Interview: SBTV
Interview taken from www.sweetandsound.co.uk
There is a huge number of online TV channels appearing on the internet at quite a rapid rate. Some good, some bad, and some that are really making a difference to the way people see television as a medium. There are now completely customised channels in every field of creativity (and every field of complete shit for that matter) for people to follow and watch… Online TV has definitely been the leading media vehicle for grime for a while now and only a few channels have kept to the forefront of this very competitive scene. One of those channels is SBTV, which is run by a 19 year old from Acton called Jamal Edwards. He started three years ago (he was 16) filming his friends spitting bars and quickly uploading what he filmed on to youtube. Now he’s filmed every big name in the grime scene and has gained ten million hits since his firsts attempts at video making. Sweet and Sound recently spoke to him about where he sees grime in five years, his future projects and his ridiculously busy schedule.
What have you been up to recently?
I’ve been working on a new project for the BBC called “Jail Tales” (a series of videos exploring how time inside affects people and the impact it has on their lives and those of their families). It’s quite similar to what I’ve been doing but more professional, using different camera angles and better audio equipment. Normally with SBTV I just record the audio straight from my camera…
You also seem to be one of the first people on the grime circuit to consider good clean quality filming and editing when making your videos. Is this something you consider to be very important?
Yeah. When I first started making videos about three years ago, I was just fading clips in and out, I had no title sequences, it was all wobbly and rubbish but now I’ve got all the important things like intros, titles, good audio in my videos… Professionalism is the key to success! If someone was to come on my channel and see some shit video and that’s the first video they see, they’re not gonna look at any of my other videos, so anything I do, I try and make it to the best possible standard I can. It’s all been from trial and error
Yeah, well it’s definitely paying off. So how many views have you got on your youtube channel so far since you started 3 years ago?
It just hit ten million the other day.
Youtube has been a huge vehicle for grime music, especially as a lot of radio stations are dubious about playing this kind of music. Do you think you would still be doing this if youtube wasn’t as strong as it is?
Yeah probably. I plan to have my own player soon anyway. I’ve set up my own website and that’s got two million hits already. I launched it on the first of January and it got a million hits in the first month.
You’ve gained complete recognition within the grime scene as the most up to date grime-based channel because of the fact you film everyone from the people at the top of the scene to less known up and coming artists. How do you go about finding new talent?
I usually go out looking for them through myspace and that and they get in contact with me and I’ll just listen to their music and see if they’re good enough.
Who would you say has been the most exciting up and coming artist you’ve worked with?
I don’t even have a clue. That’s a question and half. I need some time to sit down and analyse that one!
You post videos up every day. Do you find that quite hard? Is it still just you doing it all or have you built up a team?
It’s just me by my self, but I’m looking to expand soon. I can work with anyone I want, but I don’t want someone that’s not passionate about it. There’s people that want to work with me and I’ll phone them and say “oh, I’m going to film skepta” and they’ll be like “oh, I’m playing football today”. There’s loads of people like that but then there’s a new guy that got in contact with me that’s not part of the grime scene which is better… He was asking me about grime MC’s because he’s more of a rock kind of guy. He doesn’t care if I’m filming Chipmunk or if I’m filming Skepta, he just cares because he loves to film. It’s better to work with this guy because he’s in it for the love of filming.
How do you see your films now and in the future compared to what you started doing? Can you see yourself doing similar things to Hip Hop video maker Hype Williams?
I want to go international. I don’t wanna channel myself to one thing, I want to do everything; music videos, adverts, documentaries, short films…
You started the “F64” project where you get all types of MC’s to a one off 64 bar verse whach has gone down really well, getting thousands of hits on your website and youtube. How did that come about?
People are always spraying the same old bars… I hear the same bers from MC’s on every radio set and video and what not. I just thought “why don’t people ever spray new bars? Let me see if I can get some fresh new bars from these people?” The first one I did was Little Dee, since him I’ve done people like Chipmunk, Talib Kwali, Wretch 32 and my most recent one is Bashy. It just works. It’s all about fresh content…
How do you go about getting such fresh content?
I always try and get exclusives… If there’s a video shoot going on and there’s a thousand other people with cameras there I won’t go, because there’ll be a lot of fight to get that footage of first.
You have pretty much worked with almost every grime artist around. Who do you think is the best to work with?
I would have to say Skepta. He’s always got ideas on shoots and he always cracks joke.
Grime music is finally getting close to the recognition it deserves thanks to online channels like SBTV. How do you see grime and online TV in the next 5 years?
I keep saying it, but I see me and online TV going international. I hope grime gets accepted by everyone like other music out there. Say for example, when you listen to that Le Roux song and she’s saying “I’m going in for the kill”? If someone does that in grime it gets negative press. So if people hear lyrics like that they should just be thinking “that’s a tune…”
So how did this all come about? Did you want to do film when you were younger?
Kind of. I wanted to do it a bit, but my mind was everywhere. When I went to college that’s when I realised “this is what I want to do”. I’m only 19 now and I still want to do loads of different things; viral videos, adverts, documentaries… I’ve done one documentary already. It was more of a joke one called “youths in a positive light.”
So have you got any other projects planned for the near future?
I’ve got one that’s coming up but I can’t talk about that cos I don’t want anyone to take the idea… With the F64 project, if I mentioned it before I did it people would be like “what is this guy on?” but with this new project, no one’s done it yet so I’m not gonna talk about it.
Are there any other artists out there that you want to work with that you haven’t yet?
Beyonce, Drake, Lil’ Wayne… The usual! But also Radiohead, Stereophonics, Le Roux… My list is so broad. It’s all coming together now as well and I should have access to these people very soon. I’ve had meeting with a few people where they asks me “where do I wanna go with SBTV” and I mentioned that I wanna work with these people and now I should be within the next couple of months.
So what’s your plan for the rest of the week?
I’ve just got my self a diary. In tree years I’ve never had a diary and now I’ve got one I feel like I’m the man! I had to go to a Roll Deep video shoot but I missed out on that, at 8 O’clock tonight I’ve gotta do another F64, then I’m going to “I Love Lies in Camden because there’s some new guy called Angel. He’s very very very good. I’ve got a Jay Sean interview tomorrow, I’ve got a F64 with Sway on Friday and I’m trying to do something with Lady Gaga on Sunday. With people like Lady Gaga I’ve gotta put it to them a certain way… Say if I wanted to do something with Skepta I’d just call him, but with these guys you have to do it differently.
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Interview by Shane Connolly
