Mailing List

Kormac Elsewhere

Press Area

Downloads

What they said

"Kormac's stuff rocks - I'm a big fan of what he's doing right now... clear dancefloor bangers" - DJ Yoda

"He played live at Annie Mac Presents and had a barbershop quartet singing harmonies, plus trombones, trumpets and a double bass. He was scratching - it was the most bizarre setup I've ever seen, but it really works." - Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1)

"Reminds me of a cross between Kid Koala and Fingathing" - DJ Food (Ninja Tunes)

"DJ Kormac headlines taking the best 1930s and 1940s Bebop and Swing and fattening it up for the floor with crunching hip hop and breakbeats." Club Pick of the Week. - The Guardian

"Their performance will rank up there as one of the most memorable moments on the show over the past seven years." Dan Hegarty (2FM.)

Highlights

Composing two TV/Film soundtracks.
Playing Electric Picnic's Main Stage in front of 3000 people.
Finding a barbershop quartet
Performing in clubs and at festivals in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, the United States, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and definite highlight, Roscommon.
Sharing dressing rooms with so many of his favorite acts (Roni Size, Grandmaster Flash, Jurassic 5, Nas etc.) and not being asked to leave.
Watching Bakesale nights run out of tickets and cake.

Lowlights

Refugee status. Spending 12 hours trapped between Mozambique and Malawi trying to get to the Lake of Stars Festival.
Chopping 100 hours of audio into 30 seconds. On my own. On Christmas Day.
Trying to explain to eastern European airport staff that a record bag poses
no threat to national security.
Being forced to bribe Ukranian airport personnel.
Dead air for 15 seconds on Austrian radio as laptop suffered particularly severe hangover.
Negotiating terms with the barbershop quartet. Discovering barbershop
quartet are skillful negotiators. Paying barbershop quartet.

Alternate Biography

If you could travel back in time to The Bronx in 1979 to tell the assembled hip-hop pioneers that their music would one day utilise the services of a barbershop quartet, you'd be the recipient of some very queer looks indeed. But that's part of what Kormac's Big Band delivers. The multi-membered extension of the solo work of Dublin's DJ Kormac, the band have been described by Radio 1's Annie Mac as "the most bizarre set-up I've ever seen - but it really works". The 11-piece's live shows really rock the joint, providing a lively, vivid incarnation for their leader's tunes - the barbershop quartet are joined by drums, double bass, trombone, clarinet, trumpet and banjo. But at the head of it all, calling the shots and conducting proceedings, is Kormac himself, the master of this new kingdom where scratching meets banjo. Who'd have ever thunk it? Not those guys in The Bronx, that's for sure.

(Biography written by Nigel Tassell for WOMAD Festival 2010)

^ back to top