As many of you know, the very talented SHY & DRS released “Beautiful To Me” duringNational Anti-Bullying Week 2015. We sat down with Mark and Darren to discuss their own experiences of bullying, what they think about Ditch the Label, and how they started their music career. Don’t forget to download the new single here.
1. What do you think about Ditch the Label?
We approached Ditch the Label at the beginning of our Anti-Bullying Campaign for our new Single. We approached them because they are a very positive and cool charity who care about people. The single is all about positivity and working with Ditch the Label has been amazing. They really care about making a difference and battling bullying, which is the exact same stance we take on the issue. When we were youngsters there weren’t as many options or people to talk to help deal with bullying. They are a great resource to kids and adults alike.
2. What does bullying mean to you? Do you have any personal experience of it? (If so, how did you deal with it?)
Unfortunately we both have had quite a bit of experience with bullying. When we were in the early years at secondary school we got left out and socially isolated. There was one guy who took a dislike to us for some reason in our second year at the academy, and seemed to manipulate all of our pals against us. So the two of us were left hanging about with each other for a year or two. We were pretty big guys and never got much physical bullying although we did get the threats of ‘you’re getting it after school’. I guess we were lucky in a sense because there were two of us so we could stick together. Looking back, we didn’t deal with it at all, we kind of put up with it and kept quiet about it but we stuck it out and made friends a couple of years later. Friends who we are still friends with today. It’s easy to say now but in hindsight, we should have spoken out a lot more about it and told teachers or our parents about what was going on. This is why it’s great there are organisations such as Ditch the Label who can help out and not leave kids feeling as isolated.
3. Who has been your biggest influence in life?
Well our biggest influence musically… it would have to be Eminem. He kind of taught us to not care what anyone thought and with that, we were able to pursue a career in music. If we had listened to what people said about us when we started out rapping in a Scottish accent, we wouldn’t be here today. So I guess that attitude and self-confidence that Eminem taught us got us to where we are today. One of our biggest achievements musically is working with Eminem’s Band D12 who feature on our next single for 2016.
4. From our research, we know that 1 in 2 teens want to change their appearance. What advice would you give to someone who is currently being bullied because of attitudes towards the way they look?
This is the exact message our latest single ‘Beautiful To Me’ has for Anti-Bullying Week; it’s about embracing who you are and whatever shape or size you might be, you’re beautiful no matter what people say or how they make you feel. I myself (Mark) was a chubby kid, I felt pressure to lose weight to fit in and avoid any nasty comments from classmates & friends alike, but I think if you want to change something about yourself, you need to do it for yourself, not because of pressure others are putting on you to do it! I lost a lot of weight to fit in and at the end of the day that was me changing myself just to fit in. We know it’s difficult to believe it when you’re young, but it will become apparent in years to come that people’s opinion about the way you look are irrelevant. Be you! Don’t feel pressured into following the crowd, your individuality is what makes you you! And it is important.
5. Some people may assume these issues would only affect women, but they affect men equally as much. A lot of men find it difficult to talk about issues that upset them – do you have any experience with this? Also what advice would you give to guys reading this who find it hard to speak up?
It is less likely for a male to speak up about their problems full stop, and to admit there is an issue. That’s a ‘bloke thing’ and we guess we both had a bit of that when we went through bullying. There is the general sense that guys have to deal with their own problems themselves. We did hold back and we were almost embarrassed to tell people that there was a problem.
We kept everything to ourselves and worked through it that way. The way we dealt with it didn’t help, so if we had any advice now it would be to let you know that it is ok to speak out about it and speaking helps. Don’t bottle it up.
6. Did you know from a young age that you wanted to follow a musical path?
We were 15. A long time ago now, but we still remember the day we started making music together. Christmas day 1999. Before that we always loved rap music – the first tapes we bought were Busta Rhymes and tracks like ‘Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer and even ‘Scatman’! And we were huge D12 and Eminem fans which made us look into underground hip hop even more. I suppose we’ve had a bit of longevity as a band because we are twin brothers so living together helped us stay as a band all this time.
7. Have you ever experienced any negativity within the industry? How have you dealt with it?
Yes we have had our fair share. Being different and doing something different is always going to attract negativity. In the industry as a whole, we’ve had quite a good response and signed record deals with some big management companies, but we have had a lot of doors slammed in our faces. The way we deal with it is to simply keep doing our thing. Music is subjective so we can’t please everybody.
8. Do you receive any negative comments via social media? If so, how do you deal with it?
Our policy since we began pursuing music as a career was always to ignore any negativity. We actually sat down and talked about it together when we received bad comments on forums and online. We still do get a few Tweets and comments on Facebook which we completely ignore. We don’t dwell on the comments, it would make it impossible to move forward if you let every comment bother you. We make music for us, because we love doing it. No other reason.
9. We advocate support and education for perpetrators of bullying, as we know from our research they are dealing with complex issues. Do you agree with this? Do you think this is an effective approach?
Definitely, we get it. This tact is possibly the future of combatting bullying. We see why it would be difficult for those who have been on the other side of bullying to understand. But what took us time to realise is that it’s often the case that the person bullying is very likely to be reacting to bullying from someone else in their life in some way, shape or form. So working and helping one of the root causes of bullying would certainly be an effective way to prevent bullying. At the end of the day, it doesn’t excuse bullying behaviour but it is a way for that person to vent their own problems.
10. If you could change one thing in the entire world, what would it be?
We like to see ourselves as really positive people and we are not massive fans of negativity. In fact, our pet hate is negative people. Negativity breeds negativity. It is often someone who is experiencing bullying who bullies. So if we had the choice, we’d eradicate negativity entirely!
11. If you could go back in time, what one thing would you tell your younger self?
It’s probably the easiest thing in the world when you’re looking back from the perspective of the older you, but I guess it would be to care a lot less about what people think about you! We would assure our younger selves that it won’t matter at all in the long run!
Don’t forget to download the new single here.
