This week I had a chat with Cabrakid to talk about the release of their new EP ‘When You Back?’. We talked through each track and what it meant to them personally. Here’s how it went.
First of all, can you tell me a little bit about yourselves and how you met?
Jake: Cabrakid is made up of myself Jake Setters AKA High Priest Cabrakan on vocals and Gabriel Giford who takes care of the production side of things. We met at our friend Will’s house about 8 months ago .
How did you two meeting progress into making music together?
Jake: At Will’s we got talking about different artists we liked. Gabs mentioned he needed a vocalist for a few instrumentals he had and I needed some instrumentals to go over.
It was obviously meant to be. Would you say you have a certain musical style?
Jake: We play around with the whole genre of Hip-Hop a bit never really liking to settle in any section of it. We mess around with jazz, more electronic sounding beats and the vocals go from straight Hip-Hop to spoken word and everything in-between. We just want to make good tunes that will make people think or feel something.
You’ve got your new EP ‘When You Back?’ coming out soon, I’ve given it a listen and I like it a lot. Would you say your music has progressed now that you’ve been working together for a while?
Gabs: ‘When You Back?’ is a lot better than anything we’ve made before.
The first track on the EP is ‘U’, what’s it about?
Jake: I wrote this tune about a week after moving out of my home in Norwich to start university in London. The lyrics are actually about Norwich, feeling detached from the city and the people in it but wanting desperately to go back. It’s also the most overtly electronic based Gab’s production has got giving it that Flume kinda vibe.
Gabs: I made this track originally as a total fuck about to get away from sampling for a bit. I then had a little play around and stuck the acapella of our song ‘Left One’ over it and remember thinking “this is actually alright, I’ll send it to Jake”. His reaction totally caught me off guard.
Next up is ‘NR’, the beat has a nice Rebel Kleff kind of feel to it. There’s also some other artists featured on this one, tell me why you decided to get some other people involved.
Jake: We got Darri, Sam, Malachi and Orlando down for this one. We wanted to show that Norwich (hence the title NR, all our postcodes) has it’s own little scene by putting a cypher on. It’s the first time we’ve featured another artist on vocals after Shan J coming in on production for ‘MHRD’ on the last EP. For me this is all about celebration of the creativity in my original city.
Gabs: The sample here came from a recording of a German school band, and the moment I heard it the whole beat mapped out in my head perfectly. I think it’s the only time I’ve ever successfully been able to make what I’ve heard in my head and as soon as I did, I knew I had to get all the boys on it.
‘Invitation’ is almost like a story, where did it come from?
Jake: This was a hard one to write. Gabby sent me the beat as usual and it’s one of the smoothest things I’ve ever heard. I tried writing a normal verse hook layout but it just wasn’t fitting. SO I used one of my spoken word poems over it and it just sounded perfect with the whole feel of the instrumental. It was difficult as well as the subject matter is a specific night I had not long ago and usually I give it a bit of time between an event happening and writing about it but this was written on the tube home after it all going off.
Gabs: This was my first non-satirical attempt at a trap beat. I made sure I still approached it the same way I would any hip hop beat, hence the sample. No trap lords yelling offbeat “hey’s” in this one. As for Jake, that repeated line is genius, so the logical Cabrakid assumption was to add some pitched down vocals.
Park Baits are usually instrumentals with no vocals, how come you decided to get Shan J in for ‘Park Bait III’?
Gabs: I made this beat and it was just a bit meh. So I slapped some phaser on it and summoned Jan Shelley.
I think ‘Know It All’ is my favourite track on the EP. It starts off with a spoken word intro and then a fantastic instrumental comes in with some great hip hop vocals from Jake, it’s a brilliant song. What is the song about?
Jake: ‘Know It All’ is straight up party hip hop talking about those 4AM times where you know its time for bed but you don’t want to accept that at all.
Gabs: I consider this the most DJ Premier-like beat I’ve made, proper hip hop son. The sample comes from who I like to call Japanese James Brown, it’s amazing. When we recorded the vocals, I told Jake I pictured playing this with a short acapella at the start, then BAM! Obviously Jake had a poem- that’s the way we work.
The next track ‘Weekly Meetings’ is the most catchy Cabrakid track I’ve heard yet! What were your influences when writing it?
Jake: This track has probably got mine and Gabs’ favourite hook on it. We’ve been listening to a lot of Hawk House and Loyle-Carner and I think that shows throughout the EP but more so here. The subject matter I’ll keep a bit closer to my chest as it’s all a bit on edge on this one but if you read this, hello C.
Gabs: After recording this I had the hook in my head for days. For once I wasn’t trying to push the drums through on this once, and funnily enough they sit behind Jake pretty nicely. I wish I knew who the lucky lady is.
The last track on the EP is ‘Park Bait IV’ how come you chose to finish off with this track?
Jake: It rounds off the whole EP perfectly. Gabby did an incredible job of condensing the sound he’s crafted with Cabrakid into one song here. Old snares, new synths, horns and perfect hats. Really a beautiful way to finish it.
Gabs: This beat is older than the rest of the tracks put together. I deliberately didn’t touch it whilst mixing the EP, no need- it’s a Park Bait. Big up Lonnie Liston Smith.
‘When You Back?’ is out now, check it out.
PLUM 