Category: Music

What good things have come out of Croydon? If you’re struggling to answer the question, it isn’t a surprise, but now there is someone who is going to change that for you – Goldielocks.

The producer/rapper is making waves with her bassy tunes and has recently brought another arrow to her bow by running a club night. Abjekt recently caught up with her to discuss Ninja Turtles, Bob The Builder and Kate Moss so read on for all the trimmings.

So let’s start off at the beginning – You’re Goldielocks, producer and rapper, what other basics can you hit us with?

Um, I cook a MEAN thai green curry.

Now, you’re from Croydon which is basically famous for being a bit of a shithole [although the Whitgift is good for rinsing your Christmas list] – are you a fan of the area?

I have a love / hate relationship with it. I hate the suburbian way of it, everyone looking the same, going to shit clubs all playing the same shit music, but I’m strangely proud and don’t want to leave.

Did growing up in a place like Croydon help you start making music because you didn’t really want to go out?

No because I just went out further afield, most people from around Croydon would think Shoreditch was some kind of farm. I started making music because no-one would give me any beats for ages!

I read that you went to music college to learn beat making and mixing, how much of a help was that? Would you have made the music you make if it weren’t for that course?

It definitely helped. I went to a couple of music colleges before Community Music, and they were shit. They made me draw sound waves and stuff, where as CM were like, here is a computer, here is Logic, make a song in an hour. When I used to play my stuff to my class they would make weird fake appreciation faces. They probably thought I was a nut job.

Would you recommend it to people who want to start learning how to get into making music?

Yes! CM is sick! Get off your ass and go learn.

Tell us a little bit about the equipment you use to make your beats.

I use a Mac G4 lappy and an iMac, Logic 8, Microkorg, MPC 500 for drums, a few plug ins and some nice Genelec speakers.

You’re a very independent artist, doing a lot of your own publicity and being quite a bit force on MySpace, is it important to do this for yourself so you’re always in creative control? Or was it just a case of having to do it?

I like to have creative control and I also am more into the fact that I am self employed and run all of my own shit. No-one else makes decisions for me, I do. I decided when and if I want to get out of bed in the morning! I have always wanted to run my own business and now it turns out my business is me. It’s hard sometimes because you don’t have anyone around to make you work but it seems to be going ok so far.

You’ve signed up to the same publishing house as the likes of The Streets and Example. Being someone who has been so independent up until that point, was this a big move for you?

No, not really because although Puregroove are a publishing company, they still let their artists retain a lot of individuality and grow naturally. They want you to be respected as an artist and be credible, not some cheesy sell out. They have helped me loads.

Does this mean that you’re going to be doing more work with artists on the Puregroove family, like you’ve done on Nip Tuck with Example?

I will always do collabos with people if they are going to show me something new or teach me something. To be honest I don’t have much time for collabos as I always have loose ends that I’m trying to tie up but every now and then it just has to be done, like with Example, we had been talking about doing it for months and then it finally happened.

You’ve got Frisco on your new track Wasteman which is out soon. How do you go about hooking up collaborations in general?

Myspace – Always! Or meeting people at gigs usually reinforces a working relationship and you get a better idea of what kind of person they are. Even if it was a number one artist if they were a prick, I wouldn’t work with them.

Is it a case of doing things with mates or do you specifically want to work with certain people and go after them?

I work with friends because it’s fun, not because anything will come out of it, although it’s a bonus if it does. I don’t go after people because I’m lazy and always start things that I never finish!

After Wasteman comes out, what do you have planned release-wise? Any surprises coming our way? Maybe you’re gonna start working with an opera singer or something?

Ummm no! I’m not on doing stupid stuff like that just to be ‘innovative’ or reach a different crowd. People can see through that bullshit. I’ve got a track I produced for Miss Odd Kidd coming out in June called Don’t Be Afraid To Sweat and after that we will see what happens with my music.

You’ve done work with very different artists, so do you approach song writing or beat making depending on if you’re working with Kate Nash or Tinchy Stryder?

No I usually just do what I want and get them to join in! I don’t want to be one of those producers who you pay 10Gs and they will make the Bob The Builder soundtrack you know? I want to be known for my sound, and obviously I adapt it depending on the artist but I like to have my foot in there.

Similarly, you’ve done some remix work [Mitchell Brothers, Example and Shy Child], do you go after people and ask to remix them, or do they come to you?

It’s usually my manager who hooks that kinda stuff up, or they just approach me on myspace.

How much fun is remixing compared to doing your own original stuff?

To be honest it’s pretty boring! Sometimes you get a good vocal but it’s quite jarring listening to the same thing over and over and building a beat around it. Its fucking great money though. You could get a month’s rent in a few hours of work.

Are they any artists you’d like to collab with or remix that you haven’t already?

Yeh, can you get The Game to call me?

There’s loads of lazy comparisons knocking around, saying you’re like Lily Allen or Uffie. Does all that piss you off?

Yes! Do they make beats? No. End of.

What’s the strangest comparison you’ve had said about you?

That I was the lost member of Girls Aloud. but I love Girls Aloud so thats ok. They’re all fit so it made me feel good.

The one thing that keeps cropping up is that you used to work in Starbucks. On a scale of one to frappe-mocha-cinnamonshit, how much did you hate that job?

I know people seem to love those stories. They make you out to be some rags to riches person when I was probably making more money when I was working there than now. It was fun putting cookies in the frappacino machines and shit. I met some great people too.

The song Social Suicide is about working there right? For those who aren’t familiar with the lyrics, give us a little insight into that song.

Yeah it’s basically a day in the life of Starbucks, those suit guys who have to have a coffee in their hand in order to get through the day, and the funny stuff that Starbucks make you do, like have a coffee passport and try to make you be the coffee master which is like the person in-store who knows most about the coffee. Amazing right?

Your lyrics tend not to stick to one sort of topic, how do you get your ideas for lyrics? Are you a sit-down-and-plan type writer or does shit just come to you and you work from there?

No I usually just go on what’s happened to me that day, or just make up some random stories and let people think it’s about me because it’s cool to be mysterious innit. So I hear anyway.

You currently put on a night at The Social in London called Hard Knock Wife, how comes you decided to start putting that on?

It was mainly to build my fanbase and help out some of the amazing acts that I am friends with that no-one ever books. I was fed up of going out and hearing this weird music that no-one knew or the same old cheesy Akon tunes.

Do you ever get worried that no-one will turn up? Or that it’ll just be a venue full of suits who go there just to get boozed?

Yeah course! I did a night once which flopped. Not Hardknock, some under 18s rave. I did it on a Sunday, the hottest one of the year aswell. No-one came and we ended up in massive debts. It fucked up because I didn’t take more control of what was going on and let other people do the work. I wanted to crawl into the floor. I just got wasted instead.

Are you happy sticking around London for this type of club night and making it a regular, popular thing or are you planning on more extensive nationwide travels?

London needs it right now and it’s good for me and my fanbase so I’m sticking here for a bit. Don’t wanna get too big for my boots. I’m also putting on a punk night soon with the rest of The Sick Kids, that should be fun.

You’re also getting into the fashion/merch side of things by linking up with The Sick Kids, do you feel that’s important to making a little money for artists with the music industry in the state that it’s in?

I think it’s in a good state! Who gives a fuck if we can’t sell records, the labels took all the money anyway! They no longer provide a service that we can’t do ourselves, so their value is not very much. If T-Shirts and gigs are the way to make money then it’s all good. Any branches I can add to my business and provide to my fanbase is good for me. I didn’t really link up with the Sick Kids, I am one of The Sick Kids! The Sick Kids existed way before GoldieLocks.

On your MySpace page, you’ve got the Ninja Turtles as an influence – so the burning question is which Turtle is your favourite and why? Or are you a Splinter or Shredder fan?

Michaelangelo was my favourite because he danced on that lit up dancefloor whilst spinning a pizza, sick! He was cool. I didn’t like Shredder.

You’ve also got Global Hypercolour down there… that’s alright until you start sweating like a bastard and then people can see how rank your pits are… do you have any advice for people still wanting to rock the GH steez?

Yeah if you find one can you send it my way I can’t seem to get one anywhere….

And, finally, Moose in the office wants to know if you could take Kate Moss in a fistfight.

Hahaha yeah man she’s a fucking crackhead anyway. I’ll just lure her into some backstreets with a crackpipe and then clothesline her. My little sister looks up to her and I really hate it. Kate moss is not cool.

Are there any people or websites you wanna big up?

You guys for asking me some cool and original questions. Safe!

Goldielocks will release Wasteman on April 14th and can be seen at Hard Knock Wife at The Social in London on a regular basis. Make sure you check her out at www.myspace.com/goldielocksmusic