Until December last year music was simply a hobby for Alex Crossan, aka Mura Masa. He may have had 5 million plays and 30,000 followers on Soundcloud but the 18 year old Channel Islander had never played his music live, DJ’d or even been to a gig himself. He was about to go to Sussex University to study English and was happy playing guitar and bass in function bands.

It was an email from Jakarta Records that changed everything. The Cologne-based label (previously home to Kaytranada, iamnobodi and Sango) felt Mura Masa’s mixtape ‘Soundtrack To A Death’ was too good to sit on Soundcloud and persuaded him to release it with them.

The following 3 months were a whirlwind, with 30 spins on Radio 1, a sold out debut show & a top 5 position on the itunes electronic chart in the UK and US. At one point Mura Masa had 4 tracks in the HypeMachine top 50 and remix requests from Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, RL Grime and ilovemakkonen in his inbox, whilst still juggling his degree.

So as Mura Masa prepares for his first official EP release the stakes are very different and he has upped his game accordingly. As well as the sampling for which he’s known, Mura Masa plays live piano, guitar, drums and even sings on Someday Somewhere. He is keen to show that he is a musician and songwriter as well as a beat-maker and has called on new friends Nao, Denai Moore and Jay Prince to feature on tracks.

Unsurprisingly from a producer used to uploading a track a week to Soundcloud, there are 7 songs on the EP and Alex has given an incredible amount of thought to the journey of the music. He says, “Someday Somewhere isn’t about putting together the best tracks from a pool of ideas, it’s about creating a story that showcases my sound. And hopefully proof that Soundcloud kids like me can produce real, thought-provoking songs.”

Someday Somewhere is out on Mura Masa’s own label “Anchor Point” and will shortly appear on vinyl via Jakarta Records. He plays his first London headline on May 21st at Electrowerkz in Islington.

iTunes: Someday Somewhere – Mura Masa

www.muramasa.me