Lyrics Born: Can't Touch This

It’s surprising to find that, having already endured several interviews today, the affable Tom Shimura is happy to provide some insight into his rhythmical realm one more time. Such is the life of a musician these days: sell yourself, lest ye be forgotten. Shimura doesn't seem to mind: "No, I kind of enjoy it, to be honest. I like talking about myself and my work” he says. “People always ask good stuff."

Hearing that, I go straight for the silly pile: 2000’s funky Quannum cut I Changed My Mind is one of the collective’s most celebrated songs, did he ever change his mind back? “Yeah, man. All the time.” This simple answer almost sums up Lyrics Born's approach to music. Never happier than when he's challenging himself and moving on, Shimura’s prolific career is a safe indication that he’s always on the lookout for new horizons. So what challenges did he set himself on new LP Everywhere at Once?

“New production ideas, mostly, and I wanted to become a better songwriter. I could rap 100 bars right now, but I need to move on. I'm happy I'm in the top five to ten percent of rappers, and I wanted to test myself. Also, this wasn't an album written over email. I mean, a lot of my stuff still starts that way, but then projects evolve. I wanted to be a producer in the old style, less sample based, less digital.” More Quincy Jones than Dr. Dre? “Yeah, I guess. Now, if I want a horn part, I farm out the horn part. I'm not sampling, I'm using musicians and instruments.”

Everywhere at Once was released through Anti, an indie label backed by Epitaph - at one time the biggest independent in the world. I was curious to know whether the punk ethic of Epitaph (owned by Bad Religion and home to the likes of The Locust and Converge) was at all relevant, but these politics don't appear to concern the weathered wordsmith. “I don't really care who puts the records out. If Warner called me and said they would put the album out, it'd be on Warner,” he shrugs. ”I'm just interested in getting my music out.”

Video: Lyrics Born - Bad Dreams

In the current slew of new models for marketing music, Everywhere at Once is being sold via a fairly traditional one. Shimura has spoken out about file-sharing before: “Buy it, don't burn it!” was his last word in an interview that took place before guerrilla album releases became de rigueur. But, when pressed, Shimura points out that the world has changed considerably in the succeeding four years, though he still seems conflicted on his position. “That's an old conversation, man. Things have moved on. But yeah. I still feel the same way; if an artist is doing something you appreciate, you should support that.”

Nevertheless, Shimura appears intrigued by the suggestion that we're witnessing the death of the middlemen, not - as Bill Drummond would have it - the death of recorded music. All the same, his prime concern is that we don't forget the good people amongst those who are also being hurt by a changing climate.

“I've been in the music industry half my life, and I've seen a lot of corruption. I've seen a lot of terrible things happen in all parts of the industry. I've also seen a lot of good people, who do a lot of good work, and they've suffered recently as a result of the upheaval in the industry. I'm not against file-sharing. I'm not against the internet; I think a lot of things are happening because of it, but the whole industry has problems now.”

Interestingly enough, Shimura’s favourite album of the moment is In Rainbows. With all the hype around Radiohead's ‘new paradigm’, it's fair to say Lyrics Born is paying attention to these new ideas. I ask, and yes, he's up for a collaboration with Thom and co. My original suggestion, Cee-Lo (Gnarls Barkley/Goodie Mob) seemed to make more sense on paper, but Radiohead playing against these lyrical flows? That could be insane.

Video: Lyrics Born & Lateef the Truthspeaker - Last Trumpet