Ask certain artists what role music plays in their lives, and they may answer that it is their grind, or their hustle. For The Bug (producer Kevin Martin), it is his life, and making music is not a chosen career path, but rather a need. That need has been expressed most recently in his latest project, London Zoo, an intense album that represents what it's like living in a city where existence is becoming more expensive and more cut throat.

The album was created during a three year span in which The Bug was living in a nearly self-imposed solitary confinement, left alone with his music, and the pressures to top his previously lauded projects. Whereas other artists may put on a front, and deny their vulnerability, The Bug is honest in his assessment of his mindstate while crafting London Zoo, he says, "It was hell…there were times in the last three years that I felt I was going crazy working on this record. There was a time when I really felt I wasn’t going to be able to finish it."

But finish it he did, and the result is an album entrenched in dancehall and reggae influences, combined with The Bug's signature brand of dub step, noise rock, and experimental music. It is over those soundscapes that emcees such as Tippa Irie, Ricky Ranking, and Warrior Queen run down their own list of demands, and air their grievances with city life. London Zoo is currently awaiting a release on Ninja Tune records, and The Bug spoke with RubyHornet overseas, delving into the making of the album, the brilliance of Public Enemy, and music not as product, but as a means of survival.

The Bug: Good question, to be honest. Basically, the title, London Zoo, I only thought of in November. I had already been working on the album 2 ½ years prior to that. I can’t say in all honesty that London Zoo was a concept that I was working towards. Just as the album came closer to completion I was discussing it with the graphic designer who did the artwork for the album. It was her first trip to London and she was coming over in November and she asked me what London’s like. I told her it’s one big f**king zoo. After the conversation I thought, ‘you know what? That’s a pretty accurate description or metaphor for what it’s like in London.’ Over the past couple years particularly it’s become so ludicrously expensive to exist here, and everyone I know is just in-debt up to their ears, living off credit cards, and broke. London’s a city I’ve been living in for 12-14 years. What you notice over time is that people come to London to exploit what it’s got. It’s like a freak colony. It’s like a country within it’s own right. It’s a total mashup of different cultures, and creeds, and colors, and habits and rituals. I think that the way people move here to get what they can from the city while they can, basically ensures a certain mindset from people. People are rather sharkish and reptilian that move to the city, they have to be to survive and get what they want from it. That means that relationships are a bit perilous in a city like this. All these factors came into play for me on this record. The fact that the people I chose to work with, emcee-wise, are Black, first or second generation Jamaican. They’ve got absolute outsider status within this city and survival is the number one point, even more obviously for their situation. For me, yeah, it was a fusion of culture, a fusion of influence, a fusion of generation cause the emcees come from different generations, and just a collision of styles. In no way have I ever tried to fake Jamaican music. I’m openly inspired by it and it’s had the most inspirational influence on me in the years I’ve been living in London. But I still bring it through my personal roots, noise rock, experimental music and just freaky s**t.

RubyHornet: I definitely heard the Jamaican, dancehall, Reggae styles and was going to ask you if one were to pick up other music by The Bug would this record be indicative of your other music, or was this record a departure in anyway?

The Bug: To me it was like a refinement. The first album I made proper was an album called Pressure. That was really me just trying to discover my own voice. I was looking for a sound that was in my head and trying to play it. For me having finished the album, and it received mad plaudits from people I would never have expected, people who have ranking like Aphex Twins to Radiohead, Massive Attack. I was so stunned like, ‘what the f**k do I do next?’ In the intervening period there had been a collection of 7-inches that I had done, which were real dancehall destroyers. Total in your face things that I did under the name Razor X Productions. So basically between the fact that I was looking for a follow-up to my first album Pressure, and I felt I’d gone as far as I could in a certain direction with the Razor X record, once working on this record I had to look back and basically decide which options to go for. I didn’t just want to go for all the noise in your face s**t, cause I felt I’d gone as far as I possibly could with that on Killing Sound with Razor X Productions. I felt I’d become a cartoon character if I carried on in that direction. Listening back to Pressure, I felt that Pressure was lacking certain things. Predominantly hook lines and choruses, and also when I was working on Pressure, I wasn’t that used to working with emcees. I was basically happy with what they gave me. I didn’t direct it, or select the lyrical direction or mood of the album. I didn’t have as much control because I didn’t really know how to control it. Whereas with this album that was definitely the case. I tried to open up discussions with the emcees, make suggestions, help with lyrics, emphasize the fact that I wanted hook lines, and also these are emcees I’ve worked with for a number of years in some cases. So it was an on-going relationship, it wasn’t just rent-a-rapper like the first album was.

RubyHornet: When you talk about working on an album 2 ½- 3 years, it’s interesting because a lot of the artists I talk to, especially in America in the current climate of music, they’re trying to get their material out as fast as possible. They’re also worried about people taking and leaking the material. What was it like spending 2 ½ - 3y ears on an album? What role did patience and the overall end play in you sticking to it?

The Bug: It was hell…Working 3 years on an album is hell, particularly if you’re on your own, and that’s part of the problem. It’s like a huge amount of self-doubt, too much self-reflection, mad-anxiety left, right, and center. The environment I was working in played a very heavy part and also led to the title. For two of the years I was living in my studio, which is a single room on the 5th floor of a pretty shady part of London. There’ s no shower and there’s no kitchen. It was a like a confined environment for me. The first year was great because I just escaped a relationship and just wanted to bury myself in music. The second year the startling reality of the situation hit, which is, ‘this is actually a s**t hole and s**t way to live.’ I had to learn to work within that. All this is very much part of this album. The environment is crucial to this album. I wanted to make an album that said something. During these three years I’d suddenly found myself being lauded by the dub-step fraternity and Loafer and Code 9 were playing my tunes to thousands of people going nuts. That as well almost diverted me and I started thinking, ‘well, s**t. How the hell am I going to follow these tracks up?’ For a little while I tried to follow them up with similar tracks till I realized that was just a cul-de-sac to follow. Yeah man, it’s been a crazy trip, this album. That’s the only way to describe it. But in the end, now that a couple months have passed since I finished it, I feel it’s the best album I could have made to this point. It definitely is evocative of this city and my time within it. Like I said, I didn’t just want to make a faceless dance album, or a formulaic rhythm album, an empty production album where it just comes across as a compilation. There had to be solidity and a reason for this record to exist. There’s too much music that has absolutely no reason to exist and is only being made because people want to be famous or make a fast buck. That’s never been the case with me. I make music because I’m compelled to make it, and it’s the only thing I have faith in in this f**king life. And it gets me away from the stunning, boring, mediocrity of everyday life.

RubyHornet: When I listen to the album, those tones and themes definitely come across. The album seems to have an overall dark tone to it, and also in terms of what the emcees are rapping about. Did you pick those artists because you knew they could go to those places? Did you work with them on their material, or did that just organically happen?

The Bug: Several questions are being raised, for starters, about what you said in terms of the album being dark…To me, dark is hokey, gothic, bulls**t. What’s really predominant about this record as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s really intense. It’s a very intense sort of pressure chamber record. It’s very real. It’s not darkness, it’s real. It’s absolutely real. It’s reflective of all our existence within any given humongous metropolis city. Regarding the emcees, it was different with each emcee. With Tippa Irie for instance, a lot of people were shocked when they heard the track “Angry” because they didn’t think he was capable of lyrics or a performance like that. I’d been a big fan of his for a number of years. I’d seen him live many times and was really impressed by his intensity. When I called him to ask him if he’d partake, he was the only emcee that I hadn’t worked with prior to the album. I said to him, ‘look, I’d like you to do a lyric, but I’d like it to be different than your normal style. I want you to write about what vexes you on an everyday level, what gets you irate, what pisses you off in this city and your relationship to this city and the rest of the world.’ He came up with “Angry” and it completely blew me away when I heard it.

With other people like Ricky Ranking, I knew he was capable of very intense lyrics, very in your face sentiments. I’d heard the work he’d done with Roots Manuva that I really liked. And his first solo track, which is called “Can’t Trick I” is a very conscious Reggae lyric that dealt with reality rhymes. It dealt with growing up in Brickstown being harassed by the police. I knew what he was capable of, and it was just me writing music with his voice in mind. Same with Flowdan. Flowdan always says that I bring out the heavier side of him. For me, when I write with him in mind or Ricky, I know how I want them to sound and I know how I want the tracks to sound. But with someone like Warrior Queen, it’s so random that she comes to the table with stuff that constantly amazes me. She knows what I’m into, we’ve worked together for five years, and there’s a mutual respect. She knows what I’m looking for from the lyrics and she’s not going to come with a party rhyme for one of my tunes.

RubyHornet: Can you talk about other artists that you pull from? I was reading about you and saw that one of your influences is Public Enemy, is that correct?

The Bug: Yeah man. The Bomb Squad literally were responsible for me producing music. Their first album, Yo! Bumrush The Show, when I first hear it everything changed. It sounded like an alien environment. I didn’t know what the f**k was going on. They created a total world for me. Literally it was like being sucked into a world that I knew nothing about sonically and lyrically and that was really f**king exciting. In a way that’s what I’d hoped for with London Zoo. It’s like a passport to my personal hell in London. As far as I’m concerned, Public Enemy sonically, is so incredible. I mean, prior to hearing them I was just working in a band that mixed noise rock and free jazz. But hearing Public Enemy it was like, ‘wow, how that can that be so multi-dimensional? How can you have music that’s so funky yet so abstract? So intense, yet so melodic and have lyrics that just take you to a whole different level and have a hard cop, soft cop routine of Chuck D and Flavor Flav?' That was a perfect entity to me. The iconography, the politics, the style, the fashion, just the weight of it was perfect for me. The first three Public Enemy albums were just mind blowing.

RubyHornet: You talked a lot about pressure, and that was also something I saw come up a lot when I was reading about you. What role does pressure play in your life? It can inspire greatness, but it can also drive someone to madness.

The Bug: Yeah. I think it’s a very tough balance. I’m not being theatrical by saying there were times in the last three years that I felt I was going crazy working on this record. There was a time when I really felt I wasn’t going to be able to finish it. It is, it’s tension. Part of it is what I put myself under very much. I felt pressure to follow up the album Pressure. Like I said earlier, or hinted at earlier, I just didn’t expect the overwhelmingly positive reaction to my first album. People who I thought were heroic figures publicly saying or supporting me was really a complete shock to my system. I put myself under pressure thinking, ‘how the hell can I write a better record?’ And it took me a while to figure out that it was possible to write a better record. There’s positive pressure as well. The studio complex that I moved into had several producers on one floor. I’ve never worked in that sort of environment before, and there was a sort of healthy competitive energy between me and some of the other producers. We’d listen to each other’s tracks and be like, ‘whoa.’ It was raising the level every time and it was f**king good. It made me want to work harder. Loafer and Vex who shared studios in this floor for a while were really incredible producers. I really had to look long and hard at myself. Like you very rightly said at the beginning of the question, pressure can be positive or negative. It’s just about getting that balance right.

RubyHornet: Now that this album’s out and it’s getting a good response, and it also expresses a lot of those feelings, do you see yourself being able to relax a little bit? Do you think that will effect or influence your future sounds at all?

The Bug: I’m already thinking about where I want to go with the next record. That’s for sure. That’s absolutely already in my mind. At the same point, there’s internal reactions. When I was doing the Razor X stuff I was getting really pissed off that people were really trying to force me into a box. ‘Oh, The Bug, he just does distorted dancehall.’ I started working on a project called King Midas Sound with the poet that was on Pressure called Roger Robinson. It was a direct reaction to where I felt I was being pushed. I also started working with female emcees and singers because people were saying that the lyrics on my records was a mad show and pro-violent. The music industry and the music media need and want to reduce artists to one-dimensional caricatures because they’re easy to sell that way, easy to market. Fortunately I see things in color. I don’t see things in black and white. I see things kaleidoscopically. I’m not a one dimensional entity. I’m a true Gemini and head-f**k merchant. As far as I’m concerned, it’s like I went into the King Midas sound project to make it absolutely apparent to people that that’s not all that I am. I’ve got far more interests, and to address the fact that you don’t want to listen to overloaded intense dancehall 24/7. I wanted to make a record that was the sort of record you’d zone out to with your girl at the end of a club when you’ve gone home. Something you could lose yourself in and listen to at home as well as the club. King Midas Sound stuff is very fragile, melancholy, really, really deep and a psychedelic mixture of Hip Hop rhythms and dub bass with a singer who’s crooning literally half inside your ear and half inside your head. It’s a beautiful record. I haven’t finished it yet. I’m mixing it down over the next few months, but I’m really proud of it.

RubyHornet: You talked about the music industry and media reducing artists to fit into their boxes so they can sell and move it. In terms of the way society works, do you think that people who are kind of out there or go against the system are categorized as so by authority as a way to mute their voice? Like, ‘oh, they’re just crazy…’

The Bug: Actually what you realize more and more is that it’s the outsiders, the supposed crazy people that are responsible for most of the innovations and pioneering statements in society culturally. Those are the people that are ahead of the game. I’ve never cared for the sheep heard mentality. I’ve always looked for people who have an independent original voice in music, in literature, in art, in film. They’re the ones that are looking ahead. They’re not stuck in reverse.

RubyHornet: From what I understand you were originally planning on coming to America, but had some issues. So what’s up next for you?

The Bug: Yeah, you got it man. I was meant to fly to New York yesterday and was going to play my first New York show as The Bug on Friday. We had huge problems with Warrior Queen’s visa in Jamaica. The American Embassy was being basically a bunch of f**king retarded racist f**kers who were totally unhelpful even though she had all the paperwork in place. It’s been so delayed that it wasn’t possible to turn it around in time. But I think we’re planning to come to America again in about 8 weeks time. Off the back of a West Coast tour we’re going to hit New York on the way back. So, that’s been salvaged, which is cool cause as The Bug I’ve never played in the United States. As part of Techno Animal, we toured the states once. But I’ve got very little experience touring America.

RubyHornet: Lastly, you said you’ve been getting a lot of praise from people that you've looked up, and you didn’t know what to do with yourself. Are you being able to embrace success more so now? What is your goal in making music?

The Bug: My father and my grandfather were musicians. For me it’s in my blood, and music changed my life. It helped me raise the questions and gave me some strength for a pretty f**ked up family background. As far as I’m concerned, music at its best is far more than a product, far more than just an accessory to your life. It is your life. That’s the problem with me and most music at the moment. Most music at the moment is just accessory, it’s just product. It’s been reduced to mp3s and ringtones. For me, music was always far more than that. If I wanted to make money from music I wouldn’t be making this form of music. I’d be selling out real fast and going for the most direct route to make cash. To be honest with you, if I wanted to make cash I wouldn’t even make music, I’d do something else with a better chance of making money. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a need to make music. I’ve never really had any choice in the matter. It’s what makes me happy, it’s what makes me fulfilled. It’s the only thing I have faith in in this f**ked up world.

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