We’d call an artist with over 30 million plays somewhat popular, wouldn’t you? If you haven’t heard of Mura Masa yet, then now’s the time to get in the know. Like srsly, this guy has been hyped by everyone from Diplo and Skrillex to Annie Mac. He might not know it yet, but he’s a pretty big deal.

The man behind the alliteration, 19 year old Alex Crossan, was born on the quiet isle of Guernsey where the usual past time of young people was to “hang around beaches and drink”. Brought up on a varied diet of hard rock and Joni Mitchell (his mother’s influence), he started to develop a taste for ‘noise’ from an early age…

Why Mura Masa? “The name just came from a track on a metal album, it comes from an old Japanese myth about a swordsmith, but really I just thought it sounded cool”

Influences? Hudson Mohawke, James Blake, SBTRKT, Cashmere Cat, Flying Lotus.

Plan B? A music journalist. At the time he was discovered, Alex was in his first year of an English Literature and Philosophy Degree.

The discovery? His manager found him online thanks to a pretty impressive Soundcloud following.

Tipping point? Firefly – “my answer to post-house. That was one of the first tracks where I thought ‘this is what a Mura Masa track should sound like’.”

Current collabs? Bonzai.

Perhaps surprisingly, he didn’t grow up listening to dubstep or grime as it seemed “pretty far away from what [he] knew”. But at 15, Alex came across Hudson Mohawke’s Thunder Bay and truly discovered that electronic music was “a thing”; later stumbling across James Blake, he began to realise that beat-making didn’t have to be about fitting in to one genre.

“James Blake is so important as an act. Not just because the music is great and I love listening to it… but in terms of the way music’s going: the fact that an act like that can be recognised in the way he is really opened my eyes”.

The new album from Mura Masa is due to drop later this year. The first single – Love For That feat. Shura – plays to his softer side complemented by Shura’s melodic vocals. What If I Go – the second release and the track for our new spring campaign – is out later this month and brings  “an accessibility to weird, left-field electronica.”

Pre-order What If I Go here >

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