MUSIC: One Last Time for Stomptown

HAVING emerged as one of the most unique live acts in Ireland in recent times with an array of diverse projects to their name, urban street funk band Stomptown Brass are back this autumn with a fresh sound and a tighter line-up.

The eight-piece released their latest floor filler ‘One Last Time’ on September 23 ahead of a nationwide tour.

‘One Last Time’ not only captures the band’s infectious energy but brings a darker, more texture-driven groove.

The single combines their second-line jazz roots with a more eclectic mix of styles and sounds, from more modern jazz forms to different electronic music genres. 

Since their inception in 2015 Stomptown Brass have shocked, delighted, and entertained audiences across Ireland and abroad. Through numerous festival appearances and themed shows, they have built and maintained their status as one of the country’s most unique and dynamic ensemble acts.

Blending the sounds of funk and blues with a raucous cacophony of powerful driving rhythm, the impressive band line-up of two drummers, two trombones, two trumpets, one saxophone and a big dirty Tuba are known to put on a serious show.

Off the back of their debut EP ‘Locomotive’ and their single ‘I Got a Plan’, the band have performed numerous times at Electric Picnic, Longitude, Kaleidoscope, Bundoran’s Sea Sessions, Indiependence and Another Love Story, along with sell-out headline shows at Pepper Canister Church, The Chocolate Factory, The Sugar Club, Cyprus Avenue and Dolan’s among others.

Breaking new ground, the band sold out back-to-back shows at Dublin Fringe 2017, Norway Fringe 2018, Cork Jazz Festival 2018, Waterford Imagine Arts Festival 2018, and returned for two self-produced shows at Pepper Canister Church in Dublin.

You can catch them this time around on November 9 in the The Academy Green Room.

TRACK RECORD with Stomptown Brass Band:

Most memorable moment in Dublin?

We started marching the streets of Portobello after a gig at Canalaphonic one year playing some of our more New Orleans/mardi gras-like tunes. We gathered quite a large crowd that marched with us. All it took was a couple of hundred people to shut down a packed Dublin Bus en route to IKEA. They were proper future furniture furious. 

 Favourite place to visit in Dublin?

If you haven’t heard of Lucky’s in Dublin 8, they do the best pizza in town! Our drummer Branden Dorothy Perkins hosts a pizza themed Jazz night every other week, famously called Pizza Jazz.

 When not performing, what else do you do?

Most of the band are working in full-time jobs, from PR to personal shoppers, so it’s really only the weekends (or a night a week) that we really get together to play some tunes or play gigs on tour. 

 First album you bought and last album you bought?

First album was Emma Bunton’s ‘A Girl Like Me’; the inside sleeve was the closest thing to a pin-up back then. Last record was ‘Jason’ by O Emperor; pity to see the band break up earlier this year after winning the Choice Music Prize, but they’ll be back I’d say.

 Who are your influences?

We are big fans of the career that Miles Davis put down (constantly evolving) but also a strange mix of jazz, Ethiopian-jazz and a touché of techno. And of course, Celtic.

 Alongside you, who would make up your ideal band (dead or alive)?

Probably Jesus on drums. But when he was a baby. 

 What three things are on your rider?

A bottle of Buckfast, smelly blue cheese and a first edition of ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’.

Any tips on life?

 Protect the bees coz one day they’ll bee your doctor.