Grime time
Maxsta has never made a secret of the fact that grime isn’t his only musical passion – indeed, it’s not so long ago that he might have classified himself as more of a rock fan. This open-mindedness becomes readily apparent when he’s asked to describe his perspective on grime and its progression over the years.
“With grime, everyone’s always like, ‘Yeah, it comes from East London and this and that’, so there’s sort of a signature kind of East London sound to it that you only used to get from a Wiley, a Ruff Sqwad, a Roll Deep, just production-wise even. I really feel like it came from the influence of the people around at the time and what they all grew up listening to.
“But if you fast forward to when I started producing in 2016, I was ready to start making grime music again and things got a lot like… if it’s not a Skepta beat or a Wiley beat, it’s either trap-infused or da-da-da, which isn’t not grime, but I feel like grime is more derived from garage and stuff.
“There’s always more of a UK trail to it than anything, even though we can get hat rolls and 808s and all that – it’s genuinely a British sound, and that’s what’s special about it.”
We gather one of your first production successes was an advert for soft drinks brand Oasis. How did that go down?
“In 2017 they just randomly reached out and said to me, ‘Does Maxsta make beats?’. So I did it – it was like a radio advert. People thought that it was corny, but I was just happy because I was rapping on it and I did a little jingle. I was just, like, ‘From a production standpoint, this is sick’, if you know what I mean?”
Now that you’ve gained credibility as a producer, what are your plans for the future looking like?
“Away from producing for myself, I want to produce for other people, but I just know that even in terms of navigating the industry, you do have to strengthen yourself to make it easier.
“So I was thinking that if people got used to hearing someone they know, like JME, on my beats, or someone like Inch from Section Boyz on my beats, without just acting like that’s what I’m doing, I can slowly start to usher it in. Now, after the JME tune, I actually get other grime MCs asking me to do instrumentals.
Are you totally focused on grime production right now, or can we expect the unexpected from Maxsta?
“I spent some time last year working on some stuff with a singer, just creatively, away from working on the mixtape I was putting out. I started producing this singer, writing the songs with her and doing everything. It’s building my technique as I go along, because whether or not that tune comes out, I know I can get a singer in here, make a beat that’s grime, and when I’ve put a rapper and her on it, it sounds like pop, or like that Jorja Smith and Preditah tune.
“There was a month where I was obsessed with Calvin Harris and MJ Cole, and I just started making loads of dance stuff – and no one’s gonna hear that, until maybe years down the line, when it’s not going to be looked at as corny.
“When the time comes, I want to do mad stuff. I’m dabbling in all sorts of pies as I’m going along, just because that’s what you’ve got to do as a producer. I read the magazines and they say, ‘Do everything’.
“I’m a new producer, so I’ve never touched an actual 808, I’ve come on on this side of things, where it’s like little boutique synths and it’s easier to produce anyway, so I have to do everything, really.”
“I’m dabbling in all sorts of pies as I go along; that’s what you’ve got to do”