Interview with ChetMega

_{Noted for his fiery onstage performance and lyrical versatility, ChetMega is a force to be reckoned with.  Hailing from the Southwest of England, the rapper previously fuelled his creativeness through a number of musical projects – most successfully (to date) as the frontman in rap/rock band VTKTM.  Although he’s ‘been around since Mark B & Blade’, ChetMega’s time is now. Armed with songs such as ‘Lambs To Slaughter’, ‘In My System’ and of course the captivating ‘New Sound’, ChetMega has successfully rebranded himself as a cross-genre artist with enough charisma to take on the scene.}

_{Chet has come a long way from his initial underground buzz with ‘The Southwest Rooster’. Now with a hardcore fan-base and his impressive mix of UK Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Drumstep and DnB, ChetMega is primed and ready to be unleashed on to the mainstream……..}

Cool so, why don’t you tell us about your history, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding your journey after VTKTM, so tell us about that?

Well, I can’t tell you too much because that’s the way we like it! But, I’ve been making music for about seven or eight years now, and I’ve been writing ever since I was a little kid. I did the solo thing about seven years ago, taking it seriously, and then moved onto my rap rock band. Unfortunately I had to take a couple of year’s hiatus due to family sickness, but now I’m back with a bang, with my video ‘New Sound’.

 

So if you had to say that one influence brought your sound together, this dubstep / hip-hop phenomenon, what would you say?

The thing is, it’s kind of a natural progression for me from hip-hop. Hip-hop is where I originate from, and now with all the new sounds coming in, everyone’s going either full dubstep, or they’re going grime, and it just seemed like, you know you’ve got to keep yourself current haven’t you? I still wanted to keep the elements of my rap and hip-hop background, but try and merge the sounds, and it kind of worked.

 

And that is what the ‘New Sound’ is all about, that fusion right there?

Yeah – merging the two. Obviously there is a grime element to it, which is the new UK influence, as you will probably know from listening to the UK scene at the moment.

 

Ok, so tell us about the video concept. It’s quite a dark video, you’re up front to the camera, you’ve got your scary contacts in, you’ve got the girl with the doll face going a bit nuts…

Yep that’s it – I guess it stems from a film.  Because I’m a massive film buff, most of my videos generally have an influence from a film; and just subtly, there’s Blade Runner within this one.  I wanted to add that element to it, which is where the doll thing came from.  Every time I listen to the track I hear snakes within the noises, and that’s where that video concept was born from. Not to say that it was overly fun, having spiders and snakes on me…

 

And do you think the vocalist who did the female part could be perhaps portrayed by Etta Bond, cos it’s really close to her kinda sound?

Um, yeah, I don’t really know, I never really thought about it like that. Yeah, I guess it could be!

 

A future collaboration perhaps?

Yeah, I’m feeling that. Nice!

 

Mmm. So tell us what you think of the UK industry right now. Where is hip-hop and rap going to in 2013?

Well, first of all it’s absolutely banging at the moment – you’ve only got to look out of the window to see that. But, I think what’s actually going to happen is that some of the underground is going blow. I mean like Wiley, he’s had a long career but it’s only now that he’s getting the mainstream hype that he should have got five years ago. So I think that the artists with more longevity are going to start popping up; the people that have worked hard getting there and sort of ruling it I guess.

 

So what’s your plan for the next couple of years?

Take over. Haha.

 

Right. EP or something to come?

Rise of the Mega is my upcoming mixtape, look out for that. Then we’ve got another video coming soon that we’re going to start working on, and the Four Seasons EP is hopefully going to drop pretty soon as a free download.

 

Ok that’s cool. And who do you see making it big this year, is there one particular artist you have in mind?

I’m feeling Benny Banks a lot at the moment, yeah, he’s doing it big. But other than that, me.

 

And if you could work with any one particular artist, someone that influenced you a lot, who would it be?

Skrillex – without a shadow of a doubt.

 

So bring a new dimension to your sound, really push that dubstep boundary a bit more.

Yeah, I have respect for him anyway but since he worked with The Doors, respect went through the roof.

 

Did you hear that ASAP Rocky track, with um, ASAP Rocky and Skrillex?

No, but I’ll definitely go check it out.

 

It’s a banger! I mean, that’s the kind of sound that I could potentially see happening there.

Yeah I’ll have to check that man!

 

Thanks for the chat ChetMega, and good luck with the hustle!