Video Report And Interview – The Ska music of Buster Shuffle

When you look at today’s Ska world, you see two major trends.

New bands either go the traditional route, dig deep in the Jamaican tradition and come up with Rocksteady, Ska Jazz, Early Reggae and such. Or they mix Ska with Punk and speed it up, at times brutally. What happened to the chart-wise most successful Ska style of them all? No one plays Ska 2Tone-style anymore. That’s at least what I thought until I listened to Buster Shuffle from London.

Their music is definitely a breath of fresh air to the Global scene. It’s bare of clichés, it’s very old school and at the same time very much set in today. If you haven’t met Buster Shuffle, you are welcome to do it now.

I did an interview with singer/piano player Jet and guitarist James after their show at the festival Bochum Total (Germany), in July 2011. Gregor Pottmeier of Marquee worked the cameras and did the editing.

We talked about:

• The sleeping bag that they used as a vocal booth while recording their first album “Our Night Out”
• The bus trip to a show that inspired the lyrics to the song “38”
• Buster Shuffle’s plan to get on stage at the London International Ska Festival 2012
• How Buster Shuffle got signed by the German Punk Label People Like You Records
• What happened when Mickey Gallagher from The Clash dropped by to help Buster Shuffle in the making of their second album

Did you enjoy the interview? Which  other bands would you like to be interviewed, too? Let me know in the comments. And please don’t hesitate to share.