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SOLO STAR: Fazer

THERE ARE still a few things about Fazer that his fans and critics can learn. The first – and arguably most important – is that the 24-year-old N-Dubz star embodied much more than ‘the rapper’ role in the UK trio.

Fazer, real name Richard Rawlins, was actually responsible for helping to create their signature sound, going on to produce many of the band's biggest hits.

"My next record documents me on the grand piano. It really shows my musicality and my piano skills."

Rewind and come again? Grand piano?

Yes. He plays the piano. He raps, produces and he is an accomplished songwriter. No wonder launching a solo career came naturally to the north west London native.

"Coming off the back of N-Dubz really gives me the chance to showcase what I can do as a musician and an artist," he says.

He continues: "The core fans know about things and what I do behind the scenes for N-Dubz and everything else, but not everybody necessarily knows so this [album] will be the eye-opener for a lot of people.

"My album is not bracketed in one genre it's going to show versatility from my production skills to showing different genres of music that I can do."

Riding on the wave of his passion for music (and letting the screaming fan inside me loose for a second), I tell him that his first single, Killer is 'an actual tune'.

With a modest laugh, he explains the story behind the hit, which has now racked up over a million views on YouTube in its first week: "I was just like let me go in the booth and start putting some vocal ideas down, so I started putting some melodies down and it sounded great.

"Initially the song wasn't even for me, but I thought, 'nah man, my voice sounds good on it, it's a bad man tune. It's going to shut down festivals, it’s going to shut down clubs, so why not?’"
I ask if he has any plans to include more dubstep in his songs.

I am corrected before I can take my next breath: "It's not dubstep if you think about it. It's a weird one because it has an influence of everything in the charts at the moment. From hip-hop, to dance, to trance - a bit of everything."

Whoops! Awkward. Next question.

What’s the craziest thing a fan has said to him on Twitter? (This is the only question I can come up with under pressure.)

He laughs.

"I reweeted one today! It was kind of rude like, you might not want to put this in the interview!"

He is right, I couldn't put it in the interview. Sorry!

Stemming back to his N-Dubz days, Fazer has always been a favourite amongst the ladies.
In fact, many of his female fans are famed for going to the extreme to get his attention, but even I can't believe it when he says: "I have other ones where girls have tattooed my face on their arms. They have tattoos of me on their rib cages, wherever, it's crazy!"

Being the last in the group, which includes rapper Dappy and ex-girlfriend and singer Tulisa, to embark on a solo career, Fazer's decision to strike out on his own instantly sparked rumours that N-Dubz have broken up for good.

After promising that their hiatus is not an “Oasis break where everyone goes away and never comes back again”, he says: "This is the time where we can show people what each individual can do, so they can see what the group is really about and then we can capitalise on that and bring it back to N-Dubz."

Killer is released on August 26 through Island Records