"I like the way you speak..."
- The Funk

Yoshi interview-part 1

The following is the transcript of an interview that took place in Durrington, UK, April 20th 2005, and was conducted by Loubna Khamlichi:

L. Khamlichi: Introduce yourself

Y. Misdaq: Umm, I guess my name is Yoshi, and I'm a musician from Brighton.

LK: What first inspired you to express yourself through making music?

YM: I don't know if I ever was inspired. I was just a kid messing around, that's how I got into it.

LK: What did that involve then?

YM: Well.. okay, I'll try to explain it as simply as possible because it is a bit hard to verbalise. Basically, I used to put a blank tape in a hi-fi, then play a CD which had a drum loop on it, whilst recording the whole time, you know, so on the tape player I'd press pause quickly at the end of the drum loop, rewind the CD, press un-pause, and do that for like twenty minutes until I had about five minutes of that drum loop recorded on tape. Then I'd copy from that tape with the drums on it to another blank tape, whilst cueing up some sample from my dads' classical music collection, or some of his traditional Afghan music, or both! To go over the drums which are recording into the blank tape, so on the blank tape I'd have the drum loop, and an extra bit of sample which I recorded at the same time with the microphone. And you know, I'd just carry on doing it like that, adding layers of sound. It was just overdubbing really. Now I've grown up I hear that quite a few kids started this way.. that's crazy.

LK: Yeah I've heard of that technique but never really understood it.

YM: Yeah, it's weird, it's the sort of thing that only makes sense when you see a kid just doing it, the sort of thing kids do, just spend hours playing around and fiddling with technology to make it do something they like.

LK: And then would you rap over these tracks?

YM: Yeah eventually. The thing is though, the more tracks of sound you had, the more layers I mean.. well because I was recording again and again on the same two tapes, the sound quality would decrease with each layer. So I always had to be practical to try and not use too many samples- I didn't have that luxury like I do with the computer now- otherwise it would end up sounding really dusty and muted because of the tape.

LK: Wow. So what age were you when you started this?

YM: It was September '96, or thereabouts. I don't know how old I was then, but yeah.

LK: So what does it mean to you, your music? Does it have any special significance to you?

YM: Yeah. Yeah it does now. It didn't use to, like I say, because I just started out by messing around and having fun. But then as I got older it did start meaning more. I guess right now it's the main thing apart from my writing which I express myself with. I can't imagine not doing it all the time.

LK: So you write as well?

YM: Yeah I write as well. I write stories and stuff like that. I've done two books too, although none of them are published as of yet I'm still trying to figure out the best route there- that's a whole new world for me. So I do writing as well, but I'm trying to mix the writing and music together now more, so they don't have to be separate things, whereby I could make really abstract crazy writing and put that into lyrics. Before, a few years ago, my lyrics were quite obvious. In fact a lot of people would say they still are. But traditionally I had to simplify my lyrics in order to make them work within the confines of hip-hop beats. But now I want to be able to use the abstract and confident style I have with my writing and put that alongside the music, get a little more sophisticated with it, which is where I'm going right now.

L:K: So who are your influences?

YM: Miles Davis mainly. These days anyway! He was nuts, and the people he worked with too, just the whole career he had and what he did, it continues to inspire me. And… I guess in hip-hop, Rza… But basically people who did something different. People who did what they did in a different way. Brian Eno or Bill Laswell. I mean even the Beatles. Plus there's loads of more obscure people who I really love, but I've sampled them so I can't really be naming names can I?

LK: So it doesn't seem like there's that much hip-hop in those influences?

YM: Well, no, not as much these days. It used to be. Wu-tang, Nas. And I still love those two, but now I don't listen to as much hip-hop. I listen to maybe 5% hip-hop now, the other 95% is.. anything, a lot of different kinds of Jazz, international music from all over the place, a lot of old stuff too.

LK: So first of all, tell me about your debut album.

YM: Oh yeah. It was really good hehe. It's called 'From a western box' and it was a really political album I did, which was really dark. And if you look at the front cover which is just my big ugly face staring out of the blackness, then you'll kind of get the vibe of it hehe. So it's quite raw, it's a really raw album emotionally, dark, and yeah I just made it at a time when it was all political in the music and hip-hop scene, so I didn't really want to be too overtly political like everyone else and talk about the war and Bush and so on. I tried to hint more at it and not be too focused on beating you round the head with my views, 'cos I was going through a lot then personally too. I was in a crazy time in my life emotionally, so yeah, it's just a very raw record generally.

LK: When did that come out?

YM: Last year, I guess roughly this time last year, it was March 2004 that it was released. Yeah it got really good reviews, and I'm happy with it. I mean you can tell I was young at certain points, immature with the style or some of my conclusions etc. and it's not all as sophisticated as where I'm getting to now, but for what it is I'm satisfied…

LK: So you've got something else coming out now, what is it?

YM: I've got, basically, an album coming out now which is the biggest, best thing I've ever done. Ever. So far anyway. It's called 'Flowers & Trees' and it's just very very happy, opposite of the last one. I started working on this literally a week or so after my first one came out last year, so I just wanted to react to myself straight away and do something extremely positive. You know something that I could show everyone who I know and have everyone be smiling at it. You know my family too. Because my first album was really dark, I couldn't really play hardly any of the tracks to anyone like family, because it was just me at my most miserable abstract and crazy, sitting alone in the studio… So this is just a million times more positive.

LK: So why is it called 'Flowers & Trees'?

YM: It's named after the title track, and me and my cousin came up with it about two years ago. My cousin 'scepter makes beats too, he's unbelievable- a few years younger than me even. And every time I'm with my family in America, me and him just try and come up with songs and concepts and albums. So he came up with the beat, the framework I guess, and we were so excited about it, 'cos we're producers we could both see how good it was, and how much potential it had. So we were thinking 'let's write something right now'. So the first concept was, I said to my cousin "Okay, you rap as if you're a tree, I'm gonna rap like I'm a flower." I remember he even came up with a few lines about climbing trees, although I'm not sure I ever wrote anything that night. It was crazy. But then, I came back to England for University, and it stopped for a while. But the song kept coming back to me, usually during essay deadline times hehe, and I had been working on it too in my own studio, added some keyboards and layering quite a few extra samples on it, and I just began to start thinking about it seriously again. Basically the whole album came from that one song. I mean the name 'Flowers & Trees' doesn't really mean much anymore, except as an abstract representation of the whole album and its themes.

LK: So what kind of themes and topics do you tackle?

YM: Well, firstly, mainly, it's childhood. Going back to childhood, which I guess is natural for me, I do it a lot, I think about that a lot, and I'm kind of a sentimental guy who looks back a lot and gets all misty-eyed which is a bit silly. But yeah, the magic of childhood, seeing things from a young perspective. And you know, there's nature too, returning to nature. And I guess, a few themes which are quite abstract, to the point that even I don't know the significance of them but they're there! Like water, water plays a big part in this album. And I suppose it's just representing the notion of freedom, freedom of expression, doing what you want to do. The idea that kids have when they just go out and play, which like I said is how I got into music in the first place.

LK: So would you say that freedom is another theme?

YM: Definitely. I mean I made all the tracks when I was "feeling free" if you get me. It's not like I sit there in my studio and say "now I have to make this or that kind of thing…" It's just free, I do what I want and let it go. So with all the tracks on this album, they all happened spontaneously, in that same spirit of child-like experimentation that just allows things to happen.

LK: So do you stick rigidly to song structure? Do you count the bars and things like that or is it really just how you feel?

YM: Right… I suppose I do count the bars kind of unofficially sometimes, just to make it easier for myself, but... yeah I don't know.

LK: It doesn't give that impression on the album though.

YM: No, it doesn't you're right, but like you say, that's because, essentially I do, for the most part, go with the flow. Haha, I guess compared to other MC's I really don't pay much attention to bars... There are a lot of tracks on the album for example, I'll have just one verse, like on the song 'The Funk'. It's just one long verse, and then I decided at the end to have this funny little chorus. But that's not a normal structure is it? I'll just write, and continue to write, I think it would be a bit pretentious of me to break it up so that it has to have three verses or something like a conventional pop song. Like on the title track, my first verse is 32 bars, which is too long really, but I wrote it all at once, and it flows. So I couldn't chop it in half and put a chorus there in the middle at 16 bars; if it doesn't feel natural then I can't do it.

LK: So any collaborations on the album?

YM: There's one lady called Rahma Ali who is really amazing [laughing]. She's local, and she's Muslim like me, which is nice! I saw her CD in Brighton and I was just really excited when I bought it and started listening properly. It fit in perfectly because it was just the time when I was thinking to do something positive and I was in this flurry of making new stuff after the first album had come out. So it all came together nicely. Also there's my man David who's a producer and MC, and he really reminds me a lot of my cousin Diamondscepter (the one who co-produced the title track with me.) and I guess he also reminds me a lot of me just one or two years ago too. David's cool, and we have a similar outlook on making music, he always sends me tunes when I get on MSN, and I send him some back, not our music, but just good old music, good new stuff that neither of us might not know about. So we're both open minded in that respect which is why I was so happy to have him drop a verse on the title track.

LK: Is your cousin Diamondscepter also the one you have the conversation with on the skit?

YM: Yeah exactly! That's us talking! But let me ask you, when you heard us talking on that track, do I sound American?

LK: Yeah a little bit at times.

YM: See that's… Annoying, because when I'm with him, when I'm back visiting all my parents and family in America, but especially with him, I switch straight back a little to the hybrid slang I got when I'm over there, which is Brighton meets D.C. / Virginia slang… And I'm worried because I know mainly English people will be hearing this album. I mean it's a UK album for goodness sake. And when I was growing up here, there was nothing sadder to me than certain people in U.K. hip-hop who would put on American accents even though they're from the UK. So I don't want anyone to think I'm putting anything on, it just comes naturally because I spent so much of my time with my family in America.

LK: So do you worry a lot about how people will react to you? And your music, because it's quite different.

YM: Hmmm. Yeah, it is different isn't it? Yeah I do worry to be honest with you. It would be more cool to say I don't care, but I do. Not to the point where it's gonna affect me though. But I always think about that, because I can't help but think about how other people are going to like it. And maybe it even affects some of the decisions I make musically, although if it did that would be subconscious. But yeah I'm very sensitive to all the different groups who hear my music, because I want to appeal to everyone, 'cos I feel like that's the way I am in life, like I've got a lot of friends who are what you might call townies, and conversely a lot of friends who you'd consider hippies or whatever, some work, some are students, some are 'Au Pairs' man! I mean I got friends from all over the world, all these different kinds of people, even my brothers at the mosque who I see around town. So I want to be able to make something that's going to appeal to every one of these people and not alienate anyone. So I guess that is something I probably think about consciously.

LK: So do you feel you've progressed musically on this second album?

YM: Yeah definitely. I mean I'm always progressing. [Pause] Yeah I don't really know how, I think it's just a natural progression. I might say my flow has gotten a bit tighter, but mainly I think I'm getting more at ease with the microphone, being in front of it, and putting myself across as a personality that people can relate to. Because on my first album I was really feeling awkward about who I was... and in many ways I still think that I'm on the edge, because in some ways I don't relate to anyone at all. Then in other ways I relate quite a lot. So it's weird. It's like walking the line between being an outcast and being someone everyone knows. But I'm getting more comfortable and you'll hear that mass appeal kinda persona a lot on 'Flowers & Trees'.

... go get a glass of water.... part two