Mitekiss has just dropped his fourth album – No Radio Play.
His first fully independent record, and by his own admission, the most personal thing he’s put out, it’s a very frank collection of drum & bass tracks with barely a feature or collaboration in sight (DRS and Rosie P notwithstanding)
Unlike previous bodies of work on Hospital and Goldfat – the label he co-runs with Mr Porter – No Radio Play is an unapologetic celebration of drum & bass in many of its for forms and flavours.
There’s not even the obligatory album genre excursion or downtempo track!
The blurb simply describes it as ‘the music Mitekiss makes when nobody is asking for anything’, which is even more interesting when you consider the fact he doesn’t DJ. None of this music has been written with a dancefloor or booking in mind, yet these are some of his clubbiest tunes he’s ever put out. I’d argue that they would all sound great on the radio, too.
And for an extra plot twist? He’s now deep into a project that’s so different to the music he’s known for, he’s considering a new alias for it. But we’ll leave that bombshell for the finale. In the meantime, read on and find out more as we chat about freelance life, being in your 40s, the dark art of promotion and why he’s never been that motivated by DJing.
We start with my own personal favourite from the album. That Tune.
Let’s start with That Tune. It’s one of my favourite things you’ve ever made — it instantly took me back to Nuyorican Soul, 4hero, that whole era.
Thank you. It’s an interesting one — I was just messing on my Minilogue, and that main pad came from just tweaking as I went. I thought I’d chop some breaks under it, get a bit of a jungle feel but keep it modern. It came together over the space of a couple of hours. The good ones usually do.
They do! With a name like That Tune, I feel like it might have significance to you… Where does the title come from?
Someone played it at Jungle In The Cronx before it was even out. This woman had obviously never heard it but by the second time the vocal came round she was singing along. Grant (Mr Porter) told her it was mine and she came up to me like, “Oh my God, I love this tune.” It’s had that reaction from a few people. It’s probably my favourite on the album, or one of two.
There’s definitely a nod to that late-90s jazzy, Talking Loud / Reprazents era sound in there.
Yeah, there’s obviously some of that ingrained — I’ve been making music since I was 12 or 13, so that’s the era I was hearing growing up. There’s a real 4Hero influence, for sure. Of course, not quite reaching that level, but that same idea of strong musicality, paired with some nice breaks.
Totally. I have to remark on the closer Forty Times, too… That’s another standout. 40 times around the sun, I’m guessing?
It is!
Did you write it on your birthday?
No, someone else asked me that too, because of the number in the title. The song made me think about a scene in the Danny Boyle film Sunshine where the ship travels close to the sun and they open the blinds, and everyone just sits there in awe. That’s the feeling I wanted: loads of soaring guitars, big pads, huge breaks, everything wide open. I somehow ended up at ‘forty times’ around the sun. It’s weird how track titles come about.
How have you found your 40s? For me I thought there’d be more consistency by this point in my life, and honestly I’m glad there hasn’t been — I’ve come to really enjoy the chaos of it. You’ve been self employed for a long time too. How has it been for you?
Pretty similar. I had one brief spell, three or four months, where I tried going back into employment, and it just didn’t work — it’s not for me. It’s always felt a bit edge-of-the-seat. A few years ago I realised I’d been self-employed for more than half my life, and it’s worked out so far, so at some point you’ve got to trust the data and stop worrying about the end of the month. I’ve also recently become a dad, so between that and trying to keep the freelance work ticking over to pay the bills, it’s a juggle — but I still feel 25.
Haha, I can relate! You give off a fairly risk-averse vibe in your mood, but freelancing your entire working life is a huge risk in itself. How would you describe yourself?
I’d actually say I’m quite a risk-taker. Not having a guaranteed wage at the end of the month, you have to get up and make it happen yourself every day — that alone, with a mortgage and a kid, is a big risk. I’ve always liked trying new things, new business ideas, e-commerce, whatever — and I’ve never had a safety net to fall back on. I think that’s actually helped. There’s no fail-safe, so there’s no alternative but to make it work.
Feeling that! So there’s a very loaded line in the album description that basically says No Radio Play is the music you make when nobody’s asking for anything. That feels very connected to the freelance life too… Always responding to a brief, whether it’s a label, an A&R, or just your own perception of what fans might expect, which is sometimes only in your head anyway.
Completely. With freelance design and marketing work, you’re always working to someone’s brief. Even with music, subconsciously, if you’re working with a label you might start leaning on their back catalogue without even meaning to. It’s hard to make something completely free of anyone else’s expectations. But I feel like this album is that, because I’m so far removed from it now — it’s just ten drum and bass tunes, no crossover track like you’d usually get on a drum and bass album. It’s less a studio album and more a capture of a moment in time.
Was that a single continuous writing period, or older tracks finally finding a home?
A bit of both. I’m always writing short ideas — I’ve probably got 60 or 70 on the go right now, but that’s spread over about three years. I chip away at a small amount on each one, and as the pile gets smaller I’ll pull one out and go, “that’s about 70% there, let’s finish it.” This batch mostly came together over about 18 months.
I could probably have put them out as straight singles. But I’m still a big fan of the album as a format, so I sequenced it to get darker as it goes. That’s just me being indulgent. There’s no one to answer to anymore — this is fully self-released. The only outside involvement is distribution, through Labelworx.
Ah wow so this is a really difference process. How has the experience compared to your previous three albums?
Very different. The first two were on Hospital, the third was Goldfat, and this one is just fully me. It’s a little more personal with only two features of collaborations on there… Just Rosie P, and DRS. My last album had a feature on almost every track, ranging through hip hop and garage. I’ve never been great at being consistent, which is probably my downfall in some ways. But then, what even is consistency?
Totally. I mean, if you’re sonically consistent the whole way through, I’d argue that’s a bit boring, not very adventurous. Although that fits in with how algorithm-driven playlists have become…
It’s something I think about. People at work will stick on a liquid drum and bass playlist and just want three hours of rolling liquid, and there are artists who can give them exactly that. Having a liquid tune, a jungly tune and a darker tune side by side, like on this album, is probably more jarring for the average listener. I could easily do ten similar liquid tunes and that might win me more die-hard fans in that lane — but I don’t know.
That’s something that really bothers me about music consumption now. I do find that a lot of people do just want a playlist for background and aren’t as engaged or passionate about what they’re listening to. But it does feel like you’ve tapped into the promo side of things really well and spark discussions and debates. You did a great post about guessing which tune was made by AI. I have to say that I guessed wrong!
Haha. For me I’ve always been a fan of technology, and to me it’s just where the attention is. If we were in the ’70s, I’d be chasing radio and TV slots; before that, newspapers. Now everyone’s on their phone, so that’s the equivalent. People used to have to hustle for those radio spots too — it’s the same principle, just a different medium. It’s more open to everyone now, which also means more competition. For me it always comes back to the same thing: I want people to hear the music. Everything else is a bonus.
Do you ever find the promo side eating into the creative side?
These days the content side feels like an extension of the canvas, almost. It can be annoying, but sometimes it’s a similar kind of creativity — you can be playful with it, treat it like an extension of the music itself.
And because I don’t DJ my audience is through the internet, really. I don’t get the quick uptick in followers you get from a gig, so I have to be more active online because of that.
Yet No Radio Play is arguably your most DJ-friendly record!
I’ve never had massive DJ support, if I’m honest — I think it’s down to not being in those green rooms, building those relationships. My music’s probably placed more for people listening at home on headphones — you can probably hear that in some of the intros and outros, which aren’t always club or DJ-friendly.
Your brother was the DJ growing up, wasn’t he? Is that part of why you never went down that road?
Yeah, exactly. When you’re younger you want to do the opposite of your older siblings, and he was properly into DJing and jungle and drum and bass. So I went the other way, into guitar-based stuff, indie, punk. It was still there in the background the whole time, though. I did learn to DJ when I was 15/16, back then everyone did — even did a stint on college radio playing tunes. I still mix in private now and then but I don’t DJ out.
Even when Hospital were pushing me to DJ, it felt like it would just be a form of marketing for myself, and I never felt comfortable with that — still don’t. It just doesn’t excite me enough. I had a brief stint around 2010 to 2012 performing live on keyboard in an electro duo, with my mate triggering samples on an old Akai controller. We had mild success, but even then it didn’t grab me. I much prefer being head-down in the studio, creating stuff.
On that note, I’ll leave you to get on with your day creating stuff. Just one more thing… The album drops in a few days time. How do you usually feel on release day? Or how do you think you’ll feel on this particular release day?
Um, I don’t know. I’m in a very weird place musically now, uh, and mentally, about what I’m writing. So I honestly don’t know. I’m very excited to just get it out and for people to hear it all, but I’m in such a different headspace musically now than I was when I kind of signed that off.
Oh really?
I’ve built, like, this entire other project of a different genre, and I don’t know what I’m going to be doing with it. I’ve been speaking to some distributors and some labels, and I’m just working out what to do. It’s so far removed from what I do now that I wouldn’t be able to release it as the same name or artist.
