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Scratch dj joins brass band and is feeling hyped :)


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Earlier this year I went to a Funk & Soul festival, a brass band were doing the walkabout thing near the chalets I was staying in, I had the portable with me and a decent size speaker so naturally I waited in hope for the ideal moment to drop some cuts in.



The moment in the above vid turned in to a audition for the band, messages were exchanged and they asked If I was interested in doing some cuts for there next release "Yes Dude"



Of course I wasn't gonna turn down the opportunity but TBH upon listening to there music I wasn't sure if the band was the right fit for me. A few days after doing the cuts for "Yes Dude" the band asked me if I wanted to play a show with them at Pop in Brixton. With four evenings after work to prep I sourced acapellas for the covers they play and appropriate samples that I felt worked well for individual songs. Literally the night before the gig band bossman asked if Id be interested in doing some routines for the start of the show and to segue in to the show proper the drummer will do "a fuck off drum solo out of your routine....." after creaming my knickers at that offer I dusted off the intro of my IDA worlds routine for the first time in 6 months with the thinking that the bass section of my sharp shooter routine would be ideal to drum solo over.



The gig was an immense experience and a proper challenge, all live versions of there tracks were anything between 10 - 20 BPM faster than the studio versions that I had stuff prepared for, plus the structure of the tracks were flipped. Seeing the band live completely won me over, they play with the sort energy you'd expect from a metal/punk group and the audience literally go wild for it.

After that they asked me to join them for shows at Boomtown Fair and Bestival, my two favourite UK festivals :)

Boomtown fair was a great first time experience playing at a festival (despite the challenge of staying sober at festival), we had a Brass Off/battle against another brass band which we won and then ended in an almighty jam with both bands on stage with me freestyle cutting over the top.

Last weekend we played six shows in two days at Bestival, 3 stage shows and 3 walkabouts. Something clicked on the 3rd show and my role in band felt proper integrated.

Here's a mini edit of the shows we played at Bestival including live band reworking's of a couple of my routines. Check moment at 1:21 where I'm completely oblivious that we've been announced to start and the lads are shouting "Dubba" :d




So yeah Im feeling pretty jammy for the opportunity all thanks to taking a plastic turntable to a festival. Despite my initial thoughts the band feels like the perfect fit for me, I've always been a huge fan of the brass sound, there mad keen to integrate my approach to turntablism as much as pos and so far there up for every idea I come up with.
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Cheers Dan! to be honest it does feel like a bit of a dream come true moment, while prior to hooking up with the band I was trying to think of the best way to break in to payed dj work without selling my sole.... I done a couple of mixing gigs this year, I enjoy playing music but turntablist performance stuff suits my skill set far better and getting to do that kinda stuff with an open minded, up for it band is gonna give my approach a whole new scope, pretty fucking hyped tbh :)

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I've been watching this unfold from the sidelines for a little while now and I think it's just perfect all round. One of those moments when all the stars align, the moon's in Uranus and a baby Jesus is born... or something to that effect :d

 

As Paul said, the perfect band and opportunity came along just when he was good and ready for it. Apart from Scratch Blast tours and all related shenanigans, this is exactly what he should be doing. No disrespect to IDA and that was a good thing when it happened last year, but this has to be better than locking yourself away for another 6 months to hone and repeat the same routine a million times only to be beaten by somebody who can't play the trumpet.

 

Equally, I don't think the band could've found a better DJ for the job. Despite the many scratch beasts out there (many of whom are our friends or even DV members), Paul's all round skills - scratching, finger drumming, effects use, sample selection, etc - and huge knowledge/experience of Traktor aren't bettered by anyone I know of. Every routine he makes is like a well composed song and he uses Traktor to perform live what used to be the strictly the territory of the multitracked mixtape, so it's no surprise he's becoming an integral part of the band and always seen a picture bigger than a bit of unrelated wikki wikki over some pre-existing songs. He even shares their enthusiam and is young and hungry at heart (if not hairline :(( ).

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^^ Cheers mate!

He even shares their enthusiam and is young and hungry at heart (if not hairline :(( ).

 

They all range from 22 to 24 years of age ffs!! The fuckers practically sprint round a festival site compared to my stoner shuffle, I get to be the enthusiastic hype monkey after the gigs as there all puffed out after shoving an untold amount of air thru there horns while jumping round like nutters on stage.

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Hair jokes aside and despite your different ages and backgrounds, I do reckon you've met each other at the right time and with a similar mindset and work ethic. Getting nerdy, a lot of great bands fused young raw talent with more experienced members/players for success. It's a combo that works and can go places neither side would on their own.

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^^Loooolz :)

@Matt -Totally perfect timing, this is the bands first year of playing all the main UK festivals and decent support gigs for big acts so from that perspective there's actual money on the table to do the four plus hour round trip to London and more importantly an actual audience to play to. To come along earlier when they were first building the band up would of been a stretch to far on top of already doing the free tablist stuff for UK scratch events which takes a lot of commitment.

From the bands perspective its jus like you allude to, they've found me at a time after 3 years experience developing my live show and my routine/song structure game. IDA Worlds, Scratchblast Tour, CSG etc... has played a huge role in building up live performance confidence and cutting on huge systems.

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Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays

I TOLD YOU SO!!!! :d In fact i told you i told you so, so now i'm telling you i told you i told you so. :d :d :d :d

 

Man, this is justice props in action my good dv buds! Super pleased for you, Paulo, well deserved, indeed! An object lesson in being prepared and putting in work allowing you to cease opportunities right thur, chums.Couldn't have happened to a more broful bro, too! Congraduation on passing your scratching exams!

 

And don't forget guys, that going to SSS spurred him on to greater heights. Shouldn't you be going to SSS! (this message was brought to you by the society for going on about SSS and the concept of badging people)

 

Likes for every post, everyone!

 

Now i'll start the backlash, booooooooooooo, what a sell out, 8 bar solo scratch wanking and battlez4lyfe!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!

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Seriously, that's fuckin' dope dubba, incredibly hyped for you homie. That was so f'n ill to watch and has renewed my urge to join a band. I've played successfully with various artists/bands, but never been an integral part of a group -- I think it would renew my lust for skratching.

 

Propers due, that made my day.

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Aaaah youuu guys :wub:

mad seeing the by chance meeting in the first to rocking tents at Bestival.

 

Totally man! I almost didn't get my portable deck out as I was seriously hanging out my arse from the previous eves shenanigans and only jus fell out of bed upon hearing the band outside the chalets. Then it wasn't even me who contacted the band, one of my mates randomly did as he saw one of them filming it, messaged them via FB about the footage as he knew I was in to making vids, which gave the band a link back to me.

Proper chance set of circumstances which has led to an opportunity thats freakin perfect for my style, then add the fact that they love what scratching sounds like and are keen AF for proper integration.... mad lucky situation to find my self in.

My Sweet Lorna routine for instance, I jus briefly mentioned that it might be cool for me to do a jazzy saxophone scratch showcase in the brass off/battle, the next day band bossman writes the charts/music for the horns, we talk structure for less than a min, they keep saying its your song tell us how you want it sound :) we jam it couple of times at the Bestival rehearsal and then perform it live by the weekend. But I have to say the love affair officially started at the point when it was suggested that the drummer was gonna do a "fuck of drum solo" out of one of my routines.

Phil - 100% dude, all can be traced back to SSS and ultimately DV - getting to know inspirational dudes with similar interests keeps your appetite sharp.

JHouse - ah bigups dude thats wicked :)

Jam B - Ive got a pair of PDX 3000 so been eyeing the potential of midi note stuff, would be one work around for staying in key despite BPM shifts when doing melody ish. Got lots of workflows to experiment with really. To play scratch melodies with a few notes laid out I've been using a backing track for them to play over to get the tempo, filter it out after 32/64bars and then as long as they can keep the bpm tight Its workable. Triggering one shots of notes like the bass part of my Super Sharp Shooter routine gives total freedom with BPM shifts, tho having to trigger cues/needing to take a hand of the record or fader constantly can limit some cut techniques.

Equally Ive really enjoyed doing backing element of songs, using roll/delay/filter fx to create swells/build ups for drops and ending crescendo

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Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic

Nice one Dubba, glad it went well mate. Really wicked vibes :8

 

If this doesn't inspired people to get busy then check ya pulse!

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Super Hans party was erm, interesting....

 

He basically dances round stage a bit, hypes the crowd, says the odd funny thing, pretends to play an MPC Fly and a kaoss Pad every time the real dj did a pioneer djm white noise filter sweep fx thing, the dj was set up behind Super Hans, she must of played ALL the most obvious (and hateful) dance classics and squeezed a few dance remix's of Michael Jackson, of course.

 

To be fair the crowd was hyped AF, but for me it was pretty horrific. Mrs had marvellous time tho, the social media fame slut was very happy with her evenings selfies, one with Dj Cheeba and another with Super Hans. standing on the side of the stage Hans pulled her on to the stage and took a selfie facing the crowd, made her bloody year ffs :rolleyes:

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