Interview: Mooqee & Beatvandals of Bombstrikes Records

In the early 2000s, two local DJs of Leeds, UK conformed over one simple mission: drop dance floor bombs on their local clubs. What started as a hobby ended up becoming a grassroots movement. A movement that inspire music producers, DJs, and fans alike with bass-infused, re-grooved funky tunes that bring the party vibrations to a whole new level.

15 years later, those local DJs, Glenn Naylor AKA Mooqee and Tim Utah AKA Beatvandals, continue their hobby with strong momentum. This time, though, they've assembled a cultural epicenter under the Bombstrikes name hosting heavy-hitters from Featurecast and A.Skillz to up-and-comers Shaka Loves You and X-Ray Ted.

It is our pleasure to host the Bombstrikes 15 Years official compilation mix on our mini mix series. Enjoy a taste of the pride and joy of this label and a walk through the tunes that made it all happen. While you listen, give our interview a read with the curators of the mix and the Bombstrikes label bosses themselves: Mooqee & Beatvandals.

Hey guys, great to have you on the mix. So, for those who don’t know you, what’s the story behind Mooqee, Beatvandals, and Bombstrikes Records?

We started out as a vinyl only label which was mainly aimed at DJs. This was before the digital age and we both played off turntables and it basically started out as both of us making tracks that we wanted to play out in clubs for ourselves, as we couldn’t always find the tunes to play. Our ethos was that all tracks would be Bombs (hence the name) and we released them to finance the next release. This went really well and we started with the volume series (which you can still find on discogs changing hands for quite a bit of money now). At first it was the two of us making the music and without realizing it helping define the sound, then we brought a couple of other artists such as A.Skillz and Nick Thayer and out of that it developed into a fully fledged label and here we are 15 years later.

And you’ve hit that milestone with this record label: 15 years of Bombstrikes. 1.5 decades! What’s been running through your head about it all?

It does feel good to have been around for that long! There was never a plan to keep it going this long. We have always just done what we do, not tried to follow trends and do it with a high standard, which we think people have tuned into over the years. It was cool to look back over the years as part of the 15 year album. To be honest when we went back through our catalogue, it was only then that we realized how much music we had released over that time and that it was of such a high quality. We knew it was going to be hard to decide what went on the album and that is what was going through our heads for a few weeks. We both selected our favourite tracks in a list and the ones that were in both our lists went straight on and then we debated for ages on the others.
It was important for us to pick the music that reflected the label over this whole period and showed how we had progressed as a label and to reflect the different genres that it had covered over that time.

as cool to look back over the years as part of the 15 year album. To be honest when we went back through our catalogue, it was only then that we realized how much music we had released over that time and that it was of such a high quality. We knew it was going to be hard to decide what went on the album and that is what was going through our heads for a few weeks. We both selected our favourite tracks in a list and the ones that were in both our lists went straight on and then we debated for ages on the others.
It was important for us to pick the music that reflected the label over this whole period and showed how we had progressed as a label and to reflect the different genres that it had covered over that time.

To celebrate, you’ve been hosting Bombstrikes takeovers across some UK festivals this summer. What have been the highlights of it?

The take over’s have been going great. The two highlights are definitely Beatherder festival and Shindig Weekender. We had some great artists playing such as Fort Knox Five, Shaka Loves You, X-Ray Ted, Featurecast, Nick Thayer, Dj Q, Dj Hazard to name a few. It was great to be able to programme the stage at these events and take people on a complete musical journey through the night. The crowds at both stages were really up for it. It was also great chance to get the bombstrikes family together from across the globe.

And you also benchmarked this anniversary on a special compilation Bombstrikes: 15 Years with artists from the label. Tell me more about the mix. How’d you put it together?

Once we had spent a few weeks working on the track list, then we had to try and make it work as a DJ mix. Normally when you do a DJ mix, you work on putting the tracks together first so that it will work as a DJ mix, but we kind of did it in reverse and picked the tracks based on their merit and what were our favourites to be included on the compilation. Then we had the task of making it work as a mix, after which can be quite a bit more tricky to do, as you cannot just scrap a track, because it wont fit in the mix. It had to tell the story of the label over the 15 years and we had to make it work somehow.
We had a lot of fun putting this together and we just went into studio lock-down mode for a few days and it all seemed to come together really fast.

Bombstrikes has been integral in the growth of the culture of funky music in the UK. What exactly is this musical movement and culture in the UK and what make it unique, in your eyes?

This culture to us has always been about playing records that have the funk and the bass. I guess it came out of wanting to play old funk records but wanting to re-edit them, change the beats and maybe just use one break and make them have more punch and then structure them so that they work on the dance floor and have good mix in and mix out points for dj’s. It kind of developed on from there as the music became more original and spread out into different genres but always having the funk! To us it is good party music that just works in any situation, connects with people and works a dance floor. We have never really focused on being part of any scene and just released music that we like. With the thought process being: if we like them then we felt that other people would be into them as well. If you look on any online record store you will see Bombstrikes releases in all genres which we always see as a great achievement. Along the way we have always tried to help out and work with others, whether labels or artists, as that’s just our natural way to be. That could maybe be why we are still here after all these years! That working together is for us what helps make a scene and for the most part everyone gets along really well.

What have been some notable opportunities, moments or adventures you experienced in the past years solely because of Bombstrikes?

The biggest opportunity to come from it is to get the chance to travel the world. From the early days, we always seemed to have groups of fans in many different countries. Which always felt crazy. Especially as we operated with pretty much no marketing budget in the early days! We dropped luck that we hit just as social media did, so we could reach and communicate globally with our fan base. What we did in Leeds was travelling across the globe pretty much straight away and we’d be turning up to shows in Romania, Canada and Russia with people wearing our tees or bringing records for us to sign. Which was always a highlight.

With 15 years down. I’m curious, what’s the future of Bombstrikes looking like?

We are really proud of our compilations that we have been doing and would like to build on these more. Besides the 15 year compilation we have the Funk N Beats series, The Bass Funk series and the Disco Funkin’ series that are going really well. These do as the name says and across these three styles we feel we have a great way to express the label and curate the music we are into, help people to discover new music and the odd forgotten gem. It’s also great working with the guest curators on the track listing. We also have more releases lined up with individual artists such as Shaka Loves You and X-Ray Ted and we have an upcoming release from Alexander Norman which features Dynamite MC. The future for Bombstrikes is good and as long as these great artists keep making music then we will release it. We get sent a lot of great music as well and we encourage new artists to send us their music and as artists ourselves always make the effort to give encouragement and feedback.

Stream the Bombstrikes 15 Years Compilation on all major platforms here.

Discover more about Bombstrikes Records here on Stereofox.