As the queen of UK Dancehall, Lady Chann has been at the top of the scene for a while now. We were honoured recently to hold a remix competition for one of her tracks and following the announcement of the winner, Matt Tarr caught up with Chann to find out her thoughts on it, plus ask her a few other bits…
So the first thing I wanted to talk about was the recent remix competition we ran on the site for your track ‘Knowledge’ ft Flowdan…
Lady Chann: Yeah it was sick. I picked two favourites and they’re gonna be on the EP coming out at the end of October. We were gonna do it as a single with those two as additional tracks, but I’m actually gonna have them as part of the EP. I loved doing it though and I appreciate everyone taking part.
What was it like having your track mashed up and turned into so many different things?
Lady Chann: I always embrace it because it’s someone’s interpretation. I hear remixes sometimes and they just change the instrumental and they don’t play around with your vocal, but I like that and I’m always curious to hear what they’re gonna do with it. To me, there’s not a bad remix and a good remix; I just like the difference of creativity and how differently everyone perceives stuff.
Having worked with a number of grime MC’s this year and in the past, are there any left that you’d still like to work with?
Lady Chann: I’d like to do something fresh with Big Narstie. We’ve been on a track together in the past and I’ve been speaking to him to get some fresh stuff. But I love all of the Grime lot and throughout the year I’ve been lucky enough to be on sets with a lot of them. I don’t wanna over do it though; I thought it was the right time for this collaboration EP. I just wanted to show that different genres could work together.
Carnival seems like ages ago now, but it’s always an event where different genres come together. How was your experience this year?
Lady Chann: I came down on the Monday and was on the Toddla T stage. They had Sean Paul there and a lot of dancehall artists, because obviously that’s what Toddla does. The reception was wicked and it’s like coming home for me cos I’m from West London, so it was great.
Toddla T has been a great supporter of your music throughout your career…
Lady Chann: Yeah we kind of came up at the same time, so when he was on radio at first, he helped me out. He moved down from Sheffield to London and we developed a friendship and I took him to spots where we could get drinks and include him. He’s got such a nice vibe that I just wanted to include him in the London life. Obviously once he was doing his thing, he included me which is always a pleasure.
Can we expect the pair of you to work together on any projects in the near future?
Lady Chann: Yeah definitely. I always say nothing’s done until it’s supposed to be done. But we have spoken about it and we will get a little project going together at some point which will be nice. A lot of fans ask me about it and like I say, we have spoken about it over the years but sometimes we’re off on different tangents or over on different sides of the world which makes it difficult. But I’ll speak to him and sort something out for everyone.
Tell us a bit about the next release we can expect from you…
Lady Chann: So everything I’ve been doing this year is for an EP called CorrupChann. It’s called that because I’ve come to corrupt everyone. It’s Grime meets Bashment, so I’ve collaborated with Grime artists. The first was ‘Slew Dem & Dun’, then we moved on to ‘Knowledge’ with Flowdan and the new one is called ‘Not Me’ with Rage from Slew Dem. I’m also gigging alongside it and getting ready to do some new stuff in the new year.
You performed at I Luv Live recently; is playing live something you enjoy doing?
Lady Chann: Definitely, it’s my favourite part of the whole process. When I create in the studio, I always create knowing that I’m gonna be performing it. Some artists don’t enjoy the live process which I think is a bit weird cos then they’re just locked away in the studio. But playing live is important to me and it makes me a living as well. The I Luv Live show was a stripped back acoustic show too.
We’ve seen so many sides to your music talents over the years, but is there a particular part of performing that you prefer eg singing, rapping etc?
Lady Chann: I’m a melodic person so everything I do has to have melody. I don’t know if I have a preference but at certain times I know it’s time for this part or that part. Whatever track or instrumental I get, I just assess it and see which bit needs some singing or which needs just bars. If you can do both you just know where to slot them in. I like them both and I wouldn’t like to be able to do one and not the other.
Lady Chann’s EP CorrupChann is set to be released in October. Make sure you’re following Chann on Twitter and Facebook to get all the latest news and info on the release.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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