The Echio Quizz with Tee Mango

How did you learn music and did you have mentors?

When I started out, I had a few mentors actually I had the guy who first helped me get out of my own way and actually get my music out. A guy called Cass and he was super helpful to me and he turned into a really great friend. He's one of my best friends in all the world now, but when I first started out, he was the guy, he was like, No, this is good enough. This is ready, Let's get this out into the world And then subsequently, there was a guy who worked in the same studio block as me, a chap called Nick Muir who was half of an act called Bedrock with John Digweed. And I didn't know he was in that act at the time. And we'd kind of got talking and, you know, we had a communal space in the studio that we had and we'd drink tea and we'd, you know, talk about the music. And we got to a stage in our relationship where I could play him my music, and he was unbelievably helpful. And kind of technical level in terms of showing I guess kind of showing me what was missing with what I was doing and helping my music just sort of be more ready to be heard in the environment that I wanted it to be heard.

If you were not making music what would you do?

I have started businesses making clothing, coaching, mentoring, generally kind of stuff that's organized around creativity. So I'd be doing something creatively, probably, probably something with a clothing label or something, maybe something graphic based.

If you could spend a day in the studio with one of your heroes, who would it be?

I would spend it with Prince to see how he did what he did. You know, there were these stories about him or about his vote after he died that there is like days and days worth of unreleased music just kind of stashed away in his vault. I just love to see his creative process, see how he did his magic and he is an absolute hero of mine.

What is your secret weapon ?

Probably this fella, the MPC 2000 and you can see my screens going a bit because he's been left on for too long. But I would say that's probably my secret weapon gets used on most things and is probably the best pound for pound piece of studio equipment I bought.

Any special object you can't live without ?

I mean, I have a lot of plants. Plants are like all over the shop, so I guess it would probably be the planties here and keep me company because I'm working on my own. And it's nice to have it's nice to have some company. Can you have company from plants? I guess I can, because they're the things that I can't live without in my studio.

Any ritual before creating music?

My ritual is probably a bit of gentle procrastination, probably similar to a lot of creatives. So I used to chide myself. I used to sort of like slap myself, not slap myself, but, you know, kind of like mentally give myself a little on the back for the procrastination that would, you know, that would inevitably occur before I got round to being creative. And but over time, I've realized that that is part of my creative process to make a coffee, to read the paper. It's just to kind of sit and ponder and think and sort of lose myself in unimportant stuff before getting into the important stuff. So I guess that's probably my ritual, some checking of the sports information on my phone and reading of stuff that's probably not madly relevant to the music that I'm writing. but then maybe it is relevant because it affects me in some way and that, you know, that affects how I create my art.

What would you say to your younger self?

Don't worry about it. It's all going to be okay. It's all going to work itself out in the end. Don't be in such a rush. It's not life or death. Don't miss out on make sure to, you know, make sure to do the important things. Prioritize the important things in life. Friends, family, loved ones, experiences those things and not remixes. I don't know those kind of those things that you think are super, super important at the time and really aren't really that important. Be sure to enjoy the process. Be sure to remember that you're doing this because you love it and not because someone told you that you have to. And if you're not loving it and you're not enjoying it, don't just put your head further down and grind and grind harder. Have a think about what it is that you're not enjoying and be aware of that so that you can change it, so that you can enjoy yourself. Because we only get this one go round.