Murkage Dave on why it's OK to go to a club in a tracksuit

My hoodie’s a Don Dada piece from Paris. It’s a clothing brand and record label; Louis Don Dada, who runs it, produced five tracks on my album. He was the person who convinced me I could make a solo album. Don Dada clothes are great quality, and this is really comfortable.

When you’re an artist or DJ you’re on planes and buses a lot, so being comfortable but stylish at the same time is important. I wear tracksuits a lot now. I think Skepta changed things and now it’s OK to go to a meeting or a club in a tracksuit.

I’ll be real with you: when it comes to trainers I wear what I’m given. I liked Air Max back when I worked in JD Sports, but couldn’t really afford them. Now my trainer collection is mostly Reeboks.

I got a bit of a name in Manchester for throwing parties there and ended up doing some modeling for Oi Polloi. They gave some free clothes. They’re such good quality but I can’t always afford them.

I’ve got Dr Marten sandals with socks on today. Sam Wise from the group House of Pharaohs got me into them. He’s one of the most sylish men I know, and he started rocking them in his Instagram stories. I’d wanted to wear them for a minute, but he kind of gave me the green light.

I remember getting a pair of Iceberg jeans with a mad cow print on them when I was 16. I’d look at the cool boys in the area who had mopeds and that’s what they were wearing.

I remember my mum buying me trainers from Walthamstow market – a brand called Air Zones. That was not good!

I chat to Mike (Skinner) about clothes a lot. He’s more into the designer thing. His rule is ABE (All Black Everything). We were talking about those Balenciaga dad trainers and I was like, ‘That’s so troll!’ but he said, ‘I reckon this’ll work’, and he was right. All the new Adidas and Nikes seem to be copying them.

I’ve had a beard for quite a while now. I went to New York in about 2009 and my electric razor didn’t work because of the different wattage. So I just ended up growing a beard. I think I was being a bit of a troll because, y’know, a big guy with a beard scares a few people in the US.

I’m wearing a yellow Ellesse jacket and jogging bottoms with matching yellow stripe. In JD Sports we’d sell a lot of Ellesse. A lot of the bad boys in the area used to wear Ellesse. I wasn’t that kind of kid, but you’d see these guys come in and kind of look up to them.

I remember guys coming in with loads of cash and buying three pairs of Air Max when I worked in JD. Looking back, I think a
lot of them were dealers.

Craig David was a big style icon for me back in the day. My cousin ran a clothing line and he made a version of the Evisu two-piece denim suit Craig used to wear and gave it to me for helping him out. I had a cheap chain from Argos, a beanie and some Adidas to go with it too. I even got my hair done like his.

Murkage Dave Changed My Life is out now