Artist Spotlight: Blue Lab Beats
One of the fastest rising and eclectic acts in world music, production duo Blue Lab Beats are set to be frontrunners in the jazz and Afro scenes for years to come.
Consisting of multi-instrumentalists/producers David Mrakpor and NK-OK, Blue Lab Beats have grown into an incredibly impressive musical partnership, combining a deft concoction of generic influences to build a sound that is uniquely and strikingly their own. Since their 2018 debut ‘Xover’, the guys have gone from strength to strength; channelling their inner most creativity and challenging stylistic conformity, delivering swift proclamations of vibrancy. Their dazzling individuality and fabulous musical nuance has seen the pair nominated for a MOBO and Grammy award.
It’s been a busy year for Blue Lab, with several releases fattening their already bulging stock. Their early 2021 EP ‘We Will Rise’, which features regular collaborators Ghetto Boy and Kojey Radical, is a love letter to the culture and a colourful conquest, whilst contributions to ‘The Sounds of Afrotronica’ show a striking musical maturity. The pair have been building up steam towards the release of their new album ‘Motherland Journey‘, set for release early next year, with a series of kaleidoscopic, genre-spanning singles. ‘Dat It’ with Kiefer is an expressive and exciting instrumental journey, whilst standout offering ‘Labels’ features brilliant turns from R&B stalwart Tiana Major9 and Birmingham’s very own Kofi Stone. The final single before the release of the highly anticipated body of work is the title track; a Afro-infused, joy-inducing bundle of colour, featuring production from Ghanian super-producer Killbeatz, as well as vocals from the late Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with NK-Ok and David to discuss the upcoming album, their Grammy nomination, their live set up and their boundless musical style.
When did you begin producing?
I started making beats when I was like age 12. I come from a very musical family. My mum. Was a DJ, my dad was doing production. My nan had a massive jazz collection.
When did you begin collaborating and producing together?
We met at Weekend Arts college in North London, about 10 years ago now. It’s been a minute!
Do you feel like you know each others strengths and weaknesses?
Yeah! We make tracks super quick now. The best demonstration of that is our ‘Against The Clock’
Who’s influencing you at the moment, sonically and personally?
Kiefer is amazing, it was such a pleasure to work with him on ‘That It’. Sonically, Flying Lotus, and Alice Coltrane is incredible. I think that when you’re making your own record, you are mainly just in your own zone so you don’t really get the chance to listen to that much else.
I guess you take influence from yourself then?
Yeah, on this record especially. Our deadline was pushed back a few times. It was really important for us to connect within ourselves more so, especially near the end. It’s so important to properly be in your zone.
You as producers, as creators, are so impossible to pin down in terms of sound and style, especially with the upcoming record. Why do you opt for such a varied approach?
Because we do black music. Me and David went to Ghana, and hearing the amount of sub-genres they have there, the amount of people that they collaborate with there is amazing. We always had a mixture of genres before but after going there, we took it to another level. It showed us to not be scared of the ‘genre’ word, we just have to make great music with each other.
I think hip hop and R&B has become so mainstream now. I think if all of us just worked as one it would be absolutely insane, we saw over there how much of a vibe it is.
It’s interesting how you spoke about genre there. I’ve always thought that the industry is too secular and constrained with its categorisation of sound. From a producers point of view, how do you think we can move on from that?
For me, when every other genre can be the same level of pop. It’s a strategy thing for the big labels, they want all their artists on another level with commercialisation. What is happening in Africa is that Afrobeats is taking over, and amapiano is coming up and will destroy everything. It already is in clubs. When I heard it in Ghana, I just thought it to be an incredible genre - the same beat could carry on for like an hour and I would not care, it’s so beautiful. For stuff to move on, everything needs to get to pops level, then good music can conquer all.
You’ve just been Grammy nominated… congratulations! That’s absolutely insane! How does it feel?
Yeah wow! We just remember the whole process working with Angelique Kidjo really. It was a simple zoom call, and she really explained exactly what she was hearing in the track, before even discussing it. It was so artistic, so beautiful. She explained what textures she wanted before we even started the track.
That must be a dream for a producer!
For me it made life so much easier, but also made it clear that she just knows what she’s talking about, she’s been in the business so long. Just to work with her on it, and of course shout out to Ghetto Boy because he killed his verse. It was one take. He wrote his part in like ten minutes. He’s an outrageously fast writer, I’ve never seen anyone write as fast as him. We’ve worked with a lot of quick vocalists, like Kojey Radical was super quick, Tiana Major makes melodies insanely. Ghetto near enough freestyles his verses. He’ll write bits but then prefers to keep the freestyle. To get back to the point, it just feels insane that we are Grammy nominated producers, just to have that as a title is nuts. The MOBO nomination for best jazz is crazy too. The last few weeks have just been insane. We’ve got a new booking agent too and a bunch of gigs have just come in that we cannot wait to announce!
In terms of gigs, what’s your live set up?
There’s 3 stages to our live set up. They’ll just be me and David, me on my drum machine with a mini MIDI control that controls the separate stems so I can take stuff out and bring it back in and put effects on it.
David: On my side I’ll have a guitar and a keyboard, sometimes a vibraphone or a bass.
So that’s stage 1, stage 2 will include a saxophonist and a trumpet player. Then stage 3 is vocal features and a drummer. By that point it’s a big show. It’s me and David plus six to seven other features.
Crazy, must be a whole experience to see that!
Definitely. We very much do it in stages. First 15 minutes it’s just me and David, and you are getting to know who we are and what we’re about. Then, we bring on feature by feature, and by the last 20 minutes it’s me, David, a live drummer and two horn players. By that point it’s just crazy, it’s a whole different gig to where it started.
That’s sick. It’s different to when there’s only like a solo performer in comparison to a whole concerto of sound.
Yeah 100%. When we are performing it’s like; I’m playing the original track, then there is samples from the original track that I play on my drum machine. You get a hip hop experience there with the DJ and sampling infusion. Then David is soloing on top, playing the main melodies.
The last single before the release of the album, the title track ‘Motherland Journey’, is out on 10th December. Why have you decided for this to be the final single before the album release?
I think it’s just a very strong track, probably one of our strongest ever tracks. Obviously to have Fela Kuti featured on it too is insane! Me and David are still processing the fact that he’s on our track, to get an acapella from his publisher and ended up on our record. We had to contact so many people for the one acapella. We received it, publishers liked it, then we had to contact everyone else. Fela’s family, Fela’s Nigerian state, his Nigerian publishers, and the publisher and label in Europe. Normally with a feature it’s just contact the manager, they contact the label and it’s done. Not this one!
It paid off in the end because it’s a stunning track! Talk me through the creative process around the track?
It was actually a very crazy car journey in Ghana. It was supposed to be a 20 minute drive but it turned into an hour and a half ride and we stopped off at one point because we thought it was the right place, but then we see one person come out and say ‘Who are you?’ It’s not here! Then a security guy comes out of the shadows and walks in the most robotic, terminator-esque way and stops and stares at us, doesn’t say anything. Then he just says ‘Go’. We were like oh shit we gotta go! Then luckily, the producer we worked with Killbeats was just down the road so we eventually got to him but we were nearly like let’s just call it a day it’s too long. But yeah, we obviously worked with Killbeats, who has worked with Ed Sheeran and other huge artists in Ghana and Nigeria. We made the vibe with him real quick. He had a little rough chord progression and then David changed it up. It was actually the one track that I don’t do that much drum programming because Killbeats did loads of it. I only did additional fills at the end of the process. Then we took it back to the UK to lay down the horns. We knew about the Fela acapella for ages but for months I felt like I couldn’t touch it, but when this track came along I just felt that it would be perfect for it.
On the upcoming project and just in general, your array of features is insane. What is it about collaboration that you love and thrive on?
The main thing for us to get along with whoever it is that we are collaborating with. We’ll speak for like half an hour before even pressing anything at the studio. In the studio I have my Nintendo Switch and a TV plugged in and they can just do that whilst I’m editing or whatever. I try to make it as chilled as possible for the artists.
One of my favourites is the Kofi feature, how did that collaboration come about?
I can’t remember if he contacted us or vice versa. I just remember randomly finding him on Spotify and thinking his flow and wordplay is unbelievable. It’s hilarious because my second name is Kofi as well, so just with the name alone I was like yeah he’s my brother. So we got some studio dates in. He’s the funniest guy. For the session, he said that he needed a trim because he had something the day after. It meant that he only had an hour to record but he said that it was no worries that it was plenty of time. So he comes in looking fresh for the session, literally does first verse in one take, second verse in one take and he’s like cool I’m gone.
That’s unreal. For me he’s one of the most underrated in the UK.
Yeah he’s one of the coldest. With Tiana Major 9, I’ve known her since I was like 16 I think so for 6 years. When we were recording with her back then, it was her third ever studio session. She was doing a lot of live shows but not much in the studio, and I just remember her being unsure at points, and that compared to now is mind-blowing.
For your point of view, what are you trying to convey with the album?
To not be scared of doing a bunch of genres. It’s a showcase of black music, and is all about not being scared to experiment with style. Your sound will always be there when you enter another genre, it’s just understanding the similarity to our previous stuff. It’s mainly just challenging ourselves. Me and David wanted to experiment with more Afrobeats stuff after doing ‘Pineapple’, we properly wanted to explore the area within our sound. On the album though, there are tracks like ‘Labels’, when you recognise the drum patterns from previous Blue Lab stuff, but then there’s an orchestra and Kofi being an amazing MC. It’s just coming out of our comfort zone as much as possible.
If you were introducing yourself to someone who’d never heard your music before, what track would you put on?
If they’re more into afro then I’d play the title track, but if it’s more of a hip hop head then I’d go for ‘Labels’.
What’s next for you post album?
We’re just touring. At the start of January we’ll have a tour list of where we are playing. The world is obviously still really insane but wherever we can play we want to go and play there. Hopefully by the end of next year it’ll be a lot easier to do bigger gigs around the world.