INTERVIEW: Mista Men [Greenmoney]

Standing as the only outfit to ever submit two seperate versions of a Sonic Router mix, the Doncaster affiliated trio Mista Men, have been lighting up radio playlists with their own take on UK club music of late. From hearing tracks on Rinse FM selector Braiden’s show at some point in the last few months, we all of a sudden found the slower realms of our radio show planning dominated by music with this particular crews heavy 4x4 pulse. With what seemed like a constant barrage of music, all centering around the same ballpark tempo with a similar clubwise lean, we learned of the releases on Car Crash Set and Bass Tourist and realised that it wasn’t just us becoming more and more reliant on these kind of textures to link between 2step led garage jams and more straight up house rhythms.

Given that tracks like ‘Watermelon’ and ‘Lengthy Riddim’ were early highlights and the fact that the trio’s simplistic moniker evoked memories of herbicidal cartoon watching in an attic room in Hanwell, West London, we followed our nose and got chatting. Ahead of the Greenmoney backed 12” – available on Juno from the 6th December and in shops the week after – we caught up with one of the group, Mella Dee, who is so beautifully on it, that he scrapped the first version of their Sonic Router mix at the 11th hour. Lovingly re-assembling a second take with a truck load of care, attention and style, he included some of the crew and their friend’s freshest material as he did it.

SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Mista Men: Well basically Mista Men is a trio of DJs and producers from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. We like to make music for the clubs; just whatever we’re feeling at the time. We've been doing the whole Mista Men thing for a year or so, but have all known each other since being younger. Woozee knows Kid Kosy from their school days, and I met through us all skateboarding together.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

I work putting up shutters and doors and as, an apprentice sparky, henegral graft! Kid Cosy goes to college doing graphic design in Leeds and works at a pub on a part time flex. Woozee works at a restaurant as a barman in Doncaster.

What’s your production set up like? How does it work with the 3 of you producing? Do you all just make your own shit and then merge it under the Mista Men name... ?

We utilise drop box; start things on our own then pass then on for the next man to have a bang at normally. Because of the fact that Cosy lives in Leeds, it makes it harder for us all to link at once, but myself and Woozee tend to try and get together as often as possible

How would you describe your sound?

I guess it's hard, we like to make all sorts of different stuff. Personally I think it’s all just UK Bass. It’s easier to say that than trying to describe what we make really. I guess a lot of what we do falls under the garage category of things; even our take on house tends be heavily garage influenced.


Mista Men – What You Do To Me/Hold On/C.R.S.T. Remix Preview (forthcoming Greenmoney)

What is an inspiration for you?
With there being 3 of us, you get a large amount of different influences, as I said before though, I think garage plays a large part in things. I'm very influenced by hip hop and RnB as well but there's also techno, jungle, drum & bass and house influences to our sound. It’s just a big mix of what we all like basically.

Where do you see your sound developing?

We’ll just keep doing what we do, making music we like, not being tied down to one tempo or sound. We just love music and want to make good music in general. Getting some hardware is one step we really want to take; I feel there’s a lot of potential in using it to push our sound further.

What’s the scene like in Doncaster? Any recommended jams? As it goes not really, it's a bit waste here. You could go to the Warehouse and get serious to some bouncy hard house if that’s your thing like…

Are there any producers you rate that the world should know about? Any peeps not getting the props you think they deserve?

Well 2 lads I run tropical in Leeds with are doing some big beats right now Jera & Jangle. Also there’s a new guy coming from Leeds called Tessera, whose got some serious bits. Didz from Cardiff has a nice sound… Hodge from Bristol… there's sooo much good music being made right now, this whole sound has so much freedom.

Your Greenmoney release is imminent... What else have you got forthcoming?

Well aside from the Greenmoney release of ‘What U Do To Me,’ therse ‘Ashanting Cub’ and ‘Rvrse’ set to drop on NSA dubs. There’s a couple of remixes, and hopefully we’ll be lining some other bits up soon!

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

The Tessera bit near the end is doing it for me right now, Jera’s ‘Another One’ is such a big track, we’re just working on our remix of that. The Jay Weed track is seriously big to. My personal fave has to be the new Martin Kemp one though, it’s too big! It was hard doing the mix; I had so many bits I wanted to get in there, I could of done about three mixes…. Haha.

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DOWNLOAD: Mista Men – Sonic Router Mix #62



Tracklist:

1. Hackman - Made Up My Mind (Hodge Undecided Mix) (Dub)
2. GuGu - Rocka Bye Baby (Forthcoming DVA)
3. J:Kenzo - Ruckus (Mr Tickle V.I.P Remix) (Dub)
4. Jay Weed - Prism (Forthcoming 502)
5. The Bug ft Warrior Queen - Poison Dart (Scratcha Remix) (Ninja Tune)
6. Martelo & Canblaster - Cannibal (Club Mix) (Dub)
7. Jangle - Egyptian Turkey Cat (Dub)
8. Mista Men - Pantha (Dub)
9. Mista Men - Redemption (Dub)
10. Martin Kemp - Know We Can (Dub)
11. James Fox - New Jack Swing (Dub)
12. Mista Men - What You Do To Me (Forthcoming Greenmoney)
13. Mr Tickle - Higher Stakes (Dub)
14. Jera - Another One (Dub)
15. Mista Men - Sure Footed (Dub)
16. Tessela - You Give Me Something
17. Gucci Mane Ft Pharell & Nicki Minaj - Haterade (Mista Men ReRub) (Dub)
18. Mista Men Ft Robert Green - Drawn (Dub)

Link:
http://soundcloud.com/mistamen