Chapter 3: The New Millennium
London Years
el dia perfecto EP MDCL001 (2000); The limited edition promo vinyl previewing Six Degrees once it got signed to Universal UK (2000)
“From a formative age, my experiences taught me that belonging and community were directly connected to my love of music and desire to create and express with it. In London, my community was not so dissimilar in that it was rooted in cultural and ethnic diaspora - Jamaicans, Bajans, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Ethiopians and more made up the core community along with English of white and mixed descent, and now two young half-Japanese - myself and producer Seiji.
Wherever I have gone, I’ve found myself drawn to situations where racial and cultural diversity is the norm and have come to understand how that gives me belonging, healing and growth.”
Six Degrees would go on to be signed to Universal out of the UK and licensed to over a dozen different countries. The album was well received, particularly in the UK, Europe, Japan and Canada. Along with my prolific collaborations with established UK and global club music producers, I was given opportunities to perform and tour all around the world, collaborate with more artists and had made the transition from keyboard collaborator to producer, remixer and artist. None of this could have been possible without the camaraderie and support of my West London community - my own creative ideas and aspirations lined up in perfect timing with a collective movement. This was probably the first time I had really felt a sense of creative community.
My album Tide’s Arising (2005) would get signed to US label ABB Soul, which was the catalyst for me to start touring in the US, starting with DJ set shows in LA and NYC, soon followed by live shows. Thinking back to my first LA show that year, little did I know that less than 5 years later, I’d be calling LA home! Before that time would come though, almost every weekend saw me and the band jumping on a plane to play in Europe, or head to Asia or the US for a tour. It was an amazing time.
Chatting with Chico Hamilton, jazz drummer and band leader for jazz greats such as Count Basie and Lena Horne, after remixing his work for Impulse Records (2006)
Performing music from my album Journey 2 the Light in Yokohama, Japan with Bembe Segue, Jason Yarde and Richard Spaven (2007)
The Power of Collaboration
As well as recording and releasing plenty of my own music, the decade in London was my real introduction to the power of collaboration - there’s literally hundreds of tracks, remixes, EPs and the like that I contributed to. Notably, Phil Asher, producing as Restless Soul, took me under his wing and taught me so much about club music and the functionality of musicianship within that. The relationship between DJs and musicians in the studio taught me much about collaboration and the value of everyone’s contributions - whether musically trained or not. As well as Phil, I’m grateful for the friendship, mentoring and community I experienced there there with Dego from 4Hero, IG Culture, Bugz in the Attic, Domu and so many more amazing creative talents.
So many times, I’d hear producers play me rhythms and ideas that my theory-training and know-how wouldn’t have permitted, but I knew that I was hearing something truly special and checked my music training at the door. During my decade based in London, I almost never played the acoustic piano, preferring synthesizers and samplers - subconsciously running away from the instrument that had been forced on me way back at age 4 and taking the opportunity to deconstruct the musician I had been taught to be up to that point. .