Our new fav radio show Peppermint Candy is a fabulous shimmy through all things jazz and swing and we just love it. It's not all nostalgia either as the wonderful Broken Hearts DJs mix it up with a modern interpretation of the genre including our absolute favourite Electro-swing for some serious tuneage! Watch this space for a RMV collaboration soon!
We caught up with the girls, Nisha & Amber, to tell us a bit more about the show, music and their fabulous vintage threads!
RMV: We listened to your first show, it rocked. Tell us a bit about Peppermint Candy and how it’s all going.
Broken Hearts: It's going really well! We're loving doing the show, and we were really happy to get a great review in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/may/20/radio-review-peppermint-candy-jazz). It's music that we love so it's fantastic to be able to share it with a wider audience.
What is it about swing and jazz that really excites you?
We grew up listening to a lot of jazz through our parents' record collections; in fact Amber's dad was actually a jazz drummer who played at Ronnie Scotts. Plus our first DJ sets were at 1920s-1940s nights in London where people would dress up and swing dance, so we've had plenty of practice playing jazz at live events and parties!
Could someone who knows nothing about jazz and swing listen to the show?
Yes definitely, it's very inclusive. Quite often people think of jazz radio as only for musos, but we were adamant that we want it to be a celebration of the music with some tidbits of knowledge thrown in.
What would you say to someone who thought that style of music was outdated?
You're wrong! Not only are there swing nights going on across the country, but there are a lot of bands who cross swing samples with hip hop and drum n bass beats - for example the Correspondents (http://www.myspace.com/thecorrespondentsmusic) and also a whole new genre of electro-swing is growing, you can't find out more at Freshly Squeezed (http://www.freshlysqueezedmusic.com/)
You work vintage in a fabulous way, what are your favourite fashion eras and why?
That's tricky as there are good and bad styles from every era, including the present. We like to take inspiration from the past, but also from what's going on today. Our favourite styles from different eras change all the time - we love the decadence of Poiret in the teens and 20s, but also the sludgy colours and beautiful shapes of Biba in the 70s.
Are you all out vintage collectors or do you covet current designers too?
We love current designers as well as collecting vintage - we wouldn't want one without the other as it's great to mix them up. We both started out in fashion working at Beyond Retro vintage clothing store, so we have pretty extensive vintage wardrobes. A lot of our friends are designers so we commission a lot of our costume pieces. But we try to mix up designer and vintage clothing with a bit of high street thrown in. And of course we'd love to be able to dress head to toe in Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen! We’re lucky enough to have five pairs of shoes hand-made by Terry de Havilland, the original rock 'n' roll cobbler. His iconic designs have been around for 5 decades and London streetstyle wouldn't be the same without him. We also love quirky jewellery desingers Tatty Devine who recently made us bespoke 'Peppermint Candy' necklaces which we wear all the time.
What is your most treasured vintage piece?
Amber has a vintage Cirque du Soleil jacket that's pretty incredible - circle cut in loads of crazy bright colours. She also has some vintage Biba from her mum that is incredibly treasured! Nisha has an amazing 1920s wool Jantzen swimsuit and a Victorian mourning jacket that she loves.
Who chooses your outfits for your public appearances and what is important to you when picking what to wear?
We have quite a lot of outfits to choose from but for some reason it doesn't make it any easier to narrow things down! It's definitely better dressing as a pair though as it makes packing for traveling a lot easier. We choose our outfits together as we have a similar aesthetic, it's handy as whenever one of us is shopping alone we can always pick up 2 of any pieces we see.
Who’s style do you most admire (past and current)?
We don’t really have any one style icon in particular but a range of influences… Everything from silent film stars like Theda Bara to Pierrot clowns to the Flintstones. We even designed our first capsule collection (for boutique Beyond the Valley) inspired by a film about a freakshow from the 30s. We can find inspiration anywhere! For us dressing up really is dressing up – it’s about taking on a character and embracing it
Are you festival-ing this summer, if so, where and what will you be wearing?
This summer we're focusing on the radio show (http://www.jazzfm.com/shows/peppermint-candy/) so festivals are taking a bit of a back seat for us. But last year we played at Glastonbury, the Big Chill and Bestival. We managed to avoid the rain at almost all of them, but we had some fantastic Melissa (http://www.melissaplasticdreams.com/) wellies for when we got caught in a flash downpour at Bestival. We are huge fans of Melissa shoes as they're perfect for rainy London days!
Finally, if you could tell the world to listen to just one song, what would it be and why?
It would have to be 'Jump in the Line' by Harry Belafonte - it's such a feel-good song that it even gets Winona Ryder dancing on the ceiling in Beetlejuice!
Don't miss the next session of Peppermint Candy - Thursday nights 6-7pm on Jazz FM. Make sure you are tuned in on 4th August for your chance to win a wonderful RMV vintage pressie!
