INTERVIEW | LONZO ROACH DROPS NEW SINGLE ‘PICK N MIXING THE BEAT’

By Rishma • On Interviews

UK Rap­per Lonzo Roach releases his debut single ‘Pick N Mix­ing The Beat’. Hav­ing been sur­roun­ded by a fam­ily of musi­cians, Lonzo Roach was inspired from a young age to make music, giv­ing him the skill­set to com­pose, pro­duce and rap. Hav­ing worked along­side many artists, the time has now come for Lonzo to drop his own music… and it was well worth the wait.

We speak to him about his jour­ney lead­ing up to his debut single!

Thanks for tak­ing the time to speak with us! Intro your­self to those who may not have heard of you before?

I’m Lonzo Roach, and my real name is Lon­nie Roach. I have been mak­ing music for a few years now. I star­ted from just mak­ing beats on the com­puter and not so long ago I star­ted to rap as well. I first used to write raps when I was around 8, because my older broth­er and I would make ‘diss’ tracks about each oth­er to see who was bet­ter… I won occa­sion­ally! I have played gui­tar, piano and drums in the past before get­ting into mak­ing beats and music pro­duc­tion and now I have decided what I want to put my music­al tal­ent into. It all really sparked when I had a dream of liv­ing my life through music and want­ing to become suc­cess­ful from it, because I am a dream­er and I wish to inspire people who have big dreams as well. You can expect a lot more from me so just stand by and make sure you keep track.

Your dad, Michael Roach, seems like he has had a big impact on your music career. Tell us how it was grow­ing up, and the music you have made together?

As I was grow­ing up all I heard was music, no mat­ter what genre, so I feel like because of this I just nat­ur­ally adap­ted to music being a big part in my life.

When I was about 11 my dad had me sing on one of his songs called ‘Tak­ing A Knee’ from his album, ‘Try­in’ Times’. Since then, my Dad has helped with some of my music and def­in­itely has had an impact on my per­spect­ive in music and lyrics.

You just dropped your debut release – con­grats! ‘Tell us about ‘Pick N Mix­ing the Beat’. What was the pro­cess behind cre­at­ing the track?

I made the ori­gin­al beat in around 5–10 minutes and put the chor­us down. My Dad over­heard it and wanted to help me to devel­op the track. We played around with some ideas but decided to keep it simple so the listen­er could enjoy the chor­us. It’s been in the vault for a few months until we thought it was ready to be released as my ‘debut’.

Tell us about the music video for the track, what is the concept behind it?

It is my first music video ever, so really I was just hav­ing fun and it was a good exper­i­ence through­out the cre­at­ive pro­cess of mak­ing it. The concept was to intro­duce me to the pub­lic and bring about joy. This is what I do – ‘Pick N Mix’ beats.

As someone who also plays instru­ments, how does this feed into the pro­duc­tion of your music?

I’ve only used real instru­ments in my music a few times but found it easi­er to use FL Stu­di­os to make beats. Record­ing with real instru­ments allow for more free­dom of expres­sion and I think I will incor­por­ate that into my music pro­duc­tion a bit more in upcom­ing songs. My sis­ter Sad­ie has a uni­ver­sity degree in music. She is a great sing­er and jazz pian­ist who went to the Guild­hall School of Music and Drama in Lon­don. We’re always listen­ing to music from Miles Dav­is, Hor­ace Sil­ver, Jack­ie Wilson, James Brown and The Tempta­tions with an aim of try­ing to find ways to incor­por­ate some of their pro­duc­tion ideas into my music.

What do you want listen­ers to take away from your new single?

I like to groove and my sound is always devel­op­ing. Hope­fully, people will stay on this jour­ney with me because I have a lot more on the way and that they can have high expect­a­tions. I want to inspire listen­ers with my music in the future so keep a look out for me.

What are your thoughts on the UK Hip Hop scene?

My style of rap is def­in­itely more Amer­ic­an and I am more influ­enced by it but I still do listen to UK rap from the old grime to some new stuff. I really think the UK is mak­ing big moves in rap cul­ture and should keep it com­ing. I’m plan­ning to make a con­tri­bu­tion and going to keep on pro­du­cing and mak­ing beats so I can be included.

What else have you got com­ing up?

I have got loads of tracks, and cre­at­ing more all the time. I’m work­ing with a rap­per in Phil­adelphia called Epiiic. I cre­ated some beats for him and look for­ward to more col­lab­or­a­tion with oth­er musicians.

Where can we find out more?

Search Lonzo Roach on social media plat­forms such as You­Tube, Ins­tagram and Spo­ti­fy etc. Just make sure you stay con­nec­ted with me and watch out for more songs com­ing up.

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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.

About Rishma

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.