FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC WITH MIKEY SMITH

 For those who have not heard your music, how would you describe you style?

I would describe my style as hon­est, heart bear­ing & some­times uncom­prom­ising. I’d say it is enter­tain­ing, but enlight­en­ing all at the same time. Whatever your pre­ferred type of sound or music I believe I have some­thing for every­one. My style is forever chan­ging so at any time you’re guar­an­teed to get some­thing different.

Tell us about your music­al move­ment ‘For The Love Of Music’, what do you hope to achieve with this? 

Inspir­ing oth­ers first & fore­most.  For The Love Of Music came from a place some­what ran­dom & it’s grown into an idea/brand which I believe has the poten­tial to take off in a com­mer­cial world. It’s still at its baby stages of hav­ing a label but the inten­tions are to cre­ate a scene just like the MMG’s & YMCM­B’s of Amer­ica. Bridging gaps with sing­ers, rap­pers, song­writers, musi­cians, PR teams, A&R’S & labels. A place where artists such as myself don’t have to feel alone when they need help or guid­ance. Com­mer­cially, I feel it has the appeal to go national/global as a brand. We’ve already seen it being tat­tooed on people’s skin so I know how infec­tious the idea is even at this point in time.

How import­ant is it for you to use your music to con­vey a message? 

It’s VERY import­ant. Music has become my ther­apy. Sad times, happy times, and also being able to doc­u­ment my own growth has been such a great feel­ing. The mes­sage is so vital. It’s the core of a good song with longev­ity. Lately I’ve noticed I can like or love a track & not know what it’s about until maybe a few plays even some­times a few months but once I do, I can take that song around with me & see I’m not the only one feel­ing this way or deal­ing with a situ­ation sim­il­ar to its sub­ject matter.

 What mes­sages does your music send out to your listeners?

It lets you know how human I am and what I think & feel on a daily basis. My music dis­plays mes­sages that I’m very much mak­ing sense of life around me. Songs like “My Kinda Girl” or “Tears” taken from my EP ‘The Story So Far’ let you know my views on rela­tion­ships & the death of my fam­ily mem­bers, also even how I cope with these situations.

Tell us about the tracks you have put out ‘Use­less’ and ‘Child Of Fortune’?“Useless” was ori­gin­ally based around the music scene I’m in. Being unsigned, it’s tri­als & tribu­la­tions. Work life doing a 9–5 to sus­tain life while main­tain­ing a career break­ing into the industry, mak­ing music even selling cd’s on street corners. It was that ‘some­times I just want to give this all up’ song

“Child of For­tune” was my own ver­sion of Jay-Z’s “D.O.A” no hook just vent­ing my dreams as well as my real­it­ies. Me & Gam­bit Ace used the music video to paint a big­ger pic­ture pay­ing homage to the old school. Wear­ing Gold chain Amer­ic­an appar­el, even throw­ing in skits/drama scenes into the mix for com­edy & excitement.

What oth­er music are you work­ing on?

At the moment me & Gam­bit Ace have just stepped into the stu­dio to com­plete a col­lab­or­at­ive pro­ject called “FTLOM VOL 1” . It’s an EP set to be released on Septem­ber 9^th 2013.

What are your thoughts on the cur­rent state of Hip Hop? 

If we are talk­ing about the UK then I think it’s a little quiet. The unity isn’t really there. There are some really cool events on around Lon­don like “Lon­don Lyr­i­cist Lounge”, “FAT GOLD CHAIN” or “SHOW­TIME” but music­ally it’s not as strong as it should be. I feel com­mer­cially not many want to dabble in that realm even though fin­an­cially it could be very luc­rat­ive. One thing I’ve noticed is artists haven’t learnt to come togeth­er. There’s this battle for what’s real. How we should dress, think & feel. I’d like to see a change soon.

Are you work­ing on any oth­er pro­jects besides music?

I’m work­ing on an online plat­form called “THE FTLOM SES­SIONS” which is like your A64, BBC live loun­ge’s which will show­case songs I haven’t made videos for which I feel should have a wider scope build­ing up my online con­tent. This pro­ject will take video­graphy to a more excit­ing & dynam­ic view­point. So look out for that.

For fur­ther info vis­it www.ftlom.co.uk 

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

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