Natty on Secret Garden Party

United Kingdom | by Ross Purdie | 29 July 2008

Blending mellow Marley-like reggae with his unique south London soul, the 24-year-old singer/songwriter has inevitably been tagged 'reggae soul', inspiring a song on the matter, 'If I' - but we'll come to that later.

Started off solo, singing around various venues in London including his own night Pressure And Vibes, Natty has since built a band around him to expand his sound into a full live show. It's one which won him the accolade of being the first act to play at Bestival three times over one weekend, when he performed there in 2007.

Definitely one for the festivals then, he's already released two singles, one of them the aptly named summer soaked 'July', while his debut album is due for an August release. It being that time of year we thought we'd best find out how Natty's first full festival season is warming up...

Virtual Festivals: You've just got back from Secret Garden, how was it?
Natty: “It was wicked man. That festival is truly like no other. Every festival is unique and different but Secret Garden was especially so. Everyone looks like they’re crazy, everyone’s wearing fancy dress. Also, there’s no advertising like at the big ones. I didn’t see a single sponsor or banner selling something which was pretty cool. It’s just nice and small and there’s so much attention to detail, you know. Everything’s been thought out to the nth degree and the organisers clearly put a lot of effort into making it just right. You could tell it wasn’t all just about selling tickets like some of the others.”

VF: What was the strangest thing you saw?
N: “I don’t know really, that happened every five minutes, every fifth person who walked by. I can tell you there were some pretty strange costumes on show. One of the best moments of the weekend happened just before Grace Jones came on stage on Saturday night. They let off about 100 lanterns up into the sky and they just went on forever because there was no wind. You had thousands of people staring up into the sky for a good ten minutes, many still in their costumes, so that was quite a spectacle. I didn’t get dressed up myself, well I was in stage clothes all weekend if you can call that dressing up!”

VF: What was Grace Jones like?
N: “Umm, average. I am a fan and I was interested in how it would go down, but I don’t think the sound was that great and her set list could have been better. Saying that it was Grace Jones and she commands the stage like no one else, I was just expecting it to be better.”

VF: Who else impressed you?
N: “I saw a lot of new stuff but I can’t remember many names. I saw a good jazz band and I saw the Rough Edge Quartet who were cool. Oh and I saw Beardyman who was great. He was getting the crowd really hyped with his beatboxing, but he was putting it through some effects and stuff and really ripping it up, creating all these mad sounds and stuff. He even managed to get some Bon Jovi in there and anyone who can get away with that is clearly doing something good.”

VF: You’re at The Big Chill next weekend. Are you looking forward to that one?
N: “Everyone who’s been says to me you’re going to love it, you’re going to love The Big Chill. It’s a shame I can’t stay up there longer actually but I’ve got gigs every day this week and weekend. I’ve got The Big Chill on the Friday, a gig in Bristol on the Saturday and then Stanton Calling on the Sunday, which I’m also really looking forward to.”

VF: Sounds like you’re having a good summer.. 
N: “Yeah, I’m loving it, it’s a good life right now. But I’m not taking anything for granted and I’m trying to remember everything because these days artists come and go. I don’t want to be one of those flash in the pan guys because I don’t think I make flash in the pan music, but you never know. So I’m enjoying it. Festivals are like the icing on the cake for all the hard work, recording and writing I put in. People say my music is very fitting to the festival vibe and I get a really good response at the places I play, so yeah I definitely won’t forget this year. It’s been great so far.”

VF: I’ve read that you don’t like being pigeonholed and are especially bored of being called ‘reggae soul’?
N: “That’s not true, it’s a misquote. Basically I wrote a sing called ’If I’ and the lyric goes: “If I were to write you a song in this style”, which is an indie style, “you’re still going to call me reggae soul”. It got misquoted and ever since I’ve been asked about pigeonholing. Everyone thinks I hate being called reggae soul but that’s not the case at all. Everyone gets pigeon holed and everyone has to pigeon hole. That’s how you refer to and compare to other things and move on in life. If people want to pigeon hole me that’s fine, it’s their prerogative. I’m other peoples’ property right now because I’ve released an album so it’s up for them to judge, fans, critics, whoever. It’s about how they view it. If someone wants to say I sound like Pavarotti that’s their right.”

VF: You’ve been on some fairly high profile tours – Kate Nash, Hard Fi, Adele – which has been your favourite?
N: “I’ll be controversial and say my favourite was Bedouin Soundclash. They’re good guys and I really love their music. All those tours were good in different ways. The Bedouin one was good because we share similar fans, but the fans at all of those gigs I thought appreciated the fact that I was something a bit different to who they were there to see. I’m not a Kate Nash wannabee or a Hard Fi wannabee, you know what I’m saying, but I got an amazing response everywhere, much better than I expected. Adele’s gig was a sit down affair and then my first gig with Hard Fi was with a load of beer drinking Glaswegians, so it was good to see that different audiences reacted well. During one of the encores for Hard Fi people even started chanting my name! So those tours gave me a lot of hope, in that there’s good music and bad music and as long as it’s good people just like it.”

VF: You’re quite familiar to indie bands anyway aren’t you. Didn’t you work on the first Razorlight album?
N: “I engineered it, yeah. I was working with John Cornfield who was my producing mentor, you could say. It’s proven really beneficial because now I’ve got total creative control over my music. I did bring in a couple of guys to help oversee the album but I co-produced and wrote the whole thing. It’s good to have other people involved because you can get really warped into your own stuff and then realise that no one but you actually gets it, so you need that second opinion and extra input.”

VF: What’s next then, once the album’s been released?
N: “Lots more touring really. I’ve got my own tour kicking off in October and before that it’s just festivals. I’m looking forward to all of them, especially Reading and Leeds which I’ve heard a lot about, obviously, although I’ve never been. The people on my label were really excited when we got that one so I’m looking forward to finding out what that’s all about. I suppose it’s another test to see how we cross over with a more rock crowd.”

VF: Do you change your approach to gigs depending on where you are?
N: “Yeah, I’ve got a load of songs that I’ve built over the years. I started off just as myself and then everyone in the band came at different stages. The percussion came in, then the bass, then the percussion based guitar, then more drums. So I’ve got songs made of all those components that can be added or stripped down. So I’ve got songs to suit any occasion - and any festival.”
    
Find out for yourself. Natty next plays The Big Chill and Stanton Calling over the weekend of 1-3 August. His debut album 'Man Like I' is released next Monday (4 August).