Between Borders X Mystic Brew
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Between Borders X Mystic Brew
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Arts & Culture
Words By: Zahaib Hussain
Photography: O'Malley
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Zahaib Hussain sat down with O’Malley and Sigmund Frued, members of the Oddysee collective and co-hosts of the monthly gathering for up-and-coming producers and beat makers in Birmingham; Mystic Brew.
They spoke about all things Brum, their plans for 2019 and what the perfect Mystic Brew is made up of.
BB: Thanks for joining us boys. Give our readers who may not be aware a brief rundown of what Mystic Brew is?
Sigmund: Well, it’s kind of taking bits from my mates night Listening Sessions where producers from all over the city come together, shared beats and fed back on each other’s stuff. I wanted to focus more on the kind of, Hip-Hop / Soundcloud scene that we’ve been a part of for like 6 years now. We also used to throw a night called Fantastic Damage really early on in our musical careers. It’s kind of just the grown up version of that where we’re all actually making movements and making sick beats!
We really just want a place to get the local scene going, it’s already online, but it’s not physical. You look at what Joe Corfield’s done in his collabs with High-Focus and Dylans doing stuff with big artists too, we want to cover all the sub-genres of Hip-Hop and not just boom-bap.
BB: How do you think the scene in Birmingham compares to the other musical epi-centres across the UK?
Sigmund: I think the main strength is the city itself man. It’s a mad place and it breeds creativity. On the other hand, it is a bit of a splintered scene purely because of size. You look at London and it’s so built up in the cultural centre that each ends has its known roads and clubs; there’s bits going on everywhere.
O’Malley: They have so many record labels – Birmingham don’t really have a music industry in that sense. It’s all quite underground here which is why it’s all so disorganised.
Sigmund: When you roll in the circles that me and Suf (O’Malley) do, you meet everyone but there’s no central platform. I’ve always wanted to do this and recently I have because it needs to happen. You’ll promote the beat scene and get other people to start making beats and get people to pay attention to the shit that’s going on here! Go in head first and embrace the variety of all the different sounds. We also want to throw some grime parties and do some madnesses! Hip-Hops just our bread and butter and a good place to start our brand.
BB: Do you think that the not-wanting to be nailed down to one genre is quite reflective of Birmingham as a place, especially when it comes to the musical roots of the City?
O’Malley: Yeah. Even with the rap we do in the Oddysee, it comes from us listening to loads of road rap – that’s the music I grew up on and we take the influence into the music.
Sigmund: When I started off I was coming from a much more experimental rap scene and Suff was more on the grime.
O’Malley: Yeah exactly – we started showing each other our music and that’s what kind of liberated the sound.
Sigmund: And now we’re actually good at producing! We like to see ourselves as the early ones who were doing different stuff, but always influenced by boom bap. I’m involved in a lot of different genres and there are loads of really good people in all these different genres in Brum – they’re so good but there’s just not the industry here. We’re trying to change that!
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BB: It sounds like even though the talent is here, a lot of what’s going on is being over-shadowed by the stuff going on in other cities…
O’Malley: Even though it is the second city, we don’t see as much money coming in. It hasn’t been gentrified like London has. When you’re in the inner-city areas of Brum it’s like the ghetto still.
Sigmund: You look at Brummy grime and that’s only recently that it’s come into the picture. People who were starting up in the scenes heyday in 2010 are like household names now – Jaykae, Mist, RM…
BB: What seems to be the case with these artists is that the aesthetic of the artist is selling more than the artistry, what are your views on that?
O’Malley: I guess Preditah would be an exception to that…
Sigmund: He was the one who rode it a lot earlier – but that was because of the London link-up. You go down there and you do make good links, you actually meet famous people.
O’Malley: The most famous person in Kings Heath was the dancing monkey man.
Sigmund: And everyone knows UB40!
O’Malley: UB40 are a good example of ones who made it off being different. They were white, black, mixed race.
BB: How did growing up around so many different cultures impact your view of Britishness growing up?
Sigmund: For me it creeps into all aspects of my life really. Food, the way you speak – most inner-city Brummies will use some patois because there’s such a big influence of that. Even just going to school you’re acccepting of everyone from day! We just love every culture. From hearing different languages on the bus, different celebrations and you’re really taught from young to celebrate everybody’s cultures.
O’Malley: On the subject of Britishness, it’s a really strange one from me ‘cause I’m half Indian, half welsh, I live in an area that’s mostly Pakistani, but then most of my friends are Caribbean. I don’t even know what Britishness means to me because I’ve always lived around so many different cultures and races. I can easily go from Shisha then to the pub then to a full-English in the morning. It’s the blend of all this different stuff that’s just normal to me.
Sigmund: That’s always been what Britishness is to me –the blend of different cultures, but it’s also the way you conduct yourself. You have your slight ways with alcohol abroad, but then you’re still polite. Like Suff said, it’s about having all these different influences where loads of people are 3rd generation immigrants but they are what British is! It’s like the relationships that form between different cultures too – at some of the old reggae parties there’d be loads of Irish people there too, just because they love the music.
BB: I think that’s what music in Brum is so good for – you get the different mix of people coming together over the love of the music…
O’Malley: The UK right now is mad for all the different genres of music in rave, dance music, rap – everything! But all the sounds are coming together as well. I think that’s what’s different with our generation; not everyone’s just English, there’s so many mixed-race and we all listen to different types of music. If you hear something you like you can just go and research it and find so much music that’s the same – you can just get into everything. Back in the day you’d see a lot more sub-culture. Punks, goths, whatever would all wear their certain clothes. These days it’s all mixed up – you see rich kids wearing track suits and even with the trap stuff – there’s a lot of heavy rockers that are into that too.
BB: Would you say that that cross-cultural blending is helping the scene or its restrictive?
Sigmund: I think that’s always the way I go about my musical life. I like mixing everything – that’s what makes me happy. It promotes a good culture of music and good output of music. You look at Radio 6 man they play everything! That’s why I love Hip-Hop because it samples so many different genres of music.
O’Malley: That’s how I find out about different music. I look at the samples in Hip-Hop and you start reading about the history of some Estonian funk or something.
BB: If it wasn’t for music, what other creative outlets do you think you would pursue?
O’Malley: I was having this argument with my mum today. I was just trying to say that I don’t want a proper job just making some other geezer rich. I have to do stuff I want to do and have the ideas with it. Already I’m trying my hand at photography; I’m working on a little Zine – Duck the Fuck Down, Volume 1 coming soon.
Sigmund: I think if it wasn’t for music I’d be quite a boring guy. Even if I wasn’t at the core of the scene I’d find some way to be involved.
BB: What does Mystic Brew mean to you?
Sigmund: Local produce made in the second city. That’s it.
You can catch the collective at Mystic Brew this Saturday the 15th December at Café Artum in Birmingham City Centre: https://www.facebook.com/events/365089180902289/
Check out their Soundcloud for all thing lo-fi, boom bap, underground and everything inbetween: Soundcloud.com/theoddysee
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