Latest / ninetyfive / In Conversation with Happi | Song ingredients, 'Bel Air' & how value can take different shapes

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In Conversation with Happi | Song ingredients, 'Bel Air' & how value can take different shapes · ninetyfive

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are here with the main man Happy is the grind times etched residency studio takeover this whole week.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And before we get into it, Happy, you are aware of many hats.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to ask you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: None today, but none today, because fresh fresh hair.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Usually I hear it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Many.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, tell us, who do you define happy as?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, great question.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think I define happy as a father and a husband first.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's usually kind of the main the main stuff.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then out of that, just being a like an all-round creative, a lover of music, a lover of people.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, someone that is just here to kind of spread spread joy.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I say like inspire what I believe is the God gene, which is the gene of creativity.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, God is a creator.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's how I see God, and I believe everybody has it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so my job is like to awaken it in everybody.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's me.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's such a unique, unique definition.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't heard that before.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's very cool.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm etching it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's cold.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Running around it.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we're etched when Grind Studio.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: What are you working on today?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: So we've actually got the sample school uh writing camp today, which is really dope.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Sample school is an organization I set up um at some point because I was making lots of money and it didn't make sense, and I wanted to help other people make money from music and content, and so I decided to teach everybody all I know who signed up to sample school.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so since then we've just built out a community where we just get people down and do different things.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, a bunch of um sample schoolers were here this morning, and then we've got another afternoon of sample schoolers gonna be creating music and etching it.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, how long have you been doing that for?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Sample school in particular?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, since 2024, so two years now.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, yeah, two years.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Congrats.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I I guess you've got that ear for melodies and samples, of course.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is kind of the process that you go go through when you're created?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, great question.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm usually melody first.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: It depends what I'm doing, so but I'm usually melody first, I'm melody first, and then I'm percussion.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: I think everybody kind of knows me for being like very drum-heavy.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I love to create a swing and a and and you know an atmosphere through drums.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So usually I'm drums.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, once I find a melody I really love, then I'm drums.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, a great producer called P2J told me years ago that the drums are supposed to almost dance with the um melody, and I've stuck with that forever, and so I often make my drums have the same conversation the melody is having, and that's kind of how I produce and create.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's sick.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Big up P2J as well.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Big up P2J.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Legend in the game, man, too.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Big legend, hands in the air, all the way to Brownskin Girl.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oof, what a legend.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Unreal career.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, listen, obviously, we taught sample school, but you also make your own music and you're incredibly good at it as well.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: For anyone who may not know, this man has done official remixes for the likes of Flo, uh, for a very impressive, accredited, highly acclaimed uh record called Gyra, which has gone to great heights.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but in your own original music, you had a big record called Bel Air.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Would love to know a bit of the story behind how that came to be and your journey with it.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: Bel Air, Belair was an interesting one because it was at a time, you know, Retch told me years ago that with music, the moments that change your life don't happen because you want them to, they happen because you need them to.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And we were I worked on Bel-Air the beginning of 2020, the beginning of 2020, and the version I made in the beginning was like terrible, but I knew that this song was something, and I took it to Coleman's and we worked on it, and it still just wasn't making sense, and we pulled it apart, and because for me, for me, everything is feeling, it has to feel right.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: We pulled it apart, still not making sense.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: We slept in the studio on Forest Gate for like two days, it was horrible.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember going to the station in the morning after sleeping at the studio, and I had work, and on the way to the station, I bumped into Barney artist in Forest Gate, and Barney goes to me, Bro, nah, keep going, man.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're doing the right thing, you know.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Super encouraging.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if he knows this, but super encouraging, and it kind of gave me the fuel to keep going.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: We then got a guitarist in called Alexi.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Big Up Alexi, who also played guitar on cardboard box.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Big up Alexi.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Alexi played guitar and the song just was brought to life.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was something else.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then yeah, we we we you know, COVID was coming.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't know COVID was happening, but COVID was on its way.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I put the song out the week, we went into lockdown, and the song just went through the sky.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, so it was a it was an amazing process creating, and there was times where it felt like it wasn't gonna, you know, we couldn't put we weren't gonna put it out or we couldn't finish it.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: But like I said, we needed it to do something and it did.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So amazing man, and congrats, and thank goodness it did, man.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, honestly.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: So let's speak about creation and and value.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're here etched, that's where the value lives.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um we wanted to know how does how will etch kind of impact your creation but also how you collaborate with others.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think because I am what we call 100% R, it means that I'm often spending time doing different things and there's different iterations of what I do.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um and for me, it's like often when when you're driven by feeling in production or in writing, you're always changing stuff.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: So the fact that etched has, you know, the process to allow me to etch different versions of an idea to involve other people, it just makes so much more sense.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like we often create with the kind of like charge it to the game mindset.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's how, like, when you're coming up, yeah, he's gonna steal your stuff, man.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's what it is.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna release it without you knowing.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's what it is, you know.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: But etched allows that level of like security to make you feel like, okay, even though, yeah, someone can still steal your stuff, you know, realistically, but at least there's something that uh gives you that sense of like, okay, well, at least if they do, this is something I can present that is a deterrent from people doing that.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it then allows me to create a lot more freely and create openly.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like here, we did the open session, and the only reason I I wanted to bring that to etched was because I know I can play the songs in the room of these people, and they can't really do anything about it because I've etched the songs, you know.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So it just it yeah, it gives the freedom to be able to just create, and with some, like I said, someone like me that is creating in all different facets, I'm writing for this person, I'm producing this person, I'm changing this version this way, you need something like this that's gonna help you do that.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like you've you've you've had great success with your own music, but you've also had stuff stolen from you as well.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when when it when it comes to ownership, as as someone who's seen both ends of that spectrum, what matters more to you?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's like the commercial feasibility of something, or is it knowing that you have been the author and the owner behind the creation and being able to stand on that proud, or is it a balance?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a balance.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think because at different points of your career, different things are important.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think where I've kind of established myself in some way, knowing, you know, being credited and knowing that I am the author of this is more important.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: For example, Carbbox, when Carbbox um was released, or even in the um the organization of Carbbox, as we got into the contract, we realized that they weren't trying to give me any publishing on the remix, right?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now, that's ridiculous, ridiculous, but it is what it is.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: We know that it's a remix.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of remixes they don't give up publishing.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: So cool, alright.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: But we were sure that okay, if you can't give us the publishing, you have to have Happy as an Artist credited on this, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because my name was way more important than anything else at that time.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: So that was the focus at that time.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was about getting my uh having it clear that I'm credited, that my name is attached to this thing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: And when it was released, on the day it was released, they actually didn't have my name on the release.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I texted everybody and I chased everybody.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm I was you know, I really know their AR at the time really, really well.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, bro, someone needs to get this sorted.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: ASAP.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because it's so important.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think yeah, it depends on the time and the stage of your career.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, sometimes it's like, hey, just it being out is a win, whether they attach my name to it or not, but I'm not at that point anymore.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's like, no, no, no, you gotta credit me, you gotta, you know what I mean, that kind of stuff.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, someone for someone from someone who's not in the music industry, uh, when you speak of publishing, I know you you've signed a publishing deal recently with uh Pummel Play.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Pimic Pim Music?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So just what does that mean?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: What is what does the publishing rights mean?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: You got me going into my music business.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm a nerd of it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: So fine, no problem.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, records is usually split into two.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: You've got the master recording and you've got the publishing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: The master recording, the record side is the tangible MP3, the song.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: So someone has to own that, and then someone owns the writing and the production of the record.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say record side, if record side is the physical pizza, the publishing side is the ingredients, the recipe.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do you get what I'm saying?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the split.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: So when you're selling a record, so everybody gets paid from something, right?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you're selling a record, you're being paid um for the actual physical, tangible thing.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: When you're selling your publishing, it's that you're selling your ability to make the recipe or the recipe itself, or that's what you're now selling, if that makes sense.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the split.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people get it wrong, but that is the split.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I've done record deals where you know I basically like Bel Air, we signed to Polydor, they bought, they licensed the song.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: I get it back in a couple years.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: They licensed the song, but they have no business with the publishing.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Once I've signed my publishing deal, the publishing of Bel Air now is under my uh publisher, and everything else that I write and produce in that time in the term of my signing is under my publisher.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: So they sign the IP of the song, whereas the publishing is the physical product of the song.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean the records of physical product of the song.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, right, right, okay.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, I'd never, yeah, I guess I'd never really thought about music and songs that are being released at that level.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really interesting.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So today, obviously, you're doing the sample schools and stuff in the grind studio.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are you working on anything yourself and what what what can we expect from you this year?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Can we get some more music?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or what we say, yeah, yeah.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I've we you know, we had an artist project that we've been working on for a few years, and funny enough, this week I did an open session where I brought like uh five of like my supporters, longtime supporters, down um to hear the artist project for the first time, but all the demos because I can play them the demos because I etched them, so it's fine.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's no issue with me playing them the demos.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I played them all the demos, um, and yeah, it was an amazing experience because it was great to get feedback from real people.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so yeah, I'm excited to kind of be releasing again as an artist.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a bit nervous because the industry is weird, and I took a step back because I realised I could get all I wanted without um I could get all I wanted from the industry without having to be like front-facing artist and do all the weird like stuff that everybody does.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I think because I'm in a comfortable space, it means that my music doesn't have to be a certain level of successful for me to be able to feed my family.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm making money elsewhere.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it means I can just kind of release my own way.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like we were talking, me and Coleman's because I work with Durielle Coleman's on everything.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about not even releasing singles, just dropping the whole project whenever we like, you know, because I can, you know, there's no rules.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do it, man.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do it, man.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Today, I'm dropping it right now! Let's go.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so I'm excited to do it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Love that, man.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're excited.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: The world needs more happy music, man.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, it's been a while, it's been a while, yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wicked.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't want to take up any more of your time.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to let you get to it, meet the sample school guys, and see here what you guys can cook up today and how you can help continue to empower the next generation, man.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, congrats for everything that you're doing.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, man.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, thank you all for having me.