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Nattering with Natty
INTERVIEW: NATTY
CAMDEN Town singer Natty, 24, has been working in music for years. He recently released the single Badmind/Camden Rox, and is currently working on his debut album. He is involved in Love Music Hate Racism and he played the Rise Festival in Finsbury Park.
Charlotte Chambers: What is your background and how has that influenced your music?
Natty: My Mum’s from southern Africa and my Dad’s English/Italian. It played a big influence, they listened to the stereotypes of what you might imagine. My Dad was all Neil Young, John Lennon, the Stones, Pink Floyd, and my Mum was listening to reggae, soul – it was cool. But after the age of about 10 I got into a lot of hip hop, listened to garage music. They were ingrained more. Hip hop plays a big part in what I do, and Jazz.
CC: Does your music have anything to do with the music you related to as a kid?
N: Back in the day [hip hop] was saying something. Artists don’t really talk about anything worthwhile these days. It felt better back then.
CC: Are you frustrated about the music industry now?
N: Yeah, this country’s a bit strange – why is it so hard for black artists? They have to go out of the country to get recognition.
CC: Do you feel black artists have to fit a certain mould to achieve success?
N: Because MTV plays such a big part in how you grow up, the boundary for self-expression is placed on you from a certain age. You’re not completely free – you wanna do music and you’re black, what you gonna do? You gonna rap, you gonna DJ, you gonna produce? There’s a subconscious boundary.
It’s a frustration about the music industry and how little they can put on black artists. Record companies, the press, TV – the people that say, “We want a feature on you”. If it is a black artist it will be a jokey black artist or a stereotype. You need credibility – what if they just want to make some tunes? It’s a farce.
CC: Who’s putting artists in that box?
N: The industry itself. It’s kind of like a slave mentality, where if you’re made to feel a certain way, you end up thinking a certain way.
I’m not in any box.
CC: Do you have lofty ambitions to try and change people’s opinions?
N: Yeah. Not meaning to sound arrogant but if I get to a certain place, I think people might want to listen to me more than Gordon Brown. If that’s the case then I might as well say something worth talking about.
CC: What influence did Camden have on your music?
N: It’s kind of obvious really, it’s just a big mix-up, a melting pot.
It’s the creative centre in London. Having all these punks, hippies, rude boys, dreads, indie kids, all on your doorstep, all walking through the madness of what Camden is – just use your eyes, it’s enough inspiration.
North London as a whole is pretty mixed – you’ve got a plumbing engineer, you’ve got a drug dealer, a lawyer, a journalist, a Muslim fundamentalist – it’s crazy, it’s cool. It’s enough inspiration for a whole heap of tunes.
CC: You’ve toured with Kate Nash, how did that happen?
N: I just got asked – I know her manager, but this was before she went massive. I knew she would, you could see when you went to the gigs that she was a voice for a whole heap of teenagers who don’t really have a voice – maybe suburban kids.
She’s cool, there’s a definite place for her. |
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