Latest / Half the Picture / #47 - SWEDEMASON

Transcript

#47 - SWEDEMASON · Half the Picture

0:04
Let's make some lyrics.
0:06
People call me Swede, like, I sample whatever I can.
0:08
But I've been doing 20 years and I don't really know who I am.
0:12
He really invited me on a podcast.
0:13
I don't know if he was a fan, but...
0:15
I'm not going to lie, I thought it was some kind of scam.
0:22
I don't want to take the piss but can you make something out of this so I'll have a crack at it but it'll probably be utterly shit but I need to be creating something I'm not doing it I'm aspiring because it's like you're always chasing it's about a buzz of getting a viral
0:41
Keeps the noggin in check.
0:43
I'll always be doing it.
0:43
I hope you'll buy a crook.
0:45
Because it's out of my control now.
0:47
It's like, fuck.
0:48
The fuck I'm thinking?
0:49
Shit, I can't finish this.
0:50
I need to somehow wrap it up.
0:51
So I just keep milking it, keep milking it.
0:53
That's it.
0:54
That's your little hook.
0:55
Keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it.
0:59
I'm making music, pissing out.
1:01
Keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it.
1:05
It's just a load of sound.
1:07
Keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it, keep milking it.
1:12
It's fun.
1:13
I don't know.
1:14
Can I now?
1:23
So Chris, welcome to Half the Picture.
1:25
How are you doing today, sir?
1:26
I'm very good.
1:27
I'm very good.
1:27
Very good.
1:29
Great.
1:29
Great.
1:30
Cracking.
1:31
Well, it's a pleasure to have you on because for me personally, I've been a fan of yours ever since I saw MasterChef's Anesthesia, Buttery Biscuit Base, an absolute stone cold YouTube internet classic.
1:41
The moment I saw that cross my phone, I've been a fan of yours.
1:45
All the amazing videos you've done like Trump versus Talking Heads and Paul McCartney, Rabbit Hole, which is another personal favourite of mine, Song of Vanilla Ice and Fire.
1:53
like you've done over the course of your sort of youtube making content career you've made so many great samples and remixes and tunes so it's a real pleasure to have you on the pod thanks for having me on like i was saying before like this is you know no one's ever invited me on a podcast so 15 years i've never been i suppose it exists like 15 years ago you know i mean this is like this is new to me so yeah thanks like uh
2:17
Let's go, let's talk about it.
2:19
Let's do it, yeah.
2:20
Obviously, your YouTube handle is Swede Mason.
2:22
Right.
2:22
And do you prefer to go by Chris or by Swede Mason?
2:25
Either, really.
2:26
People call me Swede, like, just because it's been so long.
2:30
I've been doing it, like, you know, I've been doing the YouTube stuff.
2:33
God knows that that channel must be nearly 20 years old.
2:36
But before that, I was doing stuff from when I was about 17.
2:40
And, like, the name Swede Mason came from an episode of Renegade, which was a TV show that was on TV.
2:47
It was on, like, you're too young for this, but ITV used to play, like, there used to be, like, a nighttime bit.
2:52
Before it actually ended, they put, like, late-night shows on, and Renegade was one of them that happened to be on.
2:58
Me and my mates would be smoking, you know, all that stuff.
3:03
Come on, we're like, this is the funniest fucking program I've ever seen in my life.
3:08
And that's where I got the name.
3:10
An exit from one of the characters in that, the same guy who wrote The A-Team wrote,
3:15
Renegade, as he calls Stephen Jay.
3:17
I think it's Cannell.
3:19
Yeah, so he came up with a name B.A.
3:21
Bracus.
3:21
He comes up with all his great names.
3:23
Hannibal.
3:23
Of course.
3:24
He also came up with a name.
3:25
Yeah, Murdoch.
3:26
Murdoch.
3:27
Yeah, of course.
3:27
Howling Mad.
3:28
Yeah, and he came up with a name Swede Mason, so I nicked it.
3:31
Nice.
3:32
So, yeah, it's been people.
3:34
My gran calls me Swede, which is bizarre.
3:37
It's like she's 96, so...
3:39
You know, people call me sweet people.
3:40
I don't mind either.
3:42
So your gran was a fan?
3:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:44
I've got a little, she gave me a recipe for one of her meat pies that she makes, and it was dear Swede, my son.
3:51
Yeah, so he made the pie.
3:52
I was like, wow.
3:54
So yeah, yeah, it's been, so either, really.
3:56
It's been, yeah, it's been a long time.
3:58
All right.
3:59
I don't really know who I am, to be honest.
4:01
Well, you're right, it has been a long time.
4:03
I mean, when I was going back through, I went down a little Swede Mason rabbit hole, if I may, in the run-up to this chat, and you've been producing videos on YouTube and content, you could call it now, for coming on 18, 20 years, I want to say, right?
4:17
18 years ago was the Philip Schofield on crack.
4:19
Yes.
4:19
The first video.
4:19
You've done your research.
4:20
Yeah, that was the first one, I want to say, right?
4:23
It was the first one I put on YouTube, I think.
4:28
Yeah, it's up to that point.
4:30
I was just doing them with audio.
4:32
And then I got a Mac Mini when I was about 26.
4:38
But up to that point, I was just using hardware.
4:40
So I was just connecting with MIDI cables.
4:43
And then I got a Mac.
4:44
And then on the Mac was a free program called iMovie.
4:50
And I thought, why don't I just?
4:51
So I already had Scovels on crack as a little tune, just with samples.
4:56
And then I'm like, oh, why don't I re-sync the visuals to this?
5:01
So I re-synced them.
5:03
I was like, this works.
5:05
Yeah, that's probably one of the first ones.
5:06
I think that and Jungle All The Way was like the first ones that are re-synced.
5:10
Put them on, I was saying, put them on beta and people saw it.
5:15
But that video took down after about four days for my channel.
5:20
It still exists somewhere on the internet,
5:22
Yeah, after four days, someone... Back then, YouTube was quite tight on copyright.
5:28
So you had, like, do you think you had three strikes and you were out?
5:30
So the first week of doing it, I had, like, one strike.
5:33
I was like, shit.
5:34
He got tucked down.
5:35
But yeah, that is one of the early ones.
5:37
They were talking, like...
5:39
2006 or something like that yeah the early days of youtube yeah the early early day it was a great youtube was it's totally different totally different beast now they've just followed the uh they followed the money which fair enough because i don't think it would survive you know in the early days it was creative stuff a lot of uh
6:00
A lot of crazy, a lot of stuff was like, it wasn't being used how they intended it to be used, put it that way.
6:05
It's used how they intended it to be used now.
6:08
Now they've sussed it out.
6:09
People are like, you know, it's massive.
6:11
The YouTuber is a thing.
6:13
It's like, but back then it was like, it was just people, for me, it was like I had all this stuff I wanted to put out.
6:22
It just seemed like there was a whole, like load of people waiting, waiting for something to come out.
6:27
And then as soon as there was a kind of,
6:30
kind of platform for it.
6:32
Everyone just uploaded the stuff.
6:34
It was like set by, there was Siri, there was loads of people making, had been making stuff for years, but no one had heard of them.
6:41
And it seemed like that, because I was doing it for years and I thought I was the only person, like who else?
6:46
No one else must be doing this stuff, it's fucking mental.
6:50
And then, yeah, the internet kind of, just like YouTube, just kind of, was just inundated with all these creative videos and like,
7:01
It was fucking great.
7:02
And, you know, it's not that like that anymore.
7:05
There's still some stuff on there, but, like, still a few of us are still going, but...
7:11
It's a completely different kettle of fish now, isn't it, really, if you think about it.
7:14
Yeah.
7:15
But then back when you were, as you were saying, like back when you started out, it was still a kind of virgin territory and loads of these sort of interesting characters, like, you know, Cassette Boy and yourself and all these different creators were kind of coming out of the woodwork.
7:26
Yeah.
7:26
And it was a space to create and get your work seen by just people who liked it and were fans of that kind of thing.
7:32
And I did want to ask, like,
7:34
When it came to those other creators around the same time as you, so people like Cassette Boy, were you familiar with them?
7:39
Were you fans of their work?
7:41
Did you know Cassette Boy?
7:42
No, I didn't know him, but I knew of him before YouTube because he had a CD out called Parker Tapes.
7:51
When was it?
7:53
Yeah, I think my mate heard my music.
7:56
When I moved to London, he went, oh, you're a bit like this guy, cassette boy.
8:00
I'm like, I don't know who that is.
8:02
He goes, oh, yeah, it's this, this.
8:03
And he had the parker tapes.
8:05
And I put it on and was like, oh, fucking hell, this is amazing.
8:07
I was like, yes, there's another one out there.
8:10
It was a bit Highlander.
8:11
It's like, there can be only one.
8:12
I was like, no.
8:14
But then I realised there was tons of other people when I got on YouTube and was like...
8:17
Me and Cacept by I've always been, since then I've met him a few times, but we've always been, my work, everyone always thinks my work is his work.
8:25
Every time I put something up, not every time, but a lot of the times, it's quite similar, so everyone thinks he's done it, and every time he has to go, it's not me, it's this guy.
8:34
I'm like, you know, it's my problem when branding, my branding has been utterly shit.
8:40
I should have branded it better, but that's my bad.
8:44
Well, but like your work and Cassette Boys, to me always, because I guess you two, Tim, in my mind at the time, were like the two big pillars of that scene.
8:51
And I feel like your work always had, there was a kind of very British sense of humour to both of your guys' work.
8:56
But there was, obviously yours was always, well, usually set to music.
9:00
It wasn't just sampled for the sake of comedy or funny lines or sentences.
9:04
There was always a tune behind it.
9:05
There was an idea behind it.
9:07
and it always came off and there was a kind of because obviously as you say you're from the north even though it's like you're using other people's material you can kind of feel that kind of humour in there I could anyway I feel when watching it back oh yeah so it's got you know I was into music like I was always in bands when I was from about 16 I'd been playing in bands like punk bands and what have you but I found them I can't sing basically so like I needed a I had all these ideas but
9:37
and I couldn't get them out.
9:39
So I'm like, I still wanted to make music.
9:41
When I found sampling, I went to art college in York and there was a little second hand shop in York called Bulmers.
9:51
And I used to walk past it every day, look in the windows, always like gear in there, like guitars and like pedals and what have you.
9:57
And one day there was this little sampler in there, little Zoom sample, I've still got it.
10:04
For some reason I thought I'm going to buy that, it was about 50 quid.
10:06
I bought it, took it home, plugged it in.
10:10
Within like five minutes I'd written a song on it.
10:13
I sampled from the film Flash Garden, I sampled Peter Duncan's.
10:20
Peter Duncan puts his hand in this, I don't know what, it's this alien thing that gets zapped by this little creature and he goes, spare me the madness.
10:27
I sampled that and I just looped it.
10:29
And that's the first song I made on it.
10:31
I was like, this is brilliant.
10:32
I just, I let it play for like the entire ever C90 tape.
10:35
I gave it to some mates, just got to sit there and listen to like 90 minutes of someone going to spare me the madness.
10:41
It does send you absolutely insane.
10:43
Like, yeah.
10:44
So that was the, the music thing has always been part of it and the humor as well.
10:47
So the humor is definitely part of it because I was saying about earlier about Renegade and,
10:57
The reasons I got into Sampley in the first place is because one of my mates, this is way beyond, you won't remember this at all, you're probably about fucking five.
11:05
But like, on Neighbours there's a character called Phil Martin.
11:08
And he's the most incidental character you could imagine.
11:12
He's like a big fat bald in
11:15
middle-aged fella.
11:15
And my mate made an entire tape of just his moments from Neighbours on VHS.
11:21
I'm like, what the fuck?
11:23
What is this?
11:24
What the fuck is it?
11:25
He goes, no, wait.
11:27
She played it.
11:27
We've got...
11:29
We got mashed.
11:31
By the end of it, there was a group of us and we were just crippled, just crippled laughing.
11:37
It's just such a surreal kind of, I don't know why it's so ridiculously nihilistic to have this tape of film art.
11:45
By the end of it, we had to crawl up to TV and switch it off because we were suffocating.
11:49
We couldn't stop laughing.
11:50
So that has been a massive influence of what I've been trying to get back to that.
11:57
It's like,
11:58
you're trying to get back to that, that moment.
12:00
It's a bit like smack.
12:01
You don't want to get that first hit.
12:03
I've never got the, we're just pissing ourselves off.
12:07
So yeah, the humour has always been trying to get back to that kind of, I've always been making them for those.
12:13
In my head, I'm making the songs for those people.
12:15
I'm trying to make them laugh.
12:17
And that's it.
12:17
And if other people like it, then it's great.
12:20
Initially, I was just making them for those people.
12:22
I was making songs.
12:23
We were listening to them, getting baked and laughing.
12:25
And then the internet came along, and I can share this with the people.
12:28
Totally.
12:29
So, yeah, that's how the music kind of came along.
12:33
But there's such kind of craft behind each of those videos even go back to the early ones.
12:37
There's so much craft and complexity that builds as you go as you went along and you know going from put the fucking lotion in the basket, you know, to get in the back of the van to like, you know, Jeremy Clarkson beatbox to MasterChef.
12:48
Like there's a real ambition that grows in each one and your your skill at doing what you're doing gets better and better.
12:54
But what you just said there about the humour aspect, when I was watching back some of your work in the roll-ups, I couldn't content myself.
13:01
It's so funny.
13:02
I mean, do you laugh at what you're doing when you're editing it?
13:05
Yeah, I piss myself laughing.
13:07
I piss myself laughing.
13:09
When I made the MasterChef one at first, because what happens is,
13:15
So you need like, it's like doing a jigsaw, right?
13:17
You've got like, but you've got no solution.
13:19
You've got no picture of the actual jigsaw at the end.
13:22
With the MasterChef one, you need, you need, so when you do a jigsaw, you find the first bit, oh, that bit goes there and you find a little section of it and you build from that.
13:30
It's like that.
13:31
So the MasterChef one, for instance, first sample, my mates were going, oh, you should do something with MasterChef, do something with MasterChef.
13:38
Three or four people said, I was like, all right, I'll go on then.
13:40
And like the first episode I watched, the guy fucked up that cheesecake and put his biscuit base was all right.
13:46
So the guy went, so who is it?
13:48
I said, fuck, he's a pussy calf.
13:50
Greg.
13:50
Greg.
13:51
Greg went.
13:52
Votorious.
13:53
Yeah, Greg.
13:54
Greg went, I like the biscuit base.
13:56
And that was the first sample I had.
13:58
So I put that in my sampler.
14:00
I looped it and put a beat behind it.
14:02
And I was fucking pissing myself off.
14:04
Just like, yes, that's all right.
14:06
That's your little hook.
14:07
So I find a hook and then I build, I get a foothold in it.
14:11
and then kind of build on it.
14:12
And then, you know, eventually you'll hit a point where you can't get any further.
14:16
You're like, shit, I can't finish this.
14:18
Then you've just got to go back and look for more pieces of the puzzle.
14:22
So I'll always go back to, I'll make a little tune.
14:25
I'll always go back and find more and more bits to make it finish.
14:27
Otherwise you kind of, it gets boring.
14:29
For me, it gets boring anyway.
14:30
So I'm just like, right.
14:32
That's why they kind of get more and more complex as they go along.
14:35
Cause I kept myself in trouble with it.
14:37
I'm like, right, I've done, I've got this far with it.
14:40
It's good.
14:41
but I need to somehow wrap it up.
14:43
So a lot of them, I'm like, shit, I'm gonna have to go back and watch a little more fucking MasterChef.
14:48
Or I'll watch a little more Paul McCartney.
14:51
Especially that one, I had to go make a whole other verse.
14:54
And that's what I talk about in the songs, not about having to go back and find more bits.
14:58
So it's like, a lot of my songs are talking about the process of writing the song.
15:04
It's just something that it's kind of, yeah, I don't know why I do that, but it's just something that happens and not really,
15:09
It's not really intentional, but yeah, they do kind of get, they kind of go out of control a little bit.
15:16
And how long are you interested these do your videos take to make?
15:19
Because I want to say, Buttery Biscuit Base, that was a, I want to say that was a year.
15:22
Did it take to edit from start to finish?
15:23
Right.
15:24
Someone said, right, we were, Adam Buxton had a night on, where was it, South Bank Center, where he showed stuff, videos.
15:34
And he showed that one, he showed a few others, he showed that Mass Chef video.
15:39
And he asked me, like, how long did it take?
15:41
I went, a year.
15:44
But I didn't mean, like, a year.
15:45
So I meant a year.
15:46
And he cut me off.
15:47
It took me a year, because he was asking the audience.
15:50
Everyone just went, whoa, a year.
15:51
It wasn't a year.
15:52
I started it a year.
15:54
Like, I started it a year ago, and I got stuck.
15:56
Like I said, I got stuck.
15:57
So I had that little bit.
15:59
I had the really cool, like, little chorus, if you like.
16:02
And then I had to finish it.
16:03
So I left it on the back burner for, like, months.
16:05
Mm-hmm.
16:06
I went back to it.
16:07
So all in all, it didn't take me a year of just slaving away.
16:10
It took about, in total, probably about two weeks.
16:15
So I'd do the majority of it in a week, and then I'd go, fuck, I've got a fanny around with it for about a few months.
16:23
And then I'd get stuck, and I'd just go, I can't finish it.
16:25
And I'd come back, and I'd find another sample.
16:27
Then I'd found the wobble bit.
16:30
Wobble, wobble, and I'd finish it.
16:31
And I'd found that.
16:32
I'd say, all right, I've done.
16:33
It can end now.
16:34
I had to come back to that after the next series was aired, you know what I mean?
16:37
Because I'd already rinsed that series that I had.
16:39
Right.
16:41
But yeah, now everyone thinks it took a year.
16:43
Not everyone, but people who, you know, it's on Wikipedia, like it took a year.
16:46
Right.
16:47
Like it didn't take a year.
16:49
That would be absolutely insane.
16:52
Yeah, about three or four weeks probably.
16:54
Yeah, and it was the wobble.
16:56
That was the key to finishing it off.
16:58
Yeah, I unlocked it when I found that.
17:00
I was like, oh God, I found that.
17:02
So yeah.
17:03
Similar things with other ones, but I think the power slide bit in the Clarkson one.
17:09
No, I had the power slide bit first and I was working up to that bit and that was the other way around.
17:15
I had that bit and I had to work out how to get to it.
17:19
So I just had that bit and it was fun, but it was just completely random.
17:24
So I had to kind of explain why it was getting to that point in the song.
17:29
Maybe I didn't have to do that, but in my head I had to do that to make it make sense.
17:34
Otherwise you're just, what are you doing?
17:35
Sometimes I'm doing the songs, I'm like, what am I doing?
17:38
What am I doing?
17:41
Every time I get to play, I think, what am I doing?
17:43
I'm chopping up bits of MasterChef.
17:46
I'm skinned.
17:47
I'm working in a pub.
17:49
It's just crazy.
17:50
It kept me sane in a weird kind of way.
17:54
Because working in a pub on minimum wage, I was hand-to-mouth, plastering, decorating and stuff.
18:01
I didn't think it was going to give me a way out of that.
18:04
I wasn't really looking for one, but it was just something I've always done as a bit of...
18:09
It's like, I don't know, if I'm not doing it, I kind of spiral.
18:12
I need to be creating something that keeps me like, keeps the noggin in check.
18:19
So, yeah.
18:19
Yeah, it keeps you passionate and keeps you... Yeah, it's just something like doing it.
18:24
I've always been like that since I was a kid.
18:26
I've always wanted to concentrate on something, focus.
18:30
It's like...
18:31
It's like therapy, and you don't think of anything else.
18:33
You're just concentrating on that one thing.
18:35
Yeah, and when Butcher Biscuit Base came out and became this huge...
18:39
Went viral and became this huge thing.
18:41
I mean, I want to say, you know, because it came out in 2011.
18:43
It was like one of the 10 biggest online videos in the UK of that year.
18:47
It was huge, and it was everywhere.
18:48
And MasterChef referenced it.
18:50
It became... You know, it was picked up by papers.
18:52
The papers picked it up.
18:53
It became a thing.
18:54
I mean, how did that feel to...
18:56
To have been doing this hobby that was your passion for so many years in the run-up to that, and then to suddenly have this, I guess, hit.
19:02
I mean, it even charted.
19:03
Yeah, it was a buzz.
19:05
Massive, massive buzz.
19:07
It was unbelievable.
19:11
Went to – my brother lived in Dalston at the time, and the day – it was the Friday night of that week that it came out,
19:22
and a mate comes in because someone's literally singing it in the street.
19:26
It's like, what?
19:28
That was a proper viral line.
19:30
Things go viral now, but everyone heard that, even though it's only got 10 million or something on YouTube.
19:38
You see things with billions of hits, but you ask the next man if you've heard of it, and they don't know it.
19:45
Whereas that was only had a few million at the time.
19:49
I think in the week, he only got half a million in that week.
19:52
which is nothing these days, but cause it was in, it's been playing on the radio.
19:56
It was on, you know, it was in the papers, like you said, loads of people heard that without it being reflected in the, in the views, I think.
20:05
And a lot of people, it got nicked a lot and it got put on different platforms and stuff.
20:09
But yeah, it was a proper, yeah, it was a proper viral.
20:13
It was mental.
20:14
It was like, it was life changing, I suppose.
20:17
Cause yeah.
20:18
Gave me a little bit of a career, I suppose.
20:23
you're always chasing that, you always want to go back to your biggest hit.
20:28
It's addictive.
20:29
Social media is, I get it, it's the most addictive thing.
20:34
People will do anything for those likes and it just so happens that I do this.
20:39
Some people will.
20:40
I saw one guy's pissing all over pub.
20:46
He was pissing.
20:48
He had a series of videos of him pissing in pub toilets.
20:51
I was like,
20:54
People do anything for those views.
20:56
When he gets caught, it's like Home Alone.
20:58
They're going to find all his videos.
20:59
It's like the wet bandits.
21:01
They're going to find, oh, you've hit this place, you've hit this place.
21:04
He's stuffed if they caught him for catching.
21:07
But yeah, it's kind of...
21:09
I get it, I get it, why you get addicted to that kind of thing of people seeing you work, even if you're pissing all over a public toilet.
21:19
It's super addictive.
21:21
And that's why I'm still kind of, it's not what keeps me going, I do it because I love doing it and it's fun.
21:26
But you're always chasing, you are, anyone who says they're not doing it for that hit is lying because you are doing it for that buzz of getting a viral.
21:36
It's just, yeah.
21:37
Yeah.
21:38
It's like something in it.
21:40
Then dolphins are just...
21:42
I don't know if it's healthy or not, but probably not.
21:45
Right.
21:46
But like, and did you ever feel that kind of, as you say, it became a thing and it got round and people heard it and saw it.
21:52
And then as you say, it kind of, in a way you could argue, kind of took Sweet Mason as a career, as a thing to the next level.
21:58
I mean, did you feel like any kind of, for what I hear from like sort of YouTubers and online creators, that when they get that first big success, it's a buzz, but also there's a bit of fear that comes with that.
22:08
Like, oh God, I better not mess this up.
22:10
Did you ever feel that?
22:12
Yeah, massive, massive.
22:13
Yeah.
22:14
Yeah, panic attacks.
22:15
Just like, it's like, I don't want this.
22:18
What have I done?
22:19
I don't want this to happen.
22:20
I don't want, I don't want people to know who I am.
22:22
I don't want to know.
22:23
This is like, it's out of my control now.
22:25
It's like, fuck, what the fuck?
22:27
Radio stations ringing you up and stuff.
22:29
I didn't mean this to happen.
22:30
You know what I mean?
22:31
Yeah, I really panicked.
22:33
And like you said as well, then you've got to follow it up with something.
22:36
But,
22:37
The follow up thing for me, I got to the point where I just didn't care, so I'm just gonna crack on.
22:43
What was good about it, I got work off it, which was really handy, because I was absolutely skint at the time.
22:50
So yeah, I ended up getting bits and bobs of work, doing similar things for companies and what have you.
22:57
And I just kind of went, I just said yes to everything, I'll do that, I'll do that.
22:59
Even though a lot of it was a bit crap, but you know, they didn't understand that the reason I was making
23:06
what happens is I find the sample is what dictates what I'm going to make.
23:12
I'll hear something random on TV or whatever, and I'll be like, I'm going to make something out of that.
23:16
It's not the other way around.
23:20
I don't watch something like, I don't know,
23:22
I wouldn't watch EastEnders just hoping to find a sample.
23:26
I might watch EastEnders and something pops up, like a little rhythmical thing that I can make a song out of that.
23:31
Then I'd watch loads of EastEnders.
23:33
When I was working for companies, I was like, can you make something out of whatever, this or this or this?
23:38
Yeah, I can, but it'll probably be shit.
23:40
Nine times out of ten it was.
23:43
Some of them were all right.
23:44
But yeah, then again, I do want more work, so.
23:48
I'll just shove myself in the foot there.
23:51
But it's interesting because it sounds like it doesn't come from, yeah, you looking actively for something.
23:55
It emerges organically out of the kind of flotsam and jetsam of your life and your tastes.
24:00
Yeah, they're out there floating around, these samples.
24:01
You've just got to try and use this serendipity if you find them.
24:07
It's like, that's why I like terrestrial TV, because I like the fact that it's just, it's kind of like a river.
24:13
You're like fishing, you're just like sat by a river, and it's just going by like that.
24:17
I love that, I love that sample.
24:19
Whereas the internet's more like a massive ocean.
24:22
You know, the samples are out there.
24:24
Mm-hmm.
24:25
But how the fuck do you... You can't just put your rod in.
24:27
You're going to just pull up some crap.
24:29
Whereas it's not flowing past.
24:31
There's almost too much.
24:32
And the stuff that gets washed up, that's your algorithm stuff, if you like.
24:38
I don't want to make stuff that's already been...
24:42
discovered, you know, and I don't want to make stuff that's already popular.
24:44
I want to find these little nuggets that totally, that someone else would completely overlook.
24:50
For me, they're like little bits of gold, you know, it's like looking through rock pools, finding like little trinkets and stuff, I don't know.
24:59
That's why I look at it.
25:01
And like you say, Buttery Biscuit Base, it had an impact which like, you know, even though it only got, say, 12 million views on YouTube, it had an impact which a lot of sort of quote-unquote viral videos now don't because like, you know, like you say, things will get a billion views but like you ask the bloke down the pub, like, have you heard of this?
25:17
They won't have any clue what it was.
25:19
And why do you think that was?
25:20
Why do you think Buttery Biscuit Base had that impact, that memorability?
25:24
Early days of the internet, I suppose.
25:26
There wasn't as much noise out there.
25:28
There's loads of, it's just, since then it's just
25:32
exponentially grown isn't it so there's tons of stuff people are putting stuff out every day there's just there's no way you can see everything I think a lot of those views it's inflated by like the algorithm people see it but don't know they've even seen oh it's past their feed and if it gets on a feed you know a 4U feed or whatever people are going to see it but not it's not attention they're not giving it it's just there and the score will pass and that counts as a view or whatever but I think with that
26:02
with MasterChef, people were actually engaged with it and watching it and liking it, telling the mates through organic, more like organic word of mouth because they actually thought it was funny.
26:15
I think that's why that one kind of spread.
26:19
I think it spread more organically than it did through YouTube.
26:23
think so anyway you can't it's no way of knowing so and it's the only it remains kind of the only piece of greg wallace related content that i can enjoy kind of relatively guilt-free i mean i do think when i made it i thought this guy is gonna get cancelled one day you know that you know this day is coming
26:41
Did you actually think that at the time?
26:43
Yeah, yeah.
26:43
The day's coming.
26:44
I've got loads of stuff on my phone.
26:46
I've been like, when everybody's been on the front page of the newspaper, I've took a picture of it, he's coming.
26:50
I don't want to say what the things were, but I just knew the day was coming.
26:56
There he is.
26:56
The writing's on the wall.
26:58
Yeah.
26:58
I'm not saying that's why I put that bit in it where he's got that grinning face, but you know.
27:02
It was like, subconsciously like thinking this guy is going to get, he's going to put a foot wrong soon.
27:11
But yeah, that's another story, isn't it?
27:13
I'm going to get into that.
27:16
But yeah, it's the only piece that I can enjoy, I can watch and kind of just enjoy it.
27:19
As you say, there's an idea behind the video and all your videos that comes off and is funny and intelligent, memorable.
27:27
I mean, one of my favourite, I think my probably, if I had to pick a personal favourite of yours, I love the Paul McCartney film.
27:32
yeah that's my favorite one yeah i don't think i'll top that one is that your personal favorite yeah i'll top that one that took fucking ages i'm not gonna lie that took that took some doing that that sample came because originally that the first sample i had for that like the kind of foot in the door sample was uh donk donk donk donk yeah that that came a guy called he was what was he
27:59
his working name with Freelance Hellraiser, he used to make mashups, I think he might still be going, mashups, you know, they mash up two different tunes together, I don't think he did the Strokes, Christina Aguilera one, I think he might, I can't remember, but, I'm pretty sure this is true, he was working with Paul McCartney, because Paul McCartney tries to keep, you know, he wants to keep current, so at the time, this is 2005 or something, that kind of mashup thing was massive, but,
28:29
I think he was working on an album, trying to do something similar with his stuff.
28:34
And I think he'd hired Freelance Hellraiser.
28:36
I could just be hallucinating it.
28:39
But I'm pretty sure Paul McCartney gave him that sample.
28:43
Really?
28:44
Yeah.
28:44
Because Freelance Hellraiser made a little ditty out of it, sent it to me.
28:47
Can you do anything with this?
28:48
I was like, I can kind of do something with it.
28:53
That sample's brilliant.
28:55
But then I try and nothing happened on it.
28:57
That was another one that was on Backburner for three years, something.
29:00
I was like, let's have a look at that Donk sample again.
29:04
I was like, all right, let's try and make some lyrics.
29:06
Let's try and let's watch every single fucking thing that I can find with Paul McCartney in it, every interview.
29:13
Let's make some lyrics.
29:15
Because this sample needs to be used.
29:18
It's so good.
29:19
It needs to be done.
29:20
And that's why...
29:22
that exists, and it took some doing that.
29:25
It's like literally watching everything and piecing it together, you know?
29:31
Yeah, because I did want to ask about your workflow when it came to how you put together your videos, because when you look at something like Paul McCartney Rabbit Hole and the complexity and the marvel of sampling that it is, my brain just kind of goes like, what?
29:43
How did you even go about doing this?
29:45
As you say, a kind of jigsaw puzzle that doesn't have a picture.
29:47
It's not linear.
29:48
You don't do it linear.
29:49
You don't go...
29:50
Well, some of it, you can go linear, that bit can go there.
29:53
But most of it, it's like, you know, you do a jigsaw, it's kind of little spars kind of come out.
29:58
And then the more spars you've got, then you just need to connect them together.
30:02
It's like that.
30:03
And before you know it, it gets, starting off is impossible.
30:06
You're like, this is impossible.
30:07
But then you get more of these little pieces.
30:09
The more pieces you get to fit, then it gets easier to find the actual rest of the missing bits.
30:16
So, you know, halfway through, I was like, fuck.
30:19
I might be able to finish this.
30:20
And then I had to go back, like I said, watch some more, find some more, get some more bits.
30:23
And then eventually it was, it was doable.
30:26
I could finish it.
30:27
But yeah, I don't think I'll top that one.
30:28
I don't know.
30:29
I don't know.
30:30
I don't want to really go back there because it was, it was brutal.
30:33
That took some, took some real like,
30:37
Give me a headache, I'm not going to lie.
30:38
Some blood, sweat and tears.
30:39
Literally.
30:40
Well, maybe not blood, but definitely tears and sweat.
30:43
Because the script for it, taking basically everything he's ever said on camera and mixing it into a song and he's speaking the lyrics, it's kind of your voice, in a sense.
30:54
It's me.
30:55
They're my words.
30:56
It's not meant to be him rapping.
30:58
It's me rapping through him.
30:59
Through him, which is...
31:00
which is brilliant kind of spooky kind of brilliant and hilarious and and like but just like creating that those lyrics like because i've seen other the youtubers like back in the days of youtube people would you know that was a thing people would remix sentences people make people say and you just think how do you even create that script like how do you do you write down okay this is what i want him to say from all the different words i've got or do you like how do you break down that down how do you do that
31:23
So it'd say certain things in long sentences that I thought would make good lyrics.
31:28
So I'd write that down and then in my head I'd go, literally on paper I'd write down the lyric and I'd go, what would be the good next line for that?
31:38
So I'd write the next line that kind of rhymed or previous line to join it together and then
31:44
I'd find, I'd just wait, I'd just watch stuff and find those bits, find the little connecting words and like, until you can make, because you can, you can splice words together to make new words.
31:57
Got quite good at like, it's like, audio animation, you kind of,
32:02
It's basically what AI does.
32:04
It kind of gets the phonemes, or art does it on a sample level.
32:08
I was getting little phonemes and stitching them together and actually thinking how actually someone speaks.
32:14
You don't just say...
32:16
like someone speak, you don't go someone speaks, you kind of, someone's go blends into the next words.
32:23
So you want someone speaks, it's not a very good example, but the words are all connected together.
32:27
It's just a, it's just a load of sounds that becomes the word.
32:31
So I was thinking, well, I can make it, all I have to think about is the connecting bits and you can make him say literally anything you want.
32:43
but it's best if you keep to what kind of things he does actually say.
32:46
So I was like, it's just, yeah, it took fucking ages.
32:50
It took fucking ages.
32:51
Yeah.
32:52
I can't explain it.
32:53
That's, that's it.
32:55
But breaking it down and like writing it down on a piece of paper and like systematically going through and just,
33:03
And some bits I do in a day.
33:05
I think the last couple of verses I did in a day.
33:08
It just all comes together.
33:09
I'm like, ah, I'm done.
33:11
And what software are you using to edit?
33:13
Are you using iMovie still?
33:14
Did you use Premiere?
33:17
What software do you use?
33:18
I used to use iMovie, and then I got...
33:22
Final Cut Pro, and then they kind of ruined that.
33:26
They went Final Cut 10, which was crap at first.
33:29
So I moved on to, for my sins, moved to fucking Premiere, and I'm stuck on bastard Premiere now.
33:35
I hate Premiere.
33:36
Yeah.
33:36
Because, you know, they charge you every whatever.
33:39
You can't own it, which is...
33:42
annoying so I'm trying to get off Premiere go back to Final Cut and for the music I use Logic so I'm fully snared into the Apple ecosystem I use this program called Soundbite which is another program an ancient bit of like 2009 where you type a word it'll scan a load of footage, type a word in
34:06
and it'll find what it thinks is the word.
34:09
But it's absolutely crap.
34:10
It doesn't work properly.
34:12
It may be find one version of the word, but what it does find is approximations, and it'll find what I'm saying about the actual connecting words is what you want.
34:21
For some reason, I've just worked out a way of using that to find these connecting bits of words.
34:28
Yeah, that's a 2009 piece of obsolete software that won't run on my new Mac, so we'll have to find some new way of doing it.
34:36
probably use AI to, I don't know.
34:39
If anyone can help me find someone that can do a similar thing with AI, please do.
34:44
I feel like AI has had such an impact on this particular area that we're talking about on post, especially, and just, I guess, content, hasn't it?
34:52
I mean, like, even just in the last couple of years, I mean, it's had such an impact.
34:56
I mean, yeah, you mentioned it earlier.
34:58
I mean, how do you think it has changed things or is changing things?
35:02
Yeah, it's changed things, definitely.
35:04
Just in the fact that it exists and, like,
35:07
For me, it feels like, I didn't lose my job at Joe because of AI, but it took the wind out of myself because it's almost like, what's the point of doing, spending all this time finding these words when you can just type it in?
35:22
So like, whatever, what's it called?
35:26
I'm not gonna even mention the name of it.
35:27
You type it in and you can just clone a voice in seconds and type in whatever you want and it'll say it.
35:32
I was like, what's the point of me painstakingly making these things and it kind of like,
35:38
it just pulled the rug and it just undermined what I was doing.
35:41
And that was a big deal.
35:44
I've kind of got over it now and realized like with AI, that the more, the better it's got for me, the more boring it's become.
35:50
I liked AI when it was like, you know, the Will Smith eating the spaghetti.
35:56
When it was crap and he was eating spaghetti, it was all like, it was all proper like nightmare feel.
36:00
I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
36:02
Now you see him eating spaghetti, they've done a new one, it's like perfect.
36:04
I'm like, that's boring.
36:07
I liked it when it was crap.
36:08
I was more interested when it was fucking up and making mistakes.
36:12
And that's a similar way to why human create stuff is better.
36:17
Because you see the moving parts, you see how it works.
36:20
You can see someone's
36:24
created that that's what i'm worried about with ai because it's it's like the same person's made everything you go online it looks like the same person has made it's effectively it is the same you know it's the same model or whatever it gets boring for me really quick so i've come full circle now i've gone back to like i'm just going to stick with doing it the old-fashioned nuts and bolts way but i'm not against using ai to help me find bits and pieces that i want to use and like use it as a
36:50
I want to see it do stuff that's been impossible before.
36:53
I want to see it create a whole new genre of whatever, a whole new thing that we don't even know exists now.
37:00
That's what I want it to do.
37:01
I don't want it to just copy what we can already do.
37:03
We can already make music, we can already make art.
37:06
We can already do all this stuff.
37:07
I don't want it just to take that, take it away from us.
37:10
We do that really well already.
37:12
Or we do it really crap as well.
37:14
But like, you know,
37:15
why can't you use it for something that's completely different, that is impossible for a human to do, that's mind-blowing, not just copy what we already do.
37:24
That's the problem with it for me.
37:26
Yeah, but it sounds like you've kind of, like you say, you've come full circle with your attitude to AI, but at the time when it first came in, it sounds like it almost gave you, did it give you a bit of like an existential crisis, as you say, as someone who creates this content and these videos and really puts the heart and soul into them?
37:40
A little bit.
37:41
Well, I used it...
37:42
First of all, I was like, well, when I was working for Joe, I was like, now I can do stuff now that I couldn't do before.
37:48
I made a few videos using...
37:52
I ran it natively with my PC.
37:55
It was like a really early voice cloning program called TalkNet.
38:02
It's the same.
38:02
You feed it with a load of...
38:06
I've got a talking book by Reece Mogg and I fed it that and it just, you know, I could type anything and make Reece Mogg say it.
38:11
This was before it was like, you know, available just commercially.
38:16
And I was like, this is incredible.
38:17
I was like, oh, can I say it?
38:19
So I was like, that's when I made.
38:20
So we did this Goodfellas video where I thought we could like,
38:24
We could do voiceovers for films.
38:26
We could do trailers and stuff.
38:28
That would be impossible.
38:29
It would be possible in my way of doing it, but it would take so long.
38:34
It's incidental to the actual plot.
38:36
You don't need to be able to...
38:41
You don't need to piece it together for the joke to work.
38:44
So I just thought, we could just type out the script and then we can edit our version of the Tories, the Goodfellas trailer.
38:51
And I was like, so for a while I was like, this is great.
38:55
I could do all this stuff.
38:56
But I got bored of it really, really quickly.
38:59
I was just like, I've done that now.
39:03
You know, I always want to try and move on a little bit.
39:06
And once I've done it, I'm like, I'm not interested in doing it again, really.
39:09
So, you know.
39:10
But as you say, you know, around that time when AI was coming in, you were working with Joe.com, who did a lot of sort of political humor, a lot of political sort of like mashups and content.
39:19
And that was, I want to say that was off the back of the channel, off the YouTube channel, you were getting work with them.
39:24
I mean, what was it like working for Joe at the time?
39:26
I mean, like you say, having gone from sort of what was essentially a YouTube hobby and then suddenly becoming a job, a full-time job, I mean, what was it like to go from, you know, kind of, I guess, hobbyist editor to then professional mashup artist, if you will?
39:40
That was good.
39:40
Getting regular pay, getting regular money was great.
39:43
The first salary job I've pretty much ever had.
39:46
So...
39:47
Yeah, it was great.
39:48
It was a lot of pressure.
39:49
I had to come up with them every, you know, every month I had to come up with some.
39:53
And if I didn't come up with the goods, then, you know, see you later, which is understandable.
39:58
So I just had to keep coming up with stuff.
40:02
So the whip was being cracked.
40:03
And I thought we came up with some good stuff.
40:06
It lasted about six years, and then I was just completely burnt out by the end of it.
40:12
I just grind, nose to the grindstone for six years.
40:15
I looked up, my kids had grown up.
40:17
I was like, shit, my house was falling down like shit.
40:21
So since I left Joe, I've been doing my house pretty much because it's just crumbling.
40:27
It was just constant graft.
40:29
So it was good, but it was also like, it was a lot of work, painstaking.
40:36
I'm surprised it lasted six, I thought I'd lost six months and lasted six years, which was,
40:41
If someone's paying you, that's what you'll do.
40:42
You know what I mean?
40:43
You'll work.
40:45
So, yeah.
40:46
It was good overall.
40:47
It was great.
40:48
So you were coming up with a fresh idea every month.
40:49
That was the job.
40:51
Yeah.
40:52
Wow.
40:52
It was quite easy when it was Brexit because there was just so much material with the Tories fucking up constantly.
40:58
Yeah.
40:59
It was dead easy.
41:00
Yeah.
41:00
I'm not going to lie.
41:01
And then through lockdown with all the party games, it was just so easy to come up with the ideas, to be fair.
41:09
And then it got really complicated when... And then obviously up to the election when they lost, there was just plenty of material to take the piss.
41:15
And then Labour get in and then it's like...
41:18
what we're going to do.
41:19
We did some K-Starma tunes.
41:22
They were good.
41:23
Then I kind of like, who?
41:26
I just found it difficult to do, like, to rip the piss out of Starmer without making, say, Farage look good or, you know, take a piss out of Farage without making Starmer look good.
41:37
In my opinion, they're all fucking shit.
41:39
Yeah.
41:41
You know, it just got difficult.
41:43
And by that point, I was just completely burnt out.
41:45
I can't do anymore.
41:47
Don't make me do anymore.
41:49
So, yeah, kind of like it died on its ass a little bit.
41:54
But basically, I just needed a break.
41:55
I wish they could have given me like a year off, but it don't work like that.
41:59
You wanted a break and say that's why you left Joe.
42:02
No, no, I had to leave, put it that way.
42:04
I had to go.
42:05
Oh.
42:07
Bye.
42:07
Oh.
42:08
Bye-bye.
42:09
I had to go.
42:10
Yeah, I just, I wasn't coming up with the goods anymore.
42:14
I was just rinsed, basically.
42:17
So, yeah.
42:18
Now I'm all, I'm ready to go again, get back in the saddle, but now there's no work.
42:23
Great.
42:24
Well, but I must say, I mean, like when I checked my YouTube inbox and there was a new Sweet Mason video, Berry Bars, which I must say I think is one of the best things you've ever done.
42:34
That video, I must say, it's a fantastic one.
42:37
And there'd been that seven year gap.
42:39
Obviously, it wasn't just a clear, you'd been working in that gap and the videos were coming out, but through Joe and other companies.
42:44
But like when there was that new Sweet Mason video, it was like, oh, this is fantastic.
42:47
It was fantastic.
42:48
Like you say in the video, a blast from the past.
42:50
Yeah, yeah.
42:50
I mean, there's so much energy to that video and to that edit.
42:54
Like everything you just said about feeling burnt out, you don't get any of that from that video and the ones you've done since.
43:00
No.
43:01
At all.
43:02
Well, yeah.
43:04
It was different, that one, because I wasn't doing politics.
43:07
That said, I was just – not just the actual –
43:10
the kind of graft, it was like the, just the kind of toxicness of, I don't know, just deal with politics every day, I was just doing my head in, you know what I mean?
43:19
And it was just refreshing to get away from that.
43:21
That's why I chose Mary Berry, because it's like, what's the furthest thing?
43:26
who isn't going to get a cancel you never know but like who isn't going to get a cancel mary berry's not going to get a cancel mary berry's the most untoxic person let's do mary berry so i thought right yeah let's do something for that and the same it's just same principles applied to watch a lot of it i really enjoyed making it you can tell because it was just different i enjoyed doing that one so yeah uh what else have i done since then this house
43:53
No, that one, that's the last one I did, yeah.
43:54
That's cracking.
43:55
Well, no, the last one, there's the carrier bag for a jam donor.
43:56
Oh, yeah.
43:57
It's kind of like a B-side.
43:58
That's an old one, but yeah.
44:01
I actually made that for Greg's.
44:02
That was a commission for Greg's.
44:04
Oh, really?
44:05
Yeah, both of them were a bag of flour and a bucket of water.
44:07
They're both Greg's commissions.
44:11
That's fantastic.
44:11
I actually got paid to make them.
44:13
That's fantastic.
44:13
Yeah.
44:14
Bag of flour is one of my favourites.
44:15
Like I said, sometimes they don't work, but occasionally, like,
44:20
I just found I was just lucky those samples were great those people were great I had rushes of I had two hours of like
44:28
footage of those guys just talking about the jobs and it was just perfect for that kind of thing yeah especially the bag of flour fella he was brilliant uh so yeah that that was when a commission worked perfectly there's been a few like that that have worked really well but that one yeah it was great because the um because you've also got like little trilogies of like works in there like you know like the arnie trilogy of like jungle all the way bring it back to the carpet all those ones
44:51
which is so funny and I remember bringing it back to the carpet that was like a video that you'd had in your back pocket for a couple of years and then thought oh I'll put this one out do you have many in your back pocket that are unreleased yeah I've got a few a lot of them are a bit crap but like sometimes like I said I burn out and I think I'll run out of ideas I'll get stuck so I'll put them on the back burner I've got loads like that they're just not finished yeah
45:19
I try and finish everything, but obviously, sometimes I just, like, it's not gonna, that's not gonna happen.
45:25
But sometimes, I look back and stuff I've got in the,
45:27
on the hard drive or whatever, on the archive, and it's like, actually, it's all right, that.
45:31
Stick it out.
45:32
I've got loads of stuff that's like half-baked.
45:35
So yeah, I just need to go back, finish some stuff really.
45:38
But like I said, the moment I'm looking for work and kind of, I'm doing my house because my house is falling apart.
45:45
Ceiling's leaking, everything's fucked.
45:48
So I've got to like, sort my house out, sort my life out and then get back to work.
45:52
That's what I'm kind of, that's the plan.
45:55
and are you going to be planning to carry on with the sample like you know in that area yeah I'm trying to just try and carry on doing what I've been doing for the past 20 years I just want to you know bits of commissions here and there bits of work and then my own stuff in between that's the dream if I can make that happen I've managed to do it for 20 years like but like I'm saying it's a different landscape now since leaving Joe I've come out open the door and it's like completely different
46:24
It's not a wasteland exactly, but it's like, it's different.
46:27
There's less work out there, so we'll see.
46:29
Might have to go back to painting and decorating, but that's fine.
46:33
Well, I remember when Bowery Biscuit Base came out.
46:35
I think that was when you were still doing, like, you know, painting and decorating.
46:39
I remember you saying that, like, you'd like decorating a room, and then you checked the stats on the video, and it had gone up by like 5,000 or something.
46:45
You were like, holy crap.
46:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:46
That was the moment where it was like- I used to come on the radio.
46:48
I was plastering the ceiling with my mate.
46:50
I used to come on the radio.
46:51
I'm like, fuck, you know what?
46:54
fuck he never said my name though the whole time he played that's annoying yeah he never said who played it who made it but whatever but he used to come on every day I was like what the fuck is going on this is bizarre and then again shoveling shit and fucking plastering and painting and stuff it was a weird weird time
47:13
And it was the, am I right in thinking that the, because another one of your sort of great videos is Trump versus Talking Heads.
47:20
Right.
47:20
Am I right in thinking that was a Joe project?
47:22
No, that was, I worked at Sky for about a year doing similar things like political, you know, mashup things.
47:33
And that came to an end, like, after about a year.
47:37
But that was something I was going to do for Sky.
47:42
And it never happened.
47:43
Because I got, I don't know, the contract ran out.
47:49
So I just made it for myself.
47:52
That's the only kind of political thing.
47:53
Maybe there's a couple of them are.
47:55
But I thought I'd put that online anyway.
47:57
Just I thought it was funny.
47:58
And it's kind of like,
48:00
You know, it's not, obviously Trump's a fucking maniac.
48:04
That's what I was trying to point out.
48:06
It wasn't.
48:08
a lot of people have got the wrong end of the stick with that video.
48:10
Have you noticed?
48:11
Like people are going, they think it's pro Trump.
48:13
Oh really?
48:14
And I didn't see that in the comments.
48:16
Yeah.
48:17
It's bizarre how you, your own, your kind of mindset makes you see something differently.
48:23
People see whatever they want to see in it.
48:25
It's bizarre, but I like, yeah, I think it's, I think it's fine to put that on my channel because it's, I think it's,
48:37
I don't know, I hope it doesn't predict the future, but there's a bit where it goes, oh my God, what have I done?
48:42
I was thinking, I was worried about what was going to happen with Trump in power, basically.
48:48
It was about that.
48:49
So I picked that song.
48:53
It did really well, so, you know.
48:55
Yeah, it did.
48:55
It's a great video and it speaks to the mania of that guy.
49:00
Yeah, it's crazy.
49:01
It's insane.
49:02
I mean, because so many of your songs feature samples and remixes of things like Paul McCartney, you said, or Trump or Craig Wallace.
49:10
I mean, have you ever sort of had word back, whether good or bad, from some of the people that you're parodying or remixing?
49:16
Do you ever get anything back like that?
49:20
Yeah, you'll get the occasional tweet.
49:24
of like recognition, like Vanilla Ice tweeted the Vanilla Ice thing.
49:29
Yeah.
49:29
Arnie's like on Reddit has commented about Jungle All The Way, saying he was showing it to people around on whatever film set he was on.
49:38
Art Schwarzenegger was the same guy.
49:40
Yeah.
49:41
There was this thing on Reddit where people asked him to say his favourite lines from films.
49:45
Someone asked him to say to a camera, like, put that cookie down, so he did it.
49:49
And someone linked.
49:50
It wasn't actually my video.
49:51
It was someone nicked it.
49:52
You know, it's like on YouTube.
49:54
Yeah.
49:54
But he was going around and he said, I approve of this or whatever.
49:59
And I was showing it to people around on set.
50:03
What else?
50:04
Yeah, it's just like little things like that.
50:06
People, I think they end up seeing them.
50:08
I don't think Jeremy Clarkson mentioned anything about that one.
50:11
No.
50:13
Yeah, but they do see him.
50:15
I can't think off the top of my head.
50:16
I feel like Paul McCartney would be all over that one.
50:18
I mean, you end up... Yeah, no, McCartney didn't acknowledge it, unfortunately.
50:22
Even though, like I said before, I think he sent that...
50:24
I think I have that sample from him indirectly through one guy.
50:29
But I don't know.
50:31
But I love Paul McCartney.
50:32
He's great.
50:32
I don't care.
50:33
I don't mind.
50:34
He's amazing.
50:35
He's a ledge.
50:35
Absolutely a ledge.
50:36
One person...
50:38
I watched everything.
50:40
Every interview he's ever done is the most...
50:42
He's the same in every interview.
50:44
That's who he is.
50:45
He's just sound.
50:46
He's just so consistent.
50:49
Absolute ledge.
50:50
Yeah, authentic.
50:51
Yeah, that's who he is.
50:52
He's brilliant.
50:54
I want to say with Masterchef Sympathisia, that song, they soundtracked a whole stretch of one of the shows to that, right?
51:02
There was a competition on the show with that song.
51:06
That song was built into it in some ways.
51:07
Is that right?
51:08
Yeah, that was weird.
51:09
They really took to that song.
51:10
It was really weird, yeah.
51:11
Yeah, the kind of... Yeah, of course, Masterchef were totally behind it.
51:16
yeah there was talk of them doing it live and stuff and then I was like what are you doing John Terode was like we're not doing this live for comic relief they were going to get on stage and sing it I was like don't please don't please don't do that John Terode agreed and he said no it just doesn't the whole part of it's funny is because it's we're not intentionally singing it blah blah blah yeah
51:37
But yeah, they did a whole, I think it was a final of one of the series of MasterChef where they spun it.
51:45
But yeah, I was watching that and that was surreal.
51:47
What the fuck is going on?
51:49
What a weird timeline.
51:50
Aye, aye.
51:53
But it's funny because you say, like, talk about music and live music because I want to say Cassette Boy, they've done a few live events over the years.
51:59
They've done things at Glastonbury and up at Edinburgh, the Fringe.
52:03
I mean, have you ever thought about doing your music on the road in any way, live, or is it purely something that you do for YouTube, for, you know, digital?
52:10
Do you have any thoughts?
52:11
Yeah, I've thought about it.
52:11
Just try and, like, get a show together, I suppose.
52:14
I might try and do it now, like...
52:18
see if I can do some gigs it's just a bit, I always thought what do you do, you just kind of stand there it's all sequenced, I'm not playing anything it's all just programmed so I'll just go press a button I don't know, I'll have to come up with some kind of set or maybe I can, I don't know thinking about it, I've thought about it for years but it's always, so it's got in the way like the job, Joe or something so it's always come in the way of me doing it, but now yeah, maybe maybe
52:43
I guess it would be quite similar to DJing.
52:45
Yeah, yeah.
52:46
Like I say, get its new laptop, see what it can do.
52:48
I think Serato can mix video now, so it's been out of the day for years, I think.
52:53
But yeah, maybe there's something in that.
52:56
All right, all right.
52:57
And do you have any sort of ideas for future videos?
53:00
Are there any particular people or samples that you're particularly excited about?
53:04
I mean, like you say, you don't look for it.
53:06
It emerges, but is there anyone that's kind of piquing your curiosity for doing something?
53:10
I've got a few ideas.
53:11
I don't really want to talk about...
53:14
It's weird.
53:14
So when I vocalise what I'm thinking in my head, it's a bit like it sounds ridiculous.
53:20
And it makes me...
53:22
When I put it in concept with reality, it's like, wow, it sounds stupid.
53:27
And then I lose momentum.
53:29
So I like to keep everything just totally in my head until it's done.
53:33
I don't talk about what I'm doing...
53:36
I don't really mention it to anyone what I'm doing because it just sounds so stupid.
53:40
I double think about something, I'll stop.
53:42
And I'll go, oh, what am I doing?
53:44
That's stupid.
53:45
So I just keep it to myself until it's done.
53:49
And then I'll put it online and go.
53:54
hopefully people like it so you know by the time i finished them i'm like what you know i've said what am i doing and it seems so ridiculous i've spent months on this thing and then yeah so i don't yeah i don't i don't really say what's in the pipeline
54:09
I was going to say about the live music, because I just remember that, because I was watching back the Joe compilation that you did in 2017, which is a lot of that political comedy, all the Brexit stuff, Cameron, all that stuff.
54:20
And I was thinking this would almost be a fantastic medley to play at a nightclub, because it's all remixes of different rap songs and pop songs with these guys.
54:30
I think so many places would snap that up.
54:32
They'd be like, oh, that's brilliant.
54:34
The problem with politics is it goes out of date, doesn't it?
54:36
Aye.
54:37
Aye.
54:37
it goes out of date soon it's like newspapers in it it's just if you do anything current like that it's not got the kind of not as evergreen as something that's just like master chef then again that's kind of it's been cancelled now and so you know uh yeah i don't know i don't think i could play those out live like i said it's polo i don't like bringing politics into
55:03
It creates arguments and stuff, doesn't it?
55:05
I've played that at a nightclub.
55:06
It's funny now because it's like in the past, but at the time you'd get people arguing and stuff.
55:11
It's just so toxic, isn't it?
55:14
You don't want to bring Twitter into a nightclub, do you?
55:17
Carnage.
55:18
No, yeah, people will stop dancing and start knocking the shit out of each other.
55:21
Yeah, they start arguing.
55:22
Yeah.
55:23
You were saying earlier about how, like, in terms of the future, you know, it's going to be, you know, you want to keep doing what you're doing.
55:29
And sort of producing more great work and getting it out there.
55:33
I mean, is that the... Because you were saying about how YouTube has changed.
55:36
It's become more about, I guess, the business and the algorithm.
55:39
I mean, are you planning to try and push Sweet Mason, take that to the next level?
55:42
Or is it more just like, is it going to be just something that you do for fun as well as... Yeah, I don't know really.
55:48
It is up in the air at the moment.
55:50
Because if I can't make money off it, I can't.
55:56
I can't pay my mortgage and I can't feed my kids.
55:59
So it depends.
56:00
It's in limbo.
56:04
If I get some work, I can balance the two things.
56:07
It's tricky.
56:09
It is really tricky.
56:10
YouTube, trying to get monetised on YouTube is almost impossible.
56:16
I don't make the kind of content that will bring you enough money on YouTube.
56:21
I can't do it regularly enough.
56:23
You know, like influencers are putting stuff out practically every day.
56:26
And, you know, that's how you monetize.
56:29
And that's what the whole thing is set up to like benefit, set up to benefit influencers.
56:36
And I'm not, I don't see, I'm not an influencer.
56:38
So it's like, I ain't ever going to be able to make money off YouTube that way, I don't think.
56:43
Patreon maybe.
56:45
But then again, getting enough patrons is also tricky.
56:47
But thanks to the patrons, by the way.
56:49
Bought me the new computer.
56:52
I don't know, really.
56:53
I'm just going to crack on.
56:54
I've said I've been doing it 20 years.
56:55
I've just blagged it all the way.
56:58
So let's carry on with the blag.
57:01
There's nothing much more I can do.
57:02
It's like maybe a live set.
57:04
I don't know.
57:05
I don't know.
57:05
I really don't know in terms of monetizing it.
57:08
Maybe live.
57:09
Maybe I'm just going to carry on going.
57:12
Painting, decorating in between and working in pubs.
57:15
I don't know.
57:16
I don't know.
57:16
It really is up in the air at the moment.
57:19
Literally crooks time.
57:22
So...
57:23
Well, I for one, I mean, every time I see one of your videos pop into my YouTube, I'm always excited, you know, and it's just the fact that you've been able to make it, like you say, it has for 20 years, you've been able to make it work and produce so much great stuff.
57:35
Yeah.
57:35
It is fantastic.
57:36
And I think, yeah, I take my hat off to you because it's not as someone who is, who's also.
57:39
I can't believe it.
57:40
I can't believe I've managed to pull it off.
57:41
Yeah.
57:42
This far.
57:43
Hopefully another 20 years, you know.
57:45
Aye.
57:46
Let's just, let's just.
57:48
Keep going, just keep going.
57:51
Get some work, make more videos, whatever.
57:56
I just need inspiration.
57:57
I'm always hungry for ideas.
58:00
I need constant ideas.
58:02
It's just like that.
58:05
If the well's dry, ideas-wise, you're knackered.
58:08
But I've got plenty of ideas.
58:09
It's just getting time to make them and almost being able to finance your hobby.
58:12
It's basically what I'm doing.
58:13
I financed it for the past 20 years, really.
58:17
It's not really brought in... You know, the actual YouTube hasn't brought in any money itself.
58:22
Other work on the side has, like the Joe stuff and what have you.
58:25
But the YouTube, no, I've not really made.
58:29
Yeah, mate, fuck off from that, I'm not going to lie.
58:32
But it's still going, so.
58:33
Still going, and people still watching.
58:35
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
58:36
Thank you, people.
58:38
No, thank you.
58:39
Thank you, mate.
58:39
No, honestly, like I say, Chris, Swede, sir, yeah, long may it continue, as I say.
58:45
I mean, I am excited to hear that, like, yeah, I know that you're...
58:47
you don't like talking about sort of different ideas that you might have, but it's good to say that you've still got the passion for the work.
58:53
Oh, yeah, the passion is just, yes, it's obsession.
58:56
It's like I have to do it.
58:58
It's just I've got to be doing something like creative, whether it's like music or, you know, video or anything.
59:06
I've just got to be doing it.
59:08
So, you know, I'll always be doing it by hook or by crook.
59:11
But whether it brings in enough cash to do it regularly, we'll see.
59:15
We'll see.
59:16
Hopefully.
59:17
Fantastic.
59:18
Well, long may it continue.
59:19
So thanks so much for coming on the pod, mate.
59:21
This was such a great pleasure to chat to you.
59:23
Thanks for having me, mate.
59:24
Thanks for having me.
59:25
Thanks for coming on.
59:26
And also just to hear about your workflow alone and how you made those videos is just, you know...
59:32
I'd always wondered about that.
59:33
So just to hear you talk about it.
59:34
Now you know.
59:35
Now you know.
59:36
It's just graft.
59:37
It's just simply, it's just hard work.
59:38
Yeah, there's no secret techniques, really.
59:41
It's just, you've just got to want to do it.
59:43
Well, just to hear you talk about it and take us through the stuff you've done and your process, it's just been fantastic.
59:48
So thanks so much again.
59:49
Cheers, Billy.
59:50
Cheers, mate.
59:50
Nice one.
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Hey everyone, thanks so much for listening to my chat with Chris, aka Swede Mason.
1:00:07
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