Tyke

Tyke took his name back in 1997 at a time when London graffiti was on the rise and the freedom of speech or art for that matter became more and more frequent in London and throughout inner London teens that craved adventure. Trailing through underground train yards and dusty railway lines thwart with danger 'Tyke' set upon government property expressing himself with his art and determination by tagging and piecing the word 'Tyke' which was thought up as another word for his character at this time, a little rascal. This was where 'Tyke' first used his artistic talents as a teenager before turning to the Apple Mac equipped with ‘Cubase’ as a substitute for the spray can in 1999, aged fifteen. This was his new light and new way to get all use of his imagination and artistic talents out. Using the Apple Mac as a canvas 'Tyke' began to learn how certain drum patterns and bass lines were made through intense listening to Drum and Bass Vinyl’s that he still collects to this day. He was also influenced from the recorded and live sets from the Capitals greatest underground music station 'Kool FM' when a time where 'Super Sunday' was a teenager’s church as they all locked in to the bad boy sets slung out across London airwaves from the likes of 'Brokie, Kane, Skibba, Shabba' and the rest of a great era for underground music. After leaving home at 15 he set himself up with a small budget studio and loads of ambition, reading and raving to get as much info on the production side of things as possible. You must remember this was a time where every household did not have internet or your average person just like 'Tyke' did not have a clue what the internet was and the massive database of knowledge it held. He met ‘Olly’ a well known Masterer in the industry when 'Tyke' was 17 at what was 'Planet Phat Records' where 'Tyke' was cutting his first dub, a tune called 'Believe'. This meeting was to be ironic as 'Tyke's self belief and confidence was boosted from the man who mastered such classics as 'Dillinja’ - 'Twist em Out'. 'Olly' pointed 'Tyke' into different production avenues and reiterated to him the natural talent he had for literally making something out of nothing. Around this period the death of 'Recipe's younger brother and 'Tyke's close friend brought the two closer, although they knew each other since birth it was after this tragedy that they realized how much they had in common music wise - with 'Recipe' having had a track he had produced played by 'Kenny Ken' on 'Kiss FM’. 'Recipe' helped 'Tyke' to progress by giving pointers on newer and different hardware and software. It was also around this time that 'Tyke' received influence from his uncle 'Laurence Vambe' who was one of the world’s most sought after African percussionists, the Zimbabwean musician who also constructed his own instruments helped 'Tyke' more with the music theory side of things as all 'Tyke' took from his brief school music lessons was detentions. The years went on and the long evenings of production went in and 'Tyke' began to dj on radio stations like the old ‘Ice Fm’ to name but one and clubs like 'Herbal' and '333' as he became more and more hungry for hearing his own sounds being reverberated around the UK underground club scene. In 2005 he moved from North to South London for a fresh start and began to make positive progress where a demo sent via post to ‘Formation Records' was replied to by a call off one of the workers there, explaining to him that the tunes were awesome but could do with a couple of minor changes, 'Tyke' took this onboard. It was only in 2007 that 'Tyke' became acquainted with the internet as a source of promotion and communication, setting up a MySpace and industry standard 'Aim' account. Immediately there was interest from up and coming record labels and other producers and dj's were more than willing to play his tracks. In 2008 'Tyke' released his first vinyl, a track called ‘Inner City Hore’ which was released on ‘Source Recordings’, the hype began and more and more attention was drawn to his sound. It was late in 2008 that he met up with ‘Recipe’ on music terms rather than friends and they decided to collaborate on some tracks. They made ‘Drop’ and ‘Cocaine Gash’ which was released on their very own label ‘Dead Or Alive Music’ followed by a massive 12” release on Birmingham based label ‘Muzik Hertz’. The ball was definitely rolling and a few more releases came there way before out of the blue ‘Tyke’ was forced to take five months away from music in the summer of 2009. He came back to the industry in January 2010 and has mainly been working solo and with a different artist - Russia’s ‘Prestige’.