"It Has To Be That UK Underground Thing": In Conversation With Faze Miyake

Woofer Music’s boss Faze Miyake first blew up with ‘Take Off’, a track that utilised a very English grime sound palette (mid-range heavy/trembling horns) in a very hip hop influenced manner. It’s a trait that pretty much perforates the wealth of material available to hear on his soundcloud. In fact, after following him now for a little while, it’s fair to say that this type of hard hitting, spacious production has become his trademark; the lad really seems to know when to relax things and back off out of his pomp filled riffs and he’s able to drive a slick rhythm with just a kick, a snare and a hi hat. He’s being pushing his unique take on rap influenced grime music since before all those trap remix videos started popping up online and making you want to put a pencil in each nostril and butt your work desk like a walrus would, really sodding hard. Having produced beats for new school emcees like Kozzie and Merky Ace as well as self-releasing a trio of EPs, Faze signed to Rinse Recordings last year and has since been perfecting his debut album, something that weighs heavy on our conversation when we met the producer in The Longroom in Farringdon or a rainy Thursday afternoon ahead of his appearance at Rinse’s Boxing Day party on… um… Boxing Day. So what’s going on with you right now? I’m nearly done on my album. Its juts the vocal side that’s taking a bit longer, getting the right features. You must be sitting on a lot of music, right? It’s been a while since you’ve put something out? Of course man. I’ve got tunes that even I don’t care about anymore! The only reason I’m still sitting on them is because I don’t know what I’m actually gonna put on my album yet. I made most of my album fresh, but a lot of it might be old stuff - especially the instrumental side. I want to still keep it me and just show people what I’ve been doing all this time. So when did you sign for Rinse? This time last year; probably November I think… so it’s been literally a whole year I’ve been working on this album. I mean I’ve worked on other people’s projects, made other music and I’ve been doing shows as well so it’s been on and off. I worked on Merky Ace’s two mixtapes but obviously that’s just my mate, so… And you’re still doing the Woofer Music stuff? Yeah, yeah. Obviously I’ve been working on my album so I’m not sure what to put out on my label but I’ve always got that in mind. I’ve got my Woofer t-shirts that I brought out recently, I’m gonna do some more colours soon, I only pressed like 100 which I’ll probably be throwing some of them out at fabric… [laughs] Is there a cut-off date for the album? We were aiming for Christmas time, but a couple of the features are kind of longing us out so now, it’s probably next year. I just want to get it out. It’s what you’d expect from me. Everyone who’s heard the stuff, from the staff in the Rinse office to the DJs I’ve played bits to; everyone’s said it’s sick. But everyone at Rinse loves grime… It feels like you come from somewhere that’s a bit more… rap? Yeah and I’ll be honest, before the whole trap thing kicked off – I mean I’d be happy if I [was the one who] started it - but I was making all that stuff so long ago that now everyone’s doing it I’m like, let me just try something different. Like I’ve still got that influence in me and I probably always will and I’m not trying to move away from it, but the same way I jumped in when no one around me was doing it, I wanna do the same thing now and just branch out a bring something new to the table again. A lot of the people/producers/artists who I found out about at the same time as I did you are now all leading their fields in a way. What made you want to sign with Rinse…? I feel like Rinse was the right place for me in terms of what I want to do. I’ve always been into underground UK music and Rinse are the top dogs in that scene so it was only right for me. I always want to, not necessarily stay in the UK underground, but my sound will always be of that. Whatever genre it is I’m making, it has to be that UK underground thing. With my album, every tune is different but the sound remains the same, its heavy - there’s not really any soft tunes, so it’s what you might expect from me in that sense but there’s probably a tune for everyone. I’ve got Sasha Go Hard on there, CAS on there, Family Tree on there and then the rest of it is just singers so there’s literally a tune for everybody, grime, rap and then… CAS… who I don’t even know where to put him… Yeah, I wanted to ask you about CAS actually… (Read our introduction to CAS' work here) He was round my house the other day making a tune. He’s a proper artist. I don’t think there is anyone else like him. And I would say in the UK, I’d say everywhere he’s just nuts. There’s shades of Necro in him, but that’s just because of the things he’s talking about but there’s no one you can even think of who a) raps in an English accent and talks about that stuff and b) does it as well as he does... And he directs all of his own videos. Yeah. Are you gonna do any visual stuff for your album? I think we’re definitely gonna do something for the CAS one, we’ve been speaking about it. So it’s coming next year? It has to be! I’m used to being in my house and knocking out a mixtape within a month, y’know!?! But I guess it’s better when you don’t rush it. I feel like just because I’ve been sitting on this music for so long doesn’t mean it won’t be anticipated; as long as I’m still on radio and people are hearing the music at shows but they can’t actually get their hands on it… That’s how I’ve always thought about it. Like before I was even on radio myself, I’d go to somewhere and give the DJ my CD and when he’s done [playing it] I’ll take it back and take it home. Like, you can play the tunes but you can’t have it [laughs]. Download Faze's most recent Rinse FM show here. Photos: Sarah Ginn