Soma's Envoy Hates Playing In London

Hotly tipped techno soul singer Hope Grant (aka Envoy), who plays at London's Missdemeanours on Thursday, chatted to Skrufff this week and revealed he absolutely loathes performing in the capital.

"I hate it, but only because all your friends want to come down and that puts a strain on the performer in me; if if I spot a mate in the crowd I immediately have to look away or look through them," he admitted.

I always ask my friends not to talk to me before my performance because I'm a wreck, I tell them that I need to get into character," the Soma artist revealed.

"It takes a lot for me to become the 'oh so cool' Mr Envoy, the charmer; I haven't got used to it and I think I never will. It's purely nerves."

Despite Hope's reservations about his mates, he admitted that many of his best live shows have been in London ('Fabric in February was amazing, even better than the Arches in Glasgow'), and he's looking forward to shaking up the industry types usually found at Missdemeanours.

:I did another launch party gig just a few weeks ago at Plastic People, which was practically full of music industry types and I found that it's difficult for them to shake their asses no matter what the music sounds like," he said, "but just gives me another incentive to rock it. Many of my best shows have actually been in London."

Grant will be unveiling tracks from his highly impressive new album Shoulder To Shoulder, which comes out on Soma on June 7.
Tags

• soma