Tizane is a native of South-East London, where the smoke wafts down to the borders of Kent. Filled with aspiring middle-class commuters with no real access to commuter infrastructure, it’s a cut off enclave of the M25 carpark. Nobody really gives a damn about Dartford – not even the London Underground tube network can be arsed to swing round!
Getting to know Tizane
If you had to describe yourself as a flavor, what would it be?
Cherry
If you were a member of the Spice Girls, what would your spice handle be?
Lanky Spice
As a kid were you ever frightened of a monster under the bed or in the cupboard?
Yes and still am.
If you could learn any language fluently what would it be? English
Do you have any superstitions? Yes – its bad luck to believe in stuff. I’m overly paranoid Haha.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
The paradox about me is that I don’t seek to recreate what I may actually listen to. This is such a weird thing. Usually it’s the music that one loves that draws one over to try for themselves. In my case, I would readily site the rapper, Mac Miller as my all time favorite but have never written, produced or recorded a single song that may in anyway be compared to his work. I am more often compared to artists like Phoebe Bridgers who is nothing like mac Haha. If I were to be forced to describe my own stuff, I think that PB would be a useful indicator, though I have also been described as a ‘genre bender’ because I tend not to follow the given trends and templates. I just write and produce as I feel and though that’s not ideal for the marketeers, it’s the only way I know.
Where have you performed? What are your favorite and least favorite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?
I’m at full tilt now. I’m playing anywhere that’ll have me. There’s no ego with me – put me bottom of the bill in a public convenience and I’ll still turn up and get the show on. I’m desperately trying to claw back the time and traction lost due to the virus. I just love performing. Now they’ve let us out again, I’m making up for lost time. I very recently performed at The Dublin Castle in one of London’s most trendiest of areas, Camden. The Dublin Castle is so atmospheric. It has been the entry point for so many iconic British artist like Amy Winehouse, Blur and Madness. Venues like this seem to be in decline right now and it’s so difficult to see why. People still go out, people still love music and people still drink beer.
I have a show booked for September which I’m really excited for. The Portobello Live Festival is being held to showcase one of London’s most eclectic regions and a portion of the ticket money is going to ‘Justice4Grenfell’ supporting the victims and families of one of London’s worse tragedies, The Grenfell Tower fire. I’ll be punching way above my weight and playing with Sex Pistol, Glen Matlock, culture icon, Don Letts and a whole host of luminaries. This is real big! Cant wait!
Are you planning any videos for your music?
We’re already slating up a new single called Cruel. The trouble is I thought it was finished in the can but as I’ve been playing it live, I’ve come to prefer the live version to the finished recording so I think there may be a take two on the horizon.
I’m trying to put a video treatment together but again there is conflict. The song is fairly up tempo by my standards but the lyrics are dark and has deep meaning for me personally so I don’t want it to be diminished or trivialized in the video version. This is actually quite unusual for me as I write with an intentional sense of the abstract precisely to allow listeners to come to their own concussions and interpretations. So far videos of the past have had producers coming up with a pastiche of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’, a Halloween Zombie Apocalypse and a scenario that involved me being strapped in a chair with people pouring paint over my head. I know, right?
Generally these clips have been deemed ‘too disturbing’ by mainstream TV shows, all who have ‘advised’ me to lighten it up a bit. Sadly, I don’t really see myself skipping through sunlit cornfields anytime soon. Difficult!
What inspires your writing? Do you draw inspiration from poems, music, TV, or other media?
When I’m in the zone – and I hasten to say that I’m not always – then almost anything can trigger an idea. Once the idea has been initiated I have to work on it immediately, day or night, I’m on it. Sometimes it can be just a few notes of music, sometimes just something that someone says, but when it happens I’ll soon be heading out to my home studio, guitar in hand and working out a chord structure or scribbling lyrics on to some scrap of paper. The most hilarious thing about my music writing is that it’s not only operational during waking hours. Sometimes the inspiration comes in a dream which will serve to wake me from the deepest of sleep and even then, in the middle of the night, I’ll stumble off to the studio and turn on Logic to preserve the song before morning erases it from my brain. The title track from my album, ‘Cherry’ came in such a way.
Do you enjoy recording and production?
I adore it. It’s in my DNA. Second only to the enjoyment of playing live to an audience, I cant think of anything I’d rather do. The privilege and honour of such work is not wasted on me and there isn’t a day goes by where I don’t pinch myself in disbelief that my life should be taking this course. The real kicker is that I don’t know what else I would or could have done so thank the stars for guitar plucking and sound desk knob twiddling. If ever I do have to take real job I doubt I’ll get much further than the CV stage.
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