It's been a busy few months for Tinie Tempah. The London-based hip hop artist released his second album Demonstration, the follow-up to his massively successful debut Disc-Overy, at the start of November. A multiple date tour of the UK and Ireland was intended to follow close on its heels in December but a decision was made to reschedule the dates so as to allow more time and energy to be spent on creating a much more lavish live show.

His Dublin date will now take place in The O2 on Wednesday 9th of April and, now suitably rested and prepared, Tinie Tempah explains exclusively to entertainment.ie why his Dublin date will be worth the wait.

Words: John Balfe

 


When you rescheduled your December dates you said that the primary reason for doing so was that you didn't have enough time to make them "mind blowing, unmissable shows". Have you achieved that now?

Absolutely, we got Beyonce's set design people and we've been able to piece the set together in an amazing way. We really wanted to bring the music to life. Basically the set is going to consist of the whole of the new album, the whole of the old album and all the songs in-between. There's going to be energy, the set design is fantastic and this has only been made possible by the newfound time. So apologies for cancelling but it will definitely be worth the wait!
 

Another bonus in putting the extra few months buffer between the shows is that people will have had that bit longer to get used to Demonstration and will know the tracks that much better, right?

Definitely. I can't wait to see the way people receive the tracks. I've been able to have some great moments with these songs, like 'Heroes' at the BAFTA's, so I'm super excited - I really can't wait.
 

A lot of the tracks on Demonstration, 12 of the 16 in fact, feature collaborations with other artists. You clearly enjoy working with different voices and different perspectives on music, but what is about these collaborations that opens up a different aspect of your own sense of creativity?

A lot of Demonstration is themed around a protest, or a form of expression. If you look at the artwork, and the name of some of the tracks like 'A Heart Can Save The World', I just felt like I really wanted to work with some people in particular that could really help me portray the message, or help me get the message out a little bit more of what I wanted to say. And again, showcasing amazing British talent is very important. There are so many artists, for example Ella Eyre, when I heard her on the Rudimental record I wanted to work with her immediately - she's going to be amazing!
 

And there she is on track one...

Exactly, track one. That's kind of the way I work. The reason why there's more [collaborations] than usual is because, for me, it was such an important record and I wanted to have a big message behind it and they definitely helped me with that.
 

Speaking of collaborations, I saw in an interview with you that you'd be interested in working with a lot of other acts but two of which stuck out to me - The Script and Sleigh Bells. What is it that you admire about those two acts?

The Script I've known for quite a long time and when they get their songs right I really like the lyrics, they always have really well-written, beautiful songs. They're lads, I've been able to support them on tour a couple of times and I even came out during their set at Oxegen a couple of years ago and that was really good too.

With Sleigh Bells, it's more about the rawness of their music. They're very edgy, one of these mad indie kind of like punky type of bands and you don't necessarily know what they're about. They worked with Diplo and he makes great hip-hop, he makes great reggae and I found it really cool that they worked with him.
 

Yeah, they're great. I've seen them live a few times now and they're probably the loudest band I've ever seen! Not bad for a two-piece..

All their stuff is so distorted and loud. It's mad, I love it.
 

You clearly enjoy taking a very hands-on approach to your music. Do you get the same creative buzz in the studio that you get on the stage?

They're too completely different things. It's weird, in the studio more often than not to get the best out of me I like to be in a certain kind of setting, I like to be around a certain kind of people. It's a patient game in the studio, I'm willing to be in there for as long as it takes to get what I need. Whereas on stage I just have full intention to kill this shit! That's why I love festivals so much. It gets to the point where I'm like, "okay, it's my turn now and I'm going to show you what I can do!"

I love them both very much but I love performing live because I like the surprise element of making a track and then performing a song for the first time and seeing how [the crowd] reacts.

Thanks for your time Tinie, I'm looking forward to the Dublin show in a couple of months...

Definitely, I'm going to try and out-do Sleigh Bells - I'll try my best!

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