Connecting With Real People in Real Spaces: A Conversation With Blakey
There’s a quiet confidence behind Blakey’s new chapter—one that doesn’t announce itself with fanfare so much as it arrives already in motion. After years of building a reputation as a songwriter and vocalist with real emotional weight, he’s now stepping into a space that’s been shaping him privately for a long time. You! Girl…x, his latest release, is the most direct expression of that shift so far: a fast, fluorescent club cut that trades restraint for immediacy without losing the melodic instinct that’s carried him through more than 70 million streams. It feels like someone opening a different door but bringing their whole history with them. That mix of lived experience, growing creative curiosity, and renewed energy formed the backdrop of our conversation. We spoke with Blakey about how this new single came together, and what’s guiding him creatively as he moves deeper into the electronic world.
Hi Blakey! Where are you in the world right now?
I have no idea where I am! Somewhere between the past and the future. I just feel so lucky. I'm learning to love the present and to just focus on the now.
That's the best thing for creativity. Daily life right now is just doing all things music - working on new stuff, going out listening to music, engaging in the culture. I feel very blessed to have a strong group of friends and network of people around me who all love music. I just never take that for granted.
You’re presenting your new single You! Girl…x. What does this track represent for you at this point in your life?
You! Girl..x is part of a transition I guess into something else. It’s not an end point, it's a snapshot of someone changing creatively. Shapeshifting a little bit I guess.
Wanted to do a trancy thing so worked the melodies around a fast beat and arpeggiated synths - feels quite big this one a little ATB which was an inspiration. I want it to feel big, anthemic in a way - it’s also got a little casso energy in there. I kind of want that emotive euphoric thing. I dunno!
When you’re working on new music, what’s your favorite aspect of the process?
Favourite part of the process is just after the exploration stage. When you mess around and then all of a sudden something starts to work and you find yourself ‘in the lane’ with it. It’s that moment that you know you’re on to something and that fuels excitement with it.
I live for that feeling. It’s the part of the process when I start smiling a bit like a Cheshire Cat. Often it’s when the hooks come together. I'm trying to learn it’s not just the melodic moments that that can be - but more rhythmic groove based moments.
I read that this is a more overt step into the electronic spaces that have shaped you privately for years. What does that world look like for you?
Friends in rooms then club nights, raves, house parties to spin more tunes. I'm blessed to have a great group of friends who love music so much and their love of electronic music brought me into it over the past 5 or so years.
It’s been a latent obsession. Its showing up in me consciously and finally trying to make dance-leaning music as opposed to partitioning my music life in the past (which I did with the singer songwriter world I succeeded in before) and then loving dance music on the side - trying to merge them together - hopefully it will make sense down the line,
What are your go-to tools in the studio these days?
Moved to Ableton from logic which was a game changer - big fan of the classics like Serum 2 etc - also big fan of Trackspacer / Fuse a which really helps carve our space for stuff in the mix - and also big fan of Sonarworks SoundID which helps make monitors sounds good in any room - really helps with getting the low end sounding good - geeking out a little I also like MasterPlan which helps mastering and Gulfoss / Soothe which reigns in rogue harmonics.
What was the last track by another artist you were obsessed with?
Put the lights out by Megra. It’s such a well produced tune and really clever structurally. It’s like a dubby thing but then goes euphoric in places. He’s a bit of a wizard. Would be my go too Uber tune with mates going from bar A to club B
What advice would you give to a young musician? If you could go back, is there anything you wished someone had told you?
Put the famous 10,000 hours in as young as possible. Consistently and constantly put new music out - a track a month - Don’t wait on the timelines and whims of others.
Thanks for chatting with us! What do you have coming up? Anything we can look forward to from Blakey?
The plan is to drop a track every month from now on. Plan is also to start to build a proper team around that. Manager, label, agent - next year will be the year I start playing live again.
It all makes sense in that world - I did a sell out show in Hackney social a while back and that was the template for how I want to do it. Half live, half dj sort of thing. Can’t wait to play live again and hopefully next summer things will be big enough to be able to do that properly.
Live what it’s all about imo - connecting with real people in real spaces.
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