Express & Star

Chapter 13: Birmingham DJ Bunny talks ahead of Rainbow Venues event

Birmingham's Rainbow Venues is set to host another chocbuster Easter weekend with Chapter 13 just around the corner, and what better way to explore the festivities than with one of Birmingham's very own, local DJ, Producer and pizza loving extraordinaire, Bunny.

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Sometimes in life there are certain events that take you away from the ordinary, mundane beat of the day to day, and it's not every day you find one in your own back garden. So when you do, you have to take a trip down the rabbit hole.

This Easter weekend sees Digbeth's long standing Rainbow Venues transform once again for another extravagant celebration; combining the very best musical talents from the far reaching corners of the underground music scene, a deliciously tempting line up of award winning street food vendors, and an on-site art exhibition consisting of some of Birmingham's most prominent local artists.

Chapter 13 will be a celebration like no other, and there's no better way to prepare for the festivities than to have a sneak preview of one of the events home-grown artists. Twenty-five-year-old Bunny Warren knows Digbeth's arches and secluded rooms like the flick of his wrist, having worked on his musical traits from an early age he has experienced all that the Chapter events have to offer and much more too.

Chapter 13

First off we had to ask what the inspiration was behind the local DJ's stage name, seeing as it's a cuddly one-word field animal and all. As we expected, he had a speedy response…

"My surname is Warren, and as you know rabbits live in warrens. A PE teacher at school picked up on this one day and used to it to call me 'Rabbits', which slowly evolved into Bunny.

"Nowadays everyone except my mum calls me Bunny, to the point where I sometimes forget to respond to my own real name. At one point I had been living with a guy for six months and when the TV license people called, he had to phone me to ask what my real name was…so when I started DJing, 'Bunny' just appeared on the flyers.

"I never chose it. It just is what it is I guess."

Now ten years into his DJing career Bunny's experienced all that performing behind the decks has to offer, playing across the West Midlands and further afield, we asked what surprised him going into another huge event.

"That it's nearly 10 years! There is still so much I have to learn. Performing abroad is amazing, meeting new people, trying out all the weird local traditions; food, drink, music, and all the other customs. Yet the truth is the West Midlands is a real melting pot, where people from all over the world come together and live amongst one another. So in that sense you kind of get to experience a lot of that here too!

"You are as likely to meet an Italian, Romanian or Jamaican on the dance floor of Social Underground as you are to meet them in Rome, Bucharest or Kingston. I'm all for encouraging more immigrants to the city. There is a special vibe here where it almost feels like everyone knows each other already, Brummies' are notoriously friendly, and there's a real community feel on the dancefloor. So whether you're new to the city, or the local music scene, you will start feel like you're at home sooner rather than later."

Chapter 13

All that experience must go a long way when selecting tracks and practicing sets, and we can only imagine how many hours Bunny's spent listening to and playing music, so we asked who he would say have been his biggest inspiration so far.

"It's been a pretty varied mix I'd say, although I play a kind of stripped back style of House music most of my influences are from the Hip Hop Scene; J Dilla, Easy Mo, Jazz Liberatorz…I could go on forever.

"But in terms of my DJing, it has defiantly been all of the local heroes in the city. I had always been going out in Birmingham, but until recently I didn't have the money to venture much further from home, so Birmingham parties like Below, Face, Cloak n Dagger, Moho and Bleep Bleep had a huge impact on me."

There's an unavoidable sense of deep-rooted Hip-Hop influence in Bunny's work, and when asked who he'd love to work with most, past or present, he didn't disappoint.

"I guess if I could work with any Hip-Hop artist it would have to be The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls. You never know maybe the next Biggie is hiding away around here somewhere?! At the moment the UK Hip Hop and Grime scenes are on point so I wouldn't be surprised if he was."

Birmingham's Grime scene is indeed on the rise, as is the UK scene as a whole, and a huge part of this movement is record labels starting to take note and appreciating the talent that's out there currently. Young artists such as J-Hus, Dave and Big Zuu are all on the up, and they're venturing up to the midlands more frequently, so it looks bright for the future.

Talking of musicians, labels and all things industry, Bunny joined LeftBack Records Back in September 2016. Since then he's been working on a number of tracks that've featured in his sets, we asked how those had been received by the dance floor divas out there.

Chapter 13

"I hate playing my own stuff out…it sounds odd I know, but you spend two months in the studio listening to the same track millions of times during its creation. How can you not be bored of it by the time its finished? But the heads at Social Underground & Penda give me grief when I don't play my new tracks out, understandably so I guess, which means lately I've started to incorporate them into my sets and the reaction has been pretty sweet. If it stays this way I'm really looking forward to the releases!"

We're sure the crowd this year will be just as excited as Bunny is once they're inside the elaborate confines of the Rainbow Venues, this Easter weekend, dancing away to the underground vibes the young Brummie lad will be pumping out.

With nine stages and countless activates packed into just one-day, Chapter 13 may seem like too much to handle for some first timers to the city. So we asked Bunny what makes the latest Chapter instalment an unmissable event for party-goers travelling from near or far?

"It's just done for all the right reasons. It's not run by a big investment firm or snooty suit types. You are more likely to see the owner and curator, Lee McDonald, on the dance floor having the time of his life rather than in an office or hiding backstage. This attitude is really reflected in the overall atmosphere you feel each year too."

We tried to push and see if he'd give us a little insight into how this year's festivities will be different to the others he's played at? But we think he's worn to secrecy.

"You can't keep a secret in Digbeth...but saying that, I'm not spilling the beans in this interview. If you eavesdrop in anyone of the local Birmingham boozers you will more than likely hear about some of the naughty new venue plans they have this year, so keep your ears to the ground."

…well you can't blame us for trying, and we certainly will, if past events are anything to go by Chapter 13 will hardly disappoint. One thing we do know the twenty-five-year-old likes to talk about is his pizza, and this year's event includes a whole host of Birmingham's finest street food vendors, so we asked where Bunny gets his favourite slice from?

"That's a tough one! It is so hard to mess up a pizza. I like them all from the independents at Digbeth Dinning Club, to the high street chains like Pizza Hut. Wherever it's from I know I'll be grabbing a slice before my set whatever happens…as should you!"

Stellar advice right there, and we'll definitely be indulging in all that Chapter 13 has to offer this year. The Rainbow Venues latest installment of the Chapter series is sure to be another spectacular event that will leave your feet aching, your belly full, and your artistic senses blown to smithereens.

So dig a little deeper, search for that rabbit hole, and don't stop until you see the bright lights of the main stage. We'll see you there…

If you would like to find out more about Chapter 13, or purchase your tickets to this year's event, head over to the official festival website, here.

By James Stride

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