With his ‘Powerskills’ single/EP, featuring Russell Lissack of Bloc Party (guitar) and Joel Pott of Athlete (vocals), out next Monday (pre-order here), the iron is hot for this UK MC whose particular brand of post-grime rap is getting him noticed in high places. Currently flying under the radar, that might not be the case for too long – let us introduce you to Savvy.
Q: For those who haven’t come across you before, who is Savvy?
Savvy: I guess you would describe me as an MC, lyricist, rapper – whichever you want to call it – and producer. I ran under a previous pseudonym as ‘Saviour’, which got quite a lot of interest in the UK underground scene. I used that to become a better producer and lyricist, to hone my craft. I released through my own label called Saving Grace Music, which is still running. I currently work under the name Savvy with a band called Savoir Faire, and at the moment we’re just gearing up because we’ve got a record to put out.
Q: You mentioned Savoir Faire there, one of the things that really stands out with you is the fact that you rap in front of your own live band. So how did you bring all that together?
Savvy: It was just a culmination of initially growing up as an artist. I started rapping over other people’s beats, trying to write things with substance and improve as a lyricist. I was trying to push the envelope so it became more about adding other instruments and going from there. You know, if you listen to my record I might have a sample or two in there still. It’s supposed to be a combination of all so it kind of reflects that and the live show as well, bringing real instruments in as well as rapping over beats.
Q: Your next single ‘Power Skills’ was recorded with members of Athlete and Bloc Party. How did that come about?
Savvy: How did that start? I think I got one random email from one of the members of Athlete who was into my music just generally in the past, asking if I wanted to collaborate on some songs that never actually saw the light of day. But through that we kept working and finding other producers including a guy called Camp America – not the place for fat kids if that’s what you’re thinking [laughs]. He got in touch with both of us and said he thought our style had kind of a northern style to it which he liked. You know, urban music is almost like a London thing, even though there are artists all over the place it’s like it all comes from London. But he liked our kind of twist on things and my sense of humour so he got me on a track with the lead singer of Athlete, Joel Pott, and then brought in the guitarist from Bloc Party who added his part once we’d done our parts. But yeah, I sent them some rough vocals and they liked it, so I went down to London to see them and we just knocked it out at Joel’s house.
Q: And when’s that one out?
Savvy: That is gonna be out April 6th I believe.
Q: Excellent. I read in your press notes that you had quite a musical upbringing with your Dad, is that right?
Savvy: To a degree yeah, but I mean I’ll be honest there’s even a bit of tension because my Dad grew up in music but then went into other things. Got a career and job and had kids, responsibilities, as you do, so there is a degree of ‘so you’re still doing music then? Still making records? Oooh I don’t know mate it’s tough!’, just trying to keep my feet on the ground you know? But there’s always been music in my family, almost sort of a soundtrack to my family. But there’s always an element of ‘you should just enjoy it and not be trying to “make it”‘. There’s a degree of that so but he’s just trying to protect me I s’pose.
Q: But he’d still be very proud no doubt if you manage to get to where you want to be.
Savvy: If I pulled it all off then definitely. You know I’ve done big gigs, you know, homecoming gigs with thousands of people and they got to see that, got to see what a show is really like and that if there’s a crowd then people know the lyrics and stuff like that. So there have been moments over the years where my Dad’s seen that and said ‘you know what, this is great’ so it’s all good really.
Q: If people are interested in checking out your music online, where’s the best place to go?
Savvy: I would say go to my label website: www.Saving-Grace.co.uk
Or follow me on Twitter because I do updates every day on there: @IAm_Savvy
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