Interview

JS

You’re back at Band On The Wall this is like your second home.

Chini

Yeah, for me it’s somewhere I used to come with my dad when I was about sixteen. My dad used to come years and years ago, I seen a lot of jazz over the years so, It’s somewhere I would come to and never thought I’d end up playing. Actually, it’s got such a good sound in the venue and such a good vibe that once we started playing we kind of didn’t want to play anywhere else because it’s our favourite venue. It’s nice and intimate, it’s big enough and the sound is so good which is sort of crucial to where you want to play.

Defty

Ever since I’ve lived in Manchester it’s sort of had a reputation for being the venue with the best sound so that’s really important for us.

Chini

Well it’s got such a heritage with all the different musicians that have played over the years, all of the jazz guys and international Reggae acts, so yeah we’re glad to be back.

JS

Mouse Outfit is perfect for someone that doesn’t want to be pigeonholed. How would you describe your thing, what are you trying to do, and what do you aim to do?

Chini

Generally we were making music that we liked to listen to and certainly do the odd track that doesn’t fall into the category. We don’t want it all to be slow Hip-hop or Reggae or up tempo stuff. It’s actually changed a little bit because of the third album that’s coming. We’ve really concentrated on getting a lot of live musicians in and not really use any samples and try to create, you know wholly original stuff. So the sounds kind of changed again particularly as we’ve started working with a lot of singers on this album for the first time; it’s always been sort of Rap, kind of sung Rap. Whereas this album we’re bringing some new flavours, more Soulful more songs with singers.

Defty

Originally, we were just trying to make Hip-hop like the Hip-hop that we would listen to and try to make stuff that sounded like GangStarr or Tribe Called Quest.

Chiny

Early 90’s classics.

Defty

Yeah that sort of stuff and sometimes when musicians get together in a studio they’ll come up with stuff and you’d make something and go what does this sound like, what are we trying to do? And then we’d put a Rapper on it or a vocalist and I think the vocals are there to tie the sound together. If you listen to all the instrumentals separately they might not sound like they are all from the same group. But the Manchester vocal tying the whole sound together I think is a really important part of what we do.

JS

We know that you make music but how do you manage to link up with all of these Mc’s? Are they just passing by like a youth club and just knock on the door?

Chini

[Laughter] Some of them at one point it probably was like that. Some of them have approached us, I’d say probably most of them we’ve approached them. We’ve heard them and said come down to the studio and let’s see what happens. We always work with the approach ‘let’s see what happens’, we’re not gonna’ promise we’re gonna’ release a track or an EP with you. We’ll come in the studio make some music, if we’re both liking it we’ll continue, we’ll develop that and we’ll work with it and if not we carry on and you’ll do your own thing. I think because a lot of the people we work with are so busy, it’s literally if they’re available. So at one point Fox was available where we did a lot of tracks with him. Now he’s got a lot of other things on. It kind of depends on who’s got all of the gigs, who’s in the studio at that time. We just love to mix it up and keep it fresh with lots of different artist.

So everybody in Manchester now knows everybody and it’s very easy to work something out.

Defty

I think that in Manchester the whole scene has been building at the same time, lots of paths have crossed around the same time as well. When we first started and were trying to get some Rappers in, it was like do you know any Rappers and over the past five years we’ve bumped into people again and again. People that we were big fans of and didn’t know in Manchester and then we’d be on a gig with them in Croatia or somewhere like that and then we’d say hello and then suddenly do a track with them. So everybody in Manchester now knows everybody and it’s very easy to work something out.