MUSIC INTERVIEW: TINIE TEMPAH

New Year, New Friends, New World To Rule: That’s The Power of Music

By: Team Buzzine

March 4, 2011

Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (AKA Tinie Tempah) had quite the 2010 back in his native UK--his debut single, "Pass Out," went straight to #1, then his debut album, Disc-Overy, repeated the trick and went on to be the best-selling British debut of the year. Now in 2011, he is spreading his wings and targeting global domination, which brought him to his first US shows and to the Buzzine camera crew who caught up with Tinie for an exclusive interview in the landmark Capitol Records Tower at the corner of Hollywood & Vine in downtown Hollywood, California.

Stefan Goldby: Back home in the UK, you have already had #1 singles, a best-selling album and a tidy number of BRIT nominations... As you start the climb again, this time in America, what lessons from the first time around are you applying?

Tinie Tempah: I definitely, first of all, bear in mind that it’s going to be completely different. Obviously, what people will have to understand is that even though the population in England is huge, it’s a very small place. One major radio station covers, more or less, everywhere. When a song does well in one part of the country, it does well everywhere. So I think last year was incredible in terms of how things went well, and in all modesty, if I don’t mind saying so, I think it was pretty near perfect for a cycle of an album. I did everything I wanted to do, all the interviews were great, all the shows were great.

However, with here, I’ve just got a really open mind because, for example, doing a radio station in LA and then doing another radio station in Chicago is too completely different things: two different mindsets. Think about even Minneapolis as well - it’s completely different…so all I want to do is keep an open mind, just be who I am and just work twice as hard. America is a lot bigger which means a lot more late nights, a lot more early mornings, but I’m ready for it.

SG: Let’s nip back to the beginning: You come from a pretty big family, you’re managed by your cousin, and in your song ‘Snap’, you talk about your parents’ wedding photo being your favorite picture in the whole world. Does who you are as an artist start with who you are within your own family?

TT: Definitely. I’m from a pretty big family, especially nowadays. There’s me and then there’s my two younger sisters, followed by my younger brother, and then of course my mom and dad, and we all lived in the same house, so sometimes the house wasn’t that big. Especially when the house is small, it feels like a very big family.  But family has always been the foundation. I’m originally of an African background - from Nigeria, to be specific - and family has always been something that has been fundamental and it’s always been something that’s been emphasized in my day-to-day life as a person.

I’m the oldest kid, so my parents have always put pressure on me in terms of making sure that I’m a good role model to the younger ones. And that’s pretty much it. They’re all very supportive of what I do now. When everything was so successful, they’re always there to cool me down, they’re always there to advise me. I love it. My sister looks after me; mom’s always on the phone giving me advice; same with my dad; my little brother is the coolest kid in the world, and I couldn’t be happier.

SG: Let’s talk music: When you think back to recording Disc-Overy the first time, is there a moment, is there a day, is there a session that really stands out in your mind as a shining moment?

TT: Yes!  Recording one of the songs on the same day as I had to record a remix for P. Diddy in a hotel room the day after my Bristol tour show. That was crazy because I started writing the album as a relatively unknown musician, so I wanted to stroll into the studio every other day, maybe once a week [thinking] ”No one’s gonna care; let’s just get this album done and see what happens.” And halfway through the process, "Pass Out" goes to #1, and it was like…”Oh my goodness.” So you go from somebody who wasn’t really recognized to not being able to walk down the street; somebody who was performing in front of hundreds of people to someone who’s performing in front of tens of thousands in the space of a couple of months.

So life is crazy, and you have to up the ante on everything, so now this album that was supposed to take a lot longer has to be done tomorrow. So I’m doing shows, I’m waking up, I’ve got a hoarse voice, I remember the room service of lemon and honey that day was absolutely through the roof—it was crazy. And I’m recording in a hotel—I won’t say which one, just so we don’t get in any trouble and people don’t ask for royalties… But basically I’m recording…we’ve used the duvet to cover the door so no one can hear the sound, and it’s just crazy, and that’s when it really hit me that things are really happening and the pace has just sped up a lot quicker and we’re just gonna have to get on with it and make it happen.

SG: Where exactly were you when you heard “Pass Out” went to #1 in the UK?

TT: Basically, I’ll be very honest with you, when it’s released on the British charts, it charts very differently, so if you can hold that #1 position on iTunes, as well as physical sales, of course, then it’s more than likely you’re gonna be #1. However, that’s not necessarily always the case, as we’ve seen happen so many times before [laughs] "Frisky!" But basically, for me, I remember I had to go down to Radio 1 to do the actual chart show with Reggie Yates, and it was a tough week. It was between me and Rihanna that week…she was releasing "Rude Boy," so I was very, very nervous. I was like, “This is a massive song; it’s definitely connected with people over here; she’s #2 on iTunes, but she could have done way more physical than I did, so what’s gonna happen here?” So the day I found out was a momentous day. I remember I got my hair cut, I wore my fresh clothes, all fully ironed that day- I made sure I did - fresh pair of trainers. So okay; cool, this is a good day. I just wanted to start the day feeling very fresh. We were doing a lot of rushing about that day, had a really good meal, and then headed down for the chart show.

And then basically we got there a little bit late, so we got there when they were counting down from about 10, so that’s when it goes really, really quickly. “So at #10 we have…#9…number…” You can watch this clip on YouTube as well. And then they announced #2 and they’re like, “Okay, so Tinie, you wasn’t 10 all the way down to 3…so you’re either 2 or 1.” And at #2 they did this Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-type suspense, and then it was “Rihanna with ‘Rude Boy’” and everyone just went crazy. I was with my whole team, I was with a few family members, with my partner…and it was just crazy. Tears were shed, because obviously it was the first song I’d ever released, the first song that ever went on major radio, the first song that was a bit different from everything else, and it had just done so well. So that was the moment.

SG: "Written in the Stars" is going to be your first single in the US.  Set that up as a song a little bit for us…

TT: "Written in the Stars" is basically a record about self-affirmation. It’s a record I wrote after achieving a little bit of success in the UK. After getting my first #1 single, I was almost inspired to write this song. And the undertone of the song is basically fate - I believe in fate, and I believe that fate takes its course - however, it goes hand in hand with a bit of hard work. You can’t just sit around and say, “Okay, I’m going to be a really big star,” or, “I’m going to land this job at this really big company” if you don’t work toward it. "Written in the Stars" is me almost trying to explain that concept, so always knowing that I was destined for big things, but just trying to grasp that concept and work toward it.  I’m basically just telling everybody, by the end of the song, that, regardless of what your dream is, whatever your passion is, however outlandish or insane it sounds, it is possible - just work hard for it and you will be so happy with the rewards. 

SG: Now, for the release of your debut album Disc-Overy here in America, you’re changing the record a little bit…

TT: I would say it was more of an addition to the album than actually changing it. I’m quite happy with the body of work I was able to create, especially for a first album. One of the main reasons why I’m repackaging it is because of the fact that people have YouTube, people have Twitter, people can illegally download, so therefore if someone hears about the album and they want to get it now, they can get it and then there’s no surprise come May 17th. And I also wanted to repackage it because a lot has gone on since I released the album: going platinum, me selling out my first tour…

So there are a load of things that I didn’t get to talk about—different experiences here and there: traveling the world, going to LA for the first time, going to Australia for the first time…  A lot of these things had happened after the album came out, so there are a few things I wanted to say, and I’m going to make sure I say it on these three or four tracks, add it on the album…

SG: We were at Cinespace last week for your first American gig.  Which was fantastic. After your first few days – what’s your initial impression of the US?

TT: I would have to say that my first impression would be that America is just a very very big place, and all the individual states and major cities are extremely different. When you’re in England, there’s a load of similarities from top to bottom. Some places are a bit more slow; some people speak a bit different; but in America, there’s weather changes. You could go somewhere where it’s like palm trees, and somewhere where it’s snowstorms, and that’s crazy. You don’t really get a lot of that in England, so it’s a little bit of a big thing to comprehend and understand, but I kind of like it. I think it’s cool. Everybody in every different state and city has got a different mentality.

I think L.A. is an incredible place… in the space of four days, I bumped into Quentin Tarantino, Lil’ Wayne, Lionel Richie… That would be impossible in England. Four days and I saw all of those people, and I very much like it. It’s very much “you and me are here now; let’s get up, let’s go, let’s make it happen.” And New York is very much the same as well. I like the fact that I kind of describe New York as London on acid. It’s exactly the same - fast-paced, everybody just stays up a little bit longer, the buildings are a little bit taller, and everybody’s just ready to go all the time, and I really like that.

SG: In England you came up maybe not because of a scene but definitely within a scene, so without that context, how do you start, as an artist, coming to a new place and saying, “This is where I’m from. This is who I am…”

TT: Backstories are always very important because how are people supposed to know where you want to go if they don’t know where you’ve come from? I totally agree with that, but a bit bigger than that is a good song. Now the world is a lot smaller, so gone are the days where “I’m gonna have to come here as an artist who’s not sold that many records in England, but just try to do a worldwide campaign, so I have to explain to you the context in which it came from. I’m from a little scene called Grime, or I’m a little Dubstep DJ here and there, and I’m coming to America and I’m doing a little show for 60 people…”

I think gone are those days. I think now the world has gotten a lot smaller because of the Twitters and the Facebooks. It’s really cool that, after I’ve left the radio station, people can go, “All right, that was a nice guy. That was a good song. Wikipedia: Tinie Tempah…YouTube: Tinie Tempah…14 million hits!  20 million hits!  1.7 million records (sold)!  That’s crazy!” So I think gone are the days where it’s like, “I’m from a little place called London, there’s a grime scene, we have a pirate radio station…” It’s gone past that. All that information is readily accessible for people now, so they can just find it out.

SG: The other way that they can find it out is to come see you live. How do you know it is on when you are on stage, what are the signs that it’s a good night?

TT: This is one that’s a little bit more personal, but just feeling a synergy with the band is always cool, and that doesn’t always happen, especially when you don’t get to see them often. For example, we’d done SOB’s [in New York] and the band flew in, and it had been a while since I’d seen them, and I hung around with them. But when we got on the stage, there was just a synergy and I could almost know what the guitarist was thinking, as the drummer, as the DJ, etc.  That’s always a good feeling.

Another good feeling when you know you’re doing a really good show is when you get a few smiles.  A lot of these things I’ve done out here so far have been little showcases, especially for industry insiders, so I don’t expect anybody to take off their top and start jumping around and sweating or anything like that, but when you get a few smiles, and especially when you get the more middle-aged crowd, when you get a nice little foot-tap, you’re winning.  You’ve won.  You’ve won him or her over. If they’re foot-tapping, you are a champion. That’s basically it in a nutshell.

Other than that, just the cliché things—high energy, people jumping around, people singing together, people hugging each other, people talking to people that they’ve never met before and really getting on—that’s the power of music.

SG: What do you hope they walk away thinking, after they’ve seen you for the first time?

TT: Usually, if someone has seen me for the first time, I always hope they walk away thinking, “That was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.” [Laughs] In any context. A lot of people laugh when I say that, but even if you think something is gonna be frickin’ amazing, it can still be better than what you thought it was gonna be.  That’s just my thing - always just try to defy the odds and make it that little bit better than I even thought it was gonna be, and therefore hope that they feel exactly the same way.

SG: You said it was a little bit surreal to go “Tarantino, Lil’ Wayne, Lionel Richie” in L.A… But we hear that you’ve got actual Royalty as fans back home, and from here, American royalty like Jay-Z and Snoop… What’s the most surreal part of all of that for you?

TT: I would say the most surreal part of all of this is that a year ago, I lived at my mom’s house. That would probably be it.  So much has happened. Obviously I’ve been working for a very long time, but so much has happened in such a short space of time…before you know it, I’m in Australia with N*E*R*D; I’m in the studio two doors down from Lil’ Wayne; I’m in Soho House talking to Lionel Richie… It’s crazy.  All within the space of a year.

A year ago I was just thinking, man, we’ve got to make this happen. This has got to be incredible.  This time last year, I hadn’t even released "Pass Out," so nothing had really happened.  So that’s the most surreal thing, and it just goes to show the power of music and how things can really change, and how music can bring people together…

The expanded US version of Tinie Tempah’s debut album, ’Disc-Overy,’ is released by Capitol Records/EMI Music on May 17, 2011.