Interview: Kevin Martin aka The Bug

“I feel quite rootless”, says Kevin Martin, best known as The Bug. “My father was in the navy so we moved around a lot.” He was born in Wales and also lived in Scotland before the family finally settled on the South Coast. “I couldn’t wait to get out of Weymouth”, he recalls, “I wanted concrete. I’d had enough of rolling hills and mundane, middle class nothingness.” This rootlessness is at the heart of The Bug’s music: a tempest of rhythm, bass and noise that’s one of the most thrilling and individual sounds being made today. “I feel happier to be a freak on the outside of every genre,” he offers by way of explanation.

The Bug – in Bristol on May 30 for a tantalising double bill with So Solid Crew – draws on dub, dancehall, grime and hip-hop, as well as an instinct for extremes that’s been apparent since his early work with the band God. “I was first obsessed with punk music, or post-punk music,” Martin says, “and in a way that spirit of independence, originality and anti-structural, great big fuck you is in grime and ragga too. There’s a lineage to great musics”, he continues. “A lot of music is made in shit social conditions or environments, if you look at free jazz in the late ‘60s in America, reggae in the early ‘70s in Kingston, punk music in the late ‘70s in the UK or hip-hop in the early ‘80s in New York. I’m drawn to those musics because I’ve never really had money and have always lived in poor neighbourhoods. You feel the pressure and you see why the music’s important, both as protest and escape. That combination is what fires up my sound.”

London – the city he ran to in the late ‘80s – was Martin’s long-time muse, as reflected in the title of his profile-raising album of 2008. “London Zoo was informed by my love-hate relationship with London”, he explains. “It wasn’t a great time in my life and that feeling of incarceration in what London had become was the impetus for the record. London suited me for the longest period of time because it is such a cultural meltdown and such a collection of disparate characters. My neighbours were Jamaican, Indian, Turkish…they weren’t the white middle class people I felt zero affinity with when I was growing up.” He left London nearly three years ago and now lives in Berlin. “I didn’t get bored,” he says, “I just got pissed off I couldn’t afford to live there anymore.”

Apart from its intensity, its sheer physical weight, what stands out from The Bug’s music are the vocal performances. “In a lot of dance music MCs are seen as tag-ons”, says Martin, “…whereas I play off what the MCs do. I respect the people I work with and I’m very fortunate to work with incredibly talented vocalists.“ Last year’s Angels & Devils featured his most diverse range of collaborators yet, with Liz Harris (Grouper), Death Grips, Gonjasufi and Inga Copeland debuting alongside Bug regulars Flowdan, Warrior Queen and Miss Red. “I wanted to break free from it being perceived as another London album”, says Martin. “It felt global to me…addressing global concerns that aren’t so London-centric.”

That said, the album’s biggest anthem is voiced by a Londoner. “The first time I saw Manga”, Martin says of his collaborator on Function, “was at a Roll Deep show at Cargo. I remember my jaw hitting the floor, thinking ‘Wow, this guy is as talented as Dizzee or Tinchy Strider.” Manga couldn’t make it last time The Bug played Bristol but he’s back in the fold for this month’s session. “Manga’s become an integral part of the live show,” says Martin of the grime MC, “and Function’s become a phenomenon in its own right. It’s really become this year’s Skeng or Poison Dart. It’s really hard to say how any track is going to be received when you work on it. It’s like seeing a domino effect happen that you have no control over…but I’m very happy that any track has impact.” 

That word – impact – is the Bug experience in a nutshell. While as celebratory as any rave the live shows are also punishingly loud, and some vocalists cope better than others. “Every MC I’ve worked with has taken time to adapt to that situation and some have totally caved in” explains Martin. “I remember Pupajim doing a guest spot with me in Paris. Flowdan and Daddy Freddy had destroyed the place and he literally crumbled and just stood at the back of the stage and couldn’t perform as I hoped he would, and he’s an amazing vocalist. It was the same with another MC called Mentor Irie, who played with us in Bristol. He came on stage after Flowdan, Daddy Freddy and Miss Red in front of a thousand people and just lost it…lost it totally. So it’s really a challenge.”

Martin’s music can be a challenge for audiences too, although those who love to be immersed in bass will find few experiences that match up to it. “Bug shows aren’t going to be to everyone’s taste and some people are going to be repulsed”, agrees Martin. “I like intensely physical shocks. It’s what I want from music. I want people to go away having experienced something special.”

The Bug, Miss Red & Manga play Bristol Old Crown Courts on 30 May with So Solid Crew, Scott Garcia & more. Facebook event here.