Introducing: Rationale

Feature by Kenza Marland | 03 Feb 2017

We grabbed a quick chat with Rationale, aka Tinashe Fazakerley, after his King Tut's show last month to talk touring, Pharrell, and family connections

The Skinny: Is this your first time in Glasgow?

Fazakerley: "This is our second time in Glasgow, and it is a very different experience to the last time. It was fun. It’s the first time we played a 55 minute set I think."

How long have you and the band been together? They're a very good looking bunch!

"You make it sound so marital! We’ve been playing together for about a year now. They’re all hand picked (from) when I first started releasing music. I like to keep in control of the project as much as I can. I didn’t know they were pretty, in my defence. I’m glad they are pretty!

"Essentially we released a song, and we got a lot of attention very quickly. I’ve been working in music for a very long time, in different guises. I really like writing songs, that probably sounds as cheesy as hell, but the thing for me is really to aspire to be a good songwriter. Everything else that I’ve ever done in music has always been an absolute necessity because you cannot find people to do things for you. So I’ve learned to produce music on my own because I need to."

How much of the music would you typically say you write?

"I write the tracks, produce them and sing them. I work on them at home, I want them to feel like the music I grew up with. Music is a great thing because it can be perceived differently and it can be construed in anyway you want it to be. So I want the stuff that I do to be expanded on and to be made to feel really nice live. So the musicality is already there – I can write it because I am a good bass player; a good guitar player..."

You were playing percussion tonight?

"Yeah, it’s fun, but there is so much more for me to try and do. I come from a place where my main instrument is the guitar. I realised that if I wanted to do what I am doing now – a challenging vocal delivery – it’s probably more interesting to watch me writhing around like an idiot on stage, for now, than playing guitar."

I see you got props from Pharrell (on his Beats 1 radio show)?

"Yeah, it was such a funny time! That particular day when they played the song, I remember I found out you could record a radio show from your Mac. I was like 'cool, brilliant', so I started recording it, and I mean I’ve loved Pharrell since I was a kid. I started recording the show, and my mum called me, which interrupted the recording. She was yelling: 'Is it on yet?' I got her off eventually, but I only have part of the interview.

"After this whole Pharrell thing we had this track and people really enjoyed it, but the follow up is tough. There are loads of one-hit-wonders. The process for me was to try and kind of be true to what I wanted to do, so first of all I decided I wanted to have the artistry. I didn’t want to go out and just press play and be an electronic artist without music."

What are you up to after this?

"Umm, we are probably going to go and have a drink downstairs. I have a very drunk relative, I don’t know if you heard during the show, he kept shouting ‘Your Mum’ at me?"

That was a relative?!

"Kwame and me were just talking about this. African culture is fun. So my mum just, like, sent this guy that I kind of know who lives here. But he’s turned up and I think he is a bit tanked. He was trying to say 'your mum sent me', but it sounded like old school Stokey, 'your mum, your mum.'"


Rationale's new single Reciprocate is out now via Best Laid Plans 

http://iamrationale.com/