Rag'n'Bone Man interview: On his debut album, London's nightclub scene, and Game of Thrones

'One person said I was like the UK Nate Dogg. I was like… are you sure?! And someone else said I was like a white CeeLo Green…'

(Danny North/Press shot)

This interview contains spoilers for season four of Game of Thrones

Rory Graham, aka Rag’n’Bone Man, is building a bar in his garden and is therefore clearly living the dream. “It’s so rock n’ roll,” he says, rolling his eyes. After a busy weekend he’s finally found a few days to chill out and work on what sounds like a ‘Shed of the Year’ contender.

We’re at one of his favourite pubs in London – the Magic Garden – talking about his upcoming debut, which feels like it’s been a long time coming.

Buzz around Graham has been building since he dropped his EP Wolves in 2014, but he’d been part of the UK’s underground hip hop scene for some time before that. Now he’s laying down the final touches to the album, looking through his back catalogue and dithering over the track listing.

Over lunch, and in between some serious discussion about the Netflix series Stranger Things, the resurgence of grime in London, new tattoos, video games, the upcoming remake of Splash (“f**k off”, Graham says, outraged) and his love for EastEnders; we talk about the build-up to the yet-to-be-titled record (he’s still deciding on a name), and the tracks that may or may not make it onto the final version.

“I’m new to a lot of people and I don’t think anyone wants to listen to 16 tracks of a new artist,” he says. “Maybe on the second one. People have got no attention span these days with music – I come from the time where I bought the whole album and listened to it back to back.”

Everything Graham has put out has included a vinyl pressing. “It’s the best format, physically,” he says, adding slightly ruefully: “The mini-disc never really took off. I went round my friend’s house the other day and we found all these garage tapes and mixtapes we used to make.

“There’s one where we and my mate used to MC together, and we made up a whole section about EastEnders. It’s really stupid, but I wanna be an extra on that show one day. And have my music in the marketplace.”

Graham grew up in Brighton and hops between there and a place in south London, the latter near many of the music venues he loves to perform in. “I like the dirty venues better – Brixton Jams is like home,” he says.

He’s been following the battle over Fabric – the London nightclub which has been closed since August after the suspected drug-related deaths of two 18-year-old men – and laments what often feels like an ongoing sterilisation of London’s nightlife.

“I saw some of the old Jungle guys sharing it. It’s really sad, man, it feels like that place was home for a little part of my life. When I was 16, two places shut down so we started to go to Fabric, when they had a bunch of jungle artists. It’ll be really sad if it closes.”

Later on he’ll be skimming through his phone and spot a review of one of his gigs in Germany, which, bizarrely, tries to compare him to an ox. “Isn’t that weird?” he asks, baffled. It’s likely a clumsy attempt to talk about his powerful voice and how it matches his stature – but there surely are only so many times you can hear that observation before it becomes boring.

“Sometimes comparisons are so pointless… they’re so unnecessary,” he says. There have certainly been some unusual ones. “One person said I was like the UK Nate Dogg. I was like… are you sure? And someone said I was like a white CeeLo Green…”

Although this record is yet to be released, he’s already looking to branch off and do something new before his second one. “I’ve been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff,” he admits. “One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott. When I started listening to his songs – my stepdad would make me CDs of what he liked – and Scott’s stuff is f**king incredible.”

Graham shares a studio with Bastille (he supported them on tour and appeared on one of their mixtapes in 2014) and shares a similar love of film to frontman Dan Smith that has been finding its way into his music videos. His video for ‘Hard Came the Rain’ is dramatic and neon-lit, while an upcoming release for ‘Skin’ – one of the best tracks on what I’ve heard so far of the album – is described by Graham as an “epic mini-film”.

“I wrote that track after I watched Game of Thrones (he still has six episodes of season six to watch) – you know when Jon Snow’s wildling girl dies – I watched that and wrote the song the next day. It’s about when you’re that close to having something and it just goes," he says.

Lunch finished, he's off to do some more work on his bar before setting off for the final few festivals of the summer. Things are moving quickly: he–s already becoming a new Radio 1 favourite, and the venues he appears at – more often than not sold out – are getting bigger each time. 2017 looks set to be his year.

Rag’n’Bone Man’s debut album is out in early 2017. Get tickets for his new tour - announced today - here