Mikey J is not just a producer, although some know him best for the work he has done with Kano; producing London Town, Home Sweet Home and Not For The A List and the newly released EP Random Antics. What some might not know is that he is also a classically trained singer, with his voice being featured in many songs. Not stopping there, he has also been heavily involved in the dance world, starting up Boy Blue Entertainment with a friend, and winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Pied Piper. There is more to this man than meets the eye.
How did you get into producing and was there anyone in particular who influenced you?
I think it was an amalgamation of my love for music overall, experimenting and putting music together. Music and production back then was more analogue, I got into it when I was 14. No one in specific got me into production, it was the creation of music which got me. I was in a studio and saw guys making music, and I just thought I want to do production.
How do you start making a tune? Do you make the beat first or the bassline, or do you get inspired by a sample, talk me through the process.
It depends really. Of late I’ve just been playing with ideas and sounds and putting them together. You could hear a sample and just be like yea bam. The Kano track Layer Cake, well I was watching the film Layer Cake, the Michael Gambon speech and I thought this talks about what I’m going through at this point in time, I’m going to make a track inspired by this. Or it could be you get a job and it’s the artist that inspires you. Now I’ve got The Maschine, I just have more fun with my music. It’s the No1 source where I begin my material now.
What programs do you use to make your beats and why?
The Maschine which has it’s own software attached to the hardware. I use Logic Pro mainly to make my tracks or loops into full songs. I use samples from all kinds of digital software out there.
Your work had been very varied from dance theatres and shows to production and engineering. How do you juggle so many different things at once, and which one do you want to pursue the most?
It’s pretty hard, I don’t have much of a life. I just like to put my head down and work. I don’t get to see everyone often, but my friends and my family are very understanding they know it’s a part of me. No one nags me saying where are you, they are very supportive. I don’t get much time; my weekends are usually spent in the studio. I get down time every now and again. Juggling everything is exactly what I do, but it can be tough. It’s allowed me to do so many different things, produce music for films, TV, shows and theatre. As long as I’m doing music I’m fine.
Do you feel that by taking the hip hop dance scene to a wider audience in the theatre that it’s helped it to become more understood and mainstream?
Yes defiantly. Flawless are doing their thing now they did the Chase the Dream tour. Zoo Nation has got a piece called Some Like It Hip Hop. Now we’re starting to see that hip hop is more viable, people are understanding it more. It’s getting more prestige in the dance world, you don’t have to go and see Swan Lake. When you see hip hop dance it’s really exciting, that’s what makes people come.
You’ve been working with Kano for a long time now including the albums Home Sweet Home and London Town. Why did you feel it was the right time to bring something out together again?
We did a track that was a personal for him for one of his friends. It had been a while, he was doing his thing, and I’ve been doing my thing. I just had a jam with him after we made the track for his friend and I said, ‘we should just do something.’ So he said ‘OK cool.’ He came over that Sunday, and literally I just made a couple of beats, and it just ended up being Random Antics. He was leaving and said this tracks cool I’m going to go now, I said I got one more, and he stayed and we did another. Random Antics is the perfect way to describe the project, it just happened randomly.
Have you got any exciting projects coming up that we should know about?
We got a new show with Boy Blue. We’ve got a new show up in Ipswich were doing for 2 weeks, up at DanceEast. I’m making all the music for that, so I’m going to be working on that for the next few months. I’ve done a track with Chronz from RD, that’s come out sounding nice. I’m working with quite a few artists, so you will be hearing them soon
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