Interview Time: Rishi Rich
Rishi Rich At what age did you realise you had a talent?
I was lerning Indian Classical music when I was 6 years old. My mum would have all my relative around & I started to teach myself to play the dholak, the thombi & we had a piano which I spent all my time on. I was also always listening to my mums Motown collection as long as I can remember.
Who influenced you to make beats?
Teddy Riley. Ive been a massive fan of his all along. I got everything Guy ever recorded.
What struggles did you face trying to make it? How did you overcome these?
In the early days it was a real struggle even though I got my first record deal at 13 years old. Ive now produced over 12 albums within the asian market worldwide. I remember I used to get on the bus with my demo cassettes at 14 & go down the local pirate radio station giving them to my mates all over west London.
How did the Rishi Rich project come together?
It was a concept myself & my management (2point9) cam up with. We decided we wanted to find a couple of young british asian kids, one to sing in punjabi & another to sing in english. We wanted to create the type of music that 1st generation born british asian kids could really relate to & my manager had heard how we talk in converstation on the street (half a sentence in punjabi & half in english). Just thought it’d be good to get that style on record which would really represent the asian street slang we use everyday. It caught fire real fast cos no-one had done it before Dance With You. Now the whole asian music scene across the globe has used that style so we gotta change things up again. That’s why we’ve flipped things for this album & blended punjabi not just with english but with other languages where there are big asian community. There’s spanish & french blended with english , punjabi & Hindi on this album also. Its pretty mad.
Your first debut single ‘Nachna Tere Naal (Dance With You’)’ was an absolute club banger. What can we expect to hear from your album?
More club bangers. The 1st single “Push It Up” is already no.1 on every asian radio station & its a similar vibe to Dance With You but we’ve blended Bhangra with Reggaeton which seems to have really caught peoples imagination again. We worked with the Luny Tunes out in Puerto Rico (who done Gasolina & all the big Reggaeton Bangers) & its really kicked off in UK Asian Clubs again. We perform the track last in our current set & it always tears the roof off which is good feeling.
You’ve collaborated with many artists in the past and we see that your list just gets bigger, how did you hook up with Latin giants Luny Tunes?
We’re doing a project with them & Mass Flow (their label) called Bhangraton (best of both worlds). 2point9 hooked it up with Mass Flow & the album is due out on Universal USA in early part of next year. We spend 7 days in Puerto Rico just mixing & blending our styles of production & vocal & there’s some really crazy stuff which is gonna be massive Stateside we reckon. We just hope Universal don’t sit on it too long as Record Companies can tend to do sometimes.
Describe the feeling when you hear your tracks on radio and gigs?
Its a buzz of course. When you’ve produced something in your studio & you hear it for the first time in a place where you can see other peoples reactions it really helps to steer your creativity left or right. You can always tell reactions on the first play. No-one ever jumps up & down until they know the tune but you can feel in club if you’ve got a banger or not within the first verse.
If you didn’t become a producer where would you be now?
Probably a computer geek.
What do you think about the UK music scene overall?
In-consistent. In relation to Urban music anyway. One year it feels there is a wealth of talent out there & the next the quality just doesn’t feel strong enough. There needs to be more investment in development from major labels I really feel. So many artists have raw talent but if it doesn’t deliver with the first record they’re let go. More patience is the key as artists need to learn theyr’e craft like any professional.
Describe yourself in 3 words?
British. Ambitious. Asian.
Do you have a life motto?
Harder you work, luckier you get.
Top 4 Favourite songs?
Adnan Sami – Tere Chera
Blackstreet – Joy
Stevie Wonder – Ribbon In The Sky
Aasha Borslay - Churaliya
Finally, where do you see yourself in five years?
America.