Interview: The Heavytrackerz

As one of the biggest urban production teams in the UK at the moment with a string of big tracks to their name including Meridian Dan’s ‘German Whip’, Matt Tarr caught up with Lord Teedot of The Heavytrackerz to find out how they got into music, what they feel their biggest track is and find out more about their latest track ‘Old Habits’…

MT: Tell us a little bit about how you guys got into music.

LT: I came to the UK when I was thirteen and didn’t speak a word of English. I got into grime with Tank and we created this group along with his older brother and called it Heavytrackerz. We were influenced by The Neptunes who were the hit makers at the time so we wanted a cool name that ended with a Z, as you do and we came up with Heavytrackerz. Then for a while it was just me and Tank and we did the whole circuit; we handed out a CD to Lethal Bizzle in his car and had him chucking it back at us and met Jammer outside of a club and tried to get him to listen to our stuff and he’s like “yeah yeah yeah I’ll call you man still” then he rolls up his spliff with it and throws it in the bin; we’ve done all of that! We did all the dirt and then two years ago Ras came in and from there we moved from studio to studio. But Ras is Jammer’s cousin and that made things a lot easier as well. Jammer came to our studio a few times but then the studio next to them became free and so we got it and before you know it we were literally next door to BBK, but that didn’t work out. We were still doing our thing and then ‘German Whip’ was out there and no one knew who made it. I was making music, Tank was making music, Ras was making music and we needed to just be Heavytrackerz; we had to reshape it and show people that we’re more than just individuals, we’re a group. We’ve also got Dan who does all the PR work and the singers who are part of the group so there are actually eighteen ‘Trackerz’.

MT: I would say ‘German Whip’ was the probably the most well known track that you guys have produced. Would you agree?

LT: No, no, no. Stormzy’s ‘Not That Deep’, Ruff Sqwad’s ‘Mario Balotelli’ which was on Match of The Day a few times, but I have to say that even though it hasn’t charted, ‘Not That Deep’, with Stormzy being on Jools Holland, kind of tips the balance with German Whip which is good because it’s not always about charting. Wait let me rephrase that [sings] “I love money” but you know what I mean, charting is good and when you’ve got Stormzy on Jools Holland and I’m sitting at home and we’re doing a remix with Iggy Azalea and I’m hearing ‘Old Habits’ on DJ Cameo’s show, it’s cool.

MT: In your opinion though, what would you say is the best track that you guys have produced?

LT: I think ‘Old Habits’. Not necessarily for sound reasons but for the cheekiness of it. If you’ve got a formula, you keep doing it and we were like “nah, safe, we’re not gonna do that, we’re going over there” so in terms of that I’d say ‘Old Habits’. There’s ‘Busy’, a track on Wiley’s new album that’s really good but in terms of what tune I like the most, I’d say ‘Old Habits’ because it’s not like the other stuff.

MT:Tell me a bit about the ‘Trackerz’ whisper; how did it come about and who is the voice behind it?

LT: Oh that’s me! I’m the mask, I’m the whisper, I’m the third guy who’s talking now even though I’m not supposed to be talking! We needed a tag and you’ve got Teddy Music’s ‘Teddy’, Rude Kid’s ‘Are You Ready’ and you’ve got Predator’s ‘Predator’ and I realised that everyone was shouting, but that was in 2006. So I thought, we’re not gonna shout it, hence we’ve got the ‘sometimes a whisper is louder than a crowd’ tagline which is our thing and it’s true, you don’t need to shout stuff, the music will talk for itself and that’s why the whisper is there. I remember one time we went to Lord Of The Beats and everyone was saying that our tune was not gonna bang because we had a whisper but I was like “the whisper is gonna say much more than these lot shouting”, although it’s not a competition cos obviously we’re all friends and that.

MT: With your track ‘Old Habits’ out at the moment and with you guys having produced so may tracks for other artists recently, are we gonna get a Heavytrackerz album?

LT: Nope! With an album, you’ve got a body of work and you’re gonna like some tunes that you like and you’re gonna skip the others, even though the others might be good with a story behind them. We’ve had a few interviews where people have said they like the video for ‘Old Habits’ but if we didn’t have the video maybe they wouldn’t like the track. To be fair, you’re gonna hear something from us from Wiley, from Mikill Pane, from P Money so the bottom line is you are hearing an album. We released loads of free stuff and free EP downloads since 2011 when no one knew who we were, plus we do other stuff for adverts which don’t say ‘Trackerz’ so you’ll never know it’s us, but it’s cool.

MT: Having worked with so many prominent artists, who would you say is the pinnacle of artists you could work with?

LT: Personally I love Lana Del Ray and Emeli Sande and that’s my vibe. [Ras shouts] “Kendrick and Drake”. I dunno if I’d wanna work with Drake though.  We’ve worked with a guy called Mystery Skulls in the US and he’s sick so you should check him out. He’s got another track with Brandy and we’re gonna be doing the remix for it.

To keep up with all the latest news and updates for The Heavytrackerz make sure you follow the guys on Twitter and Facebook.

Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno

Matt Tarr

Matt Tarr

Urban Music Editor
With grime and hip hop being major influences on him growing up in South East London, Matt's passion is urban music but over the years he has gathered a hugely diverse taste, ranging from Wiley to The Smiths by way of Machine Head, that has made him a very open minded individual.
Matt Tarr