Mike Skinner Explains How British Music Borrows From American Music, The Streets’ Latest Album, and Doing 100 Versions of Tunes

When Mike Skinner, front man for the British rap outfit, The Streets, records new music, he rarely uses an engineer. It simply wouldn’t work for the artist. Skinner says he regularly does upwards of 100 different versions of a single song, often revising tiny, miniscule details or rearranging a single word here and there. It would be madness for any engineer to go along for that ride. So, Skinner often does it all himself. He creates sound booths, erects studio spaces and fashions other makeshift apparatuses to help create his off-kilter, glorious beat-centric music. Skinner, who released his latest record, None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive, in July, continues his streak of successful projects, this time featuring living legends on the tracks like Tame Impala and IDLES.