Off The Record: Old school and tongue-in-cheek

AS A child, Shafto aka Jeff Ryan used to moonwalk in his socks whenever he heard Michael Jackson’s voice. After rapping for 20 years, the artist is about to tick the biggest box off his bucket list - make an album.

“When I was a child, my father had a big record player in the corner of our room, and I remember him playing Queen and Michael Jackson on it,” Jeff recalls. “I used to be dancing around the sitting room in my socks, and flipping the sky doing the moon dance. I definitely had a love for music from early on, but I didn't really get into hip hop until I was maybe sixteen.”

Originally from Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, Shafto began his career as a producer and DJ with a friend. He started rapping when the two moved their act onto the stage, that’s how JamNation went on to perform at many hip hop nights across Ireland.

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Once he hit the big 30, Shafto decided to cross something off his bucket list and create an album.

With Round and Round, he contacted and worked with producers from all over Ireland and the UK to “bring the best sound to the table.”

After a few years, his album is finally complete and will be released on Friday, September 29.

Speaking of the first track on the album, Sunshine, Shafto explains: “I came up with the idea of the album when I was working in a job that I didn't really love, to be honest.

“I was doing the same thing Monday to Friday, working this boring job. Going out Friday or Saturday nights, do nothing on Sunday, do it all over again on Monday. I kind of wanted to do a topical idea, kind of run through my typical week.”

Shafto’s style could be described as old school hip hop.

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“It’s kind of a hip hop pop crossover. I love having singers on my songs and kinda to make it more appealing to a wider audience. I enjoy a catchy song, so I think a lot of my songs come out trying to have a catchy chorus. And I just try and really have many people in mind. I think I get more of a reaction from non-hip hop listeners than people who love actual hip hop,” he admits.

The rapper, who says he has a “tongue in cheek element,” never wanted to get into music to become famous.

“Even though I love making music and I want many people to hear it, I keep making it whether they do or not. I'm not really making music to get famous and all of that. It's just like a hobby for me. When I make a good song and I like it, I want other people to hear it,” he says.

“I'm very outgoing and I like people, but I am very independent, and I like my alone time as well. I can do both. I can be in a big crowd and get on well and, and have no issue. And I can also just be at home on my own and be very happy out as well.

So I suppose it's just a matter of timing, and what mood I'm in,” Shafto continues.

On Round and Round, one track particularly turned out to be more challenging than others - his song, Good Times.

“It’s kind of a slower beat, kind of an old school flow,” he explains. “I don’t have a complicated rhyming pattern or anything like that. It's very basic. And I like to be between, say, 90 to 110 beats per minute on an instrumental. But this one was a bit slower. So I found a singer to feature on it, and he really elevated the track and his chorus and his verses are brilliant.”

After rapping for 20 years, Shafto says community is key.

“I know from being in the Irish hip hop scene for 20 years that we can't work if we don't work together. I think definitely community is a big thing. It’s always been kind of like Dublin has their artists. And in Limerick or Galway, wherever, they're all little cliques, but they all come together and work together to kind of push forward the whole hip hop scene in Ireland.”

According to him, Limerick’s music scene is “absolutely brilliant.”

He notes: “I’ve been saying it for years. In Limerick, no matter what genre of music you are into, you can find a really, really amazing band or rapper or singer or DJ. No matter what you like, there’s constantly gigs on.”

And the venues play a massive part in it.

“There's some great venues around Limerick having unsigned artists or smaller artists on. They're having them play, and they're bringing in crowds, it's like a little ecosystem of itself.”

Once the album is out, Shafto hopes to push himself out of his comfort zone.

“I'll be moving to Limerick soon. I'm hoping to do a lot of open mics and kind of push my album and myself into networking and open mics. Hopefully I'll get gigs around Limerick and I might even headline my own show.”