheads, the goths, the tourists. Everyone’s random.
I don’t like the way all the pubs are turning corporate.
The Spread Eagle (in Parkway) has gone (like a) hotel, The Stags Head in Hawley Road, has been turned into flats. I really like old pubs, I much prefer them to bars and clubs. I also like the Prince Albert (Royal College Street) and the Golden Lion further down. |
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