Draft Article.

Born in the winter of 92', Rickielee Drayford started out as just a rough-round kid from the East End. His Dad's primal rockaholic influence took over almost at birth and ever since, Rickielee has been adding to his vinyl collection, before starting to write music for himself. His natural ability enabled him to become one with a guitar and strum together tunes through his early teens, not knowing that he was laying the foundations for the revolutionary sound that would smash rock music into a new era.
Not long after, he was playing acoustically in the bars of London’s Soho which is where he was discovered by R.K record producer, Michael Lane. Given 6 months to write an album, Rickielee came back to the producers with a 'new sound', described by Lane as 'a revelatory partnership of acoustic and rock, this is a new era'. His debut album 'Factory Boy', was released in November 2010, not long before it was top 5 in the album charts and earned him number one newcomer of the year ’10.
Rickielee walks into the Rebel offices wearing his Docs and signature leather jacket. He holds out his hand to greet me, whilst running the other through his teddy boy quiff. “Hey man, let’s get to it then”, I reply with a simple “sure thing” and gesture to a chair to begin the interview.

So then, Factory Boy was released in November, did you expect the album to be such a success?
Well it’s been a six month job man, I bloody hoped it would do well. Throughout the project, the producers would come into the studio so I would ask Lane (Michael) and the other lads what they thought; they kept me on the right track.

Why ‘Factory Boy’ then?
Factory Boy was a song I wrote when I was about sixteen, seventeen? I just kept playing around with it, it’s been a bit of a tune and a half to my life really so I thought it was about time I got it out there. The title of the song became the album, just cause of the significance to me.

Well I can tell you its top of my iTunes list at the moment.
Cheers man, means a lot.

No, thanks to you for writing the record. So how has the fame affected your life then; are you often recognised on the street?
Yeah, yeah (laughs), its crazy man, some people just try and grab me anywhere they can, little scary at times, usually when I’m back home to be honest.

You did modelling a while back, yes? Which do you find more challenging?
Well, Models1 is a tough gig if you don’t turn up to castings and stuff (laughs), which is usually the case with me. I was always a bit of a rebel in school, always getting in trouble, I guess my career now suits me to a t, I can get away with pretty much anything nowadays(laughs).

What music are you listening to at the moment?
I like the White Lies a fair amount, gonna see them in a few weeks with the lads, should be good. I guess something you wouldn’t think about me is that classical tunes are quite inspiring to me, foundations for all music, so I like to have a listen now and again.

That’s interesting, something to expand the minds of our readers ey? So what can we expect from you in the future? Any collaborations?
Well right now, I’m working on some pretty heavy tunes with Jack Bones. He came up to me after a gig I did in Soho about a month and a half ago, we went for drinks and now he’s pretty much in my life every day now, were pretty good mates now.

How’s that going?
Well were working on a few tracks, mostly influenced by his stuff but my acoustic work has had an edge on it. It’s turned out quite like Morrissey; I think were planning to release a single early summer time, about May, June.
And where can we expect to see you next; you’re about to start your tour, am I right?
Well, the tour starts on May 24 at the MEN arena in Manchester, tickets sales are pretty high I hear so the adrenaline levels are rising. Then we stop for Glasto and Reading before coming back home for a show at Brixton Academy.

Well we look forward to reviewing the show and talking again.
Cheers man, I look forward to it.