The Brass Funkeys

Ahead of their much anticipated performance at London Remixed Festival this Friday, The Brass Funkeys talk embarrassing moments, their plans for the year and why this festival is just too good to be missed. You can get your tickets here.

FFY: How did you guys first come together to form The Brass Funkeys? And what’s the best thing about being in a band?

We formed in Cambridge in 2010 after one of us found a sousaphone on ebay and figured we might as well put it to some use! Since then it's taken quite a battering, having been soldered back together multiple times after being dropped off stages, but it's still going strong...

The best thing about being in a band is getting to breeze past festival security wearing an artist wristband and pretending in your head that you're a celebrity.

FFY: Did the ‘New Orleans marching band’ beat develop organically, or was this something you always had in mind when creating your music?

We always wanted to try and draw on the New Orleans vibe when putting the band together as it's such great music and great fun to play. Bands like the Hot 8 Brass Band and the Dirty Dozen were a massive inspiration when we started off (and still are!), but now we're starting to find more of our own style and are bringing in sounds from the UK and our own musical backgrounds. We're just about to record our second album, and there are tunes on there that draw on elements of dub, D&B, electronic, and latin music which we love adding into the pot!

FFY: What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened on stage? and what's your favourite ever performance?

Most embarrassing thing is probably Vij's stage chat whenever he's had more than one shandy. Either that or any of the times one of our sousa players has tried to jump down off the stage wearing the sousaphone and have fallen over (which happens more often than you'd think - don't think anyone's ever landed it!).

Favourite ever performance: for sheer craziness it would have to be closing the Shangri La Hell Stage at Glatonbury 2015 with Chris Tofu as the sun came up at 5am; for sheer oddness probably our gig on a working miniature railway train at Brainchild festival last summer complete with tunnel and train whistle...

FFY: What is it about London Remixed Festival that attracted you to play there?

We love working with Global Local/ Continental Drifts and always jump at the chance to play at one of their nights - those guys always throw the best parties! London Remixed Festival is special because it's a chance to see so much of London's musical variety in one place - there aren't many times in the year that you can wander between rooms in a night out and have such an eclectic mix of music.

FFY: Really looking forward to seeing you battle it out with Bring Your Own Brass on the Friday - do you have any surprises planned for the big ‘Brass Off’?

We've got a few things up our sleeve, but that's where they’re staying until the night (BYOB have spies everywhere and can't be trusted), so you'll have to come along and see!

The only thing that won't be a surprise is the result - we've bested them in single combat before and have been in intensive brass-off training over the summer, so they don't stand a chance...

FFY: What are your plans for this year? Hopefully you’ll be playing at more music festivals!

Big plans this year! We're just about to start recording for our second album, which should be released this summer just in time for festival season, so we're looking forward to playing loads of new music and meeting new people.