Born in Hackney and raised in the Southern Ireland countryside Maverick Sabre aka Michael Stafford entered the world of British music through his collaboration with Professor Green on the Top 40 single ‘Jungle’. Maverick Sabre is bringing a new voice to the UK’s pop charts. After sharing stages with Plan B, Get Cape. Wear Cape Fly and Bashy alongside a highly successful appearance on Later…with Jools Holland he is now in the middle of a huge support tour with Hip Hop legend Snoop Dogg. I met him at the Birmingham leg of the tour at the HMV Institute to find out and understand a little bit more about him and his song writing.
You’ve got a very Jamaican/Finley Quaye-esque voice, how did that come about?
Well when I was about eight my dad taught me the guitar and allowed me to use his vinyl player along with his entire record collection. I picked out everything from Aretha Franklin to The Rolling Stones and anything else I could get my hands on. So from a young age I sat and listened to that consistently before I even started to buy my own records. I also went along to my dad’s rehearsals, which was a mixture of traditional Irish music with elements of early southern American blues.
Where did your musical influences go from there?
When I was about twelve I started getting into hip-hop through my sister. Someone played me a Tupac tape and then it all went off from there. I almost forgot about any other type of music for the next couple of years. Then I started MC’ing when I was fifteen on the Irish hip-hop scene, which really got the ball rolling.
So you were fifteen when you started writing your own material?
Yeah, when I started listening to hip-hop. When I was fourteen I started MC’ing a bit just at home. Then when I was fifteen I decided I wanted to start recording songs because when I was younger I used to write songs on the guitar anyway from when my dad first taught me. So I thought I might as well push that over onto the hip-hop side.
Are you trained on any other instruments apart from the guitar?
You know what; I’m not even trained on the guitar. My dad taught me four chords, which were to Stand By Me (Ben E King) and every thing else I just make up. I don’t confess myself to be the best guitar player in the world what so ever. I just make up my own chords, whatever feels good; I just get the vibe of the strings and different notes. Obviously when I play the chords to my guitar player who’s trained and knows all the musical notation he can tell me exactly what the chords are I’m playing.
Do you write all of your own material?
Everything’s written myself, but obviously sometimes there’s co writers that I work with such as producers and we sit down and write together. But everything’s got my own stamp on it. I write all my own top lines and lyrics myself. Obviously if I’m working with another producer he might do the music, like someone might play me another guitar riff that I wouldn’t of known.
Your debut albums coming out soon, when is it expected to hit the shelves?
We’re hoping to get it out in October or November I think.
What can people expect from it, any collaborations etc.?
There’s no collaborations, I didn’t want that as I found it was becoming a little bit too much over the last couple of years. Every time a new act got pushed into the limelight the first thing selling the album would be collaborations. I don’t want that, I just want to put out a classic album, I want to put out music that can withstand the test of time. That’s defiantly what I wanted to do with my debut album because it’s my first stamp on the world and what everyone’s going to judge me on. What people can expect is hip-hop inspired soulful folk music.
What do you take from each of these genres to get your own unique sound?
I love hip-hop; it’s my favourite musical genre. For me hip hop’s a mash up of all my favourite types of music, you can find blues in there, you can find soul in there, you can find so many different styles in hip hop, I think that’s why I love it so much. Everything about hip hop is soulful, everything’s got a passion behind it, everything’s about something whether it be from love or to me commenting on things I’ve seen growing up, friends, stories, political issues it’s all from the soul. I’m not trying to preach. I’m not trying to be something. I’m just being me.
With folk music, I like telling stories, I like to think of myself when I write as a documentarian, where I see something and it will interest me and will want to find out more about it. It’s as if I’m someone collecting research together to make a documentary. I’ll look up interviews, I’ll ask people and then make a story around that and put it into a song. I had a song called ‘The Found Him A Gun’ which was on my mix tape. This was about the Virginia Tech shooting in America because it really interested me that people would be desperate enough to go into their school and kill students that they go to class with and see every day. That kind of concept really interests me, why they would need to do that. It doesn’t really happen in Ireland so I just wanted to know more about it. So I went and investigated it on the Internet, I found different stories and just accumulated this knowledge about it and then made up my own little story for it and turned it into a song. People are always attracted by stories, which is where music comes from. Before there were any recording technologies everyone would have different versions of one song, which would keep getting passed around. Which made for everyone’s own version of the story.
So your song writing is heavily influenced by early blues?
Yeah defiantly, I wanted to bring the roots of music into my song writing. Music from the soul!
With Azerbaijan recently winning the Eurovision song contest with a singer from Enfield in north London. If asked would you choose to represent Ireland or the UK in next years final?
I’d turn it down; it would be the end of my career. Even if my album sold one and a half copies and someone offered me a Eurovision spot, I still couldn’t do it! I watch Eurovision every year just for the laugh. It’s just a joke. So I’d have to refuse that offer!
You can download Maverick Sabre’s Lost Words EP from iTunes and The Travelling Man mixtape free from www.mavericksabre.com. Catch him at Festivals throughout the summer with his self titled debut record coming out on 7/11/2011, pre order it here:-
Here are a list of his forthcoming shows and festivals: -
September
3rd Jersey Live – Jersey
8th Bestival – Isle of Wight
October (Headline Tour)
13th - Glasgow O2 ABC 2
14th - Manchester Academy 2
15th - Newcastle O2 Academy 2
17th - Sheffield Leadmill
18th - Liverpool O2 Academy 2
20th - Leeds Cockpit
21st - Birmingham O2 Academy 2
22nd - Norwich Waterfront
23rd - Brighton Concorde 2
25th - Bristol Thekla
26th - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
27th - London KOKO
29th - Galway Roisin Dubh
30th - Belfast Stiff Kitten
31st - Dublin Whelans
