Call me a Maverick but other people are my driving force
From his early rap hookups to a new album, Maverick Sabre has always been a team player
‘How do you tell a legend like Nile Rodgers to do it again, do it better?!’
Maverick Sabre
Maverick Sabre’s career has been characterised by astute collaborations. From his earliest work as a teenager with Irish rap acts Terawrizt and Nucentz to his current album, Don’t Forget To Look Up, which features – among others – the legendary Nile Rodgers on the closing track Get Down.
Mav’ as he is often called by fans, and whose real name is Michael Stafford, admits that making his fourth album was particularly difficult. Naturally, Covid restrictions prevented him being in the same room with collaborators for the kind of inspired moments that shape his best work.
‘During lockdown I was able to get a lot of work done but I also hit a brick wall not being around people for inspiration,’ he says.
‘I believe we are all meant to be together learning and growing from each other. When I’m too separate from people for too long it doesn’t feel right for my soul.’
Stafford, now 31, was born in Hackney but moved to New Ross, Co. Wexford, with is family when he was four. Those adolescent outings in Ireland alerted artists such as Professor Green and drum and bass duo Chase And Status to his talents. He featured on Green’s single Jungle, which charted in 2010. The following year, he guested on the track Fire In Your Eyes on Chase And Status’s No More Idols album, which hit No.2. The album also featured rapper/actor Plan B who advised Stafford to return to London to pursue his career. A record deal followed and, on the strength of the singles Let Me Go; I Need and No One, his debut album Lonely Are The Brave charted in the top three of both the Irish and British charts in 2012. Although 2015’s followup Innerstanding and 2019’s When I Wake Up only grazed the top 40, both were critically acclaimed. The latter album and current release appeared on his own FAMM label.
‘My previous label [Mercury] had merged with Virgin EMI by the time I left. It wasn’t the place that it was when I first signed. I had changed and so had they,’ he says of his decision to become an independent artist.
‘For me it’s all about the team of people I have around me; they are my label, my ears and eyes and the people I trust to give me feedback. I’ve got enough good people around me from management to producers to [video] directors that I trust everyone’s vision and they do mine. So, the art in general becomes purer when you don’t have to get clearance from people who may not understand it.’
In the same way that established artists gave him a leg-up at the dawn of his career, less heralded ones will benefit from the exposure they get from appearing on the album of a musician still hugely respected on the rap/hip hop scene in these islands. The tracks Not Easy Love featuring Nigerian-Jamaican singer Demae and Middle Of Eden where he duets with London singer Sasha Keable are among the strongest tracks on the album and he speaks glowingly of both.
‘I’ve known Sasha for years and we’ve been meaning to work on something for a long while,’ he says.
‘She’s one of my favourite voices out of the UK and, finishing off the album, I was listening to her a lot and Middle Of Eden just felt right for her to jump on. Again, I have known Demae for years since her [London rap act] Hawk House days. We were both on Virgin EMI at the same time. The song always had a space for a second verse. I sent it to Demae and she killed it!’
Stafford says working with Nile Rodgers, although again remotely, was ‘beautiful’. ‘I had met Nile previously at Abbey Road when we were working on some music for other people,’ he says of how he met the Chic guitarist and production legend.
‘I’ve always had a massive amount of respect for his art, so getting to work with him was beautiful. I had this wonky kinda funky tune at the end of the album that I wasn’t sure he’d even be in to but I wanted him to hear it, he really liked it. It all came together pretty easy.’
I wondered out loud how, in recording parlance, you say to a great such as Nile Rodgers, “Yeah, that’s good. Now, do it again, do it better!?”
‘He’s one of the greats so you don’t need to say much,’ he laughs. ‘You just let him do his thing with a slight bit of guidance for the feel of the tune and you get something perfect in the end.’
■ Don’t Forget to Look Up is out now. Maverick Sabre plays Cyprus Avenue, Cork tomorrow and The Academy, Dublin on Tuesday