He might have a new album out, but it’s a bit difficult to drag Scorcher away from Call Of Duty at the moment so Rajveer Kathwadia visited him at his Grandma’s house to talk Concrete Jungle... image by James Pearson-Howes

Concrete Jungle is your first fully fledged album. How long has it been in the making?

[Pointing at family photos of a baby Scorcher on the wall] Since then. We had a piano in this house, which is now at my Mum’s house. My Gran used to teach me scales. I was only about one years old so I was too young to know what I was doing, but apparently I was alright. That’s my first ever musical memory. I used to just hit the keys and go mad.

So you’ve been planning on releasing an album since then, yeah?

[Laughs] Nah, I’ve always been playing and listening to music, but I only really started taking it seriously with Simply The Best. Actually to be honest it’s only become proper serious recently after my daughter was born.

So having Sienna has changed your life slightly…

F**king hell. Slightly is putting it mildly bruv. I just christened her on Sunday so she’s blessed by God now.

Has being a father changed you as a person?

Yeah it has. I realised that being a tough guy is not gonna feed my daughter. She made me have a good think about a lot of stuff. I’ve got something to lose now. There’s no room for error. It also makes me think that do I wanna act a certain way, and then your kids don’t feel proud of their dad? It makes you stop and think a lot, and that then goes into a way of thinking and how you live your life and before you know it; you’ve changed. It opens your eyes. Makes you see and appreciate different things.

This is gonna be your second Christmas with her right?

Yeah! Sick! But you know what? She ain’t really rating opening presents no more. At her birthday this year she weren’t even on it. I think she thinks it’s naughty. I was trying to show her, but she wouldn’t do it, like she was scared to rip up the thing maybe? She doesn’t really rate opening presents, but what can you do? She likes the toys, she likes what’s inside. I got her anything you can think of to do with Upsy Daisy.

Upsy what?!?

Upsy Daisy from the CBeebies show In The Night Garden. We like that show, they’ve got the little Tombliboos; they’re some little gangsters. Then you’ve got the thugs and the little gangs. You’ve gotta remember it’s a night garden so it’s a rudeboy ting. Probably the hardest s**t since Captain Bucky o’Hare. He was a cool dude. A rabbit with a strap. Rabbits and straps when you’re young; that has gotta be the coldest thing around. But In The Night Garden is pretty dope. I like that. I spoil Sienna cos I’ve only got one chance to do it. Give her everything I didn’t have.

What do you want for Christmas?

I would like for everyone that appreciates good music to hear me. That’s a lot of my fight. A lot of people don’t see the vision.

How did you approach making the album different from making the mixtapes?

At this point in my life I’m just ready as an artist, but I still  stuck with my formula of doing what I want, how I want. I don’t care if that isn’t what’s selling or what people want. Having said that, the songs that aren’t ‘commercial-friendly’ seem to be the most popular songs on the album. So maybe being hard headed is my strength. I know myself better than anyone.

The content is less harsh than previous releases .

That’s because I’m not living that way anymore. You’re not supposed to be living the same way year after year. In life you’re supposed to progress. [Terminator’s name appears on Scorcher’s Call Of Duty screen]

It’s good to hear you on track with Terminator again.

Yeah of course. You don’t leave Cold Blooded. Cold Blooded is a gang. Them man are like my brothers.

I was really upset when Spartan Gang wasn’t on the album.

Me too, but it wasn’t ready in time. I don’t think you realise how much I love that song. So anyone who says I don’t do grime can just shut up. I did Dark Knight cos I felt responsible for grime. Everyone feels comfortable having albums with not even one grime song on it, or one grime video.

How come you released Dark Knight and not something more commercial like Lights Out for example?

I know it’s not gonna be a big single. It’s not gonna blow away the chart, but it’s a lot of people’s favourite song on the album. I don’t give a s**t. It’s on my album. It’s one of the big songs. I’m not gonna be a millionaire off of grime but it’s cool. Man wanna do whatever just to get through doors. Other people were using grime as a platform to get to another place and so on. That’s not me. If I was a millionaire I still would have done Dark Knight. I probably would have done a better video for Gangsta as well. Man knew that it would get banned from TV. So what?!

You’ve introduced a new word on there as well. What does ‘grownard’ mean?

Grownarrrrrrrrrrrd! That’s how you say it. A man’s brudda was taking the p**s out of how we talk and he said it. So we just ran with it. We call a lot of things grown, and obviously if it’s not grown, then it’s young. For example Gears Of War is child’s play. It’s totally young. You’ve got a game with magical bullets, bright coloured weapons, monsters; that is young! Call Of Duty has got real weapons, real people… grownard! Call Of Duty is my Achilles heel.

Who do you wanna see blow up in 2010?

Kay Young, J.F.L.O.W.S and Wizzy Wow.

And will we see a return from The Movement?

Yeah me and Ghetts had a sit down the other day so Movement’s back flowing and that was probably what stopped the Movement from flowing in the first place.

Concrete Jungle is out now. MySpace.com/scorcherofficial

Tags: Grime, Hip Hop, Interviews