Having just released his latest EP, we caught up with UK producer Rymez, famed for his work on Wiley’s number one 2014 summer smash ‘Heatwave’, to talk about the EP, his most recent track ‘Crazy For Your Love’ and learn more about his musical background…
MT: Now that ‘Crazy For Your Love’ has been out for a little while, what has the feedback been like?
Rymez: It’s a bit overwhelming cos I did this song last year with Wiley and it was just sitting there. My manager kept saying, ‘yo this song is really, really good’ and so I was trying to think of who I could get on the second and third verses. We tried a few artists but in my head I always wanted to get Sneakbo. We managed to get him on it last minute and then played it to DJ Target, who premiered ‘Heatwave’ for me as well and he supported that when a lot of people didn’t, so props to Target.
MT: You mention having worked with Wiley on previous tracks, including ‘Heatwave’, but how did your working relationship come about?
Rymez: I used to work with grime producer Z Dot a lot and we linked up with Wiley in the studio. I featured a few tracks on Wiley albums over the years and came with ‘Heatwave’ most recently. But you get a different Wiley every day. You can get a really happy Wiley, or you can get a really, really bad tempered Wiley. It’s always interesting working with him. He’s very creative and always inspiring. He always has good advice for up & coming people as well, so it was good to work with a legend in the game.
MT: X Factor winner James Arthur is another person who you’ve worked with recently. How did that come about?
Rymez: It’s so weird. I woke up one morning and I had loads of new followers on my Twitter. I checked my phone and it said James Arthur was following me, so I though I better follow him back! He messaged me and said he was a big fan of my work and he’d like to work with me. I was thinking ‘What!? This doesn’t make sense!’, but I got my management in touch with his management and it went from there.
MT: How did you get into production in the first place?
Rymez: I was in school and I used to make beats, but I was never really into it. I moved to a school in Southend and I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I used to go to this music class and saw people making beats. I kept asking ‘how do you do that?’ and this guy called Crispin showed me how to use FruityLoops. When I went to university I was still making beats for fun but then people started taking my beats more seriously. I was studying Economics, something totally different from music, but I sent a few tracks out during the MySpace days and Tinie Tempah came across one of them, which I had sampled MIA on and he used and shot the video in New York. It was supposed to be on his debut album but we couldn’t get clearance for it and that’s basically how it started.
MT: Is Z Dot someone you’ve known for a long time then?
Rymez: Yeah we’d been friends on MySpace and Facebook and were fans of each others music, so we’d hit each other up for stuff and share contacts. It’s always good to network in the music industry.I always tell up & coming producers that networking is the best thing you can do. I’m gonna hit him up about a project because we started something before and it would be nice to do!
MT: Tell us how you began working with Sneakbo?
Rymez: We kept bumping into each other in clubs and he’s a fan of my production and I’ma fan of his work, so the way we met was kind of funny because we kept saying we were gonna work with each other for over a year. Eventually the day came when I had the right song for him and so I sent it over and he loved it. He came to the studio and had done his verse in ten minutes. Now I’m working with him on his new project so I’m looking forward to that.
MT: In terms of your musical taste, are there any genres that inspire you outside of the genres you’re a part of?
Rymez: I grew up in Zimbabwe and funnily enough, the big album when I was growing up was Craig David’s album, Born To Do It, which was absolutely massive. Before I cam here I had a lot of Craig David to listen to so I knew what I was coming into when I came to this country. My mum has a lot of Motown records so I listened to a lot of Motown and my dad used to listen to reggae. We had like one thousand records in the house so I used to go through everything.
MT: Have you got your sights on any artists that you’d like to work with in the near future?
Rymez: Right now I really wanna work with Example. I just love the way he comes up with his melodies and I think we could make something really good if we sort that session out. It was supposed to happen about two years ago, but then he went on tour for a year and then he got married. But I think this year we’ll make it happen.
MT: What can we expect from you in 2015?
Rymez: I’ve got the EP finished and it will be out shortly. It’s called The Love Story and features Wiley, Ms Bratt, Sneakbo, James Arthur, Manga and more. I kept it nice and short though so that people don’t have too much of me, but kno where I’m coming from production-wise. Lyrically everything on there has something to do with love, heartbreaks, emotions and just keeping it real.
Make sure you grab your copy of The Love Story on iTunes here and follow Rymez on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest from this hugely talented producer.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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