Bristol’s music scene has been on the map for decades. People will remember Bristol for Trip Hop in the 90s, but that decade also put Bristol’s jungle and rave scene on the map, Laid Blak being one of the biggest name from that time. Laid Blak came about when producer DJ Bunjy joined forces with MC Joe Peng. The duo soon worked with other Bristol names, forming a band with Lui the bass player, Stacy on drums, Scotty the guitarist, Sam on keys.
Ahead of Laid Blak playing this year’s Valley Fest on 30 July at Chew Valley, we caught up with DJ Bunjy about their latest project, how much Bristol has changed since the 90s and why change can be good for music.
Hi Bunjy. I hear you’re working on new things with Laid Blak?
We’re working on a brand new album we’re looking to release in October. We made a conscious effort that we’ve got something to say. Not just candy and fluff and making music for the sake of it. We wanted to express our opinions via the thing we love, which is music.
You’ve been part of the Bristol scene for a while now. How would you describe the scene?
I’ve lived in London for a handful of years, I was signed for Warner and Sony. I always said, with a biased head, you could drop Bristol in any borough of London and that would be the hippest place in London. I stand by that to this day. Now, 11 years after coming back to Bristol, I’ve got friends in London who are moving to Bristol. Obviously there’s a lot of factors.
It’s probably driving prices up a lot in Bristol but also bringing attention to the music scene here.
Yeah, definitely. Parts of Bristol have been gentrified. You can’t win with that. Bedminster has come up leaps and bounds, you’ve got trendy little vegan restaurants and you get people moaning about that. But no, it was an absolute shit hole before and now people come into Bristol and see the potential. I like that as long as people aren’t being driven out. Things have just gone crazy.
Speaking of Bristol changing, how do you think the music has changed here?
From me coming from the era in the 80s/90s to now, I’m old school you would say. But not of mind. I love new music, I work with young people. I think things that I never had when I was a teenager, Spotify, Insta, TikTok, all these things, doing music on a phone is madness when I think about it. When I was a young person, I had to go to a phone box and put money in a phone box.
Things have changed but I think there’s still an energy, a new lease of creativity with Bristol becoming more of a mixing pot again, people buying houses, their kids are going to school here, they grow as Bristolians. Maybe they have their London bit and that Bristol swagger and they get creative, or from Manchester. They might bring that energy, the hybrid. My father was Jamaican, my mother was Irish. My dad played reggae, my grandad played Irish music. That would be what we’d connect on, music. I couldn’t build a brick wall, but music, he knew I loved music. I’d get Irish music on a cassette. We’d connect, that was our bond. Music intertwines, it’s another way of communication.
You’re playing Valley Fest. Will you play your new album?
Yes. Myself and Joe, the founders of Laid Blak, we’re very excited. When we do gigs, a lot of people want us to do Get Down Low and Bristol Love. But the set we’re at now is half brand new and half older ones. Our new ones do amazing.
//Words: Clara Bullock//