CityLife

Interview: Example

Example

"ONE girl bought me a packet of Strepsils and put individual kisses on each one,” remembers rapper Example of his oddest fan encounter, concluding – somewhat reasonably – “There’s some ******* lunatics out there.”

When CityLife meets the boisterous 28-year-old, he’s holed up in a studio recording the concluding track to his forthcoming album, Won’t Go Quietly; a song which (apparently) sounds like New Order having a bash at dubstep.

“I was literally singing about two seconds ago. Well, not literally two seconds,” he clarifies, clearly a stickler for accuracy. “It was actually about 126 seconds...”.

Christened Elliot Gleave, he gleaned the pseudonym ‘Example’ due to his initials forming ‘EG’, a common abbreviation of ‘for example...’ (you see?), and 2010 is shaping up to be a golden year for his brand of “dysfunctional electro-pop”.

Following the Top 20 hit Watch the Sun Come Up, his latest single, also called Won’t Go Quietly (a throbbing slice of Ibiza-primed synth-propelled hip-pop), is currently nestled at number six in the Top 40 and A-listed by Radio 1; while there’s an upcoming tour support with grime-hobbit Tinchy Stryder in the pipeline.

Along the way, there have been collaborations with the likes of Calvin Harris and karaoke sessions with the Arctic Monkeys. But more on that in two ticks. Or “actually 10 paragraphs,” as Example might pedantically point out.

This isn’t Gleave’s first bite at the pop cherry, as he was signed to Mike Skinner’s Beats label and released one acclaimed album, What We Made, in 2007 before the imprint capsized and his dreams of stardom temporarily hit the buffers.

“It was exciting at the time because I idolised him (Skinner)”, remembers Example.

“I suppose I learned how not to run a label as well,” he deadpans.

“Still, I learned a lot from him about songwriting, but I suppose I didn’t really put that advice into practice until this album.”

Blokish past

Growing up in Fulham, the coltish Gleave sought to be embraced by the hip-hop community. “The only attention I could get at school was from rapping because I couldn’t play sport and I wasn’t good-looking,” he recalls.

Aged 13, he was diagnosed with ADHD and in order to channel his destructive surplus energy, his mother used to encourage him to pen musicals.

“Lots of West End stuff like Joseph and Oliver,” he says, but alas, not Hair.

“I have to record every day,” he points out. “Otherwise I can’t sleep at night because my head gets too full of words and ideas.

“If I haven’t been to the studio for a few weeks and I’ve got four songs in my head, I have to take a sleeping pill to get to bed.”

After Warner dropped the Beats label, it took Example merely six months to dust himself off and acquire a new deal with Data; shedding his straightforward hop-hop chrysalis to emerge as a neon-hued pop butterfly.

While the grimier club track Hooligans connects the dots to his blokish past, the full LP contains choirs, ballads that name-check Gary Barlow and the Calvin Harris-produced Time Machine that suggests Wham! and Five Star as influences.

“On my first album, I was desperate to be a rapper,” he says. “And I put out a rap album full of samples which, you know, I’m still proud of, but I do listen to it now and some of it sounds a bit rushed and cheap.

“Most of the stuff on my iPod isn’t even hip-hop.

“It’s taken me five years to start writing songs that are actually making it on to daytime radio and into the charts which are – in my opinion – a reflection of the catchiest songs in the country, which are, I think, the best written songs.”

In hindsight, he feels his debut was as confused as Jedward if you handed them a piece of paper with ‘PTO’ scrawled on both sides.

Audience

“It had a song about Rohypnol followed by a song about forgetting your girlfriend’s birthday card and then one about not being able to rap, followed by one about nuclear disaster,” he laughs.

“It was all a bit disjointed. I’m much more aware of the listener now.

“I think that’s part of being a great entertainer. It’s like Spielberg when he directs films – he’s always thinking about the audience.

“A lot of people have said that, compared to my first album, my new stuff is selling out but I was always trying to make pop songs, but I just didn’t know how to.

“As far as I’m concerned, what’s the point of writing a song that only a small amount of people are going to hear?”

“What?” indeed. With the extent of making unashamedly mainstream dance-rap tracks that will slay festivals, he’s enrolled a retinue of top-class producers such as Harris (who contacted Example out of the blue through MySpace) and Brian Rawlings, who has worked with the chart-gobbling likes of Britney and Kylie. Not to mention gaining coveted tour slots opening for artists such as Lily Allen.

“During that,” he chuckles. “I learnt there are 50-year-old mums out there and 14-year-old kids who still want to rave.”

Even so, there are more projects on Example’s CV.

Having spent the start of the last decade studying directing at Royal Holloway University, he notably seized the opportunity, while shooting the promo for the What We Made single in Chernobyl, to make a short film focussing on the area’s derelict local amenities.

“Although I always wanted to be a director, I ultimately decided to take the musical route because I got such a buzz from being onstage.

“If a song doesn’t work live now, then I won’t release it.”

Not to mention – but nevertheless we will – the added thrill of being to warble along in a drunken haze with the indie gigeratti.

“I’m a massive Arctic Monkeys fan and I did karaoke with Alex Turner. We sang Forgot About Dre. Moments like that,” he grins, “are ******* amazing.” 

The single, Won’t Go Quietly, is out now. The eponymous album follows in April (2010). Example supports Tinchy Stryder at the Academy on Thursday, February 11, 2010.