For our readers, please tell us about your musical background?

I grew up in 90’s Bristol, and gobbled up everything that was happening here at that time. There was a mad vibrant scene of hip hop, proper Golden Age with all the elements happening at the same time at night; breaking, graf, turntablism, MC’ing, beatboxing… it was a really complete culture and I tried to do all of it. I was a much better DJ and MC than I was a breaker or visual artist so I applied myself to those more than anything. And not just hip hop but also a lot of jungle, drum n bass, reggae, dub, it was all here and I studied it hard. Hip hop was a rich seam because it’s so sample based : I would get my weekly vinyl purchase home and study the sleeve notes, see what was taken from where and follow the threads, learning about jazz, soul, funk, classical, so much education stemmed from those days for me.

Who or what are your musical influences?

First and foremost hip hop, but a lot else too. 60s psychedelic rock like Jefferson Airplane, The Doors – I always loved the strangeness of that, it feels like it reflects how odd the inside of a human brain actually is, the dreamscapes, the sideways associations and weird little creatures made of memory, fear, whatever we’ve lived. Any art that evokes that properly, or draws on it as a source, gets me going. Kendrick Lamar is a god. So many sick UK artists too; Lady Leshurr (who’s also a proud bisexual which I love); Ghetts, Che Lingo… It’s a good time for rap at the moment. I’m also influenced by folk music forms from around the world. I love the storytelling in it, how raw the instrumentation is. Some of it’s naff but some of it’s lush.

And what made you want to pursue music as a career?

Probably initially because I wanted to be popular and cool, and the coolest humans I could see anywhere were the rock stars and rappers. I was bullied at one school which I left, which made me look for ways to protect myself from that happening again. Becoming the guy who rapped was a good way to do that. But the more I did it the more I felt the spiritual buzz of it, the connectedness with other people that I get from playing music with them, and people I wouldn’t ever encounter or connect with otherwise my music has taken me to Mongolia, Senegal, Iran, Kosovo, Palestine… So many places I’ve been, meeting so many humans and having so many lessons in warmth, humility, and so much richness of culture that’s so different from my own. Most of the valuable things I’ve learned about the world have been through music in some way.

Tell us about your music catalog to-date.

I’ve been releasing music for 20 years so it’s a long list, I won’t share it all, but my first solo album was in 2009, called Engurland (City Shanties) : incorporating sea shanties and folk traditions with hip hop. I put together a band called The Small Gods to tour that live and we ended up writing a collaborative album for ECC records called Moving In The Dark, taking some of that folk experimentation further and also going deep on the beats and the subject matter, there’s a mad prog influence there, a guest verse from Jam Baxter, a feature from a bagpiper, it’s pretty nuts. My next solo LP was The Unmaster which left the folk thing well behind, I produced that one myself and brought in a lot of synth, dirty bass, found sounds and a Senegalese balafon I’d bought over there and learned how to play with a Guinean master. I was living in London and hearing a lot of grime and bass music, and the sound reflects that. The songs were about a bit of a mental breakdown I experienced, there’s a lot of madness and collapse in the stories and the music. It was nominated for Album of the Year by Gilles Peterson in the Worldwide Awards 2020, which blew my tiny mind. I brought out a Remix version of it too with features from my old studio mates at Total Refreshment Centre, the legendary London venue and hub where I was based for a long time : Alabaster Deplume is on there; Danalogue from The Comet Is Coming; as well as Orifice from Foreign Beggars, Tom Excell from Nubiyan Twist. It was an opportunity to celebrate my stupidly talented friends.

You recently released your brand-new album, Alive At The End Of The World: Set One – tell us about this project?

It’s a live album recorded over the course of the Twenty Years Deep tour I did last year with an eight-piece ensemble. It was my first attempt at a properly sustainable tour, I crowdfunded it and we travelled entirely by public transport which was excellent and a big challenge too. Anyway there’s strings, vibraphone, drums and bass and synths and percussion and even a choir on a couple of the tunes. It’s a retrospective project drawing from all my releases, and in a lot of cases a total reinvention of those older songs, with this ridiculously talented band. Ben, the drummer has toured with Alpha Mist and Mulatu Astatke; Simmy on violin plays with Jordan Rakei; Joseph on keys has collabed with Cat Stevens… etc. The levels of musicianship are insane, and it’s a trip to listen to. With the warmth of the strings and the heaviness of the drums and bass… It’s pretty much the sound I’ve dreamed of making for a long time. It’s coming in two sets, Set One and Set Two : Set One is out now, Set Two is out on March 31, and is the much rowdier side of what I make, more at 140bpm, more big basslines.

For viewers that don’t know Dizraeli, how would you describe your sound?

Human, fiercely loving rap music with a big dose of weird. Or wait, it was once described as Aggressively Tender Bisexual Party Music. That might do it.

What’s the music scene like where you live?

Bristol is nuts for music. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we’ve still got a strong community, we still play together and collaborate and lift each other up. And the city is small enough that we’re likely to know each other and be at each other’s shows. It’s lush.

And what are some of those activities that you engage yourself in when you aren’t writing or recording in the studio?

I teach mental resilience courses online for Tough Cookie, which I love, and I meditate a lot, and cook passably, and try to do my best at bringing up my twin boys Idris and Paco, which can be a headfuck when it feels like it’s the end of the world. But I will do my best.

Finally, what’s one fun fact about yourself for our readers?

I have the largest collection of imaginary crocodiles in the world.