Professor Green
Relentless Launch, Queen of Hoxton
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The brand new Relentless Energy Drink advert has just been released so be sure to take a look at the 'movie-like' ad below! It's managed to encapsulate the intimate part of creating music; Professor Green told us of the experience, 'Its like having sex… You enjoy it for the most part, but you don't want anyone to watch you doing it!'
Music News' Tasha Demetriou headed down to the official unveiling of the brand new Relentless advert to have a chat with Professor Green himself…
Before we get started, I've got a few questions to get us warmed up… ready?
Yep, I'm ready!
Hot or Cold?
Cold - no wait, that's such a lie, hot - sorry I'm tired…
Here, you need some Relentless! (Plug, plug, plug)
Sweet or Sour?
Sour.
Phone calls or texts?
Phone calls.
Instagram or twitter
Twitter.
Go back in time? Be able to fly?
Be able to fly!
Read peoples minds? Or be invisible?
Be invisible, and I probably wouldn't even do anything extreme, I could just go and chill, I could just jam and no one could get in touch with me. It would be like an off-switch.
If you were a fairground ride, what would you be and why?
(Laughs) I'd be the Waltzers, just so I could watch people squirm!
Trapped in a woman's body for the day, what would you do?
Touch myself!
Does a drunk 'I love you' count?
Nah, no it doesn't you know… sometimes you're just more liable to saying things to get what you want.
What is your weakness?
I can't hold a grudge.
Would you rather go back in time and meet your ancestors, or go way into the
future and meet your great great grandchildren?
I'd rather go forward and see my great grandchildren. I already know whats been, but I'd like to know what I'm not gonna get to see.
Would you rather have a built-in jukebox in your head so you can play whatever music
whenever you want, or be able to watch your dreams on the television?
I'd love to watch my dreams on TV! I wake up and remember how mad they are so I'd love to see them.
Would you rather have a rewind button in your life of a pause button?
Pause button definitely… sometimes its nice to just take a step back from things and it is actually quite difficult to be able to do that.
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You began your partnership with Relentless last year and after a hugely successful year you've joined them again. Tell me about the partnership, what is it all about?
When you're an artist, you're able to speak to people in a way that companies and brands are not. And when you're a brand, you're able to reach people that as an artist, especially in today's climate where record labels don't have as much money, they're able to reach people in an often broader fashion than we would normally. The thing with Relentless, is that they've always been very associated with music so it wasn't an awkward thing. There are so many companies that you'd be like, erm does that really sit with my brand… like Kappa (Laughs)… but then with Relentless it's not like that at all. There's no shoe horns, it fits with what I do and it gives me the opportunity to do the gig that we're doing in October. To be able to create the advert that we did, and for them to be able to capture what they captured and then to show the message that they've shown… its pretty special. Not many people get welcomed into the creative part of what we do, let alone with cameras and for it to not just be like cold stares at the camera and 'get the camera out my face'... it worked, it was so natural.
Zane Lowe, Pure Love and yourself have been picked to partner with Relentless and you all have that 'No Half Measures' attitude that also reflects the drink… Tell me about the pressures that there are in this industry about being a 'saint' and doing everything by the book and what it is about your life and experiences that have just made you do and act as you like.
The fact that I've never been a celebrity. They can call you what they want and give you whatever tag they want… role model, celebrity, famous person, artist, musician…d***head… (Laughs). People try call you whatever they want and give you a tag but, I'm just me, that's all I'm gonna be, I'm never gonna let anybody else control who I am - not to the best of my ability anyway.
I do what I want. Come on, I've only just bought my first house and I'm having it renovated, and I've seen enough 'Grand Designs' to understand the stresses that go with it, but you never really understand until you live it… I'm getting married and that all has to be organised, I've just got a puppy and I've gotta finish my third album in less than two months, so… no half measures eh? (Laughs)
Relentless LIVE is due to be happen towards the end of this year…. tell me about that? It sounds like its going to be absolutely huge, what are you looking forward to about it?
The energy! (No pun intended), it's wicked because when you do stuff like this, there's a line-up that you wouldn't find anywhere else, the energy is gonna be wicked. When are you ever gonna get Pure Love, Zane Lowe, and Professor Green on the same line-up, except for maybe at a festival where we'd all be performing on different stages, probably all at the exact same time. When Pure Love perform, they are monsters, they're wicked, their crowd goes nuts. When I perform it's the same kinda energy and there's gonna be a crossover between their fans and mine. There's gonna be a chance to win over new fans. I think when the fans realise how much of a crossover there is in our opinions and in our outlook and actually although that at face value our music doesn't seem similar, but actually there's a lot of the same energies that go into it, they'll like it. Also it means that anyone who has actually got the tickets, really wanted them, it means they've gone out of their way to enter a competition specifically for the tickets you know?
What flavour Relentless are you?
I like the original and the apple and kiwi.
Other than Relentless LIVE, you're doing Glastonbury, and you've also got some dates performing in June in Guildford, Southend and Watford with Mikill Pane as your support act...
Yeah, we're doing some warm-up shows… well I say warm-up shows but they're actually some of the venues we enjoyed most from the last tour. They're just to shake the cobwebs off, to try out the new songs and get everything going. I cannot wait you know, seriously. Proper excited, nervousness.
Is there anything else in the world that compares to the feeling of performing on stage for you?
Not anything legal… (Laughs).
In January you mentioned that there should be another track like 'Game Over'… if you could pick any 5 artists to make the sickest track ever who would you pick? From any time...
Okay, let's stick to current MC's… I'd pick Giggs, Dream Mclean - he's wicked, Rinse - who came out a little while ago and then went back into hibernation, he's got some crazy material that nobody has heard yet… I quite like that Chance the Rapper, he's wicked and I'll be on there, it'll be fun, I'll enjoy it.
'At Your Inconvenience' and 'Alive Till I'm Dead' both did amazingly well in the charts and flew to the top… what is it like going back into the studio to create a new album? Is a new album like a fresh slate? How do you get yourself in the zone to start again…?
It's wicked, I love it, it's a new slate every time! Everyone's always like make another 'Clapton Dance', make another 'Jungle', make another 'I Need You Tonight'… and I'm always like, why? As an artist, what's even interesting about that?
Tell me about the new album, who can we expect to hear on it, what's it sounding like?
I don't know yet, I've just been working non-stop with songwriters and musicians. Where I didn't tour at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I've now had the time to start from the music up, which is what I've always wanted to do. I don't play instruments but I'm wicked at humming out rifts and starting ideas from scratch which makes them all entirely mine. The last two albums were made while I was on the road and doing promo. It was just people sending me beats and me making songs out of them, so this is a lot more personal but not as introspective as the first two. I feel like I got all my bullshit out the way and its now time for me to make an artist album, a real career album. It's just about big songs, its given me so much more freedom. (Pauses) There's gonna be a song before Glastonbury... *smiles*.
Whats your earliest memory of the music industry from when you were growing up?
A real pivotal point for me was a strange one, but my dad actually… (laughs) one of the rare moments that I got to spend with him… We watched 'Above the Rim' together, and he had the CD single which had the Nate Dogg track 'Regulate'. It had a b-side on it too with Tupac called 'Pain' and I remember hearing that for the first time. I didn't really care about 'Regulate' too much, but 'Pain' got me. I was young, too young to be watching 'Above the Rim' but that's definitely one of the earliest memories of rap that sticks out to me, so that's probably had a lot to do with the shaping of my musical taste.
Whats been the hardest thing to overcome on your journey?
Probably… and I know it sounds mad… but probably, doing well. A lot of people make you feel guilty for that and like your undeserving. People have this preconception that everything is easy and this idea that everything just lands in your lap. I worked for how many years for absolutely nothing, actually the opposite, I paid to do my job, how many people do that in their jobs? I risked everything. If it didn't pop off for me what would I have been? Some thirty-something shotter (drug dealer) doing nothing with myself…
Has there been a lesson learnt in another area of your life which has in turn taught you a lesson musically? For example, gym discipline, relationships, parenthood.
Music has probably taught me more about life actually. Just in the experiences that it has put me through, all the travelling, all the people I've met… you know its really opened me up to different ways of life and how people live theirs. I was kind of narrow-minded when I was just in Hackney. Hackney was me.
You released your own signature beer 'Remedy', tell me about that… not many people can say they have their own beer!
I did yeah! It all came about from an April Fools joke! We did an April Fools joke which was a viral video for Remedy Beer which didn't exist at that time. We just took the label from the t-shirt, we got it printed up and put on an old bottle and then everyone was like you should do a beer! Then the Titanic brewery got in touch and said, do you wanna make a beer? So we were like yeah, why not, lets call it Remedy!
Looking at your Instagram you seem to be a lover of good food, what is Chef Manderson's specialty dish?
I cook a lot man. I'm definitely a Sunday roast guy - any kind of meat, all the trimmings and I'm happy as larry!
Head over to www.relentlessenergy.com and check out all things Relentless and make sure you check out Professor Green, Pure Love and Zane Lowe in the new advert below:
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