Time Out Berlin LIVE presents Ghostpoet

British MC-producer Ghostpoet shot from a nondescript 9-5 job to a Mercury Prize nominee in the space of a year. Now he’s coming to Berlin for the first time to kick off the Time Out Berlin Live series…

Time Out Live debuts in Berlin on November 28th 2011 with a launch event at Festsaal Kreuzberg with Obaro Ejimiwe, better known as bleary-eyed British MC Ghostpoet. Myspace demos brought Ejimiwe to the attention of tastemaker Gilles Peterson, who signed him to Brownswood Recordings the same day he got the sack from his 9-5 job. 2011 has subsequently been a whirlwind year for the producer and vocalist, starting with the release of his acclaimed debut album Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam in February, shifting gears with a notable presence on the summer festival circuit, and peaking with a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in September.

Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam is heady stuff: ‘kitchen sink’ Britspeak delivered with a pronounced lisp, existing in a sleepy half-real state between waking and dreaming, and punctuated with jagged electronic beats. The midnight ramblings of this affable and effortlessly laid back artist have drawn comparisons with both Roots Manuva and The Streets, marking Ghostpoet out as the man most likely to take up the mantle of both.

You posted on Twitter recently that you were in an Oxfam charity store. You’re a man who seems to appreciate the value of a nice vintage cardigan, did you buy any?

(Laughs) That’s been drawn on a lot because I’ve worn cardigans a few times. I do go to Oxfam and other charity shops a lot for clothes, but not always for cardies. I had a gig for the Oxjam festival in London. We played in an actual store in Dalston, it was really, really good fun.

What can people can expect at Time Out Live Berlin? And have you visited Berlin before?

Hopefully just an enjoyable experience. I work with a drummer and a guitarist for my live show and it’s very different from the album. I went over there to DJ for a Fashion Week thing. It was lovely, I’m looking forward to going back.

You’ve been touring constantly this year, do you feel that your live show is honed now?

It’s definitely getting there. We’ve gigged a lot this year, and I’ve supported Metronomy and Jamie Woon. We’ve added a few more things recently and that’s now the next phase of trying to get those to gel into a set. There’s always room for improvement but we’re in a good place now.

The Mercury Music Awards were last week, and you said in an interview before the ceremony that if you won your head would explode like a robot’s. Were there any adverse physical effects from losing out to PJ Harvey?

(Laughs) Maybe just putting on weight from eating rubbish at the ceremony? No, I guess I'm just more confident, more than anything. It’s something I'll live with for the rest of my life and I now feel that I can potentially have a lasting career in music.

Your first EP The Sound Of Strangers sampled A Tribe Called Quest track. What was the idea behind remaking “Electric Relaxation” as your own track "Love Confusion"?

It’s like everything with my music: it’s about an emotional connection. I knew A Tribe Called Quest, but I wasn't fully aware of all their music. I didn't decide one day that I wanted to write to an instrumental of a different tune, it just came to me. It made sense to write to it.

Have American MCs been much of an influence for you?

Not really. I listened to a lot when I was younger, but when I started trying to create my own sound I didn't really want to take influence from it. I felt that it was important to me to look inwards, to the world that was immediately around me. I was definitely aware of UK artists like Roots Manuva and The Streets, and other various people like Klashnikoff, Skinnyman, Jehst, and Ty. They were definitely reference points, but it was more a kind of reassurance that I could make what I really want to make. Hip hop was important and it will continue to be, but it’s only a percentage of what I feel I make.

Your background is as a grime MC but you’ve become known as a solo artist for your narcotic drawl. When did you discover this voice?

It kind of came about from the moment I started making my own sound and wanted to write my own music instead of what I was doing previously, which was writing lyrics to instrumentals. I wanted to blend and marry the vocals and the music together as much as possible, and I was constantly trying to stretch out words so they rode over the music as much as possible, making the vocals and the music communicate with each other so to speak. It was never a purposeful thing, very much a subconscious stream of lyrics that I cut and pasted and pitched down on to the music as much as possible.

It’s become a bit of a myth that on the same day you lost your job you won a record deal. How did that come about?

I was putting my music up online, and it was a friend of a friend of a friend who told Brownswood about me, and from there they checked out my music and asked for some more. They asked me down for a meeting and I signed with Gilles right there, so I went from living in Coventry doing a nine-to-five job in customer service to being told by Gilles Peterson that he wants to put an album out of my music. I was in a bit of shock for a while! That’s how it started and we just developed a relationship from there. It’s a strange one because my plan was always to get an album or a body of work out; other than that I never had a clue of what to do or what would be the next step. Everything that’s happened has been great because it feels like quite a natural progression.

You’ve worked with Micachu and there’s talk of you producing with Mike Skinner. How did those collaborations come about, and is there anyone else that you’d specifically like to work with?

The days of Myspace were so interesting as there were so many new artists and it was one of the first real platforms for artists from around the world. I was lucky enough to stumble across people like Micachu. We then played together at Sonar in 2007, and afterwards we started collaborating. “Morning” was one of the tracks that we worked on and she’s an amazing talent. She will be a national treasure one day! With Mike Skinner I’ve always been a fan of his music and it was completely out of the blue that he contacted me, and we started chatting and working on little bits and pieces. I'm not sure what will happen to any of it yet it’s just a couple of demos and a couple of chats more that anything else, to know what works and what doesn't. I really like to work with people that I wouldn't be expected to work with, and make those trains of thought come together. I wouldn’t say there is any one particular person I’d like to work with in future. There are a lot of collaborations that are kind of throwaway and I don't want to make anything that’s throwaway.

Are you working on new material now? And if so, have you stuck to your habit of writing mainly in the dead of night?

It’s kind of changed with the fact that I now work full time on music. Maybe when I'm sitting down to write my next album I may revert to that. I'm gigging a lot so I'm working on music in the back of a van or in a hotel. Maybe I miss the night…yeah I do.