AS as part of their end of year project, The Radio Broadcasting and Music Management class of Limerick College of Further Education will host an epic end of year blowout. It happens this Thursday and all proceeds go to charity. Performing on the night will be Limerick’s hip hop / rock outfit Campaign LK. Formed in 2008 and originally intended to be a writing platform for other artists, the song-writing and recording soon became focused around rapper, Weenz, who’s raw authentic lyrics were perfect for the energy and intensity of the sound the band were producing.
Campaign LK’s Brian O’Brien gave Limerick Post an insight in the collaborative process that the band have developed, “Usually I go to Weenz with a riff I have written with a rap in mind and a melody that I’m going to sing. Weenz records it into his phone and takes that recording for a week or two, he paces around his apartment coming up with words, a lot of it tongue-in-cheek and lot of it deep, but it is all good and it all works. Often Weenz comes back to the band with a rap that can inspire new hooks and choruses and take the songs in different directions”.
“A lot of what I sing can be taken in many different ways so it is easy for him to write to interpret that, a lot of his rhymes are about Irish people and how they are dealing with recession and friends lost to emigration and a lot of our hooks and melodies kinda mirror that.”
Campaign LK’s big opportunity came when the band took the playing the main support slot for The Rubberbandits Horse Outside Tour’ in 2010/11. This saw Campaign LK perform to sold-out crowds across the country and abroad, bringing their stage show to venues in Dublin, Belfast, London and everywhere in between. Brian recognises that touring with Rubberbandits heralded a new era for Campaign LK, “we are growing as a band, we come from different backgrounds musically but the band is really connecting now. Last week we wrote and completed a song in just one rehearsal called ‘Exactly How You Feel’, I thought afterwards, Holy Shit that never happens, a song finished in 90 minutes.”
Brian and his brother Conor, the band’s bassist, turned up in an episode of TV3’s Celebrity Come Dine with Me last week. They were the musical special guests of Madeline Mulqueen, (the girl from Rubberbandit’s Horse Outside video). Madeline knew the lads since the making of the Horse Outside video which also features cameos from Campaign LK members, notably Weenz in the opening shots.
Madeline asked the lads to provide music when she sang Cee-Lo Green’s Forget You for her celebrity guests on Come Dine With Me. “We filmed it last November, we brought up the double bass and the acoustic guitar, we dressed up, played a few songs, Madeline sang, we left, she ate and TV happened” laughs Brian.
For Campaign LK, a live session recorded in Dublin will go on release through iTunes with a clean version of the song Relax likely to be the next single.
On stage after Campaign LK is Japanese breakcore artist DJ Scotch Egg, currently based In Brighton. The chiptune/gabber style Dj has impressed crowds at big festivals such as Supersonic in Brighton and Sonar in Barcelona. Scotch Egg’s unique sound comes from his use of 4 Nintendo Gameboys a Megaphone some Distortion Pedals and a Mixer, combined with percussion to create his crazy DJ sets.
Also on the bill is rising stars Leading Armies, local blues legends The Hip-Neck Blues Collective and magician and MC for the night, Leon Anderson. On the terrace hear fist-pumping, banging hard dance from Tha Butcher Boyz, a live analogue set from Purist, and some house and techno from Darragh Flynn and Derek M from Beats Working.
EPIC happens this Thursday April 19 in Dolans Warehouse and all proceeds go to The C.A.R.I Foundation and The Learning Hub Limerick.
