Remember Illegal Demo? Them producers from that pind Preston (city?). Irfan managed to track them down at their studio to give us a full low-down on them. They burst onto the scene with a series of hits and are now working on the soundtrack for Chicken Tikka Masala [official site: www.ctm-feature.com], which is the latest British Asian Movie set for release in February 2005. As well as that they are working on their solo debut album 'Unsolicited Material' which is sounding too sick. The year 2005 will be the year Illegal Demo makes a name for themselves as some of the best producers coming out of the UK. To find out more then read on!

The comments of each of them have been colour co-ordinated to help you distinguish who is saying what. The following key can be used as a guide to help you with this as well.

Irfan: How did you get into the music industry and how did you, as a group, come about?

Tres-pass: It started off at school basically. We were listening to stuff like Bally Sagoo and we wanted to get into music from there.

Lyrical Rider: We've been into music basically from day one. When we where young we used to go to the temple and that and come back and we were playing instruments and singing religious songs and stuff. In 1999 we started to go round dj'ing at bars, clubs and loads of house parties. Then the time came and we thought right let's start producing music. We got signed to a mainstream label called STASH and set up a mainstream group called 'Hot Property' and we used to do a variety of music. Then through our family background we started to do more Asian stuff. We were going home with these garage tracks and RnB tracks and our parents were like what the hell. It's been a good step and a wrong step because the market is too dirty. We would have made more money out of the English market but we are getting back into it now.

Mitz: It's something that has been in our family. We've all been taught music from our grandparents. It skipped a generation with our parents. Now all of us have come back into it from a young age.

Irfan: So you guys all related?

Tres-pass: All cousins. The Illegal Demo group is a family. We don't need anyone else.

Lyrical Rider: With most groups they like to just to just look after themselves and plug there own people but with us we like to help other people so they can get a career out of it as well. End of the day it's not just about us.

Irfan: Your new album is called 'Unsolicited Material.' What made you go with that name?

Lyrical Rider: One of the rappers on the album from Canada called ??????? did a rap for us and he mentioned it in his lyrics so we just took it from there. In the rapping he mentioned the name 'Unsolicited Material' and it sounded good and it goes with our image.

Irfan: Tell us more about your new album, Unsolicited Material! Who's going to be featuring on it?

Lyrical Rider: We are hoping to get 18 to 20 tracks on there, not the usual 10 bul***t that come out.

Irfan: You mean 6 to 8 [Everybody Laughs]?

Lyrical Rider: Yeah, because at the end of the day you gotta pay money for the CD.

Tres-pass: We are not going to have two good ripped tracks on there and the rest just fillers.

Lyrical Rider: With most bhangra albums you have to skip the tracks to find the good ones but with ours you'll leave the CD in because it will have 15 plus solid tracks on there so you won't have to skip any. It's not just going to have bhangra; it's with have RnB and hip-hop tracks on the album as well.

Irfan: How important is giving the consumer value for money for you?

Tres-pass: It's really important, as £10 is a lot of money.

Mitz: Kids these days are into bhangra and stuff so for them to go to there dad and get £10 to buy an album and only find one good track on that's a lot of money wasted.

Lyrical Rider: We wanted to give them 15 solid tracks. Our fans have waited long enough.

Irfan: So which vocalists you got in featuring in the album? Lyrical Rider: We got Labh Janjua, Amar Arshi and couple of local ones, which I can't give the names off out yet. Tres-pass: We've used a lot of new vocalists with our album rather than the same old people. That's what it's about pushing new talent. K18 as well, he's doing the vocals for two tracks featuring Ruthless Mc this mc is really gonna blow trust me so watch out. Irfan: What styles of music feature on it? Lyrical Rider: People have just heard our

Unsolicited Material

garage tracks and they don't even know the music that we can do (don't test us). No ones heard the RnB side, the hip-hop click or the bashment. We'll have some garage on there and maybe one or two Bollywood tracks.

Irfan: When is it out [Everybody Laughs]?

Lyrical Rider: The album should have been ready about now but because we have been working on this film called Chicken Tikka Masala it's really delayed on the album.

Irfan: Seriously though when?

Lyrical Rider: Should be early next year, around March / April.

Irfan: You introduce 'MC Topaz' on your new album that in my view is serious competition for the other female MC's on the scene such as Ms Scandalous & Hard Kaur! How did you hook up with her?

Lyrical Rider: She's in a league of her own. She's in a league of her own trust me!

Irfan: I mean them two are good [Ms Scandalous & Hard Kaur] but Mc Topaz is way better!

Tres-pass: She writes really good lyrics as well.

Irfan: I heard one track [Tor Punjab Da] and she drops the lyric 'Bitch' in the song.

Mitz: Yeah but in one way she says I'm better than you but then she also says if you are better than me then I'll give you credit.

Irfan: Is she local?

Tres-pass: Yeah

Lyrical Rider

Irfan: So how did you link up with her? Trespass: We've been with her for time. Her brother is a Mc for us. When we were known as Hot Property. Lyrical Rider: Yeah, once we left the record label some of the artists came with us. Irfan: Has she just done the one track on the album? Lyrical Rider: No she's going to be on three to four. Irfan: You originally did a few tunes with the Untouchables label. How come you didn't sign to them? Lyrical Rider: If they paid good money we would have been there. Tres-pass: We didn't want to be tied down to anybody. We wanted to be free to do the music we

want and not what people tell us to do you understand?

Irfan: Which label are you signed to?

Lyrical Rider: It's going to be our own label.

Tres-pass: We've just come out off a big project and we are satisfied the way we are. No rush like we said April 2005 for the album.

Irfan: On your debut tune Dekh Jawani…

Lyrical Rider: You know something a guy just came from Pakistan last week and said they're still blazing it over there heavily.

Irfan: I just got back last week also; they are selling the Urban Flavas album a lot in Pakistan.

Irfan: On 'Dekh Jawani' you mention 'Preston City' which is where you are from. Why did you mention it in the song?

Lyrical Rider: Well Preston was a town before, as you know having been a student here. It became a City so we had to let people know. We want to put Preston on the map so people know it.

Irfan: In an industry with many different artists what do you think separates you from all the other Bhangra artists, and in what way do you maintain this 'uniqueness' and identity?

Lyrical Rider: Versatile music. People think we are just garage but when they hear the rest of our stuff they will be like these guys are something different. There are certain artists out there that can only do certain style's of music they just keep doing the same old s***.

Irfan: Like…

Lyrical Rider: Work it out for yourself - No Comment!

Irfan: Bhangra music has evolved and become almost unrecognisable from the tracks released 4/5 years ago, becoming much more in parallel to mainstream music, do you think this will continue or will it take another direction? Tres-pass: They have not matched the talent, they have just ripped it. Irfan: Do you think it will continue like this? Lyrical Rider: Asians are known for ripping everyone else's music you know what I mean? If producers from all over ripped ours we would be on to them straight away. Tres-pass: Not us, but the rest of the people have been ripping music for years. We make our beats fresh.

K.1.8

Lyrical Rider: We take a lot of time building our beats and music it's the quality that counts not the quantity.

Irfan: So what's you cut on all the artists which blatantly sample?

Lyrical Rider: What the fu** ya doin pissin? I mean everyone can make tracks like this.

Tres-pass: We are sat here now and we could rip a sample and make a bad track in 15 minutes. I tell you straight. Were as, we could work on one beat all night.

Mitz: There have been times when these 3 guys have been sat here til 4, 5, 6 in the morning just getting the rhythm right. At the end of the track we feel that we have earned that, we've worked for it.

Lyrical Rider: You know what you need to go on our website www.illegaldemo.com and it tells you everything about what we think about bhangra producers and how easy it is to rip a track and what the programmes called.

Irfan: I've read about that, Acid Pro, so who uses that?

Tres-pass: No comment again [Everybody Laughs].

Lyrical Rider: We got offered the program but said no we don't want it. It's like nick a bit of this track, nick a bit of vocals and you've got a track. With it you can listen to how it would sound before you even paste the sample. So what people do is get three / four tracks and see which sound better.

K.1.8: While we are talking about people ripping tracks when we heard Addictive Truth Hurts. We were like 'Oh my God' he's ripped that, I've heard that tune before. We wouldn't want people saying that about us you know what I mean.

Lyrical Rider: It's sad really. Every one does remixes for clubs gigs and what, but to actually put it on a CD and sell it is not right.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Irfan: I hear you guys are doing the soundtrack for a movie called 'Chicken Tikka Masala.' [Click here to view official Chicken Tikka Masala website] Sounds interesting; tell us more about this! Basically what should we expect from it? Lyrical Rider: We've done four / five songs on it. There is one RnB mainstream track, which features MC Mench, which we are going to sell separately to an English label. Were in middle of talking with different labels for these songs. Then there is a Mehndi song on there, like a dark garage mix. Its total different we put a dark garage beat onto a Mehndi track. We've played it out a few times at gigs and it's got a good reaction.

Irfan: Tell us about the film as well.

Lyrical Rider: We've just seen the film today [the premiere]. It's got a lot of Hindi film actors in there. You've got Saeed Jaffrey, the lady from Fat Friend that plays Vanessa, Chris Bisson from East Is East and Coronation Street.

Irfan: When is it out?

Lyrical Rider: February. It's totally different to other films.

K.1.8: Like in 'East Is East' you know what's going to happen next. Where as in this you think what's going to happen next.

Lyrical Rider: It's about a girl falling love with an Asian English guy. Being Asian you must get married to an Asian, you know what I mean, but he goes the other way no more said wait till Feb 2005!

Irfan: In such an industry where every other artist is, in effect, a rival how do you go about getting another artist to feature in your work and vice versa? How easy/hard is this?

Lyrical Rider: It's easy, money talks. If we are at the top now and in the mainstream market and we got a No 1 in the mainstream market then we can get any Asian producer mc anyone, no matter who they are and get them to feature on the track. Maybe there own DJ name won't be on there, everybody wants to go Mainstream nowadays, you know what I mean? So just imagine if I am doing a number one song for some major label if I ask an Asian producer or an mc to feature on there, they are not going to say no believe me that's a 100% guarantee.

Irfan: Do you not think the label they are signed to will stop them? Lyrical Rider: They'll do it. They'll do it on another name like we had to do on Metz and Trix's Nagina remix we had to do it under 3ls. Everybody does it; it's called ghost productions. Irfan: Yeah there are many bhangra artists signed to labels doin this. Lyrical Rider: Yeah, in the bhangra industry you don't make enough money so you got to make up by doing it like this. Irfan: It has been said that the home of UK bhangra is Birmingham; however there seems to be a sudden influx of talent coming from the North like you guys. Where has this previously unrecognised talent come from?

Tres-pass

Mitz: BLOOD it's always been here.

Tres-pass: Yeah, I agree it's always been here it's just that no one has really pushed to get their stuff out there.

Irfan: You say it's always been here so why's it taken so long to get the music out?

Lyrical Rider: The other people are too scared man with us its all illegal.

Tres-pass: Plus they don't have the right contacts. It's like a village really. I mean like if you want to go to Birmingham it will cost you and you're not going to make your money back straight away. They're too greedy.

Mitz: A couple of years back they used to be five or six locals bands that used to go around gigging and all of them had aspirations to make it in the mainstream but the difference with us is that we have stuck with it to get our foot in the door.

Irfan: So what keeps you guys motivated?

Tres-pass: New music, when WE hear new music it motivates US.

Lyrical Rider: These days they have dj/music sessions in school. I mean how many Asians do you know who will do cross country in the cold? We'll all have a note from our parents to say we can't do it [Everybody Laughs]. Now they have got the choice if they want to take a music class instead of cross-country.

Tres-pass: We didn't have any of that; we had to do it ourselves. We had two hifi decks and that's it.

Irfan: Where can we all expect to catch you performing, are there any regular gigs that you perform at?

Lyrical Rider: We are going to be doing a regular night in Manchester - Ashton-Under-Lyne every Saturdays soon.

Lyrical Rider

Irfan: How come you guys are not like on every other flyer like a lot of artists? Tres-pass: They pay a shit wage. The promoters want to make all the money themselves. The stingy fu**ers. Lyrical Rider: They like where's your album. You don't have an album. We get more money from RnB / Hip-hop nights for just doing 1to 2 hours. We'll be dj'ing every Saturday night in Ashton-Under-Lyne dropping RnB and hip-hop, we drop the odd bhangra tune and if they don't like it we'll switch it quick [Everybody Laughs].

Irfan: You made your mainstream debut on the 'Urban Explosion' compilation. Did you get any recognition for that?

Tres-pass: We had 'Punjabi Munday' from Danger 2.

Lyrical Rider: We wanted to get 'Dekh Jawani' on there but they [Untouchables] said they [Sony] didn't want it. When Urban Flavas came out we had bare bhangra producers come up to us and say that it should have been no 1 ahead of Dil Karda.

Tres-pass: They sent it [Dekh Jawani] as a promo [for Urban Flavas] so it sounded rinsed before the album came out. They still play it on Club Asia but I feel ashamed now when it comes on because it's that old.

Irfan: So what's with the Nigina track then?

Lyrical Rider: We did them two [Metz & Trix] a favour so it's up to them if they want to push us.

Tres-pass: They [Metz & Trix] came up to us and no one would do the track for them and they wanted it in like 3 days. We did the track [2k3 Nagina Remix] in 3 days in quick 4-hour sessions. As they are not producers Metz & Trix and they wanted to get on Urban Explosion that was the only way they could get on there. They just came up to us and we sorted it out for them. Next time we'll put our name on the track.

Mitz: If people look at the name we have put in there if they look in the inlay it says '3LS' which is still us because our second names will vouch for it.

Lyrical Rider: What we are going to do on our next album is say a.k.a 3LS inside it so people know that we did that track.

Irfan: Is their anything else that Illegal Demo got lined up in the near future that we should know about?

Tres-pass: We are going to be doing another film after the album. We may have a project similar to Bollywood Dreams lined up. We'll see really. We wouldn't mind doing some Bollywood stuff also as that's what we started of doing like doin remixes and stuff but now we just got in bhangra.

Irfan: Do you have a final message for the thousands of desitunes4u.com visitors all over the world?

Mitz: To all the visitors of desitunes4u thank you for bearing with us all this time and when the album does drop it will drop heavy.

Tres-pass: Peace

Lyrical Rider: Stick to the music stay away from drugs 'Shotta Dem'

Big thanks to the Illegal Demo for inviting us down to the studio and doing the interview with us.