Many moons ago I was in a band which formed at BIMM in Brighton called Chukin. We were great, had a real good vibe and started to create a large following but unfortunately, as is often the case we were unable to keep the band together because everyone had different ideas.
We literally just loved playing these songs and the crowds loved it too. At the end of that summer, as we were all homeless, we decided to go on an unplanned tour of France and Spain, we headed off with no idea what we were going to find and we were pleasantly surprised to find lots of little gigs along the way.
We busked almost every day (for food and booze money) and had the most amazing time in the most beautiful places all along France and then down the east coast of Spain, made many friends and wrote many songs.
What was the thinking behind the ethos of A Scallywag Festival?
We wanted to throw the best possible party for our album launch so we teamed together with Goodtimes Music and have transformed our tour bus into the "Field good music” stage.
How would you describe a DD and The Scallywags live show?
Full power party music….
In this world we are constantly bombarded with negatives, everywhere we look, the news, the internet, media etc, so for a short time we like to create a positive atmosphere where people can forget about all of these things, lose themselves in the music and just enjoy themselves.
so we have aimed our set at getting everyone to dance and have a good time…and it works.
What makes Scallywags/Good Times Music events different from the rest of the UK music scene?
We are not a big corporation, we are just a band like many of our friends on the Festival circuit. but what we have is years of experience both as an artist and as a punter at festivals.
so we have combined all of our knowledge and contact bases to put together a fantastic line up of fantastically talented underground artists and teamed together with the guys at Bredys farm to create a space where artists can perform their material to a fantastic audience of festival goers.
You have set up a new studio in Lancing, Sussex. Why Lancing, and how would you describe the studio?
Yes, we have. Lancing is the perfect place for our studio, it is affordable but close enough to the hustle and bustle of Brighton to keep it afloat. I would call it comfy, a home to make music.
How would you describe the music industry in 2017? How are you getting around its many new challenges?
The music industry has gone through many changes and will keep changing. Fewer people are buying albums and too many bands are playing for next to nothing so it is very hard to make enough to keep bands going. What I want to do is provide a platform where bands can make and release music as part of a collective and then go and perform this music at our events or on our stage.
What are the band's influences?
Without wanting to sound cliched, Bob Marley definitely showed us the way for creating positive change through music. No one else in the world has managed to touch so many peoples hearts in such a positive way. Manu Chao is an inspiration for the way he kept things going. And his life sets have so much energy it's hard for anyone in the crowd not to get involved.
What is the relationship between you and the rest of the band? And how about between the band and their audience?
Our relationship wth the audience, we don’t really have fans we have friends, thousands of them all over the country and we always regularly bump into the same people all along the way. When we are performing, the audience is part of the performance, we want to make the feeling that we are all their together creating the vibe together and having a good time together. Without the audience, it just wouldn’t be the same.
What are you drinking?
What have you got? We'll take it!
