In a scene obsessed with categorisation, Mitekiss is busy blending the labels. Once a purveyor of liquid D&B’s more elegant moments, now a father, label head, and low-key disruptor of genre norms, he’s slipped the leash completely. His new album Incognito doesn’t so much defy classification as gently welcoming all styles. Hip-hop, garage, 140, jazz, gospel chords, raw textures, it’s all in there, unfiltered and fully human. This one’s for the heads who know that UK sound doesn’t sit still.
Mitekiss operates with a quiet humility that’s become rare in a time of social metrics and genre tourism. He’s not trying to dominate the algorithm; he’s just trying to make honest music, and build something that lasts. Whether it’s a dusty gospel loop in a self-built studio, or a free jungle night tucked away in the belly of Croydon, there’s a throughline of intention and care. Goldfat, the label he co-runs with Mr Porter, has long prioritised community over clout, substance over speed.
We sat down with Mitekiss to talk about genre freedom, label philosophy, Instagram virality, and why being left alone might be the best A&R policy he’s ever had.
How are you doing? You’ve got a new studio. How does it feel to be back in?
Honestly, it’s made me realise just how much making music is therapy for me. Being away from it for three weeks, I started getting twitchy and you realise how important that creative time is. It’s such a good way to express yourself and reset.
Apart from getting your studio done, what have you been up to?
Well, I’m a dad now, that’s been about a year and a half. Massive learning curve, still figuring it out every day. That takes up a lot of time, obviously. Other than that, I work part-time in digital marketing, mostly paid media stuff.
Let’s talk a little bit about some music…
The last time you interviewed with us, you said that you “were letting go of genre and you just wanted to make what you love”. Are you still of that mindset?
The album really reflects that, there are only four or five drum & bass tracks on it out of 14. I’m just making whatever feels right at the moment. It naturally leans into that UK sound, bits of garage, a bit of hip-hop, bass-heavy stuff. There’s definitely a Croydon theme running through it too, that South London energy, it all ties back to that.
Was there a shift at one point? Where you were trying to produce a certain sound and then decided to do what your heart was telling you?
Yeah, because I’ve always been that type of producer. More producer than artist. Signing with Hospital changed that a bit and I became a bit more like an artist, focusing on a particular style of music. Now it feels like I’m going back to my roots, just making whatever I’m feeling at the time. I love all styles of UK dance music, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t explore them. There are so many incredible artists across different genres I’d love to work with, I feel like I’d miss out on the opportunity to work with those guys.
When you first started going raving did you go to different types of events?
Yeah, I used to follow my brother and Mr. Porter around, they were deep into jungle. But I’d hit all sorts of nights. Could be indie rock, hip-hop, whatever really. It was super varied, and that definitely shaped my taste. It still is quite broad, and that has definitely lent itself to what I produce.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot more 140 stuff, which is kind of new for me. A few grime bits with people too. But to me, it all lives in the same space, the palettes are similar, it’s just different tempos.
There’s a rawness to your album, it doesn’t sound polished, how intentional was that?
I’d say it’s mostly natural. I’m not the most technical producer when it comes to sound design, EQ, all that detailed stuff, it’s just never interested me. So yeah, part of that rawness comes from my own limitations. But I also genuinely love that old, warm ‘70s analog feel where you leave the clicks in, leave a bit of dust. It adds character and texture, which I’m really into.
Back in the day, music naturally had that vibe because of the gear, hardware noise, warmth, white noise, all of it. That was just how things sounded through the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s only more recently, where you’re fully in the box and there’s no interference from whatever equipment you’ve got. So it is a new thing.
You’re not musically trained, so how did you learn to produce? Where did it all begin?
It all started by following my brother, he had a setup at home, and I’d jump on it whenever I could. We’re talking from the age of maybe 11, stupidly young. I was just chopping up audio, messing about, and I’ve never really stopped since. It’s all been about putting in the reps.
I’ve been at it for so long. I’m kind of a late bloomer in terms of my musical journey, it wasn’t some quick “three years and I’ve made it” story. It’s been a slow, steady build, and still is. But that’s meant I’ve had decades of practice, making tunes, buying gear, picking up instruments. I can figure stuff out by ear and learn as I go, but I’m definitely not a virtuoso.
Do you have studio rituals?
Not really. My brain just goes off in so many different directions. I’m sure I would be diagnosed with something if I had some tests. I get easily distracted. Whenever I do creative sessions, I only ever get in about two to four hours tops before I wander off and get distracted. They come so sporadically as well. It’s not like I can just turn up and make a tune.
But I’m in a good place now where I can spend a couple days a week in the studio, during certain hours. That freedom helps when inspiration hits, I can just roll with it.
Do you get the melody first?
It depends, but usually it starts with a melody or a sample. Something I’ve played or found. Then the drums follow. Sometimes it works the other way around though. I might hear a drum sound I really like and build from there.
Most of the time I’m just building a palette, collecting sounds, and figuring out the tempo later. Something might feel right at 174, or 140, or even 130. Tunes often start out as hip-hop and become drum and bass, or flip the other way. I made something recently where I ended up with both a garage version and a hip-hop version. It was hard to pick just one.
There are quite a few collaborations on the album. Do you find that collaborators bring out different aspects of you?
Yeah, definitely. I’ve always loved working with UK talent, and not just from the drum and bass scene either. On previous albums, a lot of the collaborators weren’t even really connected to D&B. That’s something I’ve always been drawn to bringing in people with fresh perspectives.
For example, there’s a tune on the album called ‘Incognito’ . It’s this weird 135/140 garage-y thing. I was chatting to Verbz about it and said I’d love to get a female rapper on it. He suggested TrueMendous, who’s from Birmingham. She’s straight-up hip-hop, so it was a bit outside her usual lane. I had to really convince her to jump on it, but I’m glad I did. She absolutely smashed it.
So yeah, collaborations definitely pull something different out of me. I might have a vision for a sound or vibe, but it’s the collaborators that help bring it to life.
What did you say to convince her?
She was like, “Yeah, it’s alright, but do you have anything more hip-hop?” And I just said, “Look, this is for an album project, and right now this is what I’ve got. I genuinely think you’d sound amazing on it.” Eventually she gave it a go, laid something down, and then we tweaked the track a bit, took some elements out to give the vocal more space, and played around with it. In the end, we got something quite cool.
It’s nice to hear about the process of the back and forward and taking stuff out- seems like there’s a balance…
Yeah, she had a real influence on the track. There were two other elements I really liked, but she pointed out that taking them out would give her vocal more space. You’ve got to be flexible with stuff like that. Sometimes your ego wants to hold on to every sound, but there’s no harm in stepping back and seeing what actually works best. At the end of the day, collabs are about compromise.
Every artist works differently. Some vocalists send back a fully produced version, some just send stems, and then there are people like her who give you proper notes with timestamps and suggestions. That can be gold, because you can work directly from that and really get it how they want.
Obviously, it’s faster when you’re in the room together. Both tracks with Verbz were done like that. We could just stop mid-flow and tweak things right then and there. Charlotte X was in the room too. So this album’s been a mix, some remote, some face-to-face.
I suppose it gives a different end result as well because if you’re in the same room your reactions will be immediate. But remotely you’ve got a bit more breathing space, you write an email and then come back to it and think actually she was right or I was right there….
Exactly. There are big pros and cons to both. A lot of people say you should always do it together in person, but I don’t agree. You can’t always be creative on the spot. I might bring in a beat that’s half-baked, and the vocalist just isn’t feeling it that day. Some people need time to sit with something, and that space can actually lead to a better result.
On the other hand, when you’re in the room together, you can make instant decisions. And if you click with someone in person, that can totally change the vibe. Sometimes you spend the first hour just chatting, seeing if you connect and that really feeds into the session. There are so many variables at play.
You had a track go viral on instagram. How did that feel to have that happen?
I don’t know what the criteria is for it to be viral. But it’s a pretty weird one. Obviously, Instagram just liked that bit of content and pushed it to a silly amount of people.
It was just me in the studio chopping up a little vocal clip. For some reason people really really liked it and really liked that tune. I was inundated with people asking me when it was out or could they listen to it.
It was almost frustrating, to be honest. I kind of wished the track was already out, because there was all this buzz but nowhere for people to go and listen to it. Definitely a bit of a learning curve. It made me wonder if I should only post clips of tracks that are already finished and released. But the intention wasn’t promo, I was just documenting the process, sharing a moment in the studio. That one just happened to land.
Did you get an uplift in followers from it?
Definitely. I saw thousands of new followers, and even a bump in Spotify streams. You can see it all in the data, even in back catalogue plays during that period.
The response was strong, it really pushed me to make sure that tune ended up on the album.
Viral can get a bad rep for being disposable, but people go back and listen to artists’ older work, and it actually helps them find more music…
I always talk about evergreen and this whole throwaway culture. A tune comes out and we talk about it for a day and that seems crazy to me. There are entire back catalogs. You can put something like that clip out, people like that one tune and 10% of them might be those type of people that like to go and dig and then they follow you, and then they’re going through your entire back catalog.
Sometimes I’ll use an old tune in a reel, something from 10 years ago, and people are asking, “When’s this dropping?” And I’m like, “Mate, this is from a decade ago.”
It’s nice to hear a positive because you do get so many negative social media stories…
Depends how you look at it. I’ve kind of reached a point where opinion feels irrelevant, technology is happening regardless. Whether you like it or not, it’s on its own curve. So as a musician, I try to see social media as a tool to build my brand. I’m using it as a form of marketing. Your opinion isn’t going to stop the shift, so you might as well make the most of it for what you’re trying to do.
For me, that’s about making people aware of my music. I don’t use social media for personal stuff, you won’t see pictures of my kid or anything like that. My personal opinion is different and I feel like there are issues. But as a musician, it’s a great tool for me to get to that many people. It’s phenomenal really. And right now, it’s still free, at least in terms of money. Obviously, you’re the product.
As a modern artist, you kind of are the product anyway…
And you always have been. 40 years ago you were pitching yourselves to TV and radio and you were doing all those interviews in those places. The format’s just changed to a screen on a phone but it’s the same difference.
First independent album. How does that feel?
It’s a mix of things, really. There are different emotions tied to it. We probably would’ve ended up doing the same kind of thing again if I stayed at Hospital, but honestly, I don’t think it would’ve worked for either of us. I wanted to do different genre stuff and start leaning more into sync, I don’t think I fit what they’re doing now.
That said, I feel really strongly about being independent and owning your masters. I think that’s the future for artists. I know it’s slightly hypocritical since my label still operates on a 50/50 master rights, but we’re actively working on a radical model. More on that in the future.
What was the original vibe for the label? You’ve always seemed quite nurturing to your artists…
I suppose the community-building side has always been there, and nurturing artists has always been a big part of it. I just wish we had more time to connect more regularly with everyone, but we run the label part-time, so that’s the only real frustration. We’ve always focused on finding good people, not just good music. We take the time to get to know the artists and see what they’re about before anything else.
If it’s not just the music, it’s not really an A&R project. How do you find your crew then?
At first, it was about reaching out directly or getting recommendations from people. During COVID, I had a Discord community going and it was really active. Loads of talent was popping up in places like that. I also used to do live feedback sessions on YouTube, which was another way of discovering artists.
A lot of it came through word of mouth. Like when we first started chatting to Kublai, he mentioned his mate Note made tunes. We checked him out, and even though he hadn’t released any drum and bass at the time, we were like, “This guy is sick.” Now he’s smashing it.
I’d like to think all the artists we’ve worked with would say good things about the experience. We might not have loads of money, and sometimes at events we can’t even pay what they deserve, but we do everything we can to support them.
Tell us about the events.
Yeah, we’ve been running Jungle in the Cronx at Riff Raffs in Croydon. It’s a sick little spot, downstairs you’ve got secondhand clothes and vinyl, and upstairs it’s got that brewery feel. We’ve been putting on these events for free, mostly driven by Mr. Porter who lives just around the corner.
They’re proper community-based jungle nights. Everyone plays for free, the decks are set up in the middle of the room, and the vibe is really raw and close-knit. The last few have gone off, it’s been amazing. We even had Bailey turn up and play a guest set, which was unbelievable. A few other DJs have mentioned they want to jump on too, but honestly, it’s not about big names. Mr. Porter’s been pulling in local talent and the crowds have been building. The lineups aren’t stacked with headliners, it’s just about the music and the community.
I’ve also got a little LP launch party at Planet Wax on May 10. Jessica Wilde’s doing a PA, Charlotte X and Mark Menzies from the album will be performing too. I’ll be playing through the whole album, and then we’ve got TJ doing a garage set, Counter Culture with some drum & bass, and Mr. Porter on hip-hop duties. It’s all the influences from the album in one night. And again it’s free. Just about celebrating the music with people.
Going back to the album do you think your experiences with Goldfat and other labels have shaped the way you’ve released this independent album.
Definitely. I’ve learned a lot from releasing with other labels, especially around structure. There’s a lot of thought that goes into things like release days, singles, rollout plans. I took a lot of that with me. Goldfat is a bit more DIY obviously, it’s not on the same scale, but we still try to plan ahead and stay organised.
The bigger labels also helped me understand the promo side of things. Reaching out to people like you, getting on playlists, DJ support, radio. That all came from experience with those labels. I’ve been able to carry those relationships over and use what I learned.
Stuff like distribution is pretty straightforward. But the admin side, like sorting agreements with vocalists, that took a while. This album has loads of features and I had to handle all the paperwork myself. I leaned on past experience from working with the legal team at Hospital, which really helped.
Sample clearance is another one. Reaching out to publishing companies, figuring out who owns what, chasing contacts. It’s boring, but it takes time. You don’t have to do it, but if you want to do it properly, you need to.
I think the area where I’ve learned the most is A&R. On this album, there was no A&R team apart from Mr. Porter. He gave me a few notes, which helped, but it was just us two. A&R is a strange one. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with too much of it. Sometimes you get two or three people giving opinions on a tune, and you don’t even know if you trust their take. You don’t know what angle they’re coming from. I’ve had vague feedback like “I don’t get this vocal” or “Why is this type of singing on this track?” and it might be from someone so far removed from parts of different music scenes that you’re like I don’t trust your opinion anyway.
It can get complicated. Good A&R is valuable, especially on the technical side, which is where I actually need input. But when it comes to songwriting, that’s so subjective. I don’t want someone writing the tune for me. If someone says, “The bass is too loud” fair enough. But if it’s like “Have you tried moving the vocal here or there?” it’s like, “Yes, I’ve already tried a million different versions.”
It’s wild when you think about it. Unless you’re making big, bait pop records where everything’s paint-by-numbers, music shouldn’t be that formulaic. Big labels know how to move records and they have A&R people to help sell millions, and that’s their job. But what we’re trying to make here at Goldfat is not an exact formula.
Why bring that kind of industry thinking to a side of music that’s not trying to play by those rules? Funny thing is, when I look back, my best-performing tracks usually had no A&R or very little. Some of my worst-performing ones had loads of it.
So your gut is helping…
This album represents where you are as an artist right now. If this is a reflection you right now, what got you to this point?
I think it’s everything that’s come before that’s led me here. It’s the freedom I have now to just create what I want, how I want. There’s no team behind this, it’s just me, and the collaborators I brought in. No managers, no label interference. It’s just all of us collectively. It’s just what we want to make. That’s it.
It’s a raw project, and I think it sounds like that too. There’s a running theme through every track, a gospel influence, whether it’s in the samples or the chord progressions. I’m not religious, but there’s a definite spiritual thread throughout. Even the cover art is a mandala, which is rooted in Hinduism. That spiritual element came through naturally. Maybe it’s tied to personal stuff I’ve been processing, but it definitely reflects where I am right now.
I wouldn’t say I’m religious, but there’s a kind of spirituality in there without sounding too wishy-washy. Some of the downtempo tracks even have choirs, and there’s this church-like energy to them. It wasn’t forced, it just happened that way, and it all feels really honest.
You mention you’re not religious, what inspired you to explore the gospel thread rather than sound bowls or other forms of musical worship or spiritual connection with sound?
For me, it’s about the texture and emotion in gospel music. The sound is incredible, there’s so much soul in it. It naturally fits with styles like drum and bass or hip-hop. When I had about three or four track ideas that included gospel elements, I thought, why not try weaving that thread through the whole album? Some of the influences are subtle, some more obvious, but every track has that touch. It gave the album a kind of cohesion without forcing it.
We’ve got some Easter Eggs for people to find.
And as always my final question. What should we be talking about in the bass scene that we’re not currently talking about?
For me, it has to be about artists owning their own music. That’s where I’m at right now. Technology is moving in a direction that’s going to make that possible for everyone, and it feels inevitable. Whether that’s good or bad isn’t really the point. It’s just what’s happening.
I think we’re heading towards a future where artists will own 100% of their work, and everything will be logged digitally, probably on some kind of blockchain. That means all contributors be it producers, vocalists, writers, even visual artists can be recognised and credited properly. Collaborations could work through token-based systems that make sure everyone gets their share without all the usual gatekeeping.
Technology is slowly bridging the gaps between roles like publishers, labels, writers and artists. And the traditional label model, especially the part that’s mostly about distribution, is becoming less essential. All the stuff that used to be difficult like distribution, admin, paperwork is becoming more accessible and automatable. Labels will need to evolve, maybe into more of a management or creative support role, rather than gatekeepers. That’s where I think we’re headed.
Do you think they also add an element of community and family?
They’ll have to. Because if a label isn’t giving you more than what you can do yourself with an internet connection, then what’s the point? They need to bring community, events, parties, support and all of that. All that stuff is super important but those things aren’t really what a record label traditionally is, they’re communities.
The whole “We’ll look after you, but we’ll take 70%” thing? That’s just robbery. I’ve even heard of 85% splits in drum and bass. Vultures! That’s pure greed, and I don’t know why we would stand for that. Even 50 percent can feel off. And yeah, I’ll admit that’s slightly hypocritical because what we do at Goldfat, we’re still at 50/50, but even that’s something I wrestle with all the time morally and something as I said is changing as quickly as I can.
That’s why I think artists are building their own brands now. Loads of producers and vocalists have huge followings already. They don’t need a label. They’ve got their audience, and they can go direct to market. Technology can hopefully help with the backend stuff like admin and royalties.
Record labels need to fix up. Artists need to push back and start asking for fairer splits. No more 70 or 85 percent deals. That just shouldn’t be a thing anymore.
Incognito is out now.
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