Introducing... SBTRKT

By Greg Cochrane
Newsbeat music reporter

SBTRKT (pronounced subtract) himself admits it - the name, the Aztec-style face masks and the reluctance to reveal too much about his own past are all deliberate decoys to push attention onto his music.

It's a perfectly reasonable approach and over the course of the past six months it's begun to work.

"I try to be as anonymous as possible in terms of having to talk about myself as a person in terms of being an artist," says the amiable musician and producer.

"You see a lot of bands who don't use their real name and you don't question that.

"You don't have to ask them where they grew up or how old they are. I don't think that's representative of how you write music."

'Melting pot'

And so we have some details about SBTRKT - heck, we've even sat in a room with him - but what do we really know?

Well, he's one man, making music out of south London. He's been making music under the name for about three years, he's signed to XL Recordings (home to M.I.A, Vampire Weekend, Adele), he's on the eve of releasing his self-titled debut album, he's remixed the likes of Tinie Tempah and Mark Ronson in the past and he can count Canadian smooth-rap sensation Drake as a high-profile champion.

"I was inspired by some of the sounds coming out of the tail end of the dubstep scene," he says, explaining his first experimentation's with the SBTRKT sound.

"The fusion of house, techno and hip-hop. That for me was a real melting pot of sound."

Soon after he started he met fellow London producer Sampha - he's the ghostly voice you'll hear laid bare over many of SBTRKT's songs - and they began working together.

Keen not to follow any current trends SBTRKT began working on the street-lamp-lit, shadowy minimal-pop sound that is now his signature.

"In dance music it's quite easy to follow the trends and the boxes that people create for you," he says.

"Like dubstep is the big thing and makes it the obvious formula. I think it's more important to put your influences together and make something more unique."

Drake's blog

As momentum gathered around this unique sound at the beginning of this year he caught the ear of Drake.

The Canadian was so impressed by SBTRKT's single Wildfire, he recorded a verse on it and put it on his blog.

"He just decided he was really into it," he smiles.

"First I heard was someone told me he'd tweeted about it - then about a week later he put it on his blog which is really good.

"I don't know Drake and I haven't spoken to him and the fact that he's feeling it is really good."

And SBTRKT can expect to gather many more fans more as his debut is released - he's also developed the live aspect of the project.

On stage he operates a drum kit while setting off a host of electronic triggers like fireworks as Sampha sings. They're both wearing masks. It's an exhilarating spectacle.

"I work with a designer and we make masks which fit every release or so the live shows are all different," he says, thinking about the visual aspect.

"There's a development of design and art in context with the songs."

SBTRKT's self-titled debut album is out on 27 June.