Labrinth is SyCo’s latest signing but he doesn’t need a popstar bootcamp
For anyone else on Simon Cowell’s SyCo label, a year’s silence after their debut top three single would have them filling in the Tesco application form. But 22-year-old producer Labrinth isn’t worried. In fact, he’s looking very comfortable on the leather sofa in the corner of Mosaica, restaurant, hidden away on an industrial estate in north-west London. He should do too: he co-owns the place, and his studio’s just upstairs. “I’ve been eating here since I was 15,” he says, “so when they gave me the chance to buy in two years ago, I jumped at the chance.” Since then, Plan B has been in for lunch while Adele and Tinie Tempah have come for dinner. It also happens to be where he’s been hiding out for the last year.
Apparently, the silence is all down to Labrinth’s procrastination. Even now, single Earthquake has had to be prised out of his hands. “My manager was like, Lab, let’s go. Come on now,” he says. “But I’m a worrier. I over-think. When I was younger, I’d be in the studio three days straight to get something right and my manager would be like ‘Go home!’ Even now, I still sleep in the studio sometimes, but I can’t do it quite as often. I’ve got gigs, I can’t have my hobo beard! But if you love what you’re doing, you can’t stop. It’s obsessive.”
Despite insisting that he’s been taking his time, it feels like a lot has happened very quickly for this young artist. When Tinie Tempah’s massive No 1 hit, Pass Out, which Labrinth produced, co-wrote and featured on, was released in 2009, he was suddenly at the centre of a massive bidding war between labels. The winner, somewhat surprisingly, was Simon Cowell. He was Cowell’s first non-reality show signing in six years, but Labrinth says it was a considered decision. “SyCo wanted to use my services as a producer. But when I went to the office, and they heard my vocals, they thought I had something.”
What’s followed has been a kind of self-taught popstar bootcamp. “Before Pass Out, I’d been in the studio non-stop for four years. Not speaking to anyone. I ran into [signing with SyCo] with blinded eyes, I was so excited. But [I realised] being an artist isn’t just making music and putting it out, it’s live performances, interviews, photoshoots,” he says. “I played millions of festivals and shows this year to get my confidence up. It might seem crazy, in this industry no one wants to disappear, but I’m prepared to work hard.”
He grew up in Hackney, east London, but Labrinth (real name Timothy McKenzie) isn’t about to tell a sad backstory worthy of an X Factor contestant. “Hackney’s not that bad, it really isn’t,” he says, before immediately correcting himself. “It was very bad, it was terrible – people were getting stabbed all the time, people were getting shot. But if you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find trouble. I was fine, I had morals, my mum made us respectful children – wise, but streetwise as well. And I was in the studio all the time.” His dad walked out on the family shortly after Labrinth was born. “My mother bought up nine children, in Hackney, and none of us are criminals, none of us in jail. Her strength made me who I am today.”
It was his mother who introduced Labrinth to his manager, Marc Williams, when he was 15. Then an aspiring rapper, Labrinth only turned to producing to make beats for his lyrics. “I know it sounds a bit airy-fairy, but my mum is a spiritual person and she felt Marc’s energy. Instantly she was like, ‘You need to work with this guy.’ And he did exactly what my mum thought he would do. Building me up as a person, being a mentor.” Labrinth and Marc worked with Tinie Tempah – who Labrinth knew through his brother, a session musician – and made Pass Out. “He was from the grime scene, and I didn’t think it would work. But I think we were both at a point where we wanted to make something that was different and unique and not Americanised. English urban artists were very used to making secondhand American music, and I thought that was boring,” he says.
Pass Out made Tinie Tempah a household name and Labrinth admits to jealousy. “At first I was like, what about me? I did the production,” he admits. “But in time people will know. Tinie was an amazing frontman, respect to him. If I wanted recognition, I should have made it a Labrinth record.” Maybe he should get artists to sing his name at the start of the track, like RedOne? “I really hate that,” he laughs. “No one wants to sing someone else’s name at the start of their song. Branding your song is the worst thing you can ever do. That’s turning your song into a product.”
Unlike Tinie Tempah, Labrinth has turned down offers from the US (“One step at a time. I don’t want to be a little fish in a big pond”), but work is never far away. By now, Labrinth’s manager has popped down to remind him that if he doesn’t get back to the studio, he won’t get his next single out “until 2013”. And so he’s off. “Even if nothing comes out of it, this year has been crazy, it’s been amazing. It’s all been worth it,” he says. “It’s like school – I was nervous at first, but now I know my playground and I’m ready to have fun. It’s my turn now.”•
Earthquake is out on Sun (SyCo)
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