Captain Flatcap is multi-genre, instrumental electronic dance music. It is the live 3-piece band (Chris Rotherham, Tom Rotherham, Matt Woods), the DJ (Chris) and the production/composition duo (Chris and Tom). The live band has influences of swing and ska, funk, folk, and filth, and wields trumpet, flute, guitar, mandolin, keyboard, percussion, and a sh*t load of squelch!
Our music is primarily dance music; it started with Chris’s desire to write some dirty electro-house and developed from there. Chris started the band in early 2012, we released the studio session video of 'Funky Farmers' and not long after our remix of 'Dragons' by Caravan Palace, which, combined, got us noticed in the electro swing scene.
Although we are (since 2010) big Caravan Palace and Dutty Moonshine fans, we never intended to be an electro swing band, rather we grew to realise we are fundamentally a dance music live band, and it wasn't until the term vintage remix came about that we felt truly well placed in the scene. Having said that, we do in fact have electro swing to thank (particularly Caravan Palace) for inspiring the creation of our live performances.
Since we started out we've experimented with combining all sorts of vintage styles – swing, ska, funk, folk etc. - with different styles of dance music. Our priority during the writing process is to firstly make something which works with DJ culture and which sounds good on a sound system, rather than to think about how it translates to live performance – that mostly comes later down the line.
Our influences as composers have no limitations; everything we listen to helps to form our style, in that any specific aspect of a piece of music can inspire us, whether it’s beats, synths, melodies, structure, production techniques, or indeed anything. We were both classically trained from an early age and we both grew up getting involved in ska, reggae, punk, swing, jazz, folk and classical groups, which explains the mixture of vintage genres we include in our music. Some of our favourite artists include Caravan Palace, The Cat Empire, System Of A Down, Bonobo, Infected Mushroom, Will And The People, Koan Sound, James Blake and Dizraeli.

• Folk
• Ska
• Funk
• Swing
• Psychedelic
• Electro