In conversation with DJ Target
He's spent years playing everyone else's records. Now he's got one of his own. We caught him the day before "Bring Me Flowers" premiered.
Most of us know DJ Target as the person who plays the records. Roll Deep, 1Xtra, the Grime Kids book and then the BBC drama. For years he's been the one putting other people on.
So it was a bit of a role reversal catching him the day before his first official single dropped. He'd been on calls and team meetings all day, running around like any artist in release week. The single is "Bring Me Flowers" with Tiwa Savage and Chip. It samples Sweet Female Attitude's "Flowers", and it's the first taste of an album coming in 2027.
We talked about why it took him so long to get back in the studio, signing an album without anyone hearing a note, why he can't make his own song record of the week, phones at raves, AI, and his daughter, a proper little music head who's already got him painting again.
You sound like you've been running around all day! It must be so weird being on the other side of it all. You've spent years championing everyone else's music, and now it's your name on the record.
It does feel very strange. I'm so used to being on the other side. People that I'm supporting. And it's exciting. I've been looking forward to doing this for a minute, so. It's finally time.
Finally time. You can hear it in how you say that. Has this been sitting with you for a long time?
Yeah. I started out DJing and making beats and producing when I was in school. And then back in the day when I was in Roll Deep, I was producing then. But I've never really had music officially out under my own name. Other than underground bits and bobs, grime stuff back in the day.
But the last few years especially, I've had this little thing just on my shoulder, like, you want to make music again, you want to go studio, you know? There was something just niggling away. But I was so busy. It's like a gift and a curse. My career was getting busy with other stuff I hadn't even thought of, like TV shows and writing a book, so I was having less time to even consider going back in the studio.
But about a year ago I was like, you know what, I was just burning. I need to go and just do it and be creative. I just missed it. And I've been working on it ever since.
That's so cool. It's so easy to let the busy stuff win. And there's a whole album coming next year? When DJs put out albums, you never quite know what you're going to get.
Yeah, 2027. More chances of it being summertime. It's made up of salutes to genres that I've been a part of over the years. I've sampled a few different records that have meant a lot to me, and put some different people in collaborations.
Usually when DJs have albums out, it's more like a compilation album. They get a beat from a producer, and they've got everyone in their phonebook, so they can just get rappers or whoever to come and collab. This album, musically, the tracks are very different. I've got people who are a bit more OG level status, and then I've got new acts. It's just a mishmash of, I guess, my career. And the running theme is me. My journey. Every track kind of means something.
It's not actually fully finished yet. I'm just going to keep going until I've got no more time left. But I wanted to have something out this side of the year, just to get the ball rolling.
"A mishmash of my career." I love that. Okay, I'm curious. There are so many distribution companies out there. Why EGA Distribution?
I've known Colin literally forever, and the team there. Their whole grind, I've seen it from literally the ground up. As soon as I mentioned I was making an album, he was like, "Yeah, we're going to do that."
I didn't have to play him one piece of music. We'd done the deal already. Even in my career, as a person who's had a label and worked in different scenarios,
I've never known someone do an album project from the label side without hearing any music. It was actually mad humbling to me that he had that much trust, do you know what I mean? For me, that was a big pat on the back, to say, you know what, you should be doing this.
Wow. Without hearing a single track? That's so special. So, are you going to play it on your own show? Just, "Hey guys, this is my own track"?
Being on the BBC, you have to be very careful about how you promote anything that you're attached to. So I will be playing the track, but I wouldn't be able to have it as my record of the week. It'd be a conflict of interest. So I've got to remind all the other DJs, who hopefully love it, to play it and support it.
Oh, they definitely will. Or just bring me on the show with you. I'll be like, I've got a record of the week for you!
Yeah, do you know what I mean? I'll be like, lets play that!
Let's talk about the title. "Give someone their flowers" means something
different now. Why "Bring Me Flowers"?
It samples the classic garage song "Flowers", which is obviously the big driver behind the title. But the way Tiwa and Chip approached it, it can be taken in different ways. Tiwa was saying, if you don't give her her flowers, she's happy to give herself flowers. But at the same time, it's giving flowers to people who deserve them. Chip's approached it in his way, a bit cheeky. Chip's verse is cold as well. I gave him the assignment and he came back and delivered 100%.
It was originally going to be called just "Flowers". But with the sample clearance and the paperwork and stuff, which is another thing of being back on the artist side, we had to adjust the name a little bit.
Welcome to the paperwork side! How did Tiwa and Chip end up on it?
Tiwa was on my show, and I was like, you know I'm doing a project. She said, "I've literally started something that I think will be perfect." And people do sometimes say things and don't always follow through, but literally within a couple hours she sent me a couple things, and one of them has turned into this.
Then I thought I want an MC to break this up. Let's bring this back to the UK.
I wanted somebody who grew up on some of that garage and understands the record, understands that sample.
Chip's capable of doing different vibes and different styles, so I sent it to him, he loved it, and literally a couple weeks later he sent me back the verse. Then I went back to the studio with Todd Lutti, who I've worked with a lot on this album, and we basically finished the record. It came together really easily.
Within a couple of hours! That's the best way for it to happen. I have to ask about your daughter. She must be so excited.
She's a proper little music head. She plays piano, writes little songs, goes to musical theatre club, ballet. She's really excited that I've got music coming out.
I'm trying to get her on one of the tracks, but she doesn't like the thought of me recording it to play to everyone else. She'll do anything in front of me. We do a lot of painting together, actually. She got me back into painting. I'm definitely getting her on there somewhere, even if I have to record it on my phone on the sly.
I love that she got you back into painting. You've watched so many artists go through release day: the nerves, refreshing the numbers. Now it's you. Are you nervous?
Someone asked me this yesterday, and I don't even know. It's a weird feeling for me to have a song coming out. The person who's always just playing other people's songs. It feels a bit surreal.
I'm more excited than nervous. I want people to like the music, but I haven't put expectations on it. When you just asked me that, I could feel a bit of excitement. It's like a release for me, to be like, right, I actually went to the studio, and this is the first song coming out. It's more like a celebration, even though nothing's happened. There were times during those years when I was like, I ain't going to be able to get the time to get back to this.
And here we are.
And here we are.
That's such a nice way to see it. Honestly, I have so much respect for artists. You pour everything into a song, the video, the content, you put it out, and then TikTok just doesn't pick it up. Then you have to do it all again. It takes so much resilience, patience and drive, and you've got to block out all the noise. I don't know how people do it.
I saw someone the other day that said...something like "the more successful artists are the ones whose nervous system is the success story. Because they have to withstand all the other crap that a lot of artists just can't deal with."
It comes in so many different forms. Even success. When you get successful, there's a whole bunch of shit a lot of artists aren't ready to deal with, and that can wipe you out. But just feeling like you aren't heard is one of the worst. That's one of the real things that kills off artists. That constant feeling of no one's listening to me.
I get exactly what you mean. I was thinking about that the other day. When artists perform now, are they performing for the people in front of them, or for the content those people are going to post?
When you go to a rave in Ibiza and Black Coffee is about to start his set, the whole venue is just phones in the air. It's the audience as well. Are they here to see the artist, or are they here to get their clip and say, "I was there"?
When your favourite song comes on, the one you've waited for, you're living it through your screen because you want to make sure your Instagram reel's going to be right. So that little moment, the one you were probably looking forward to the most, you tuned out. That's a bit deep, but do you get what I mean?
I do it all the time myself, though. I'm a victim. But for artists it's different. You want the content of you mashing up a hundred people's show so that you can one day do five hundred people's shows.
Were you even there? Did you actually feel it? It's crazy how much it's all changed. And speaking of things changing fast, what are your thoughts on AI and music?
I think it's hard to stop it now. Everyone can make a full AI song in ten seconds, and people are making songs that sound better than blood, sweat and tears. Using it in the studio, you can separate a song and get all the stems out. It's a lot easier. But when it's millions of completely AI songs out there, and artists have to fight against that as well, I don't really like that.
In China, for instance, they just embrace it. They play it on the radio. There's music competitions with AI artists against normal artists. Here, no one's figured out how we're going to do it.
I do WhatsApp Wednesday, and we've been sent stuff that sounded really good, but something just flagged. We called the artist and they're like, "Oh yeah, it's AI, I'm going to get someone to re-sing it." We can't play it. I don't think it's fair on real artists.
Want your music played on the radio? DJ Target's WhatsApp Wednesday is open for submissions every Wednesday from 7pm to 7:30pm. Send your track on WhatsApp to 0370 412 1111.
AI artists competing against humans? No way. Let's bring it back to your song. A lot of people probably didn't expect you to put this hat on. What do you want people to take from this first release?
With this one, I just want to press the "let's have some fun" button and get started. There's not a deep kind of message. It's just like, okay, I'm back making music. Here's a fun, uplifting track that sounds familiar but is also fresh. It sets the tone for what's about to happen. I'm going to keep people on their toes.
To a lot of people, me making music is completely brand new. And to other people, it's like, we've been waiting for you to come back. So it's bringing all those people together and saying, right, here we are, let's do it. The first ever tattoo I got says "the imaginable is achievable". I've lived my life by that, basically. So this is another something that I'd imagined, and now I'm achieving it.
That's such a good tattoo. You've spent all these years supporting people and bringing them onto your platform. I think you're going to be surprised by how many people show up for you.
Even when I was saying to artists, I'm making a project, they were like, "Just tell me when." People are proper ready to support. I felt that.
I'm so locked into being the guy that everyone comes to for support. I'm not used to needing support, especially being an artist. So anyone that's showing support, I proper appreciate it. And you're the first person I've actually done any kind of interview with so thank you.
Target has spent most of his career putting other people first. He played their records, gave them a platform on the radio, and wrote the story of the scene down in Grime Kids so it wouldn't be forgotten. He's supported more artists than most of them will ever know.
He can't make "Bring Me Flowers" his record of the week. I can. So this is mine, and these are his flowers. Long overdue.
"Bring Me Flowers" featuring Tiwa Savage and Chip is out now.