KEVIN CURRAN catches up with the latter half of the English hip hop duo, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip about books, albums, beards and who in British politics would win in a fight.

2010 has been a busy year for DLS Vs SP with the release of their second album “The Logic of Chance” in March the duo played over 40 festival dates over the summer and have been constantly touring ever since and just finished their tour last week in Ireland with sell out dates in Cork, Galway and Dublin. From the start Pip admits that Ireland is left to last on the tour for a reason. “Electric Picnic was a highlight of festivals we played and we always look forward to playing here (Ireland). . . It’s not by accident that we are ending our tour in Ireland, we’re getting a great reaction here .There has always been a great reaction to our stuff here. Our Dublin show sold out so we added an extra date.” Not one to stay idle Pip also released a book of spoken word poetry at the same time as the album however he is aware where his priorities lie. “Last few months have probably been more about the band but we did have the book available at our shows. I did a few signings in book shops as well so it’s been all good really. Two or three of the poems in the book are incorporated into our set. There’s a few in there that we play live so it’s all merged together really it’s not a case of one or the other.”

For those unfamiliar with the band you may find it peculiar that a rapper is releasing a book of poetry however the band’s music has been likened to spoken word poetry set to hip hop, conversely it wasn’t all Yeats and Donne for Pip as a child. “I started off listening to punk, to bands like The Clash, Rancid, Crass and Minor Threat. Then I got into Hip Hop and progressed from there.” Although his music today is different he still sees a link “I think the attitude, the style and the subject that I write about comes from a punk background.”

It is this environment that makes Pip uneasy about being called a poet in the traditional sense. “I grew up loving music. I was into music long before I was into spoken word poetry. I always had the two in mind together so in my mind there is no need to separate them.” When I likened his themes to that of T.S. Eliot he again restated how he only fell in to poetry and never had grounding in it. “I have always been far more interested in music. It was through Hip Hop that I got into people like Gill Scott Heron, Sage Francis and Saul Williams who were combining spoken word and Hip Hop. It all just came together in that way for me. I haven’t had a great learning in poetry. That’s why I chose to do the book the way I did to get people like me who grew up away from poetry and trying to get them to read it by putting it in a more appealing way”.

With the identification of a punk underbelly in their band it is easy to see where the bands social commentary style comes from. The content of their songs are often personal introspection or statements about the decline of modern culture. Pip often puts raw emotion out there but he declares that it is a natural progression. “That’s the only way I know how to write really, talking about things that interest me is the only way I can write. I generally take something that is a genuine experience that happened to me and make a story out of it, I have to take those emotions, truth and feelings and make a new story out of them.” Despite the somewhat odd style of dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip the duo have enjoyed chart success in England with both of their albums and with singles such as “Thou Shalt Always Kill”. Scroobius Pip enjoys this paradoxical situation he finds himself in where songs he writes giving out about popular culture becoming popular. “For me the more people listening the better. If we are making music the way we want to make it and it goes to number 1 then that’s great. That means people are getting it and taking it in so that would be great! We wouldn’t change the way we write or the things we talk about to chase commercial success. If it happens organically then it happens.”

Not to end juxtapositions, this well spoken bard is an avid fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and often appears on Setanta Sport talking about it. The question was posed as to which famous figures he would like to see duke it out in the octagon however there were too many options for him so the remit was shortened it to British Political leaders “Well if Brown was still there it would be no contest, you’d have to have money on him…not very agile and sneaky but a lot of girth. I think Nick Clegg would be the obvious choice out of the current lot, he seems to be the most sprightly and conditioned. Millaband actually looks like he could bring some BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) to the table so he could have the advantage there. Cameron would probably take a wrench out from under the stage or get his butler to knock his opponent down with his Bentley and get disqualified.”

With unimportant matters out of the way it was time to talk serious issues: the beard! Questioned as to whether he could remember his face Pip was unsure “It is somewhere but I don’t think people would recognise me if I walked down the street. It is under there somewhere but at some point I will shave it off and be like ‘Wow there I am!’ but until then I will hide behind it.”

As we parted Pip was willing to share the specific techniques involved in maintaining a quality beard “I don’t stumble upon a beard like this by accident! I use a rub in conditioner every day…make it nice and soft and thicken it up a bit…there is a level  effort and technique that goes it into to this thing. It doesn’t prop up like this by itself! It takes a bit of coaxing.”

When he answers the phone his cheeky voice is  immediately recognisable. “Just before we start, can I just ask how long will you need me for? It’s just I’m taking my wife out for coffee and she’s waiting for me here.” After assuring him that I’d have everything wrapped up by 11am I have the perfect opportunity to question Byrne on his long suffering wife Brenda who has been the subject to much ridicule in his stand up. “Sometimes I mightn’t even mention my children or my wife in a show, but ya in the past they definitely have had a battle. But that wife and those children are fictional, no woman is really like that, that’s me basically animating females and children and that’s what comedy is, it’s just animated life you know? Even though we could be dealing with real topics we animate them. Like if I went up on stage and went ’I’ve a wife ya and am…sometimes gives out to me’ then that’s no good, that’s not going to entertain anybody!“

Jason brings his stand up show to Cork on December 10th and is especially excited about returning to “The good thing about going to Cork is that it has my favourite venue to play in Ireland because that Cork Opera House is just brilliant. Everyone is sitting in the chairs, they’re so comfortable and the sight lines are really nice and Cork audiences are just great craic! They’re brilliant, they’re not like ‘Come on now you better make us laugh’ they’re normally just well up for it.” Admitting that his style of stand up routine is hard to pin down unlike the punchy one liners of Jimmy Carr or the off the wall stream of conscience approach of Ross Noble, Byrnes approach is one mainly focused on audience participation and current issues. “I always do a show in two halves when it’s in a theatre. So I’ll always come out at the start and deal with stuff that’s been going on recently, you know like kinda topical stuff and involve the audience. I normally end up making up the first half most of the time because when I’m excited like that stuff just flies into my head.” And there’s been no shortage of material for Jason in recent weeks…”Last week when I went on stage I had so much to deal with because I had Mary Harney with the red paint thrown on her and I had poor old Neil with the Cara magazine…” On a recent appearance on The Late Late Show, Ryan Tubridy was greeted by Jason clutching a copy of Cara, the Aer Lingus in flight magazine, à la Neil Prendeville. “I know Neil, I’ve been interviewed by him before but at the same time I’m thinking ‘Jesus Neil, it’s me job I just have to do it!’ but I’m never vicious though.”

So will the IMF boys be making an appearance in future shows? “Well ya but only if it’s funny! I’ve been away in England so I’ve only read about it this morning, about who the IMF are why they are here and what thing they are up to. In Ireland it’s hilarious, they’ll tell you once on the news who or what they are, if you weren’t in that day then you lose out! Like people don’t know what NAMA stands for, they don’t know who they are! The IMF is em…eh…oh my god what is it again? (with a little help from yours truly)Yes! Monetary fund! which will never be said again! So I’ll have to Google it ‘cause now the news just say the IMF and if you want to find out what they actually do then you’re gonna have to Google that as well!” But it seems that Jason has grasped some understanding of the IMF and so explains to me his own take on the situation. “They’re a bit like the Cigire. Remember the Cigire? That’s who they are! And Brian Lenihan is like the teacher looking at Ireland going ‘Just buck up now lads and sit up straight, the IMF are coming in to see what we‘re up to!’”

Earlier this year Jason and fellow comedian Des Bishop teamed up while touring Australia. A country with a large population of young Irish emigrants, it wasn’t hard for Jason and Des to pick out the ‘lads’ from the locals. “They go over there and they’re travelling around with their Cork tops, their Dublin tops, their fucking Wexford tops and I’m going ’Lads, nobody fucking knows who they are! Change into your clothes will ye! Actually there were two lads from Cork in a place called St. Kilda, it’s a really beautiful seaside place. There were the two lads standing at a tram stop, with builders boots on, Cork jerseys and carrying their shopping. In the shopping they had the sliced pan and cereal. They were unshaven and they had only arrived in Australia! I was going ’Lads what are ye fucking doin’?’ And they were just going ‘Ah we’re just getting a bit of shopping, just arrived, great craic’ Fucking mental!”

As well as performing stand up and TV presenting Jason now has his own BBC Radio 2 show in the shape of The Jason Byrne Show which in previous episodes has discussed issues from fashion and marriage to strange fears and phobias with contributions from a live studio audience. “I’ve just finished the third series, it’s in front of a live audience, it’s not like a chat show. It’s on at 10 o clock on Saturday nights on BBC Radio 2 at the moment. Each episode has different a different theme. In this series we had technology, beauty and misery and happiness which is one to look out for cause the Irish kinda crop up one that one a lot! So ya it’s cool, it’s great fun and there are always lots of mad people who go to it and say mad shit!”

As we come to the end of our phone call it seems as though Jason is finished with preparation for his next show “So ya that’s great, I’ve got my stand up for tonight! What did I say? Inspector,  IMF, Cork Lads, done!”

Jason Byrne performs in Cork Opera House on December 10^th Tickets: €26, €27.50, €29

I’m introduced to Alan Foley in his office in the Firkin Crane in Shandon on the north side of Cork City. The walls are covered with newspapers clippings and articles documenting the career of one of Irelands greatest ballet dancers. The first Irish ballet dancer to be accepted to the world renowned Vaganova of the Kirov Ballet School in Leningrad, Russia, now retired, Alan has turned his hand to directing and is currently the artistic director of Swan Lake taking place in Cork Opera House this month.

“Swan Lake really is the pinnacle of ballet, everyone knows it. But it really is a difficult ballet to do as it requires a very big and knowledgeable cast. They all need to be mature dancers and for us to be able pull this off is quite an achievement” says Cork City Ballet founder Alan Foley who has mixed it up a little with this production with the inclusion of male swan dancers “I just wanted to do something different and I thought it would be lovely to exploit the male technique because obviously you have male swans as well. So yes normally you have just the female swans but this year I thought to myself I

’m going to put six male swans in there too. They are dressed in black while the girls are in the usual white swan tutus. I’m hoping that adds an extra dimension to the show.” The production also plays host to two of the worlds living greats in ballet, Nikita Shcheglov and Sofia Gumerova who are also graduates of the 250 year old Vaganova of the Kirov Ballet School. “It really is wonderful to have them here.” Alan continues, “ As the principles of the show they have to inspire the rest of the company. It is a great coup to have them ,it’s a wonderful opportunity to see dancers of this calibre. Nikita is extraordinary and Sofia is the nearest thing to a swan. One of the Russian critics once commented that she would look like a swan in just jeans and a t shirt so it just doesn’t get any better that that does it?”

Alan and his co-choreographer Yuri Demakov have altered the usual tragic ending of Swan Lake instead opting for a fairy-tale twist. “Normally the ending is very tragic. The Swan Queen realises that she can never be with the man she loves and so throws herself into the lake and drowns and he throws himself in after her. I thought with all the doom and gloom around at the moment it would be different if the evil guy gets obliterated. So that

’s what happens, the power of their love over powers him so that he dies and the two swans are reunited”. This is a twist on the traditional story that has often been done in the past in Russian ballet Alan explains “In the time of Soviet Russia, the government insisted that there be a happy ending, they weren’t allowed to do the original tragedy. Most companies still stick with the tragedy, but I’ve taken a little bit of artistic licence and put a different twist on it”.

Compared to our Russian counterparts, ballet is a relatively new concept to the Irish theatre going audience, but Alan is confident the demand for ballet is there. “Oh yes it’s very popular and has been for years. For example when the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin opened last March they also had a production of Swan Lake which was sold out 3 months before they opened. We are very lucky that our production is selling really well. It’s such a beautiful story, you

’ve got Tschakovsky’s glorious score with some of the most wonderful music he ever wrote, you’ve got magnificent dancing the epitome of the classical technique, there are stunning costumes and beautiful scenery. It’s all there, even if you get bored with the dancing you can just listen to the music. That’s what I love about ballet the most, there are so many elements packaged together in one“.

Alan is also the director of the Colaiste Stiofain Naofa‘s full time dance course which is thriving with fresh dance talent. “ We have 24 full time students in the course. Ballet has become hugely popular around Cork city and county which is brilliant. It’s fantastic that these young students can go to a ballet like Swan Lake in Cork and see exactly how its meant to be done“.

Swan Lake opens in Cork Opera House on Wednesday 24^th of November as 8pm until Saturday 27^th of November, with a matinee on Saturday at 2.30pm concluding with a special gala performance on Saturday evening at 8pm.

Originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Motley

The 55th Corona Cork Film Festival opens with Mark Romanek’s (One Hour Photo) adaptation of Kazuo

Ishiguro’s novel ‘Never Let Me Go’, starring Keira Knightly, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield and

will screen on the 7th of November at 8.30 p.m. at the Cork Opera House. Closing the gala will be this

year’s Venice Golden Lion winner, Sophie Coppola’s ‘Somewhere’ which stars Stephen Dorph as an actor

whose hedonistic lifestyle as a resident of the luxury Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood is disrupted

by the arrival of his 11 year old daughter. The latter film’s Golden Lion gong attracted huge controversy

at Venice where the head of the jury, Quentin Tarrantino, was accused of nepotism after he presented

friends with awards, such as Alex de la Iglesia who took home two prizes including Best Director and

of course Sophie Coppola who was a one time girlfriend of Tarrantino. The awards created such a

furore that the Italian culture minister, Sandro Bondi, threatened to hand pick jurors for the festival

in the future, claiming that Tarrantino’s vision was akin to ‘an elitist, relativist and snobbish culture’.

Tarrantino, the master of schlock and infantile productions, is a lot of things but he is not an elitist.

Hopefully the 300 films that will be on show from the 7th to the 14th of November in Cork will not

incite political invective from the current Irish Minister for Culture, Mary Hanafin. Film festivals offer

people the unique opportunity to see films or documentaries that ordinarily would not be shown or

be available to a mass audience. Moreover the kind of films or documentaries shown at these kinds of

festivals are invariably challenging and interesting, different in nature to a large portion of Hollywood

films shown every weekend. Documentaries in particular can be very challenging and provocative in

nature. From Werner Herzog’s ‘Encounters at the end of the World’(http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=DI3u7g8PPEA&feature=related) where the sanity of penguins are questioned, or rather one penguin

who chooses certain death over returning to his colony or making his way to the feeding grounds, to

Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott’s ‘The Corporation’ which compares the legal ‘person’ or entity that

is a Corporation to a psychopath, proving that one can be both shocked and challenged by the power of

documentaries. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5hEiANG4Uk) For example the film ‘La Haine’ had

such a shocking effect on the people of France that the then French Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, showed

the film to his cabinet as a de facto documentary on life in the suburbs of Paris.

Of course the phrase ‘de facto documentary’ presupposes that documentaries are completely fact

based, rather they are merely the expression of an individual’s informed opinion on a subject matter

that he or she feels passionately about which in of itself reveals the beauty of the upcoming Film

Festival; that documentaries can be more successful than feature films when it comes to provoking

thought. In the aforementioned examples, the penguin may just have been disorientated and on further

investigation the definition of a psychopath is not merely a sadist with murderous intent (in fact the

definition is quite layered and fascinating) but the documentaries at least challenge you to think about

it. Among this year’s film festival with the potential to challenge us are the opening day ‘A Good day to

Die’ by David Mueller and Lynn Salt, ‘Dreaming the Quiet Man’ by Se Merry Doyle and ‘American Prince’

by Tommy Pallotta. The inaugural documentary, which will be shown in the Gate Multiplex on Sunday

November 7th at 12.30 p.m., details the true story of Dennis Banks and the rise of the America Indian

Movement which comes highly recommended by the organisers of the festival. It traces Banks’ life

from his early experience in boarding schools, through his military service in Japan, to his experiences

in Stillwater State prison which led to the founding of a movement, through confrontational actions in

Washington DC, Custer South Dakota and Wounded Knee, that changed the lives of American Indians

forever.

‘Dreaming the Quiet Man’ is a documentary on the making of the 1952 Irish film ‘The Quiet Man’

which starred John Wayne and was directed by Hollywood legend John Ford. Martin Scorsese, one of

the contributors on the documentary, reveals that the film inspired the idea for one of his greatest

movies, ‘Raging Bull’ (1980). Scorsese described the ‘Quiet Man’ as a ‘work of art… very unique and

beautiful’ and also references the flashback scene of John Wayne as a boxer accidentally killing an

opponent as the key image or idea which inspired him to make ‘Raging Bull’; “It was the inspiration for

a lot of the scenes in ‘Raging Bull’. I wanted the effect of the fighting scenes in ‘Raging Bull’ to look like

the flashback in ‘The Quiet Man’. “‘Dreaming The Quiet Man’ will screen in Cork Opera House on Friday,

November 12th at 8.30pm.

Scorsese makes another contribution to this year’s festival, albeit indirectly, in the form of Tommy

Pallotta’s ‘American Prince’. In 1978 Scorsese turned his camera on his roommate and friend, Steven

Prince, with his lost documentary ‘American Boy’. The role Prince is best known for was the creepy

salesman in ‘Taxi Driver’ but in real life Scorsese was apparently fascinated by his life as a raconteur,

actor, ex drug addict and road manager for Neil Diamond. Three decades on and filmmaker Pallotta

invites Diamond to revisit his days since ‘American Boy’ and to imagine the next step in his journey. This

is but a mere sampling of the potential delicacies which will be served throughout the festival in the

early days of November and the only way you will be able to truly savour these delectable treats is to

expand your palette as much as you can and watch these upcoming films at the 2010 Cork Film Festival.

The 55th Corona Cork Film Festival takes place in various venues around Cork city from November 7th to

14th. See www.corkfilmfest.org for more details.

Originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Motley

You play a mixture of bluegrass and folk. It’s not a genre a lot of people your age would be familiar with. Where did learn about this type of music?

We heard a band called Old Crow Medicine Show. We were watching television late one night and their song ‘Wagon Wheel’ came on. We were a rock band before that but we picked up banjos and fiddles and started playing this type of music. We have been playing together since 2002 but it was only in recent years that we started to play the type of music we play now.

Your version of MGMT’s ‘Kids’ has become a small internet sensation. Have you plans to reinvent any other modern songs in your own style?

Yeah Kids has got a lot of attention on the internet. In our live shows we cover the Strokes and Elbow’s ‘One Day Like This’ is our big finale at the end of gigs. People love it because it is a mix of the traditional and the modern. They are songs that people can sing along to.

Bands like Mumford & Sons have brought folk back into vogue recently. Do you see any similarities between their music and yours?

We were around before Mumford & Sons ever were.

There are three brothers in the group Fionn, Cormac and Ultan Lavery. Brothers often fight. Does constant gigging ever end in rows?

No, the three of them get on like a house on fire. It is the two of us who are not related who cause more hassle.

Have the band picked up any international attention.

Yeah, we get played on a German radio station so we have a few fans in Germany. We get a few messages from England and Germany. It’s mainly in Ireland we get attention though. We did a set with Alison Curtis on Today FM.

Whats next for the band? Are you planning to release any material?

We are recording at the moment and we should have an album out in the middle of next year.

For more info on the band go to facebook.com/drfotsb

Originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Motley