Music / Get To Know
Get to Know: Binbag Wisdom
What’s the secret of a successful longstanding musical partnership?
….Comedy!
At least that’s Binbag Wisdom’s take when asked how their hip hop double act has not only endured but creatively thrived over more than a decade.
is needed now More than ever
“What’s really fun is the jokes we make between songs. For a satisfying experience we have to entertain each other while we’re onstage,” says Jake Blackmore, aka MC Binbags.
Wisdom and Blackmore started out playing in a ska band together in 2012, then busked in New Zealand, before returning to settle in Bristol and embed themselves in the jam scene here – photo: Binbag Wisdom
“Jack and I have been such good friends for so long but we don’t spend much time together outside the project because we’re always working on the project,” he continues, referring to his compadre Jack Wisdom – MC Dur Brain – who he met at music college in Bath.
“Quite often when we’re on stage we haven’t seen each other for a while so we’ll just have a nice time catching up and cracking each other up on the mic.
“Not only do we get a kick out of it but the audience started telling us, the music’s good but we love seeing you guys have fun more than anything.”
Keeping it lighthearted makes it accessible: “Humour puts people at ease who might not be into hip hop that much,” says Jack. “It lightens the mood and gets people onside.”
And it helps them navigate difficult topics without straying into uncomfortably earnest territory.
“It means we can do serious content songs,” says Jake. “We want to talk about the human condition and the political state of the world, but we’re not very righteous people so it’s abit cringe to be social justice warriors.
“I don’t want to be in that role, I want to have a nice time with people and also say ‘don’t you think it’s fucked how the world is absolutely destroyed and we’re allowing that to happen – oh well, let’s have a laugh’…”
A longstanding love of skits – the comedy sketches that traditionally appear between songs on hip hop albums (Jake and Jack reference The Score by the Fugees and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)) – started to dominate their approach to hip hop, which has been experimental since the live version of Binbag Wisdom burst onto the Bristol scene around a decade ago.
They developed their sound at jam nights which, they say, were “really mucky, fun and loose” with “a certain lo-fi charm” at that time, more DIY compared to today’s pro jazz musicians turning up to ‘perfect their art’ at oversubscribed jams.
The combination of bass and clarinet, with Jake on guitar and Jack behind the kit, created a distinct sound: “I really liked music from video games that was creepy,” says Jake. “Spooky eight-bit music. Hip hop meets swing and grunge with abit of reggae Gameboy influence. Just niche enough to not get any work!”
The new Binbag Wisdom, armed only with mics, are backed up on beats by Mr Fitz – “I still love drumming but now I don’t have to set anything up or put anything down, I just turn up,” says Jack; “There used to be carry a drumkit, amp, pedalboard, now we we just go there. OMG it’s amazing,” says Jake – photo: Binbag Wisdom
He’s being coy – the band played gigs across the UK and Europe for five years before Covid hit and a stripped back version emerged on the other side.
The duo, now unencumbered by instruments and backed up by DJ Mr Fitz, focused exclusively on their lyricism and comedy started to take centrestage.
They had toyed with writing sketches before – “We’re not from the same culture that we love and respect so much, we don’t want to affect it by pretending to be gangsters, so we’d write skits where we were stuck in a bunker in a post-apocalyptic Midlands in 2051….” explains Jake.
“We cared so much about those skits and that, alongside the good chemistry we have onstage, led us to think – let’s see what happens if we plan out the jokes that happen between the songs.”
Scriptwriting classes followed: they’ve developed a whole new show as well as writing a short story together, and Jack’s working on a screenplay. “We just like writing man!” enthuses Jake.
The show, which they hope to take to next year’s Edinburgh Fringe, features a sinister self-proclaimed spiritual guru, a character in “a big flowy wizard’s robe and mask with a massive lampshade on his head” and Wee Willy Winky of Scottish nursery rhyme fame.
OK – what’s it all about?
“The main theme is trying to find meaning, a sense of purpose…” says Jack, while Jake sums up, “We’re trying to find what the hell the point is of carrying on in the arts… And guess what – the meaning was in the art all along for god sakes. That’s what the point is!”
It’s a satisfyingly tight narrative, one that goes round the houses to come back and bite itself on the tail in a pleasingly meta ‘art-meets-life’ concept.
For a notoriously silly pair that started out on all this to have a laugh and get loose, Binbag Wisdom are proving themselves musicians with a facility for self-reflection and an ability to not only see, but creatively mess with, the bigger picture.
Binbag Wisdom tried out their new show – that sits at the intersection of theatre, comedy and hip hop – in front of a festival audience at Shambala this year; their debut venue performance is coming up at Jam Jar in November – photo: @siansmusicbox
And they’re not afraid of a challenge.
“We’ve always played for late night rowdy audiences, and the music suits that, but in this new environment – I think the theatrical stuff will go down better but how will the music go down? That’s going to be interesting to see,” muses Jake. “Eventually, we aim to write a show that is self-contained, a cohesive piece where all the bars fit with the story.
“Essentially it’s musical theatre at that point. I grew up loving musicals and I’m not opposed to us being in that world, I just want the music to have the authentic energy that we’ve found from being in the music scene.
“I’d like to come to musical theatre from the perspective of authentic UK hip hop, and I want the theatrical stuff to not take itself too seriously. I’d like us to feel as at home in a theatre putting on a musical as much as we feel at home at a festival doing a 1am show.”
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Binbag Wisdom presents: the Ballad of Wee Willy Winky, an exploration of character, comedy and chaos, at the Jam Jar on November 25. Looking to create a welcoming and accessible event to share this new chapter, the band have made the gig ‘pay as you feel’.
More information and tickets at www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/jam-jar/tue-25-nov-binbag-wisdom-presents-the-ballad-of-wee-willy-winky-140633#e140633
Main image: Binbag Wisdom
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