For a number of years now, Bristol has been home to a lyrical masterpower known as The Scribes. Ripping up stages across the UK and beyond, the 3 strong crew have a genuinely unique sound, with bags of dynamism, witty lines and bangin beats! We took some time to get to know the rhymers and see what’s in store for 2020 and beyond.

INTERVIEWEES:
J: Jonny Steele
S: Ill-literate

You guys have been stalwarts of the Bristol and festival scenes for years now, when did you first get together and how did you meet?

S: We’ve been best friends since the age of 5 and have pretty much not found anyone else that can put up with us since! Started making music together at I guess about 16 and did our first show as The Scribes a few years later. I dread to think what that was like to hear…..

J: Yep, we’ve known each since Primary school, went to different secondary schools but got back together making music in our late teens, messing around with Fruityloops and never looked back.

Where does the name Scribes come from?
J: The name comes many years of cultivating, honing and crafting the adept skills of lyricism before spending 5 minutes coming up with a name because ‘scribes write stuff’.

S: I can’t honestly remember but I feel like we had a list of potential names at some point, definitely including the absolute gem that is “Organised Rhyme”, which was our childhood crew. I think we picked the right one there!

You have collaborated with a wide range of artists, do you have any favourites to date? If so, how did they come about? 
S: We’ve been fortunate enough to support and work with some amazing people over the years, playing with Pharaoh Monch who was a bit of a childhood hero was a big moment, as was hitting the road with Ugly Duckling. Legends, every one of them! In terms of collaborations Leon from Too Many Ts is an absolute joy to work with, especially filming the “Righteous” video. Though he does look crushingly like a significantly handsomer version of myself, like the next step up in Pokemon evolutions?

J: My favourite has to be Akil from Jurassic 5 as he’s just humble and talented guy. We toured with him and took in the different take he had in putting on freestyling, crowd participating live show, which is impressive for solo acts to pull off successfully.

Your sound seems to blend elements of Hip Hop, Dub, Rock and Funk, would you say any of you drive elements of your sound more than each other? 

S: It really does depend how the track’s originated, I produce a lot of the beats myself using a lot of live instrumentation, so those ones do tend to have more of the rocky feel. We also work with a lot of producers on more hip hop sounding tracks that evolve through live performance, shaping them around crowd reactions and that. I think it’s a good balance of influences from each of us overall, though we try and make sure the main thing is making music we enjoy, whatever the genre!

J: We have an ever-evolving taste in music genres and like to try and incorporate whatever feeling into the tracks, whether it’s switching up the flow, rhythm, adlibs are all affected just depending on the headspace we’re in from what we’ve been listening to.

Has your sound always been a mix of styles?

J: From our backgrounds growing up, it’s always been different. Even growing up in Bristol, Shaun didn’t have enough black friends and to this day is still scared of patois.

S: I didn’t have enough friends full stop. Just me and my Space Marines….. I definitely listened to a lot of Blur and The Kinks growing up, but didn’t really get into making music til hip hop entered my life. I think I’ve definitely always tried to please myself musically and I don’t really listen to much music nowadays to be influenced by, so we pretty much always end up with some kind of mad mash up of styles!

What’s been your favourite performance to date?

J: As Shaun mentioned, supporting Pharoahe Monch *cough* twice *cough* as he’s always been top 3 for myself personally, I love watching how he blend the lyricism with crowd control.

That said, I’d say Leopallooza would be one of my favourites when you’ve been working for years and get crowds turning specifically for your sets, it’s a great feeling having unapologetic hip hop from the UK on these festival bills and people getting involved.

S: Leopallooza is a beast! Glastonbury’s always an honour to be involved with, same with Boomtown as they could have anybody they wanted really. We’re lucky enough to do really well on the festival circuit and that’s a blast to be involved with, plus big crowds that are well up for it is ideal for us! We’ve gone out to Ibiza a few times and it’s like another world, so that’s fun. Also got loads of fond memories from events at The Watering Hole in Cornwall which are always rammed. There’s too many to name to be honest!

Outside of The Scribes, what do you each get up to?

J: Work, kids, little bit of crack.

I’ve been involved with some live bands and spoken word performances. Our solo influences eventually make their way back into the Scribes live show whether it’s gauging the crowd on track tempos or interactions/chants that work well.

S: I like to keep it hip hop, so outside of gigs and the studio you’ll likely find me reading or making my beautiful wife play a board game with me. I’ve amassed a frankly too large collection of board games that I’d be happy to tell you all about in excruciating detail but people tend to zone out once I start banging on about it.

Who would you say influences your sound?

J: All of us really, as the first few track picks will guide the theme for the rest of the project.

S: Definitely a group effort. We bring a bunch of ideas, raps, riffs and other nonsense into the studio and sort of see where we end up. Nowadays I think our main influence is the reaction of a live crowd to be honest!

You were linked to (Kamikaze Records - this right?), how did that link come about?

J: Plymouth, Ugly Duckling and Alcohol

S: All of the above! We supported them on their UK tour and got to know Dizzy and he liked what we were doing, so it all kind of grew from there! Was an amazing experience.

Earlier this year you released Quill Equipped Villany, tell us a bit about the album and who’s involved.

S: The album features guest spots from Akil The MC of Jurassic 5, Leon Rhymes from Too Many Ts, Truemendous, Bodega Brovaz, Blacksmith, Goose and Phil Jeong and guest production from Astro Snare, Vice Beats, Fat Controllers and Dave T. It’s a real mix of tracks we’ve been working on for the past few years and we’re well happy with how it’s turned out. Definitely not intentionally rocky, I think we just ended up there by picking stuff we all liked for the cover and shoots! Either way, people should give it a listen!

What’s next for The Scribes?

J: More collaborations. We’ve been fortunate enough to put out whatever music we like and that’s not gonna stop anytime soon, we’re just gonna add some more brains to the noise.

Welcome to the experimental phase, see you on the other side.

S: We’ve got some collaborative EPs in the pipe line, plus plenty more time on the road hitting up stages anywhere and everywhere! I’d definitely recommend checking us out live if you can do, though I might be a smidge biased.

The Scribes will continue to set stages on fire, so be sure to catch them at a local gig or festival next year, and check out their music below, or above, or through Google or anywhere really!

LOTS OF LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/scribesmusic

https://www.instagram.com/thescribes/

https://www.twitter.com/thescribes

https://www.bandsintown.com/thescribes

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2GLZXGFyibACNTgaZG5vkW

https://scribesmusic.bandcamp.com/

Words by James “Vice beats” Kennaby
Images by Rachael Amos