UNITED KINGDOM: PRESSURES RELATING TO RECORDING HAVE KEPT RODNEY SMITH AKA ROOTS MANUVA AT BAY FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS

Record ID: 387997

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: PRESSURES RELATING TO RECORDING HAVE KEPT RODNEY SMITH AKA ROOTS MANUVA AT BAY FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS
  • Date: 18th January 2005
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 13 2005) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (England) ROOTS MANUVA SAYING: "UK artists can't outdo America at being America. We have got to come with a different edge, a different slant."
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVAJ4NTBMPFX5S0T6E1K8VTN0DF
  • Story Text: A touch of the nerves is the last thing you would expect from an artist with over ten years' recording experience, but the fear of disappointment during the creative process has been a telling factor in holding Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva back from recording and releasing his recent album, 'Awfully Deep'.
    "The whole thing of being in the studio, having your heart beating, trying to get into a creative space, but knowing it is costing a thousand pounds a day, and you might not like it. That I hate, I can't stand that."
    This, his third album, sees Roots Manuva confounding his critics by producing possibly his best body of work to date.
    "The risk, the fight with this album was, not try to make a record that I think people would expect me to make or make a record that I think will be successful. All it is about is finding that special space, that innocent approach to music."
    For more than a decade, Rodney Smith has been in the forefront of the UK black music scene. First making a name for himself back in 1999, Roots Manuva picked up his first gong, the MOBO-Debut Album award for 'Brand New Second Hand'. He soon followed that up with in 2001 when 'Run Come Save Me', was nominated for the UK Mercury music award.
    Not wanting to find himself boxed in creatively and socially, Smith has always tried to avoid being labelled by an industry that requires artists to conform to genre.
    "I am English. Fighting to get together a proper definition of a UK black identity, but I am English through and through, and south London is home."
    Smith believes that the recording industry's needs for an easily digestible consumer format has meant that Roots Manuva's sound has fallen victim to an industry with an identity crisis. With most of the UK urban acts sounding like they have been recording in the US, Smith feels that it is time for that trend to stop.
    "UK artists can't outdo America at being America. We have got to come with a different edge, a different slant."
    It is this struggle to deliver the "different slant"
    that Smith believes has stifled his success. But Smith feels that there is light at the end of the tunnel and by continuing to push the edge of the musical envelope, Roots Manuva feels that "Awfully Deep' can find a home both in and outside the UK .
    "There is a voice and a spirit in the UK (music scene) that can have an impact on a global scale."
    Not having a resident band to call his own, Roots Manuva has assembled a collective of artists that he hopes will take his studio ideas out onto the road and on tour.
    But finding the right sound and character of spirit for those who will join him on tour would not be a task taken lightly.
    "The thing about me getting a band together was that they can't sound like session cats."
    But now that he has assembled his band and is currently rehearsing the finer details to a set that goes on a UK tour in February 2005, what does the man think of the experience of working with these new musicians? "It has given me a whole new spirit a whole new perception at what it is to make an album."
    If all goes to plan fans of the music wont be waiting long for the next instalment from Roots Manuva "I expect to be back in the studio come September with another album to go in March 06. That's what I want, to capture the sprit of being with the band, implement more of the bands sonic wavelength on the next record."
    'Awfully Deep is released on the January 31 under UK based independent record label 'Big Dada'.
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