Introduce yourself and tell us about the part of the UK you’re from?
My name is NK-OK, I am one half of the duo Blue Lab Beats. I am the producer, I do all the drum programming, some bass lines and all production. Live I trigger the samples of musicians we record and I play Machine Mk3. Me and Mr DM both live in NW London.
Tell us about some of your British DJ heroes?
Errol Anderson from Boiler Room, it’s always a joy listening to him DJ, his selection is always on point. Chris Phillips and Jeff Young from Jazz FM – again their selection is great. Benji B from Radio 1 I really rate, Hannah Faith, a great selector again, A Guy Called Gerald (his set in Glastonbury was insane and he’s a production genius!)
What have you been working on recently?
Mr DM and I have finished our album, its coming out in March, we recorded a lot of it at Real World Studios with a bunch of the best jazz musicians from the new jazz scene in the UK (they’re also our friends so we had a lot of fun!) I worked mad hours to finish the production so a lot of pressure with having gigs at the same time but it’s been an amazing time.
We are really lucky to be this busy. We have been producing with Kojey Radical, Tiana Major9, we have a session in The Blue Lab this weekend – we can only just all fit in the room but the vibe with all of us writing together is mad!
We have written with James Vickery and also Jaz Karis recently, that’s been great too, they are both very talented people. At the moment we are working out our set for ‘Blue Lab Beats present a reimagined Jazmatazz Vol 1’ we are at The Jazz Cafe doing this on January 20th. Its a lot of prep as we recreate every part from the album tracks (nothing is sampled) then I sample what we have played/recreated and trigger it on my Machine and Mr DM and other musicians play live on top. It’s a challenge as the album is so incredible, we don’t want to straight copy it, so we have brought a new twist that we think complements it. 350 tickets have sold already so people are expecting a lot from this gig, it’s a very inspiring project to be doing.
We have regular rehearsals too as we are gigging in Paris at The Blue Note Festival, playing Hamburg, Berlin, Cambridge Jazz Festival, Geneva and supporting Thundercat and also Tank and the Bangas!
Which British artists are you most excited about?
Kojey Radical is an incredible poet, his word play is always insane, visuals for his videos are always on point and he’s great to work with too. SCOTT XYLO he’s a brilliant producer, I’ve known about him for a couple of years and his vibe is very strong, Ben Jones an amazing guitarist, his production is brilliant and it was an honour to support him at the Jazz Cafe. Melo-Zed I’ve known him for ages and love his futuristic drum programming, its always fun to work with him, I love how free his whole production style is. Othasoul, a really dope duo the producer is a real badass.
What is on the cards in the immediate future?
This month – Blue Note Festival in Paris, Cambridge Jazz Festival, Solitude Urban Expressions in Geneva, our double A side single release Pineapple and Dome is out this week and many hours in the Blue Lab Studio as always.
Where is the best place in the world you have DJ’d and why?
My favourite gig so far with Blue Lab Beats was WOMAD this summer, the crowd and vibe were awesome, I’d love to do a DJ set there next year!