LAMP Weekly Mix #208 feat. Seven Davis Jr.

This week we close out our 2017 mix series with a very special guest. Seven Davis Jr. joined us as our headliner a few weeks back for our annual charity event with Understated. He along with our other artists performed to the delight of an amazing crowd and helping to raise awareness and donations for our designated charities.Seven Davis Jr. has had a fantastic rise in prominence in the past few years with a highlight tour supporting Flying Lotus recently. Releases on Ninja Tune, Ten Thousand Yen, and his own newly developed imprint Secret Angels have helped him develop a healthy discography in a relatively short period of time. With a new EP just recently released the promise of much more music is sure to be on the horizon heading into 2018. Check out his interview with MR PUZL below.MR PUZL: Seven it’s a personal pleasure to have you on our guest mix series, and it goes without saying a dream of mine to have you play one of our LAMP shows! What have you got in store with this mixtape? Would you say our audience will expect to hear some of this on Friday or is this more of a listening tape?Seven Davis Jr.: Thanks so much, thanks for the invite. This is a holiday vibe mix (since it's so close to Christmas). Like a throw it on and vibe out, do office work, clean the house etc mix. I've also included some exclusive tracks from myself and other artists. Plus included some tracks from artists in Secret Angels.MP: This is the second single from your new EP ‘Sev Was Here’ on your imprint Secret Angels. How did you get inspired to make this latest set of songs?SDJ: The first single was an idea I started working on years ago. This second one well, I was fortunate to go on a 22 city tour recently with Flying Lotus. It really inspired me and changed my whole outlook on sounds. This second single is the first song I recorded after the tour. The other tracks on the EP were created months before I went on tour. Don't know about you but I had a brutal 2017,so I'm choosing to close out the year on a positive note with a fresh new EP.MP: To stay on the topic of your imprint for a moment. I’d love to know how Secret Angels came to fruition.SDJ: When Michael Jackson and Prince died I started thinking about starting my own label/collective of artists who just want to contribute beautiful sounds to the world.MP: You mentioned your XLR8R interview last year that you act as the guinea pig for the label. Can you elaborate on how that works with respect to the variety of projects and collaborations you have going on within Secret Angels?SDJ: Since it was my idea to start the label, thought I do the ground work and jump start it. We've got a lot of fun EP's from other members of Secret Angels lined up that we'll be releasing next. I'll be releasing a few things on more known US/UK labels for a few.MP: In the same interview you also mentioned that ‘decluttering physical spaceas a mental exercise.’ How did you come to first understand and implement this philosophy? Do you find that this concept transfers to your production workflow in the sense of organized folders, filenames, etc?SDJ: I'm the opposite of a hoarder. Not sure when I first realized that. I prefer to be as organized and professional as possible in sessions but can be flexible.MP: You’ve done some awesome covers of classics including Chaka Khan’s ‘I Feel For You’. Are there songs or artists out there now that you consider covering?SDJ: Thanks. I love cover songs. There's so many songs I want to cover and plan to someday. The Beatles "Come Together" is one of them. I've been wanting to cover "Beauty School Dropout" from the movie Grease also ha.MP: If you could sit in a studio with Burt Bacharach and pick one of his songs tocover what would it be?SDJ: The Land of Make Believe" - Burt Bacharach featuring Dionne Warwick. I'll play it at the beginning of the mix for everyone to hear.