Brickcellphone's Underground Release Radar is back.
In truth, it never went away. There's plenty of my Q&A interviews with underground musicians in print issues of Off Licence Magazine. However, with our Music of the Month always packed with great new artists, we wanted to bring some interviews to the blog to learn a little more about the stories and the people behind the Spotify and Bandcamp links.
For my first new instalment of 'BURR', I caught up with London by way of Canterbury artist, MaZz.
She’s been making her own brand of neo-soul-meets-jazz that has served her well since the release of her collaborative EP, overcast. with fellow ESC PLN member phil back in 2020.
We discussed her new single ‘dead 2 me’, featuring her best mate, Felicia Buena.
Brickcellphone's Underground Release Radar: An interview MaZz
Introduce yourself in your own words…
I’m MaZz. I’m a neo-soul/jazz artist from Canterbury originally, but living in London.
How long have you been making music for?
Officially, probably just shy of five years - a long time now.
Can you tell us a bit more about your new song, dead 2 me?
Yogic produced it - I really like his production style. I found the beat online. It was very spontaneous, the way it came about. I was sitting on the edge of my bed trying to make music, playing the beat, I just put my phone there and just started singing. I came up with it all on the spot, including a second verse. I felt like the second verse needed some elevation from a different artist, so I reached out to my best friend, Felicia. I sent it to her that night, this was in the summer last year, and she recorded her verse and sent it back to me that same night, which was crazy!
As soon as I heard her bit, I thought, “yep, this is it”.
The inspiration behind it was very much me feeling new energy. It signifies a bit of a change in me musically and the sort of direction I want to go in. It’s less lover-girl-y and a bit more punchy, which is what I’m trying to push with my new music.
Once I heard Felicia’s part, I knew I wanted to do a music video for it, so it all went from there, really. We recorded it in the studio and started planning the video with Claryn Chong.
The visuals are stunning, by the way. Can you tell us more about the concept?
So far, Claryn is the only director I’ve worked with. She’s my favourite. She really understands women and the vision that I’m trying to go for. I messaged her, saying that I wanted to do a video and I didn’t have to say much. She just knew.
I wanted it to be punchy, pro-women and to have all my friends in it. I was just surrounded by powerful women, and all the women that worked on it are amazing.
You had a launch party for the single. How was that? Getting into your DJ bag?
It was at Laylow. Yeah, I had my DJ debut. I just love music. The song selection came easily to me. It’s learning how to mix that I need to do, but I would love to do more. I threw myself in the deep end with it. It’s fun!
This series is all about new music, so what’s a new song you’ve been listening to recently?
Oh my god, big question.
I have actually been banging this new artist I found. She’s called Alewya, and her album, ‘Panther in Mode’, came out in 2021, but it’s new to me. I think she’s managed by Shy-FX. I’ve been listening to more and more dance music.
What was the last gig you went to? How was it?
The last gig I went to, hmmm, I went to see Pip Millett recently, she was literally amazing. One of my favourite artists.
What is one of your more left-field inspirations? It doesn’t have to be a musician. The more niche, the better.
That’s a tough question. I don’t know. If we’re talking music, I’d say someone like D Double E. I love his authenticity. Everything is so cohesive. I just think he’s sick. That’s all I can think of right now.
What have you got coming up?
Have some more music coming out, experimenting with a few different genres, and hopefully performing very, very soon.
And finally, what are your 3 off-licence items of choice…
A magnum, a rubicon mango carton and a pack of sour fruitella.
Find MaZz's new single dead 2 me on our Music of the Month playlist.