Swingamajig 2017 - part 3 - Chicken Brothers

Last but not least in this year's Swingamajig preview are the mighty Chicken Brothers - pioneers of the scene in Liverpool and festival fields around the land, scratch maestros and all-round good eggs. One member of the flock has just flown back in from Oz, setting a new world record for 'Longest Flight by a Chicken' in the process, so the answers are a little brief, but entertaining and informative none-the-less.

Jack: You’ve played a few Swingamajigs now – can you share your best memory of the festival, if you can remember any of them?

Our favourite memory would have to be at the first ever Swingamajig — playing the closing set with an audience made up of loads of UK producers, DJs and performers all getting down and interacting. A particular highlight of that set was when Odjbox approached us to request some Odjbox... He also went on to say that we were top of the list of people to play the electro swing office Christmas party, being "the dj's DJ..."

Jack: The Chicken Brothers have a habit of popping up during other people’s sets – have you got any guest appearances planned?

Not due to do any cameos at Swingamajig this year as we will be working all day helping to run the event in different areas. But we will be on hand to play the opening set at the after party, and as a reverse cameo we have our newest member Mike coming down on rooster duties [I think that means MC duties. Ed.].

Jack: You have a hand in loads of events and festival stages and so on. What is it that sets Swingamajig apart from other festivals?

Swingamajig is special to us because we have been involved in it from the beginning, and now help to run various areas of the production as well as perform. It's filled to the brim with our favourite acts, producers and DJs. Plus the crowd are next level awesome! It's a solid date in the diary every year.



If you've got your ticket yet, I think there's still a few left, but don't delay. There's so much more to do in addition to the music. I've been asked to take part in some sort of table-football event, so watch out for that; there's dance classes, something called the Bacon Cheeseburger Pie which sounds life-changing (or perhaps life-ending), and performances from the likes of Oh My God It's The Church, magicians and all sorts of scantily clad ladies. The festival's tagline is 'A show like no other'. They're not wrong. It is, as Odjbox said, the vintage remix world's office party, so there'll be some tired legs and sore heads come Monday morning.

GUEST BLOG - Offbeat but on point

Next in this series of guest posts comes from new boy, Bristol-based rapper Offbeat. This guy's just starting out but he's got a really interesting approach and a story to tell.

Greetings, Swingers - Offbeat here!

For those who don’t know me, I take Electro Swing-inspired beats and combine them with the observations of a slightly awkward middle class rapper to create my own fusion of the two genres. My style has been described as “Mike Skinner from The Streets meets Will from the Inbetweeners. With Swing.”

I rap about everyday things like online dating, reality TV and self help gurus. For me the Swing/Vintage sound is the perfect accompaniment to this, as it has the energy and feel-good vibe that counteracts the seriousness so much Hip Hop has. One of the most common comments I get is “I don’t normally like Hip Hop, but this is alright”. I’m OK with that.

History

I am a relative newcomer to the scene, having only discovered Electro Swing in 2014. Until then I had taken a 10 year break from rapping but, upon attending an event with a friend, immediately fell in love with the sound. The friend in question put on his own night at the time and I (drunkenly) proclaimed that if he booked me in a month’s time, I would write enough material to perform a short set, using this wonderful new genre of music. Needless to say, I woke up the next morning and kicked myself but, true to my word, I performed a month later and haven’t looked back since.

What I have done

After meeting a Glasgow-based producer called Calum Matheson, I released my first video at the end of 2014. The video is called “Widlife” and is an Attenborough-esque take on a typical lad’s night out performed over a remix of the Jungle Book’s “I Wanna Be Like You”. I released this with a 4-track EP which was, and still is, available to download free from my website (there’s lots of other free downloads here too, so check it out!).



Since then I have released another 3 videos and 2 EPs. The latest video is called “Prohibition!” and sees my character rise to the position of “Swingpin” in an alternate 1920s where Swing music is banned instead of booze. The video is in the style of animated comic and was a lot of fun to make!

What I’m doing now

In addition to the music itself, I like to produce a lot of additional content. I’m a geek at heart, so I’m always fascinated by anything that gives an insight into the creative process of things I’m interested in. With every song I release I also now do a ‘Behind the Bars’ video that explains the origin and thoughts behind each song and I also do a weekly live Q&A on www.twitch.tv/iamoffbeat.

Oh and I’ve also just quit my job actually! After 4 years of running my own business, I came to the realisation it wasn’t making me happy so made the incredibly ill-judged decision to pursue music full time. Only time will tell if this was the right thing to do or not, but I’m hoping that through a combination of gigs, streaming income and merch sales that I can generate enough to make a living doing the thing I am truly passionate about.

What’s Next

I am just finishing off my 4th EP, after which I am going to take a short break from making my own music and focus on some of the additional content I mentioned earlier. I’m lucky enough to have met and supported many of my favourite artists over the last year or so, so one of the things I plan on doing is interviewing them for my YouTube channel to give an insight into their creative processes as well.

I also have a number of collaborations in the pipeline and plan to focus on these more, before releasing some more of my own solo material towards the end of the year.

Where you can find me

My website is the best place to keep up to date with everything I’m up to: http://iamoffbeat.com.

You can also find me in all the usual Social Media places, but the two I’m probably most active on are YouTube and Facebook.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at a gig/festival soon!