Getting to Know Naughty Boy

Getting to Know Naughty Boy Newly-minted superstar producer Naughty Boy talks to House Seven about fame, ambition and the impending Stateside arrival of his Bollywood-inflected beats. Naughty Boy (aka Shahid Khan) is living proof that it pays not to have a plan B. Five years ago, he was a broke university dropout subsisting on temp jobs while he dreamed of becoming a music producer. In a Hail Mary bid to fund his work, this Londoner applied for a £5000 grant from the Prince’s Trust as well as a spot on the UK game show Deal Or No Deal. Luck was apparently on his side: He not only got the grant, but he also won £44,000 on the show within the same month. He put the capital toward his career and before long was producing slick beats for Tinie Tempah, Rihanna, Professor Green, and Emeli Sandé, whose smash debut album he executive produced. Ready for his own star turn, Naughty Boy recently released his own album in the UK to widespread acclaim. Hotel Cabana promptly hit #2 and spawned the monster hit La La La featuring Sam Smith. It’s slated to drop in April in the US, but before then, he’ll make his Stateside debut at Soho Beach House Miami next month as part of Art Basel festivities. The self-effacing son of Pakistani émigrés sat down with House Seven at Soho House New York recently to tell us about his master plan for conquering America. Q What was going on in your life at the time before you went on Deal Or No Deal? A Up until going on that game show I was always trying to borrow five pounds off someone. I was always losing my job. I just thought if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this. I asked the universe to help me—I remember that day clearly. I was delivering pizzas and was about to lose that job. Then I went on this game show and then got the Prince’s Trust, and within two weeks I had like 50,000 pounds to play with. All I ever wanted was to make music. I’d never won anything before this so it gave me the confidence to think that I could do something. It was a domino effect, meeting Emeli, then the rest just happened. It’s mad. Q How did you choose the artists on your album? A I’m a fan of everyone on the album. Bastille, Ed Sheeran, Emeli, Tinie Tempah, Wiz Khalifa. Then I’m a fan of these new people we’re bringing through like Sam Smith, Ella Eyre, Tamika. It’s such a great mixture. Apart from Wiz, everyone on there is British. That was important to me. I want to fly that flag. When you spend 10 years building up big producers, they end up running off to LA and you forget they were even British. Q Is there one track that you’re really passionate about? A The Ed Sheeran song. He was sleeping on sofas at the time because his album hadn’t come out yet in the UK. He came and stayed round mine and we wrote this song. The raw demo is what ended up on the album. I tried to do so much to it but there was no need to. That’s an important lesson for a producer, to learn to accept things and not try to be such a perfectionist. Q One of your past jobs was working as a waiter at a posh hotel frequented by celebrities. How did that inform what you wanted to say about fame on Hotel Cabana? A When I first worked at the hotel, I wanted that life. A couple of years later my whole opinion had changed. I’d met so many of these rich people, famous families and the majority of them weren’t happy. They were a bit lonely, a bit depressed. And you can only notice that over time. It’s not something that you see at first. I began to despise it. The whole world wants to be famous, the whole world wants to be in a luxury hotel—you could call fame a luxury hotel. But really, the truth of it is, eventually you’re going to want your old life back. I feel like I was given that idea from God for some kind of reason. Q How has the audience received the album so far? A I looked the other day and my video La La La had a 172 million views [on YouTube]—that’s mad! And it hasn’t even hit America yet. But everyone always asks me, what does it mean? I’ve never answered anyone because that defeats what I do. I want to go back to your imagination being just as cool as mine. Your interpretation is the right one. Q Now that you’ve achieved a certain level of success, do you worry about your work suffering now that you no longer have to hustle? A I know exactly what you mean! That saddens me a bit because I always love being the underdog. Coming to America where no one knows me is what I like, because I get to think in my head “I might fail, it might not work.” The power of that is what keeps me going. If I were talking I’d say I hope for the best. But if it was Naughty Boy talking he’d say “Expect me.” That’s the difference between me and my alter ego. So let the American takeover begin!.

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