Mura Masa is 21-year-old Alex Crossan, whose mix of global sounds can be traced back to his upbringing in rural Guernsey, Great Britain. After a childhood spent dabbling with guitar, piano, and drums in local bands, he turned his hand to producing electronic music.Four years ago, Crossan began uploading tracks to Soundcloud and began to build a fanbase that soon stretched far beyond the confines of his Channel Islands bedroom. He placed in the top 5 on The BBC’s Sound of 2016 Longlist and was name-checked as one of iTunes’ Artists for 2016 as well as Spotify’s Spotlight for 2016 in the UK. He also won the Blog Sound of 2016 — a poll of 58 UK-based music bloggers determining their favorite emerging artists.
This year he was nominated for two Grammy awards: Best Recording Package and Best Dance/Electronic Album for his self-titled release Mura Masa. We spoke with the talented musician on the red carpet for Universal Music Group’s 2018 Grammy After Party, presented by Rémy Martin, American Airlines and Citi at Spring Studios. Check out our exclusive interview below:
The Knockturnal: How exciting was it to attend the Grammys? Was this your first Grammys?
Mura Masa: Yes, this was my first. Hopefully, the first of many. But yeah, it was really exciting.
The Knockturnal: What was a highlight for you from the show?
Mura Masa: I really enjoyed seeing Sting do “Englishman in New York,” like in New York! That was really cool … I’m a bit of a country boy, so it’s nice for me to be in the city seeing all these nice things, you know?
The Knockturnal: Tell us about your creative process behind Mura Masa.
Mura Masa: It was a long time in the making, I think. But it’s so good to have it recognized today, and even though I didn’t win, it’s just so nice to get the nomination and to be able to attend!
The Knockturnal: We love your track “1 Night.” How did you first link up with Charli XCX and become collaborative partners?
Mura Masa: I’ve been a big fan of hers for a long time and it just seemed like a kind of natural link up. She’s been doing a lot of more electronic stuff recently. I think it worked out great, I really love what we did together.
The Knockturnal: What’s coming up next for you?
Mura Masa: More music. Maybe that sounds obvious but just working on a lot of stuff right now and hopefully this year there will be a lot more to hear from me.
The Knockturnal: When did you first realize you were musical or gifted in music?
Mura Masa: I mean my dad was a really amazing musician and he kind of brought me up around it, so I was playing guitar when I was like six or seven years old, so I guess it started there, but my whole life has been kind of making music.
The Knockturnal: Who are some producers you’d like to collaborate with?
Mura Masa: I’d love to sit down with Calvin Harris and pick his brain. I think we’d get on. He’s a Scottish lad, I’m half Scottish, so maybe we could talk about that.
The Knockturnal: Who are some artists you would like to collab with?
Mura Masa: I’d love to work with SZA. I think the fact she didn’t win anything tonight is kind of upsetting. But she’s going to keep winning anyway, so I don’t think it matters in the long run.
