Few releases this month scream ‘murderation!’ harder than Chopstick Dubplate’s Murda We Charge For album.
The brainchild of Aries and Jacky Murda, the vocalist jewel in this eight-track skank-packed crown is Mr Williamz, an instantly distinctive vocalist who flexes perfectly over a 170 jungle riddim.
With a wry critique of a well known budget airline, guest appearances from Top Cat, King Kong and a sampled cameo from the late, great reggae don Dennis Brown, it’s yet another success story in 2013’s seemingly constant slew of contemporary jungle tracks.
We caught up with Aries and Murda to see what’s popping…
Tell me everything about the album…
Jacky: It’s a development of our sound. We’ve been working with a lot of Jamaican artists in the past so we wanted to develop what we’ve done with a UK artist. I was loving Mr Williamz so we sent him some riddims to work on. The album shaped really naturally from there. He came up with some ideas himself and we all co-wrote it.
Aries: That’s exactly how it went down. We actually wrote about twice as many riddims but Williamz picked the ones he knew he could make shine. Jacky and Williamz cowrote the lyrics and recorded them in London then we finished it all off in Birmingham.
When did Top Cat get on board?
Jacky: Top Cat is an old friend of ours. He stays with me in Spain and comes to meet us in Birmingham all the time. We’ve worked on lots of projects together and love what each other do. He was aware of the album and was hanging out with us during the album process so came on board to write the final tune.
Aries: It was really spontaneous. Jacky had been joking around about the idea of writing a tune about flying on Ryanair. We wanted to do something really different and it came together.
Jacky: We recorded it in one day and I mixed it down on an airplane!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ciLcHS6EQ
The track sets the tone for the whole album…
Aries: Yeah it’s something everyone in the industry can recognise. And the fans, too. With all these international festivals kicking off, most people have to endure Ryanair at some points in their lives. It was a real talking point at Innovation In The Sun this summer because most people came over via Ryanair.
Jacky: You can ask a crowd of 10,000 people what the shittiest airline is and you know the answer they’ll give you.
Aries: At Outlook festival Top Cat and Williamz did an impromptu live performance of it and it went down really really well. It’s more than just another jungle tune you know?
Definitely. Shout to King Kong now please…
Jacky: He’s an old friend of ours. He’s actually in Ethiopia right now. We talked about doing some shows in London which didn’t work out so we talked about doing a tune. He was up for that and he sent over vocals from Ethiopia!
Cool! There’s a lovely, warm rawness throughout the whole album…
Aries: Definitely. We wanted to give it that authentic raw reggae jungle sound throughout. We wanted to keep it in the vein that suits Williamz sing-style. It was really important organic sound that’s rife in reggae, dancehall and jungle culture.
That organic sound is definitely enjoying some long overdue exposure this year. Congo Natty and Marvellous Cain have both had come backs this year for example…
Jacky: Jungle’s saving grace is that it never blew up. It’s not been the victim of commercialisation or become stale. Unlike every other genre it’s never truly made it and been overblown so it’s been preserved in a way. It’s not made for everybody so it’s not been overblown in the way other genres have.
Aries: Yeah that’s pretty much how I feel, too. There are a lot of really talented artists coming through at the moment and they’re all making some really interesting sounds. Jungle is just one small part of a much bigger picture…
Nice. Back to the album… Do you approach a vocal track differently to how you approach a non-vocal production?
Jacky: When we’re working with vocalists it’s a lot more like the old fashioned way of writing a song. The singer has something to sing to so we sit down and think about music lines that are in the same range of the vocalist. You try to picture what the singer will be the most comfortable with.
Aries: We usually start with a scratch track for them to work on and we develop on that. It has to be pretty adaptable.
Jacky: It has to be pretty adaptable and fluid. When you’ve got the vocalist in the studio they might sing for a few extra bars or do something different so we’ll work the different parts on how they’re working. When you’re all vibing together it’s a really exciting part of the process.
What’s coming up next on Chopstick?
Aries: We’ve got some tracks coming with Cheshire Cat. We’re hoping to do an EP with him, maybe even more. He’s been on the road with us, doing loads of shows. He’s got a great style, real classic authentic style so it’s great working with him. Then following that we’ve got another album…
Jacky: It’s top secret! We can’t talk about it right now…
Come on…
Jacky: Just think about all the different vocalists and artists and labels we’ve worked with over the years. If you were to write down the whole list of people we worked with and imagine them working on a project together. That could be the top secret project.
Like a dancehall jungle supergroup?
Jacky: Not really a supergroup. Let’s just leave it here and just focus on Wanted for now.
Wanted Murda We Charge For is out now. Listen and download.