Ahead of Heavytrackerz’s ‘Old Habits’ official release MarkMeets TV reporter Renee Bourke was invited to a top secret location in London to chat with the very talented Record Producers, Song Writers, and Instrumentalists, The Heavy Trackerz in an exclusive interview.

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The Heavy Trackerz Interview — Mark Meets TV reporter Renee Bourke chats with The Heavy Trackerz in an exclusive interview

The HeavyTrackerz have had an incredible year, with their official remix of Vic Mensa’s summer smasher ‘Down On My Luck’ and as the production maestros behind Meridian Dan’s top 20 UK hit ‘German Whip’. Tonight Stormzy will be featuring on Jools Holland and perform ‘Not That Deep’ a track also produced by the guys.

The trio are now concentrating on their solo project ‘Old Habits’ featuring the vocals of Yana Toma. Premiered by leading 1Xtra tastemaker Mistajam. The release has already received a huge amount of support from the likes of SBTV, GRM Daily and BBC’s DJ Target.

How are you this afternoon?

I’m fine. I’m RasEye, I’m going to be speaking on behalf of the team today.

I’d just like to kick this off by asking you to describe the sound and style of Heavy Trackerz in 3 words.

RasEye: 3 words…Fresh. Heavy. And futuristic.

Oh awesome! What has been the highlight so far

I think it’s the morning where we found out that we charted number 13 with “German Whip”. I think that’s gunna have to be the biggest moment in our career

Yeh, that is massive! Of all the tracks, is there one that you are particularly proud of? I’d probably say that one, or?

I think the one we’re most proud of you haven’t heard yet, but you’re soon to hear it. But I can’t disclose too much, but then from the ones you’ve heard, yeh, it’s still going to have to be “German Whip”. Either “German Whip” or “Not That Deep”, because the story behind “Not That Deep” is quite cool.

Do you want to tell us the story?

Basically, there’s a trio of us. We have an engineer called “6ix” which is my blood brother, and he’s Stormzy’s engineer. We actually done a tune with “The Rascals”, and I left it in his [Stormyz’) studio. Stormzy was just accidentally going through the computer, and he played it, and he was like “what is this?”. Then my brother called me saying “hey, Stormzy wants to vocal it”, and we said “we’re not really going to do anything with the track”, so yeh! Then a week later, there was a video, and it’s out, and there was 100,000 views. Now we’ve actually gained a good relationship with Stormzy. He comes out to the studio. He’s close with my brother. So it’s all a close connection. And yeh, it just ends on to a bigger thing, a bigger picture. We’ve actually got a couple of tunes with him now and yeh. I like the relationship!

So you accidentally just left it in the studio, and it got picked up, and went and did really well?!

Yeh, exactly! Kind of a freak accident! That’s why I love it.

Yeh meant to be! Ok, so this is a random question. What is the first single you ever bought?

Actually, it was an album. It was Craig David. Fill Me In.

That was the 90’s, right?

Yeh. I still play it to this day. I can’t lie.

I can’t believe it. That was like 20, oh, 14 years ago! When people say 10 years ago, I still think the 90s. Do you still think the 90s is 10 years ago?

Actually I do, but 10 years ago was basically 2004, it’s crazy!

[laughter]

Ok, What is the last track played on your phone?

I’m going to check right now. The last track I played on my phone was… “Old Habits”, which is not a surprise.

Oh! Funny that! Ok, who would you most like to collaborate with?

Dead or alive? Or?

Yeh! Well, we’ll go both! Go dead first…

Dead, I think I’m going to have to say Bob Marley, coz of my mum. My Uncle played with Bob Marley when he was in England, so it’s a personal thing. And alive, right now, I’m going to have to say either Delilah or Kendrick Lamar.

Ok! Well you never know!

You never know! Hopefully! One day.

Well they might see this and contact you.

[laughs]

Alright, so there’s are only a couple of days until your single, “Old Habits” is officially released. How has the response been to the single so far?

You know what, the response has been fantastic. Like, before we released it, it was just floating around the studio. A lot of the people that came and heard it, they was really surprised, and they encouraged us. So, from then I kinda had an idea that it would do well. We made it in, I think it was May, or April, so it’s been a long time coming. And to finally have it out, and get a good response is fantastic. We’re not really known for the whole ‘house’ thing yet; even though we’re comfortable making it – we’ve been making it for a while – it hasn’t been showcased yet. So to get a response so quick from the first ‘house’ release is actually fantastic. I can’t be upset at all.

Yeh, it was a different sort of sound to your other stuff when I heard it, but it does very much go with this day and age.

Yeh, exactly

I’m very excited for it to be released.

You have about 5 1/2 thousand followers on Twitter. Is there a particular person or artist that if they followed you, you would absolutely freak out. In a good way.

Firstly, if it was me, if Nikki Minaj followed me, I’d go over the moon. I’d say my Twitter career has been fulfilled! Nikki Minaj! I’m a big fan!

I agree!

So are you currently working on an album?

No. We are actually just making tunes. We thought, you know what, to get where we are today, we done it by just making tunes, and we’re just going to continue to do that. If an album comes from it, then it does, and happy days! But for now, it’s just continue to work. Work with new artists, big artists, who ever it is, just make good music. You never know what’s going to happen.

The Heavytrackerz Feat Yana Toma – Old Habits Official Video

Awesome. You never know.

So what is the best piece of advice you’ve been given, and who was it by?

I got told it twice by 2 different people! One was by my brother who an engineer, “6ix”, and a guy called “P Money”, who we just released a tune with. They both told me… “Value your work. If you don’t, no one else will”. From then I realised, right, I’m working towards something. If I take it seriously, other people will take it seriously. They can only take it as serious as you do.

Yeh, you got to believe in your work to convince others!

From there, it opened my eyes to a lot of things. As long as you value your work, there’s something to value, then everyone else will take to it.

Nice!

Celebrity crush? Am I guessing, Nikki Minaj, or?

Yeeeee… Nikki Minaj or, Gabrielle Union. Oh no! Sorry! Let me use a UK artist… Nikki Minaj or Jamelia.

Ok… Well once again! You never know!

Laughs! I wouldn’t bank on it, but yeh, that’s it… You never know!

Well you could start, you know, collaborating with them, and then, you know?!

Who knows!

[both laugh]

So what did you do for Halloween?

I’ll be with 2 of the members. Myself, basically my twin, Daniel, he’s a part of the team, and Teddy in Shoreditch, had a nice time, at a bar. Tank wasat the studio working on some music.

Ok. Have some drinks though, to celebrate.

Yeh yeh, have a little drink.

On Press Day. How many interviews are you doing today?

I think this is my 7th. Or 8th. Yeh, and I haven’t slept! I was at the Redbull concert last night, so I haven’t slept! So I’m knackered!

Oh my gosh! And you’re gunna go back and work on music now. Dedication!

Yeh! Something like that, yeh.

Ok, finally, what is next for you guys over the next 6 months or so?

6 months. We’re doing a lot of remix work in America. So you’re going to hear a lot from us with a lot of American artists. We’re doing an EP with an artist called Lazyboy. We got a single with Mikill Pane and Rizzle Kicks. We’ve got something on Wiley’s next album which comes out the same day as “Old Habits”. There’s thousands of things. There’s a lot of things that are just, organising at the same time, but it’s a lot to remember, right now. But yeh, you’re gunna hear it. As it comes, you’ll find out!

Awesome. That’s a good answer.

Alright, so RasEye… Thank you so much for joining me, and for your time. I know you are really busy, and you probably need to go to bed. So hopefully the afternoon goes well. And just so everyone knows, The Heavy Trackerz new single, “Old Habits” is officially out, and is available to download from iTunes.

Yeh!

Awesome. Well thank you so much, and have a wonderful night.

You too.

Interview by Renee Bourke.