We caught up with Coco ahead of Red Bull’s pop up gig on the concourse tonight

This morning Red Bull Studios announced their pop up gig taking place on the concourse tonight with Sheffield’s very own Toddla T and Coco.

So The Tab Sheffield decided to have catch up with Coco before the show:

So why a pop up gig as opposed to a typical show in a venue?

To be fair, in regards to the space it was mainly Red Bull, Toddla and my manager who decided. We wanted something that wasn’t too big but not too small, and having it there is the right balance. We didn’t need like thousands of people to come so that’s a great little area.

It’s pretty cool that it’s pretty much word of mouth too

Obviously it being in Sheffield, where I’m from, it’s nice to see people come out and support me knowing that I come from there. The whole secrecy thing, I didn’t know if it was going to work though.

What can we expect from the set?

If you’ve ever been to one of my shows and seen me perform live, you’ll know it’s a bag of energy. And I’ll perform the new one which has just come out today, called Ingredients. And in anything I do I just try to have fun.

Which is your favourite venue to perform at in Sheffield?

I’ve done the O2 a few times, and this one night I did at Night Kitchen was crazy, people went mad and the barriers were breaking and that. So I think Night Kitchen is good. I did the O2 on New Years Eve 2016 so that was pretty mad. I’m due to play at Tuesday Club soon though.

Are you sad that Night Kitchen is closing, being from Sheffield?

Yeah man I went there like four or five times and I’ve got a couple of friends who are involved. I think Night Kitchen is one of those that was so organic and underground that it was in the peoples hands, it wasn’t corporate, and that side of it I will miss when i do come up to Sheffield.

Obviously Sheffield is such a great city for music of all genres, do you think growing up here has influenced your sound?

Yeah one hundred per cent, obviously coming from Sheffield you can tell straight away from the accent.

But I think coming from Sheffield, I’m kind of glad that I wasn’t part of the whole cliche London scene, because I’ve been able to bring a new sort of flavour to the scene, and show people this is what we can do. It sets you apart from the rest of them a little bit. I would never change where I am from.

I love the fact that you can still hear your Sheffield dialect in your music, it’s individual.

A lot of people say that, ‘I love how you’re speaking, how you’re representing Sheffield’ and it’s not even a thing that I force, it’s just me. I’ve always spat in that accent, and I think it’s part of being original. If you try and mimic someone and force something that’s not you it it won’t work.

Like people that try and put on an American accent, that’s the worst – I can’t deal.

What are your top musical influences? Do you find it’s big grime stars like Stormzy and Skepta?

They’re definitely influences because in a sense they’re like my colleagues aren’t they, doing the same sort of job, and there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by colleagues or peers. So definitely people that I represent.

But then also people that are close to me like family who keep me grounded and level headed, and ensure that I remember where I’ve come from and how I got here. So everything that’s positive to me.

What is your relationship with Toddla T, as he’s produced your new single?

He’s produced all of my singles actually, and co-produced Ova Here that’s the only one he’s not had one hundred per cent input on. I think it’s mad because we’re both from Sheffield, but I never met him until I had to move down to London two years ago.

I’d heard about him from mutual friends, and it was sort of inevitable when I moved to London that we’d work together. He’d been watching me for a bit, like a year, and was waiting for the right time to reach out.

Do you do lots of shows together?

When I first moved to London, which people see as my break, I was just going on the road with Toddla, but now I’ve become a bit more established and my name is more cemented as an individual like I’ve got my own stuff. But it’s more or less like a family thing, cus like if there’s an event that I’m at or Toddla’s DJing at it just works y’know.