In Depth: Formz
“It's crazy, I didn't expect to meet these people. I didn't expect to have a record on Dented a year or two later. I wasn't... When I made these beats in my house, I just made them because I had spare time when my children were at school. I wasn't trying to be in any scene or anything, I just didn't think like that because I didn't know anyone. So it was quite surreal, one minute I'm buying a Foreign Beggars record. Next minute, I'm on Dabbla's record with London Zoo.”
Photographer: lil.tamper
By his own account, the incredible rise of West London producer Formz was wholly unprecedented. A father from young, Formz initially pursued his passion for hip-hop as a hobby, never dreaming people would one day take it seriously. After a chance meeting with rising collective London Zoo, Formz went on to become affiliated with UK record labels such as Dented, Potent Funk, Blah and more before creating his own, Shadow Player Records. Over multiple conversations in the past six months, Formz spoke in depth on his upbringing into UK hip-hop culture, collaborations which propelled his renown and exclusive insights into upcoming projects he’s currently involved with.
Discovering UK hip-hop around 2002 when Mud Fam’s final EP came out, from there Formz began listening to the likes of Task Force and Skinnyman. Inspired to practice producing himself, Formz handed a compilation CD of beats to a London Zoo member and received more than a response. “I think someone came to bring me a draw,” said Formz, reminiscing meeting LDZ. “It was a random one, some guy - not Sumgii - heard one of my beats in the background and was like, 'I know a guy from this crew called London Zoo, if you want me to play him your beats.' I'm like, yeah! I just gave him the disc, I didn't even know too much about it. But I fully rated Dubbledge at the time. I gave my disc to this guy, then maybe six weeks later, I'm working at Heathrow Airport sat in an office. The phone rings, it was Pierre Green from London Zoo. He rung me and said, 'We've hit like, 7 of your beats from those 12 beats. Do you want to come down and link me and listen to it?' So I get there, I just hear Dabbla, Dubbledge and the rest of London Zoo murdering my beats. I'd never heard a rapper on my beats, but I'd been making beats for about four years just for myself.”
At this time around 10 years ago, Formz was known as 'Formula' - he only released one record under this name - before it evolved into Formz, because that's what everyone called him. Whilst working at Heathrow airport, Formz would participate in an MF Doom Forum to pass time. Here he met like-minded individuals who assisted his early progression with beat-making and production. “There was this one kid from Oakland, Bay Area.” Formz paused, sinking further into recollection. “I was sending him my first beats which I'd been making on Reason and Rebirth, stuff like that. He was honing me down, helping me figure out ways to make beats and stuff. It was at that time I met LDZ. I had an album deal with this Canadian web label, so that's how on my first album - which is called The Overcast Project under the name 'Formula' - has Dabbla on it, Cobes, and a singer called Aynzli Jones whose done tracks with Kool Keith, Childish Gambino and Ghetts. Aynzli, Cobes and Dabbla were my three live emcees for about two years, eight years ago. It kind of snowballed off from there.”
After LDZ had recorded over Formz’s beats, Formz didn't really know what to do with them. Until he received an opportunity to perform the tracks live, at Brixton Jam. “I didn't have labels, friends in music or nothing,” Formz sighed, “I didn't have a plan to make anything with them, I was just happy to have them on my MP3 player. One day, this friend of mine rang me, I must have told him I’d done a track with Dabbla. He said, 'You know Dabbla, don't you? I'm promoting Stereo MC's at Brixton Jam tonight, could you come down and do a set?' So I pretended I knew Dabbla to this promoter - I'd never spoken to Dabbla once, then I rang up Dabbla for the first time ever. Like, ‘You alright mate? It's Keith.’ He said, ‘Who?’ I replied, ‘That guy you did some tracks with about a year ago on the beats. Do you want to support Stereo MCs tonight?’ He said yeah, then I took him, Cobes and DJ Frosty down to Brixton Jam. That's where I met Alabama 3, and they really liked my music. I basically ended up running the studio in Brixton Jam for about a year, working as an engineer for Alabama 3 and Congo Natty.”
Soon afterwards, Formz found himself working in the Brixton studio with Congo Natty. Despite minimal experience working in a studio, he feigned an opportunity to produce Natty’s recording session. “I lied and said that I could use Logic,” Formz confessed, relieving the first time he recorded for Congo Natty despite having no experience in a studio previously. “I just said, I can do it. Then half-way through it, I realised I hadn't put nothing on grid - so nothing could be edited. Congo Natty just looked at me like, ‘You have no idea how to use that?’ I was like, ‘Nope.’ But it was cool, I learnt really quick to engineer in that studio. I'd watched them record vocals a lot, and that's essentially what a lot of it was. Most of my studio time was spent with Alabama 3, the rock band, really. I produced on two of their albums, engineered one of their albums. That's where I met Eliza, that's all where she came from basically.”
Eliza, aka Lyza Jane, was working as a backing singer for Alabama 3 when Formz became friends with her. Before Lyza had attained her own musical fanbase, Formz remembers teaching her his own production methods in the Brixton studio. “She was about, 19 or 20 at the time,” recalled Formz, “I'd never worked with a female singer before, I was dying to use some of these new beats I had that just weren't hip-hop. So Alabama 3 paid me by setting up a session with Eliza, me and her wrote a song together the first time we met. She made her first EP all on her own, this EP called M I L K T E E T H. I sort of just helped out whenever she needed it, then after that EP I'd just made a record with this singer called Olah Bliss. I supported Rag N Bone man with her and that, then I basically just started doing the EP with Lyza, which became the EP that involved Lee Scott, Milkavelli, Jam Baxter, Nah Eeto and Jack Chard. It's really hard with Lyza, because she's just so good. She doesn't need producing anymore, she just has her own way now and it's brilliant to know she does it like she does.”
In 2014, Formz’s friend Sumgii was working closely with three rappers called Lee Scott, Milkavelli and Trellion. Whilst they were in the process of creating the debut Cult Mountain EP, Formz met the collective and went on to produce music for the four-piece. “I met Blah through Sumgii, basically,” Formz confirmed, “He was doing the Cult Mountain stuff, I just happened to be about quite a lot of the time. I did some tracks and demos with Lee, him and Trellion had done one or two tracks with me. From there that's sort of how I met the Blah lot really.”
Around this time, Formz became introduced to a London lyricist called Bisk, who was in the process of creating multiple projects with Blah Records. “He had a lot going on at the time,” Formz recalled, “I wasn't sure if he was going to be around the week after that because he had so much going on at the time. His project with Morriarchi literally just got done, then there was another one with Sam Zircon. Don’t Piss It Off! wasn't planned to be made, it just sort of happened in this two day period. It was never intentionally made for Blah, it just evolved that way. Danny Lover was in London that Summer, that's why Danny Lover is on the record because he was there doing sessions with Blah and a few other people. Then really, after that record we just evaporated. I saw him about three weeks ago in a studio for the first time in about a year and a half. We're very close when we see each other, but sometimes life gets in the way.”
Also in 2015, Formz got his first record deal with BBE Records, who were set to release Formz’s follow-up album called ‘Living Complex’. However as a result of personal differences, the album never came out. “Still to this day that 10 track album hasn't come out,” Formz sighed, revealing personal insights into ‘Living Complex’. “It's just sat there haunting me. It's that period from where I was working with Alabama 3. I had amazing artists all over this record. But it just never came out at the right time. I intend to do it, I'm just going to rejig it. Some of those tracks are so strong that it still holds weight now, it's quite timeless which means I don't have to rush it.”
Despite this unfortunate setback, Formz remained undeterred and continued producing projects. He decided to eventually start his own music label, Shadow Player Records, despite receiving interest from other established labels at the time. “A part of the reason I did that is because I make so much music,” Formz explained, “So much of the stuff I make isn't really what those labels are looking to put out, so I had to look at it like that. Shadow Player was more of a way to put out stuff that was a different style, I really want to represent UK hip-hop with the label, but I'd never associate it as that. It's more about people that are in the shadows that are trying to come up. We just got a studio in Paddington, I'm hoping next year we're going to be running a lot of stuff from that studio, pushing the label and so on. At the moment I've got artists like Mongo, Sniff, CW Jones who have already contributed tunes. But I wouldn't say they're signed to the label in any way, they're more contributors.”
Formz & Bisk (2018) | Photographer: Lyza Jane
“Mongo is probably my guy right now,” Formz added, before revealing an artist that recently caught his attention. “I've got another record with Mongo that I'm finishing up now. At the moment, there's another guy I'm looking to sign from Sheffield called Skintman. He's a young guy coming through at the moment, he's just made tracks with Sniff and me. I met him at a show I was doing a few months ago, I didn't really put two and two together when I met him but then about a month later, Sniff was telling me about this kid from Sheffield and I'd already actually met him before. So I asked Skintman to send me what he was doing and that. He sent me this album of work which he'd done, which is just incredible. He's produced the whole record himself, done all of the bars, it's a fucking special thing. I'm looking to get an EP or a project done with him for Shadow Player, so he's the next person I'm trying to get involved at the moment.”
From there, the conversation turned to Formz’s collaborations with Bad Taste Records emcee Sniff. During this interview, Formz had two projects with the Sheffield rapper pending, 100 Vices EP and a full-length album. “It wasn't like we made an EP then we made an album,” began Formz, relieving the creation process of collaborating with Sniff, before revealing the story behind the single his daughter produced for them. “We made about a hundred tracks over the past few years. The album is nothing like the EP, the EP is very dark, slow, melancholic, linked to depression in a way. My daughter produced a track with Milkavelli and Sniff as well, called 'Four Words For You'. Basically, me and Sniff... I was homeless at the time, so I was living at Sumgii's house for a week. He was away, I was dog-sitting. I could use his studio whenever he went away, so I said to Sniff, ‘Fuck it, come live with me for a week.’ One night, my daughter was there. Around midnight, Me and Sniff were about to go off license to get more beer. My daughter was in the studio, watching me make beats all day. Sniff looked at her and said, 'Chloe - while we're out, make a fucking beat.' Half hour later we come back, she's there and she's made this fucking banger on the MPC. So Sniff just wrote to it there and then. We sent it to Milkavelli, he wrote his bit… Then that's the track Chloe made. She's now 20, she's always been around. She does the backing vocals on another EP with this rapper called Jester Jacobs, who does stuff with Granville Sessions. She produces under the name 'C' - just a capital C. She's very instinctive with her art and her writing, playing guitar or piano. She's evolved, it's a beautiful thing.”
“After that session at Sumgii's for about a week,” continued Formz, revealing further insights into his chemistry with Sniff. “We didn't see each other for about two months. I'd got a free house at my mum and dads old house for a week, so we set up a studio there. Got Slumrok to stay for a night, did tracks which went on the album and the EP. Then we had nowhere to work again for another four months, so we had these two sessions and had about 15 tracks. I got my own flat about three months after that - I had a studio set up in my own flat for the first time in about, seven years? Sniff came and lived with me here, that's when he made Lyza's EP - Baby Blue Champion. He would stay here for five nights, then stay at Lyza's for two nights. He might have stayed at Jack Chard's another week... Basically he was doing this routine for about a year, going through spots and getting work done. We ended up having this huge amount of tracks. It's really strange, the way he can write in between my odd times and tempos. I was making beats on the spot, it was the first time I'd done that in years. So all of a sudden, these new sounds started coming out and I had to move quickly - because he was writing so fast, I'd have to have beats ready for him.”
Once his album with Sniff was finished, Formz moved onto his next project alongside UK hip-hop veteran Mongo, of Mud Fam. “I don't know if you know much about Mongo from Mud Fam,” said Formz, revealing how their collaboration came about. “He's an old school veteran that I used to listen to years ago, I was really into early Mud Fam. Then Mongo started messaging me for work, I did about six sessions with him over about a year. Then one day, on a Wednesday. Me and Sniff were here, I'd asked Mongo if he'd wanna come over and record a vocal. So Mongo comes over, I introduced him to Sniff. Then this thing happened between the three of us, we were on this project every Wednesday for about six weeks. We made this next album, ‘Ogre Flame’ which is a new Sniff and Mongo record which I can't wait to drop. I've got to wait to finish the videos, I'm hoping to put it out soon.”
Our final question for Formz was whether he had any more projects in the pipeline, which he does. “Another project that I'm actually close to finishing is with two members of London Zoo,” replied Formz, “Cobes and Harry The Bastard. I got about 15 tracks done with them two, London Zoo style, that sort of aggressive feel to the music. As soon as the records finished, we'll decide when is best to release it. So that's the next thing I'm working on right now, there is also a Formz record that I'm finishing. There's one which is mainly just a load of tracks with emcees that no-one's heard yet, I've got a lot of stuff in mind as you can imagine. So that Formz emcee project will come out, then there will be another instrumental project featuring some of my favourite UK producers. It will be a follow on from my Curious Alice project I had out in 2018. Also, Shadow Player is releasing the debut solo Cobes album, produced by Sinner. That's pretty much everything I've got soon to come out.”
Formz, thank you for your time.
Words by Evo @ethanevo