M&A #12: Swarbs

You may know Swarbs, aka David Swarbrick, from his barnstorming sets at Grandma Groove and OOX. He links rose-tinted disco with the tightness of garage, to deliver swaying, hedonistic sets to heaving dancefloors. Here, he starts off somewhere familiar, before leading us down to deeper house and skittery techno, before emerging back where we started with a euphoric rendition of Jill Scott’s Golden. A huge mood lifter for those in the library.

How did you record the mix?

I recorded the mix using a Novation Twitch & Traktor, it’s a discontinued controller originally made for Serato but I was drawn to it by the lack of jogwheels at the time (and because I got a good deal for repairing a broken one).

What were you trying to do with the it?

Originally I’d planned a full arc to the mix starting at a Floating Points track and wandering through some of the latest releases I’m enjoying at the moment, from some Kornél Kovács to Mac DeMarco, but once I started I realised the preplanned tracks didn’t fit together in the way I’d hoped they might. I guess good playlists don’t necessarily make good mixes. The hour or so posted here begins a while into the recording session, from this point I was mainly exploring mixing in key & doing some long transitions into tracks I really enjoy but some of which I wouldn’t usually play out. I don’t usually get the chance to do much of these techniques live since mixing old-school disco at Grandma Groove & OOX is mostly concerned with heavily off-grid beatmatching and a large emphasis on crowd feedback for song choice.

How did you first get into DJing?

I first got into electronic music around my GCSEs, then research into how it was made and played out by different people led me to djing. As an engineer I’ve been fascinated with electronics for a while now, so I guess for me djing combines music & electronics in a really simple but impactful way. I bought my controller during Sixth Form but didn’t play anything out until they needed DJs for bops in college and I joined the JCR helping to run ents. From there I was asked to do GG and most other things have stemmed from that.

How do you go about preparing for a set? How do you sort and prepare songs? Do you plan any part of a set?

On my laptop I’ve got about 3 weeks of music organised through a commandline interface, but the stuff I play out usually is kept elsewhere. If it’s somewhere new that I haven’t played before I’ll make a longlist on YouTube / Spotify of tracks I think match the vibe of the night, then download my favourites (usually from Bandcamp if possible) and make a folder for the shortlist with other stuff from my computer. For most sets I’ll prepare tracks briefly in Rekordbox, I rarely use Hot Cues but I try to make sure the start and end of tracks are on grid so that the measured tempo is pretty accurate to help me beat match more easily. For Grandma Groove for example there are two playlists, about 300 tracks of the classic disco & funk most people expect, then “Grandma’s Garage” of about 120 garage/house/disco-house tracks that I think are a bit heavier but can go down really well if played at the right time. I don’t plan the tracks for any part of my sets, but as a rule I generally start with the lower tempo tracks to save the higher energy big tunes for times where the crowd are really enjoying themselves, for example I enforce a rule that I’ll only play “September” a maximum of once each GG.

How do you dig for records/find new music? Do you have a specific process?

I really wish I had a consistent process for finding new music, currently it’s a collection of different things. I follow some of my favourite artists & record labels on Bandcamp so I get emails each time anything new is released, I check Bleep pretty regularly & find a lot of new tracks through listening to Boiler Room mixes & NTS Radio. When I’m home I frequent Piccadilly Records & Vinyl Exchange, which both also have online stores too. I really rate personal recommendations, especially from friends, but also when an artist I enjoy discusses their favourite albums on a radio show or in an interview. If I’m at a record store I generally try and find something that I’ve heard good things about or have been tracking for a while, but if I’m searching online sometimes I’ll find a track I like & explore the album/artist/record label & related artists until I find some other things I enjoy.

The mix has a pretty constant thumping energy but achieves it while going from disco to funk to house to Skee Mask’s unique brand of dark breaks. As you’ve mentioned, people might not be familiar with the deeper side of the mix, is that something you might try to incorporate in a set?

I think my live sets generally stick around the mood of a night, which will vaguely link into the genre of the tracks, but not necessarily. It’s quite easy to move from classic disco to  brand new house/garage and back again, and I do that quite often, but you can only stray further into some techno if the crowd are really behind you & it wouldn’t be too off-brand for the night. I think my ideal DJ set would sound something like this mix, but I have no idea what sort of night that would be & whether anyone would actually want to come.

In the same way a playlist can be different from a DJ mix, I think mixes pre-recorded for distribution and ones created in a live performance at an event are quite different beasts (unless you’re David Guetta). As a DJ who primarily plays disco, I’d feel quite out of place doing a pure Ilian Tape/Skee Mask techno & breaks mix, but equally I’d love the opportunity to drop some of the rare & heavy cuts I enjoy in my own time, so I guess the reason this mix crosses genre more extensively is to try and link all these bits together.

A night you’ve played, that has been wildly successful this year, is Grandma Groove. While the popularity has been hugely positive for the Cambridge music/student DJ scene, it’s renowned for people selling tickets on for vastly more than they bought them for. Have you noticed this ‘Ticketbridge’ trend have an effect on the people able to go to the nights? Do you think there’s anything that can be done to combat it?

I’ve definitely noticed the hype created by the increased demand for tickets, it’s really great that a student run night making money for charity sells out within a matter of minutes. I think the excitement on an FB event/Ticketbridge can sometimes add to the atmosphere of a night, people generally arrive earlier meaning the energy gets to a good level more quickly and maintains it for longer. For GG I know the organisers have been trying lots of different ways to counteract ticket reselling, they’ve put a limit on the number of tickets people can purchase and included more ticket options, but there’s only so much a promoter can do in preventing resale for profit. At the moment I think lots of the frustration lies with the speed at which tickets sell out so it would be interesting to see if an announcement of the ticket release time would help at all such as Arcsoc used to do.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

“Take what you take” from Lily Allen’s Alright, Still. That album is full of some retro bangers. Or maybe “Put your records on” by Corinne Bailey Rae.

What is the last song you listened to?

Metronomy - Lately / the album “Yes! Come Parade With Us” by Leafcutter John

Who is your favourite producer/performer at the moment?

Four Tet is definitely one of my favourite artists of all time. I’ve managed to see him twice this year, for the first time at Brixton Academy and recently at Alexandra Palace on my birthday where he played with a gigantic lightshow; everyone stood around him in this forest of LEDs that lit up in colours that swelled and panned with the music, it was completely unique.

What is your go to tune to bring a party up/banger?

I Know You, I Live You by Chaka Khan; I remember hearing it on Charlie Bones’ Breakfast show on NTS and it put me in a great mood for the rest of the day. One of the house tracks I played in the mix included a sample from it, but the original cannot be beaten.

What was the best party you’ve played?

Djing to a 2000 capacity club on the Varsity Trip has to be one of the best parties I’ve played and one of the most surreal opportunities I’ve received, but I’d probably say one of my favourite moments when djing was at an earlier Grandma Groove in Revs when I mixed a disco remix of the Star Wars theme tune (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRWYYt47RI) into the end of a funk track. The slow realisation in the room of what had just happened was such a fun moment.

What have you got planned for the future?

I’ve got a super packed fortnight coming up, with another Grandma Groove, Strawberries & Creem, the Turf All-Nighter at Junction, then a whole host of May Balls & other smaller nights. After that, a lot of sleep.

David’s Tracklist:

min - Artist - Title 

00:00 Daniel Avery - Quick Eternity (Four Tet Remix)

4:30 Roosevelt - Sea (Young Marco remix)

07:00 Peven Everett - Put Your Back Into It

09:30 Executive Suite - Why In The World Do They Keep On (Funk'in With Me) [Re-edit]

12:30 ATFC featuring Lisa Millett - Bad Habit (ATFC Original Vocal)

16:00 Happy Clappers - I Believe Original 12” Mix

19:30 Jesse Rose feat. Seven Davis Jr. - Appreciate (original mix)

23:15 Forest Drive West - Static

28:05 Kerri Chandler - Syntax Error

30:30 Daphni - Thriller

35:00 Lone - Melted (Out Of Body Experience)

39:00 Soulsearcher - Can’t Get Enough! (Vocal Club Mix)

43:00 KiNK - Valentine's Groove

46:15 The Stone Roses - Fools Gold (Grooverider remix)

49:00 Skee Mask - Dial 274

51:00 Jacques Greene - Avatar Beach (Extended)

54:05 Jill Scott - Golden (Wookie Dub Mix)