If someone mentioned to you the names
Buzz Trillington and
Shooter McNappin, you may think that there is a new thug version of Looney
Tunes. Instead, these are the new aliases developed by Steve Brown and Dom
Calvello, more known locally as the duo
SwaggleRock. They have
just released a new mixtape entitled
Brassknuckles. Really, the work is an EP. It is called a mixtape because it was released on
ClubTapes.com, which is a mixtape hub that contacted them to release their new work. Together, the duo got their start spinning for the college crowd at Ultra nightclub on 3rd Street in Niagara Falls, and moved to become resident DJs at various nightclubs on Chippewa. They have come a long way in a short time period. We sat down with
the two to discuss their new release, and among other things, branding
and social media in the artistic community of Buffalo.
buffaBLOG: What was the importance of developing these alter-egos and branding yourselves in a different way from SwaggleRock?
SB: It was partly due to Buffalo
DC: At first it was a social experiment. People in Buffalo really like to take notice of you once you get outside of Buffalo
SB: Once you get to a certain point in Buffalo, people just stop.
DC: I said to Steve one day, "How can we remove the bias? People don't take you seriously if you're not from a big city."
buffaBLOG: Do you feel like hitting that ceiling is something that a lot of local artists struggle with?
SB: Yeah, and then they just stop.
DC: People get frustrated. Buzz Trillington came first.
SB: I didn't even tell him
DC: He didn't even tell me. Cause I said to him, we could probably do the (SwaggleRock) tunes we're doing right now. We started off with a couple club edits that were really born-out-of-Buffalo. We wanted to play what we wanted to play, but we were forced to play more mainstream stuff. It created a fusion style, which was kind of a compromise of what we wanted to play and what we had to play.
SB: A cross between the mainstream and underground, contradictory, but...
DC: We could probably do the same stuff we're doing now under a different name and get thousands of hits. With Swaggle, we'd only ever get a handful of hits. One day we were searching through Soundcloud looking at producers making this new trapstyle shit, and I was like, this Buzz Trillington guy is pretty cool. He's like, "I'm Buzz Trillington! Get the fuck outta here, you're not Buzz Trillington!" And he (Steve) made like three or four really dope tunes, way different from SwaggleRock and we were like, this is it.
buffaBLOG: It's hilarious that you didn't even know it was him!
SB: I kept it on the DL for the longest time. We were looking for more attention on the producer end.
buffaBLOG: Would you say then, that also part of the reason is because before you weren't really producing before, and now you are?
SB: I love it here, but it takes a while for people to catch on.
DC: We survived as SwaggleRock in nightclubs. And when the whole Chippewa thing (referring to the 21+ regulations) changed, that was kind of a wake-up call for us that we had to take a different avenue.
SB: We were producing, but we got comfy there.
buffaBLOG: Did it push you into a new situation?
DC: Everything happens for a reason. Now, with the aliase,s we're getting outsider attention.
buffaBLOG: Is social media and following trends something that other artists could benefit from employing?
SB: Social media was/is our game-changer.
DC: It's not just the music, it's the brand around it. Buzz Trillington is cool, you don't know where he's from, you don't know what he looks like etc...we just tapped into something new, and got a little lucky with Brassknuckles.
buffaBLOG: How would you describe the music on Brassknuckles?
SB: Absolutely Hip-hoped themed.
DC: Hood rave! We're taking the coolest elements of a rave and putting that together with the coolest elements of a hood party. We're trying to attract people to our sound that one night might go to Rendezvous, and check out
Gareth Emery, then go to Soundlab the next week for a Hip-Hop party.
SB: Now its just about exploring and cementing our own sound.
Check out their Soundcloud and Facebook pages:
Buzz Trillington & Shooter McNappin will be appearing at these upcoming events:
SAT Dec 22 @ The Vault-Niagara Falls NY
SUN Dec 23 Saturnalia @ Soundlab
TUE Dec 25 Main Room-MNM presents The Christmas Party 8 @ Pearl Street Brewery
FRI Dec 28 DJ Craze @ Sinful Nightclub
SAT Dec 29 TOATS ORIG presents WE'RE ALIVE @ Soundlab
MON Dec 31 2 am-NYE @ DBGBs
SAT Jan 5 @ The Vault-Niagara Falls NY
THU Jan 31 @ Dubland Underground-Rochester NY
SAT Feb 16 Loki DnB presents Terravita & DJ Shiftee @ Ukranian Home
They will also be playing shows in Hartford, CT and Knoxville, TN in the month of February.
