Nick and Sue. This edition is brought to you
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More from them in a bit. This is Nick and Sue,
with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know
about musical attainment. Oh, yeah! Chatterbox!
Mazza, welcome to Chatterbox. How are you? I'm
well, thank you. How are you? Great, thank you.
Great to meet you. We've got an exciting project
here. We've already spoken to a couple of the
artists on it. Well, Kelly Laroque's been quite
a regular on the show for a while now. But anyway,
yeah, some great artists on there. Before you
got involved with this, what is your background?
Are you based in London or are you one of the
little provinces in London? No, I am born and
raised in London. I am London to the core. Wonderful,
wonderful. Why weren't you crying up as a kid?
What sort of influences did you have from home?
What did your parents listen to? What's going
on at home to get you into the great sound I
can hear today? Yes, so I'm from a very gospel
background, grew up singing in the church, as
well as that my parents loved like a very diverse
selection of music. Sometimes they'll play jazz
in the house and just have the jazz instrumentals.
A lot of R &B, a lot of soul. So that's all the
stuff I really grew up listening to. I never
kind of listened to current music, even now.
I still find myself going back to the old stuff.
Yeah, very old school kind of R &B and hip hop
and then jazz. Well jazz is rather exciting,
it's rather good. Good jazz, very good isn't
it? But when it comes to the gospel side, I mean
obviously I can see the title of your song at
church, but would you say you were predominantly
into doing gospel stuff and releasing gospel?
No, no, I don't release any gospel music now.
It's just in terms of my sound quality as a singer,
I'm definitely influenced by that gospel rich
Sound. OK, when it comes to doing live stuff
in London, concerts and gigs or whatever, what
sort of venues are you going to? Do you go around
other parts of the country or are you just mainly
in London? Right now I'm mainly based in London.
I haven't really been doing any big gigs as of
late. To be fair, I took a step away from gigging
and stuff like that. I went into a West End musical
actually. That was the last thing I went into
Tina, the musical, before they closed last year.
But when I do sing and I do my kinks, there's
a lot more intimate, a lot more intimate settings
that I'll perform in. Okay, well you mentioned
musicals, so obviously Tina was quite a mega
one. I mean, somehow I don't think that was your
only musical. So what other musicals have you
been in over the years? To be fair, it's mainly
been Tina and I did Hairspray quite a few times.
Yeah, it had a strong hold on me for a few years.
And then I've been in like projects like workshops
for new musicals that are not out yet. So I can't
really mention them, but hopefully they come
out. But yeah. Maybe something to talk about
in the future. Maybe, hopefully. Hopefully. We've
got this exciting project that's out now, Singers
Inc. Volume 3, 12 iconic songs reimagined and
recorded by a powerful roster of UK vocalists.
And yes, everyone's up to such an amazing standard.
I mean, Chris has done really well with this
project. So this is Volume 3, of course. Have
you been involved with the project since the
beginning or is this your first time? This was
my first time on the project, yeah. And who chose
the song that you're singing? Was that you that
decided that, oh, do you take me to the church?
Oh, this was Chris's idea. He brought the song
to me. Obviously, I knew the song was an iconic
song. And obviously, the artist, he's very different
to how I sound. But Chris was like, I have a
feeling you can do something very different to
it. and pay good homage to it but still making
it different so he brought the song to me and
he was like let's see what you're going to do
and i said oh okay yeah i think he's done pretty
well with the project with having some amazing
covers with uh i mean obviously i mentioned uh
kelly la roca yeah who's absolutely amazing now
she's turned that song on it's head totally yeah
Another great one who we've spoken to. And what
I've heard of the album, yeah, it's just been
turned on its head. And I think, here we go.
Well, Chris will never fail to make everybody
happy. Of course, he knows what he's doing. He's
certainly done it big time here. And I do also
love the album cover. It's so basic, so simple.
but the 12 empty chairs says everything. I did
count them just in case, in case it was going
to catch me out. There might have been another
chair, you know, for someone else. Just in case,
but there's definitely 12 there. So now you've
been on this project, I mean, I know they, I
mean, I think it's banned probably since quite
a few years, actually. I mean, I'm sure there's
going to be a volume four at some point in the
future. Now you're part of this, would you like
to stay part of it? 100%. I love working with
Chris. I love working with all the creatives
on this. It was a really, really good experience.
And I love being in the moment of creating. It's
just, I love that more than the finished product.
I love going back and forth and layering and
doing harmonies. So the opportunity to do it
all again, very much so. Yeah, absolutely. So
what would you, we've got this out as quite a
lot of promotion. I'm sure you get loads of interviews
on it. I say it's the third one we've done on
the project alone. So I'm sure, you know, it's,
and I don't know what, but I think volume three,
maybe it's just been that little gap apart to
get people, resurrect people's interest in the
project again, perhaps. But it does sound quite
fresh, you know, quite. Yeah, it really does.
So what are you going to be doing for the rest
of the year? What are your plans music wise?
Well, I actually do have a song coming out next
week. It's meant to drop next week, Friday. So
I've been working on the back end of that. to
work towards that release. It is my first solo
release in a very long time. I think the last
time aside from the project with Chris, the last
time I released a song of my own was 2024. So
it is my first time releasing a long time. And
there's a whole bunch of music that also on the
back end of that song. So this year is just about
really just letting the music. go and putting
it out there. So I'm looking forward to that
very very much. I think we should get you to
name drop the song because if that's coming out
next Friday we'll see if I can find a copy because
this won't go out before next Friday because
I've already got the next edition already sorted
so it'll be the one after. So I think if you
name drop it and we see if we can... drop it
in as well yes the song is called for tonight
it's a very upbeat fun song we are still in the
depths of summer so i wanted something to really
just give and the weather's been lovely so i
wanted to give something that people can enjoy
get ready to go out to it's called for tonight
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Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox
Let's go up to this time next year. Can you think
far ahead of what you want to do with all your
projects? Because it sounds like you had quite
a few in the can or will be in the can, if not.
Yes. So, well, all the way up until Christmas,
that's a long time. To be fair, I think once
this song drops, I'm probably going to start
working towards the next one. I want to have
a good collection of music by the end of this
year, just to really get my name out there even
more. I think people that do know me, they know
me as like an all -round performer, whether that's
being in a musical or working with other dance,
I mean other artists as a dancer as well as a
singer. So this year for me was really to push
myself out there as the actual main brand. So
towards Christmas, probably dropping a lot more
songs and performing the songs. I'm definitely
looking towards trying to get them pitched for
different adverts and TV opportunities to really
get them out there because they're fun songs.
They're really good. So yeah, just as much pushing
as possible. Sure. And can we expect to see you
at any festivals or is the plans next year to
do any festivals? Next year we'll probably be
to do a lot more festivals. I think this year
is more about dropping the songs and letting
them marinate for people's ears. And then next
year, by God's grace, the one will take off and
I'll perform a lot more. That's fantastic. Wonderful.
So there's plenty to chat about in the future
then. okay so let's and also of course you've
got the the musical side you're well established
as a musical star so let's you know when it takes
a producer to bring you up one day oh we're doing
so and so and so and so would you like to audition
for meaning you know so there's always that side
to it so yeah yeah What's the longest you've
been stuck in? I will use the word stuck because
it because it was an ongoing thing. It probably
does. Stock projects for a while, maybe. Yeah.
So what's the longest you've actually been in
a musical in a single run? What do you say? Probably
nine months. It was meant to be a year and that
was hairspray. But I did it on the Royal Caribbean
cruise line. And that literally was from 2019.
It was meant to be from 2019 into 2020. And obviously
COVID hit us in 2020. So the contract got ended
earlier than I had to come back for safety. So
that was probably the longest run. It's usually
a year. Okay. Yeah. Was that actually around
the Caribbean or was it around one of the other
parts of the world they go round? It was around
the Caribbean, yes. I've been on one of their
cruises round there. Quite something. The ships
are so snazzy aren't they? I had the most fun.
It was the best thing ever. Absolutely. okay
let's do your social media so people can take
another look at you and uh what's available so
you know youtube channels websites for facebook
whatever platforms you got chuck it out yes so
the two main platforms i have right now are instagram
and tiktok those are the ones that everyone's
using the most so on both of them the handles
are mazza bemi so mazza mazza and then bemi b
-e -m -i and that's where you find me Brilliant,
because I was having a look around and trying
to find you, that's why. I kept finding a man
called Mazza and that definitely wasn't you.
No, it was not me. And I was tapping in, female
singer, UK female singer. But that's how we get
there, brilliant. Obviously every success with
your part of this album, your 112th of it, it
sounds a great project and I'm glad you're involved
with whatever Chris does next. Well, you will
be. I know people stick with him, don't they?
He has the same ones time to go in. He's a great
guy, what he does is amazing. is a natural. Yeah,
he's absolutely incredible. I love him and he
just brings out the best in people. Yeah. Yeah.
No, no. Almost saying what he touches turns to
gold. That's what he does, isn't it? It's what
he does for a living. That's why he's where he
is. Every success with the new single and all
your other projects. And let's do it again sometime,
Mazza. But in the meantime, it's been lovely
meeting you. Andrew, thank you so much. Thanks
for coming on Chatterbox. Take care. Bye -bye.
This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you
all you need to know about musical entertainment
Oh yeah Chatterbox