Interview: STIG OF THE DUMP X GROOVEMENT

Yes, Stig. Dr Syntax has upped Stigs and made the move to glorious Manchester, when can we be expecting you here?

As soon as a promoter brings me up, I was supposed to play “ballin’ On A Budget” the night run by my BROKE N £NGLISH ppls but it clashed with another show that fell through, which was a right gutter. Hopefully I’ll be back up soon enough, I have plenty of kinfolk up there. Shouts to my TT fam et al.

How did you get to know Syntax and how fruitful has the relationship been?

“Pause”… I met him a couple times when he was touring with the FOREIGN BEGGARS back when I lived in the mother land (Newcastle). We got on well and stayed in contact. Then I moved to LDN, became homeless, did a couple shows in Brighton where he was living at the time, then he moved to London & into a yard with Newbown who ran Beer & Rap, Jimmy Crayon & Metropolis from Beggars, I moved in onto their sofa & ate their left overs, from then he was stuck with me, until he escaped to Manny, haha.

Street Fighter fan or was it forced upon you by the Cannon?

I love SF but I’m not too hype at it… My quarter circle game is weak, I will break your face on Fight Night tho, ha ha. Pete made the beat years ago as part of a Louis Den beat cypher (peep www.louisden.com I think… Or google it at least, it’s an incredible producers geek fest with some of the illest in the country if not the world) he sent me it & it knocked hard so I ran with it.

Why Pete for production?

Because he is incredible, he’s versatile & makes music that brings out your sex face. I like music that makes me screw my face up. Pete makes it like it’s nothing. Plus I like the juxtoposition of the digital sounds with the boom bap ethic. In my eyes the dude is a genius & I think his lack of social skills is proof, dude is a mentalist but that’s my peoples.
What other producers have created the Mood Swings sound?
Dag Nabbit, Jehst & Naim (& Smoove, Beat Butcha & some Hardcore Rock heads I know on the bonus tracks… Ray Bussey & Wema from Knuckledust & Pieman from Hellbent Diehard).

Does frustration generate inspiration for most of your lyrical content?

I think it inspires most of it, either talking about the stuff that angers me & frustrates me about everything from myself to the world around me. Or trying to escape it by penning braggy idiotic bars for my own amusement. I make music purely for the love & the catharsis.

Fill us in on the genesis and release of Mood Swings, your first album proper?

It was an excessively long process as my life is generally chaotic so either my brain is raging, life gets in the way or I’m too busy with nothing. I literally live for my ppls & performing live so the studio is a means to an end for me, I’m slowly learning to be more organised but when you’re brain is messy like someone let a monkey loose it isn’t overly conducive to an organised existence. I just wanted to make the kind of music I would enjoy listening to or performing live, I think I did so for the most part. I’m stuck between the fun waffle I like writing & emptying the lunacy from my brain box so it was hard finding a balance but I’m happy with it, it bangs.

Is it hard to get a CD out in these days of downloads?

No, it’s probably easier than it ever was, it’s just infinitely harder to sell them & in turn recoup but I try not to dwell, I’m a broke rapper so obviously every single sale is important & the fall of sales has affected me hard but at the same time I want people to hear it so there are ups & downs. I just wish music wasn’t becoming so disposable, it makes the whole financial & creative process harder but it is what it is, even when the computers take over & music is outlawed I’ll still be in some crack den studio venting & rapping about fat chicks, booze & being better than you, haha. Team Hate does it proper!!!

Are you a Twitter fiend, do you find it cathartic?

Not a fiend, I’m a regular user, I find it massively cathartic, I’m the kind of lunatic who sees something that annoys me or I have a thought bouncing around in my skull & plaguing my every thought, so rather than talk to a patronising professional I just tweet it & it’s out there, leaving room for more pointless misanthropic nonsense. There are some people who are ADDICTS though, people I know & respect who just have nothing of interest to say, I get the self promotion & musings but for the love of an imaginary god, if I read another “motivational” tweet I think I’ll try & kill the internet, after I’ve bludgeoned the person with their iBrain or Crackberry (& twittered the pics obviously).. Oh & SERIOUSLY, unless you’re a 13 year old girl there is no excuse for using those moronic abbreviations, “lol”, “kmt” & all that high school Skins show idioms. I have enough self loathing to deal with for using it in the first place & having to misspell things just to fit it into the 140 character limit. Ha ha, sorry… “Lmao”

What have you got going on in terms of performing at the moment?

I’m typing these answers on my Crackberry on route to a sold out show in Plymouth, other than that not much apart from a few dubstep shows (I’m starting to host/rhyme on a few dubstep sets, as a side thing).

Is telling the truth important to you?

Hugely, above & beyond the humourous trash talking I’m all about truth, in life & music.. It’s one of the only things in this world you can truly rely on. The truth is the truth, fact is fact. The problem with it is recognising it in others & not allowing the ego to distort it.

How important is it to you to remain completely independent of industry bullshit?

As long as I conduct myself in a way I can be proud of everything else is whatever. I don’t want to avoid the industry, I just refuse to “play the game” or compromise what I consider to be who I am (again relying on “the truth”) that attitude isn’t conducive to a roll in the “industry”. I’m not adverse to it but by its very definition “industry” is about business. I don’t want to industrialise my music… I just want to be able to do it, obviously I have to think about my bills & my future (family, old age if by some miracle I reach it) but I’ll probably continue to ignore them until I either die young or live to an age where I die from hypothermia as I couldn’t afford to fuel my two bar fire in the bitter winter Haha.

Who’s doing it on the independent scene nowadays?

Beggars are killing it, DUCKDOWN in America are an incredible example of a strong independent business model, there are ‘nuff people “doing it” but to me “doing it” is staying true to self & still managing to be self sufficient (although even self sufficiency isn’t a huge part of that, success to me is being honest with yourself & not compromising for finance & fame).

Vinyl’s gone, print’s going (HHC, anyone?) – what’s next?

Freedom & intellect. Now go cop my album from www.stigofthedumpuk.bandcamp.uk it will eventually be the sound track to the Zombie invasion. Haha. I’m about to put Plymouth on SMASH. Team Hate, Meat City, A League Of Extraordinary Idiots, Altered Ego’s, F.U.Music… We’re the future where there isn’t one mother fuck face. Yezzir.

Buy the album here!