Roots Manuva: 'My whole career is just like a massive mistake'

Hello Rodney, how are you?

This is the half-an-hour thing, is it?

Well, yes. It probably won't last half an hour, to be honest.

The crazy, tongue-in-cheek one, is it?

That's the idea. Where are you at the moment?

I'm in (pauses for a bit) Surrey at the moment. Leafy Surrey. It's one of my many homes (laughs).

You sound a bit sleepy. Have you just woken up?

No, I've had a cold for the past few days. Woken up? No, not with a 16-month-old who wakes up all night long.

How many kids have you got Rodney?

Too many. I've lost count.

What did you have for breakfast?

(Silence) I think just a coffee. I did the school run this morning and I don't think I had anything.

How has being called Rodney defined you?

It's made me very oddly secondhand British, I think, because it's not a name the British use any more. It's been taken up by the old empire subjects from Jamaica and it's supposedly quite regal from the context my parents were using it. But it's out of date. I'm a walking time warp.

I had a look at some famous Rodneys and there are a lot of footballers. (1)

I didn't know that. You're educating me here. There's a rapper called Rodney P and there's a dancehall rapper called Rodney Price.

When I told a friend I was interviewing you, she said: "Will you get to 'witness the fitness'?" How does it feel to have a catchphrase?(2)

(Laughs) A bit weird. It doesn't even belong to me, you know. I think I get paid royalties for it being put on T-shirts and I didn't even create it.

Is it true the beat on Witness (1 Hope) came about because you were trying to recreate the Doctor Who theme tune?

Yeah, how did you know that?

I've been doing my research.(3)

Good on you, man. Most journalists are just rubbish. I've got a different quality of journo here. I would never have thought.

This is The Guardian, you know.

But you're all supposed to be resting on your laurels. You've all become designer socialists, wearing Clarks and going to Bestival every year.

Amazing. How close do you come to recreating the Doctor Who theme?

That's the glory of my production-making and my musicality. I'm really rubbish at recreating things so I always go miles off the mark, but I ended up sticking with it. It's part of my motto – my whole career is just like a massive mistake. I end up somewhere and, between record labels and management and friends, they're like: "Hey, this is great." And I'm like: "Yeah? Is it?" And then 10 years later I'm a bit: "Oh yeah, actually, it's all right."

Before you were signed, a record label asked you to cover Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls. Did you ever do it?

Wow, where did you get this information from? (4) Yeah, there is a white label of a 17-year-old, pre-Roots Manuva Rodney Smith somewhere, doing a rap version of West End Girls. It was a re-take and it just uses the chorus.

If I searched online, would I find it?

I hope not. I'd rather you didn't.

The Times declared you "the voice of urban Britain" a few years ago. What did you make of that tag?

Erm ... I think it's quite a responsibility (laughs). One of the many voices of urban Britain, maybe. I don't even know what it means now. Back then they were trying to give validation to what was considered a primarily American creativity, an American musical nuance. It was all part of a hype machine that has lead to the sonic landscape that we have today. It's all in a day's work.

It almost feels as if it's now a tag that people are actively trying to claim – for example, Plan B with Ill Manors – rather than wait to have it bestowed on them. People are wanting to become the voice of people who don't have a voice.

Yeah, I think just, generally, there's this all-encompassing art form that comes from the original street culture that was hip-hop and which has influenced every kind of music there is, but that we're not necessarily calling hip-hop, and so urban was a tag that in one broad stroke was supposed to sum up the general feel of people's social and economic position...Oh, I don't bloody know! (laughs) I think the urban thing is pretty weird because it's got that connotation of council estates that are really rundown but a lot of council estates these days are really nice and they're run by the tenants. Today, there's a lot of people living in seaside towns - which aren't "urban" - and they're more disenfranchised than the people in inner cities.

You famously rapped about your love of cheese on toast on your debut album, Brand New Second Hand, but what do you make of people adding Worcester sauce, Marmite, tomatoesetc?(5)

I don't really have it that often. The closest I get to cheese on toastis a thin-crust pizza from Pizza Express.

You often rework your own discography – dub versions of whole albums, remixes, sequel songs etc. Why's that?

I think because before committing to one song there are always a million different versions. I think in the listening back to the journey towards the original song we always think it's nice to share the journey by having all the sonic ambling before we got there. For me every song is just a reference point and it's always evolving. Due to working with live musicians and generally rehearsing, you're constantly hearing things in different ways.

How do you know when a song is finished?

When you've spent too much money on it. When you've spent about 20 weeks trying to find a certain snare drum, that's when you have to stop. I'm always after a quality, a nuance, that in my head no one's record should have. I don't want to do anything that someone else has alreadydone. Everyone uses drums, everyone uses basslines and everyone's got a rap on it (laughs). It's an impossible situation. I'm trying to get everything as organic as possible – I'm trying to make sure my special effects and the studios I use aren't the same as everyone else. I try to make sure I'm using keyboards and microphones that nobody else knows about and I even try and change the power sources so that it sounds slightly different. All these things, they might only be apparent to me but it makes me feel better that in the ocean of new music that's released today, I can honestly say with every album that I have gone the extra yard to try to present the world with another universe. Never just sat on a laptop in a bedroom in my mum's house with a couple of spliffs and bashed out an album.

In 2008, you said you wanted to work with James Blunt , and also commented that Will Young had "tone for days". Can we expect a Radio 2-friendly MOR collaboration album?

I've just turned 40. I need to open my mind. You know what, even though I probably shouldn't say, but right now I'm looking for new management, so I'm open for many things (laughs). Maybe you can be my new manager?

Let's do it! Hasn't James Blunt retired though?

He's had enough of music, but music is the buzz. Most people think they can get out, but it's still there burning. As long as he's alive, that bug could come back screaming.

Were you joking though about James Blunt?

It wasn't a joke at all. I know two people that play in his band and they were saying how they were listening to some of my music on tour and I was like: "Hey, get him to do a tune with me. Kidnap him, bring him down to our studio." It never happened.

Before your last album 4everevolution was released, you said you were inspired by "posh women driving posh cars". What's been inspiring you of late?

Toys, really.

Could we have a whole concept album based around toys?

Yeah. I've also been messing around with a symphony for ages. That started off with me trying to find the most realistic synthesisers that sound like orchestras and now I've got so frustrated and I can't do it with synthesisers any more so I'll have to go and find an orchestra and do it properly.

They're probably quite expensive.

Yeah, £450 a player. Each day! I really want a massive sound so I want to start with 36 musicians.(6)

OK, here's what you need to do. You need to do the big pop single, make some cash and then do the symphony thing.

You're in your management role already! I like it!

I saw on Twitter that your kids broke the needle on your record player recently. You don't have that problem with MP3s, so why bother with vinyl?

You listen with another part of your brain. You go through the effort of picking up a piece of vinyl or even knowing where a piece of vinyl is that you want to play. It makes you listen in different ways. It's a different pace of listening. With MP3s you don't get that emotional attachment you do with a 12in or a 7in.

What do you make of HMV going into administration?

It would be detrimental to me if it closes because last time I looked HMV were responsible for at least 65% of my physical sales (laughs). So I was like: "Woah, what do I do now?"

Well, that's the end Rodney.

I thought it was meant to be half an hour?!

We can talk for a few more minutes if you like?

(Laughs). Oh no, you've put me on the spot now!

Foot notes

(1)Rodney Allen, Rodney Bailey, Rodney Marsh, Rodney Ferguson, Rodney Carter, Rodney Culver, Rodney Hampton, we could go on.
Back to article

(2)
"Witness the fitness" is a line taken from the song Witness (1 Hope). According to Urban Dictionary, it's also something a young woman might say when an attractive man enters a room. Back to article

(3)
Wikipedia. Back to article

(4)
Wikipedia. Back to article

(5)
You can also add mustard and/or mayonnaise but that's complete madness. Back to article

(6)
That's £16,200 per day, maths fans. Back to article

Roots Manuva's Banana Skank EP is out now