5 Minutes with Ms Dynamite

Five years may be an eternity in today's fickle music world, but for the UK artist Ms Dynamite it was the perfect time to rejuvenate and focus on life's more important matters. Here in Abu Dhabi to support the Scissor Sisters, she speaks about the joys of motherhood and her much-anticipated third album to be released later this year. You have been away for the best part of five years. Were you surprised with the positive response to your comeback single Neva Soft last year, not to mention your guest appearance in Katy B's hit Lights On ? I am honestly speechless. The response has been really positive. I was hoping people would connect with it and enjoy it because I took such a long break from being in the public eye and delivering music. You never know what to expect or how people will actually receive you. So I really didn't know what to expect because people could go "I'm not really feeling that, that's not my thing." So to have people receive it in such a good way is really cool. Did you have any expectations when you returned to the studio after such a long time away? To be honest with you, the second album I recorded with no expectations. I recorded it more in a subconscious mindset that I just wanted to go and be a mum and not be in a studio recording. I just wanted to switch off with music and being in the public and just be a mum at that stage. So obviously getting back in to music out of my own choice instead of a possible pressure of the people or the record company, from that perspective it has been an amazing thing for me to do freely. How was the time away, domestic bliss? I couldn't put it in to to words. The time off was spent raising my son and being with him. It is a privilege to just take that time off and be with him, spend time with him, grow and learn together. Perhaps your experience would be a great vindication that you can be a musician and mother at the same time. I wouldn't necessarily put it like that but thank you very much. But if it inspires women out there to do it then that's great and I am happy about it. But when I chose to have my child, for me it was wholeheartedly. It wasn't I was going to have a child and when he is six months old I am going to get a nanny and raise him. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging people who make that choice, that is fine and for their lifestyle. But for me personally, I wasn't comfortable with that. I chose to have my son and I wanted to be there 100 per cent and music and everything in life took a back seat at that point. Now he is eight years old, he is independent, has stability and the foundations are there that he is comfortable with me to get back to a job that is so demanding and time consuming. We make it work, which is a beautiful thing. Did this dedication come as a result of motherhood or a trait you always carried? No, that is my stance. When I turned probably about 20 or 21, it became a dominant part of my character and that if I wanted to do something, then I would do it properly. Be it music or motherhood or whatever I am involved with in life, I give it 100 per cent. With a child, that goes without saying. I don't see the point of you having a child if you don't give your entire being to an infant and being a parent. That's how I approach life in general. It seems like it's a great time to come back, with urban artists doing very well at the moment in the UK. I can see from the outside and business perspective how it may seem like the right time now because obviously urban music is doing well in the UK and internationally. But it's never really something I sat down and thought about, I just felt like it's the right time for me and as it so happens that my timing and the music industry seems to be working in conjunction with one another. What is the status of the new record, can we expect something this year? Definitely sometime this year. I don't want to say that we are in the process of finishing because I still have a lot of ideas and inspiration coming at all times. But we are definitely getting close. Would you care to say anything about the music direction you took with the new album? I would just say this album, by the time it is completed, would express all elements of me as an individual, artist, writer, MC, singer...I am hoping to display everything I am capable of. Ms Dynamite is supporting the Scissor Sisters at Flash Forum, Yas Island, Thursday at 9pm. Tickets start at Dh295 from www.thinkflash.ae.