On a mild January Afternoon, the College Tribune sat down with ¾ of the ‘Scootah Tunes’ collective. The group are music podcasters, bloggers, DJ’s and event curators, who have been on the scene since February 2019. They have hosted live sessions and podcasts at ‘Belfield FM’ and have hosted events in NCAD. I spoke to them on how ‘Scootah’ came to be, their ambitions, and where they fit in at UCD.
‘So, what made you start ‘Scootah Tunes’ and what inspired you to bring the collective to where it is today?’
“We had to create a blog for a college assignment in 2nd year and promote it. It was the perfect excuse to start up ‘Scootah’ as I’ve always had a rough idea that of talking about and promoting Irish music” David said. “We ended up with a fair few followers on Instagram and decided we’d run with it.”
‘Going forward this year, what have you guys got planned, what would you like to achieve?’
“We’d like more recognition, we’d like to keep on holding more events at a frequent rate, maybe once a month. Although we formed in February 2019, we only started giving it full thought around 3 months ago” They collectively answered. “1 event a month until everyone goes away for the summer.”
“What do you think UCD have done and could do going forward to helping you guys out?”
“Unfortunately, UCD haven’t given us any big opportunities. That’s the reality!” Eoin and Rioghan explained. “If you look at other colleges such as Trinity and NCAD, they’ve got DJ nights out and they support any groups that come out. Even if we had a full DJ society, I don’t think we’d get the support. There are no spaces that they’re willing to give to us, I feel like if we started playing a set outside like they used to do back in the 90’s, someone would come tell us off.”
When I asked about their association with Belfield FM, the group had to clear up a few issues:
“We had a bit of a disagreement with them. On our last podcast we brought up a few bottles of beer while we were DJing. I understand why they were upset; it could have damaged equipment. But the point is that it shouldn’t be an issue if we want to have a drink” The group told me. “Afterwards we reached out to them and apologised, we know we shouldn’t have done it, but they refused to give us the recorded file, that pissed us off, it was a good set! However, we do have to say we’re grateful for the space Belfield FM gave us.”
Where would you like to go with ‘Scootah Tunes’ long term.
“I’ve a really big picture, it might be an unrealistic dream, but I want all of us to create ‘Scootah’ into a label.” David said with a smile on his face. “For now, I want to keep doing events and making a bit of money, linking up with new artists and people. We’ve had a lot of fun, especially our last night out with NCAD. It was fantastic. The DJ industry is really tough to crack unless you have a certain image, but we want to break that standard.”
The lads went on their way and it was overall a fantastic window into the rollercoaster of a world that is music curation in its purest sense. Expect big things from ‘Scootah Tunes’ at their next event in March at ‘The Bernard Shaw’.
Luke Murphy – Reporter
