This is Part 3 of the 3 Part series with the DJ and Producer Roni Size, check out his music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5UjqeSp9dX6Nrge7WdDukr?si=5DegqxfjThuPmWLUgl82DQ

For Part 3 of this blog series, myself and Roni touched on mental health, and how it goes hand in hand with your art.

Making the Music You Want

Roni: “I had a bereavement in my family a couple years ago, so I took a step back. From being on social media, doing shows and being in the limelight. But over the last couple of years I’ve managed to get out of bed, I’ve started to get back into what I’ve been doing.”

“It’s difficult because you know, I struggled to find good music. And then I realised I was looking in the wrong places. And I think because of my pride, I wasn’t reaching out to the right people, whereas now I’m reaching out to the people I depend on. And I make great music now.”

Doing it for Kudos

“Before, I was playing music and I wasn’t quite sure. Kind of doing it for kudos, because everyone else was doing it, okay I’ll play that sound. I didn’t have the tools that I needed. But now I do.”

“But what’s driven me to do that? Having major shows. In the last two years I’ve become self managed, and I’ve become my own agent. So now, I do all my own bookings and shows myself. Which is amazing because I’m having a 1 on 1 connection with promoters, record companies, and employing people I trust to run my company. And since doing that and working for myself, my energy levels have sky rocketed. I’m starting to feel confident to reach out to people, because I’ve got some positives to bring back.”

“There was a point where I was saying no to everyone, no to everything. I had to go away for 8 weeks, backpacking around the Caribbean, by myself. Now I’ve come back and I’m saying yes to people now. I’m picking and choosing the people I want to be around.”

Mental Health and Music

LLS: “Do you feel that looking after yourself goes hand in hand with your art?”

R: “Yeah definitely. People talk about mental health. Your mental health is like clutter. You’ve got to go home, you’ve got to sort your drawer with all your clothes. You’ve gotta sort your fridge out, you’ve gotta cook, you’ve gotta iron. I’ve got to make sure my bodies clean, I’ve got to make sure my minds clean. So once you start to organise your life, you start stacking everything. It makes sense.”

Glastonbury

“One of the things that I’ve wanted to do, and I haven’t spoken about this is any other interview. My son passed away a couple years ago, and one of his dying wishes was to have his ashes spread at Glastonbury. So I spoke to them last year, and they arranged for all our family to go to Glastonbury and we planted a tree with his ashes. We had a proper ceremony.”

“It was a nice feeling because it was something that had been on my mind for over a year and to put it all together, along with his Mother, was absolutely incredible.”

Roni played the icon stage Sunday the 30th of June at Glastonbury this year.

“To get Glastonbury this year is incredible, it just meant that everything I was working on in the studio was gearing up to this.”

I am excited to see what Roni does with the rest of 2024, I listened to some of his unreleased music and it sounds great. Best of luck Roni.