Bunch Of Fives: PSiMiTAR

Newcastle’s funk/soul/beat making duo, PSiMiTAR drop their latest release, Hall of Fame

The new single looks at the juxtaposition of the want for public acceptance and gratification, yet despising the surrounding aspects of social media in such a toxic day and age. Sonically it contrasts the dark and atmospheric soundscape, with harmonious vocal choruses and glitchy broken beats.

Here, the duo tell us about their favourite gigs with a bunch of fives…

After a fairly varied career, our ‘bunch of fives’ is actually our top 5 gigs as we had quite a lot to choose from. As Big Beat Bronson, Baron Von Alias, LKP, PSiMiTAR and under other guises, we have performed at some class places and on some great lineups over the years. We have picked our top five gigs that we have done together over the years.

5. Big Beat Bronson at Evolution Main Stage 2013 – With this one, we finally felt like we got some local recognition for all the years of gigs before this one. To open the main stage, after having done Evolution Emerging the year before, crammed into The Tanners and rocking the pub, was an amazing feeling. It was quite a surreal experience having such a massive stage to try to fill, and it was actually strange to not almost be mixing in with the big crowd. Seeing our names on the same bill as some of the biggest acts in the country at the time was crazy. 

4. Baron Von Alias at Radio 1 Big Weekend 2011 – This was probably our first really big gig together. The work rate even to get to this point was pretty insane, Steesh was dropping music really regularly and I remember putting together a mixtape CD for us to give out a load of his music on. It felt quite interesting at the time to be a BBC Introducing hip hop act, it didn’t seem to be a thing much back then, especially as one of the local acts who were on. We shared the stage with Rizzle Kicks, who Steesh had been speaking to on MySpace (just to show how long ago this was in music / social media terms…) The gig itself was excellent, we took a whole crew of people to Carlisle, everyone dressed up in top hats and fake moustaches. We had an inflatable doll of Ken Barlow and various other props. We got interviewed by some of Radio 1’s DJs, met some big names and watched some massive names like Foo Fighters, Chase and Status and Swedish House Mafia. A crazy experience this early in our careers. 

3. Big Beat Bronson at The Cluny Easter 2012 – We loved a fancy dress gig, and we sold out The Cluny for this one. We had about 8 people on that little stage, including Ken (LKP’s dad) as The Butler, but dressed as some kind of extra from The Life of Brian, Breeze as Jesus, and Baron Von Alias in the full pomp of a red Pope outfit. I think we may all be going to hell if anyone important at the gates of heaven remembers this gig. There were definitely some choice monologues to our congregation that are unrepeatable. The crowd were absolutely loving it. I think we underestimated the significance of actually selling out shows, especially at iconic local venues. 

2. Big Beat Bronson our sold-out show at O2 Academy Newcastle 2012 – The amount of planning and preparation for this one was pretty insane. We went with a Ghostbusters theme, and we had a full set of costumes from Slimer, Stay Puft, a cameo with a monologue from a friend playing the part of Rick Moranis. We had recorded an intro and Steesh, Breeze and Eliza entered from the back of the room, pretending to come and save the crowd from the ghosts in the venue with proton packs on their backs. It was so sweaty and we gave out loads of t-shirts and threw loads of sweets into the crowd. Standard BBB gig to be honest! 

1. Big Beat Bronson in Lithuania, Vilnius 2012 – This was such a mad experience, we had people treating us like we were actual celebrities out there. It was early March when we went and I remember walking into the gig and it was minus 22 at night. We were all crammed in a little apartment for a couple of nights, it was a really good laugh. I ended up opening the night for the whole show, and the place was like a massive warehouse on the outskirts of the city, heated by diesel generators and we drank some very very strong booze. It also had some of the grimmest toilets any of us had ever experienced, and they were the backstage ones for artists. The whole experience of being booked in another country was amazing though. We actually played out there twice, once in the summer, but Steesh’s favourite was the second one as he can’t remember much about this one haha.

There are honourable mentions for the first gigs we did together at The Other Rooms, Kings Manor and some ridiculous ones in Durham. I almost included our sets at Split Festival in Sunderland, and the wonderful Chase Park where we shared the bill with Futureheads and a very young little-known lad from North Shields called Sam Fender… I think he went on to do pretty well.