The Dublin Community Blog

In my opinion, one of the most interesting events that is currently happening in Dublin city is this monthly themed night of music, spoken word and performance: The Brown Bread Mixtape. Happening upstairs at the Stag’s Head is an evening full of great entertainment, prose, poems, song, laughter, fun and the odd Swedish pop song. MC’s, chief organisators and jacks-of-all-trades Kalle and Enda present a hand-picked array of artists, and are spicing it up with their own performances in between.

Dublinblog sent some questions their way, and here’s what the two main men had to say:

Tell us sth. about yourselves and how you came to organise the Brown Bread Mixtape:

Kalle: Well, I lived in New York City for about 7 years where I dabbled a bit in comedy and music. I had some poems published by Lilies & Cannonballs Review, which led to me performing poems at their launch events. They were pretty successful and I really enjoyed the energy of performance poetry. When I moved back to Ireland I was looking for something similar. Enda and myself had known each other a while and had been chatting about doing some kind of an event or gig that captured all of our interests (music, poetry, comedy, theatre). We put our heads together and came up with the brownbread mixtape!

Enda: I’m a session musician and a sound engineer. We are a couple of dudes who had a random idea, and a free night in a pub to try it out…

What is the story about theme for each evening? Why not have the artists decide for themselves what to perform?

Kalle: Because it was going to be a mixtape of different types of acts, we knew we needed something to tie the night together. So that was where the theme idea came in. We really liked the idea that each new brownbread mixtape was about a specific topic, rather than a standard gig or open mic which is more open-ended. But more importantly it gave us the opportunity to create a full show centred around the theme. We wanted to create a fully realised night of entertainment, like an old style revue show, where the audience was guided by an MC through a showcase of the best spoken word and music artists currently working. So, on any given month, once we’ve decided on the theme, we inform the artists we have booked to perform so they can prepare thematic material for the night. Also, for each new theme, Enda and myself will prepare an opening singalong segment for the audience to get them in the mood. I will usually write a new poem or two related to the theme as well as a bunch of sketches for our resident actors, the brownbread players, to perform. So, to answer your question, the theme is there to generate ideas for us all and the artists actually do have a lot of leeway in terms of choosing what they perform, we just ask that they perform at least one piece directly related to the theme of the night.

Enda: We call the theme, we set the stage, the performers take the mic(k)

Why upstairs at the Stag’s Head? Are there any plans to change venue?

Kalle: The folks at The Stag’s Head were incredibly polite, professional and simply willing to take a chance on us. We have a great relationship with them now. The upstairs of The Stag’s Head is a lovely room and when it is full on a brownbread mixtape night it has a terrific energy. It’s also one of the most iconic pubs in Dublin, which must make it one of the most iconic in the world! We don’t really want to move right now.

Enda: eh… yea what Kalle said

Do you think the web an advantage for artists, especially for people without record deal or published books?

Kalle: I think the web is hugely important for what we do. In fact all of our advertising and promotion is done on the web and by word of mouth. Sites like facebook and myspace are not necessarily my favourite thing in the world, but they are an incredibly rapid and powerful way to communicate with likeminded people, as well as being a brilliant way to network with performers for future shows. It also affords us the opportunity to showcase the brownbread mixtape gigs online for our friends and family outside of Dublin and Ireland. We are planning on setting up a webcast of future gigs, so the web will play a pretty integral role in the show down the line. If our web presence allows the artists who have performed at the brownbread mixtape to publish work or get a record deal, then that would be an incredibly huge honour and we would be thrilled that we played any small part in that

Enda: We give the performers a complimentary recording of their set, and ask them to choose one of the tracks for our facebook and myspace jukeboxes, which we showcase until the next gig. It’s a way of paying the performers, but most importantly they can use the recordings on their own webpage to promote themselves.

Where can we find more information about the mixtape?

Kalle: If you want more information about the mixtape, then point your browser here for our myspace page to sample audio of previous performers, or alternatively you can read reviews and find out about upcoming shows at our blog right here. If you wish to become a fan of ours then we have a regularly updated facebook page and the obligatory twitter page.

Enda: We’re on the Internet!

And, is there anything the world needs to know about you

Kalle: Most of all we want people to know that the brownbread mixtape is just great fun. And like all fun things it has to be a little mad and a little beyond your control.

So, we have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s the challenge of the theme, the openness to try out new ideas, the collaboration between ourselves and all the artists, and the audience for that matter, that makes brownbread greater than the sum of its parts.

Enda: Yep, what Kalle said…actually, i want to say also that the performers we’ve had so far have been amazing; they’ve either written material specifically for the gig, or creatively shoehorned their own material to fit the theme… as Kalle would say, “that’s some serious talent” (and i don’t mean that as in Kalle’s checking them out like he fancies them)

Kalle: I’ve heard it said that the recession brings about great art. Based on what I have seen it’s true. There’s a real buzz happening in Dublin at the moment and we’d like to think that the brownbread mixtape is right at the heart of that. Don’t take it from me, come along this month and see for yourself!

Enda: It’s FREE!

To sum it all up: it’s free, it’s great fun, and some incredible art is created there. The next mixtape takes place on February 24th. Be there.