Mafia Kiss - Exclusive Interview For Breakzlinkz

Mafia Kiss, real name Paul Baron has been gaining ever increasing popularity since his major win for Best New Producer at Breakspoll – International Breakbeat Awards 2012. He has been domnating the charts of Juno, Track It Down & Beatport with releases on labels such as Rat Records, LOT49, Sunday Best Recordings, Digital Records, Sub Slayers & has recently signed to Stanton Warriors infamous label Punks.

His productions have gained attention/support from some of the biggest names in the breaks/bass scene including Stanton Warriors, Plump DJ's, Deekline, Marten Horger, Smash HIFI, Lady Waks, DJ Icey, Atomic Hooligan, Dub Pistols, Kissy Sell Out, PuRe SX & Krafty Kuts.

Renowned for his remixes & edits alongside his originals, Mafia Kiss's DJ sets are quickly becoming famed for the unique bass & beats "kiss" that he puts on the hottest house, electro, hip hop, moombahton & anything else in between.

With an upcoming Australian Tour at the end of the year Mafia Kiss is sure to set fire to every dancefloor he attends with a booty fuelled bass journey that gives no rest for the wicked & a kiss they'll never forget.


So tell us a bit about yourself, where you are from, where you live and any other general facts we should know about you?

I’m originally from a town called Slough in Berkshire just outside of London but I moved down south to Bournemouth just over a year ago to concentrate on my production. For anyone outside the UK Bournemouth is right next to the sea & is so nice during the summer to hit the beach every weekend, weather permitting.


Have you always concentrated on making breakbeat/bass music?

I started out making terrible music in 2008 & mainly ‘four four’ beat driven stuff just trying to get my head around production really, nothing got released or any attention but mainly just me trying to find my feet. Most of it was laughed at by friends but that was a good thing as it made me want to do better. I saw Stanton Warriors at Matter in 2009 just as I was starting to progress as a producer & I turned round to my girlfriend & said “I wanna do what them boys are doing!”


What sort of music influenced you in the past?

I grew up listening to Motown via my mum 60’s, 70’s Rock via my dad & I ended up liking Gangster Rap as an early teen then I moved on to Indie Rock until I started exploring the club scene as a late teen onward. My musical knowledge is quite vast & hence why I found broken beat dance music the one I wanted to produce as it has so much freedom production wise.


So where does your artist name "Mafia Kiss" come from? Or shouldn't I ask such a question as I'll end up with a horse’s head in my bed?

[laughs] No it’s cool you’re safe… you’re actually the first interviewer to ask, I really thought it would have been brought up sooner but I was wrong [laughs].
Basically there were originally two members in Mafia Kiss a friend of mine called Lee & myself.Before we had a name we would be talking over a pint about what we should name ourselves or texting different ideas over to each, all of what were really bad.
After endless bad names Lee texted me to ask if I wanted to go down the pub to meet him for a drink. He had just started seeing this girl & had accidently put an ‘x’ on the end of the text. So I naturally wanted wind him up & call him out about it & said “what’s with the girly kiss mate?”
We joked & I said “let’s pretend it’s like a manly mafia kiss or something?” & from then on we kept putting mafia kiss at the end of every text to each other instead of an ‘x’.
It wasn’t till two or so weeks later when Lee was on holiday that he called me & said I’ve figured out the name & we realised the name was staring us in the face & that was the birth of Mafia Kiss.
Lee wanted to carry on doing boring stuff like paying a mortgage etc so I took Mafia Kiss on solo and the rest is history. He often jokes saying I owe him royalties & that he came up with the name but he should have pulled his thumb out hey? [laughs]


Do you have a musical background, i.e. have you been trained to use a musical instrument?

I’m not musically trained or anything, I’ve tried to train myself over the years. I used to be in a band when I was 16, I played rhythm guitar & sang but wasn’t that good. I also used to have a set of 1210’s too & play just at home & round friends but that was it.
I’ve always been crazy about music though & once I discovered software that I could programme, take my time doing so & literally take control of every aspect of a song I knew I had found my calling.


Do you prefer to make tracks for yourself for your DJ sets or is it a goal to make a banger of a tune that sells well?

I first started out making tracks that other DJ’s would want to play out. It was always a goal to have Stantons, Deekline, Krafty & so on to want to play my tracks. Obviously I was doing it for me but it’s every producers dream to have their peers play their stuff out. Now I make stuff that I want to play out in my sets as well as have other DJ’s play them out. I just want to make tunes that make people think wow, either at home, on their MP3 player, car stereo or in the club. It’s a big achievement for me if I can make a tune that covers all of those aspects.

With your success of Best New Producer at Breakspoll (International Breakbeat Awards) has this had any impact on your career and where you are at the moment in the Electronic Music Scene?

Winning Best New Producer totally helped out & since then it’s been getting more & more crazy but from the word go it was all unreal. I went straight to number one on Track It Down with my first release ‘Bump It’ & my second release gained support from Krafty & Horger then I snapped up the award within a year. I could never have imagined that to have happened so quickly.But each year keeps topping the previous achievement wise.


What can we expect at a Mafia Kiss gig?

You can expect to hear stuff you know, love & haven’t ever heard of before but all in my non ‘four four’ bass style! Most of all you’ll come away buzzin’ & hopefully inspired just like I was in 2009 after seeing The Warriors at Matter. This is the thing now, at first it was all about me just banging out tracks but now I’m a whole package & actually holding back tracks, edits & remixes specifically for my sets. I get feedback from fans & promoters complementing my sets & contacting me afterwards via Facebook or Twitter telling me how they’ve been looking for something new for so long. Basically you can expect a new movement in bass & broken beat style music, what more could you ask for?


What are some standout artists today that you look up to and have influenced your type of sound?

Standout artists as most of you know for me are Stanton Warriors, they are why I’m doing what I’m doing now & are still the true innovators out there but there are some amazing acts that have been rising up like fellow Punks brother Marten Horger & Woz from Black Butter. Claude VonStroke & most of his signings to Dirtybird like Eats Everything & Justin Martin are all something to check out as they are delivering some really experimental stuff right now & I love that. I think to make interesting Breaks music you need to sometimes look away from Breaks & bring something outside to the table.


Are you looking forward to your Australian Tour at the end of the year, have you packed your shorts, flip flops, sunscreen and sunglasses?

I’m so excited to hit Oz it’s unreal! I lost my trademark Ray’s on the Stanton Sessions Boat Party in August so I have my eye on some Carrera Safari’s at the moment that I shall be bagging before I set off. But I’ll be loaded with fresh tunes to road test out there too!


So what’s instore for the future of Mafia Kiss, any new tunes, remixes we should be looking at for in the near future?

Right now I’m on the verge of finishing my EP for Punks & also putting some finishing touches to my ‘Twerk That’ remix I’ve been doing for Stantons, I’ve got about 3 different versions I’ve been testing out over the summer & have finally picked one to go with. After that I will be concentrating on a few more international tours at the start of 2014 & obviously more tunes!


Recorded at the end of last month this is Mafia Kiss LIVE in St Petersburg, Russia at the one of the famous In Beat We Trust parties. An hour and a half long set of awesome bass and beats !

WEB: www.mafiakiss.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/mafiakissmusic
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/MafiaKiss
SOUNDCLOUD: www.soundcloud.com/mafia-kiss
YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/user/MafiaKissTube
BEATPORT: www.beatport.com/artist/mafia-kiss/208672