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deejay feature 0026 added 21.07.05 words K-Per technical: QED
As ex-Scratch Pervert and a regular of the live circuit, First Rate should be no stranger to you. However if he still is, then you need to know that he was a part of the original Perverts formation (the name came from him), he’s been a tour and studio DJ for the likes of Vadim, Morcheeba, US3, Blade and many others and he’s been hard at work on his first album for the last 2 and a half years. And now that said album is out, entitled ‘Walky Talkyz’ there’s never been a better time for Kper to catch up with the man and find out what he’s been up to. So on one of the hottest days of the year we sat down in the shade with a tall glass of cold water and got some words from First Rate on the album, touring, and tour shenanigans, live shows and what the future holds. So are you enjoying this weather then?  F: Yeah man, it’s a bit much though. You don’t really want to be doing
anything during the day, and just work at night when it’s cooler… I’m
sweating my balls off right now, it’s no good. I’ve been fuckin around
with a keyboard and guitar all day, which is all good, just coming up
with riffs and bits. Might have to get a beer or two later on as well!Good stuff. Well I thought it might be best to get a bit of background info for the people who may not know who you are? F: Fuckin hell… Well I started breaking when I was a kid, and then I was introduced to scratching by a guy called Jez, who showed me this video and then I started scratching on beaten up drive belts and old school turntables. And from then on I just practiced for years and years, and then I started DJing and roughly six months later the Scratch Perverts thing happened. I was using the name as a DJ, and one day we did a showcase in Bongo’s and after that decided to form the crew, which most people know about. Through doing that we ended up doing loads of shows, battles, DMC, ITF, winning titles, etc… And then after a few years of doing that, I also started working with Morcheeba… No hold on… Yeah that’s it, I started working with them and that’s roughly at the same time the Perverts ended as a super group and we all went our separate ways. So we broke up and by then I’d started playing with this breakbeat band called Monkey Mafia, doing all sorts of shows and festivals, playing with House DJs, all sorts of crazy shit. And then after that I’m now playing for US3, the guys who did Cantaloop all these years back. And that’s going good, oh and I also played with Vadim for a long time, doing live shows too. But Vadim works you so fuckin hard! Yeah everyone says that F: He does, he’s a maniac like that, 50,000 shows in a month, the man’s on a mission (laughs). And I’ve also done shows with Blade. So yeah just loads of live work really, more then anything. Would you say all this work with various bands and across genres has helped you in putting this new album together? F: Yeah, as a hip hop head and member of the scene in the UK it’s been amazing. You get so many ideas from all different things you’ll see and hear, whereas if you just stick to hip hop, things can get limiting you know? That’s what music is about at the end of the day, finding it everywhere and making it everywhere. I’ve been doing it for so long now, 20 odd years, and that helped as well. Just having all this knowledge and experiences. You know people may come up and say ‘this isn’t hip hop’ or whatever but at the end of the day working with a rap crew on stage and then working with a ‘normal’ live band on stage is the same thing, there’s no difference, it’s all about music and mixing and matching what you like.  "...I also played with Vadim for a long time, doing live shows too. But Vadim works you so fuckin hard!..." It’s taken you over 2 and half years to get this LP out. Was that because of the extensive touring? F: Yeah and other people’s as well! Trying to get everyone together was a nightmare at times. Yeah you’ve got a whole load of guests on there…  F: Yeah thing is though there are songs like ‘Istanbul’ which took
forever to finish, I worked on it for so long and the Kela track as
well, that took me a long time. Trying to get his beatbox to sound like
a drum. That track was bounced from Reel to Reel to Protools to Logic,
it was just a lot of work. And then sometimes the best things happened
really quickly, without you really realising it. When I’ve worked with
other people on their albums in the past, sometimes I’d come in, have a
warm up, do some cuts and the guys would record me without me knowing
and then say ‘yeah nice one we got what we need!’. And I’ll be like
‘what? I ain’t even started!’ (laughs). Morcheeba were the opposite
they’d get me in and let me chill for hours, have some coffee, some a
few spliffs and then they’d be like ‘now you’re ready’. So yeah the
album took a long time because things moved at different speeds really,
and we also had to dump a lot of the tracks, there were many more to
start with.So how did it work out having so many people involved? Was it a lot of back and forth? F: Not really actually. I’m like Kela when it comes to this. I’d ask him ‘how did you get Neneh Cherry on your album, how did you get such and such?’ and he’d say ‘I just went to their show, walked up to them and asked them if they’d be interested in doing something together’. And that’s really it at the end of the day. Most of the people on this album are my friends, they’re people I know from touring, doing shows, being in the scene. So it’s not like I’ve got all these people on there, it’s more that they’re all friends and agreed to do it. It worked out easily, some of them we worked together, others we didn’t. "...SkinnyMan was cool to work with as well. He came down to record ‘Barfight’ and brought so many fucking people with him, it was like a bar in the studio..." Blade gave me his track pretty much done, and I just had to remaster it and finish it off. I got parts of a song from this reggae band that lives near me, we recorded them in the studio and I used some of their stuff for one of my tracks. Other songs were built from scratch, mixing and matching things until they were right. The main team I work with, Bombay Monkey, are now doing an album with Tommy Evans, and they were really key in getting this album the way it is. They helped me a lot, we got together towards the end and just finished the whole thing. And how did you go about doing most of the producing on there? Was it mainly computers? F: Just getting the band playing and adding from there really. Making it more bottom ended, sounding fuller. I used loads of different bits. ‘Barfight’ for example when we were finishing it needed a bass, so we got one played and recorded that and then chopped it up on the MPC before adding it back in. And it worked out. ‘Loop da Loop’ on the other hand was made pretty much all from scratching, chopping samples up on the decks, recording it, transforming melodies etc… "...if you just stick to hip hop, things can get limiting you know?..." Did you use the turntable just like another production tool?  F: Kinda, not really though. I’m very much a showman with my turntables
I guess. I get the tracks done and then add the cuts at the end, like
the icing on the cake. I like to work from the back to the front of the
track, with the cuts being the ending point.And what would be the best collaboration on there then? F: Ummm… It’d have to be Kela because he’s a nutter and we just get on really well together. We spent ten days together in New York and had a wicked time, we’re really similar, we’d go for a proper meal, thinking ‘fuck having McDonalds, let’s get some proper food’ and then we’d end up round the corner munching on Big Macs! We think the same way and that’s why we really get on. SkinnyMan was cool to work with as well. He came down to record ‘Barfight’ and brought so many fucking people with him, it was like a bar in the studio. He brought an energy and vibe with him that was wicked. This girl came round to drop some weed and ended up on the track! That’s how mad it was. We then dropped him back to Camden for Kung Fu and he called me the next day and said he wanted to come back and redo a bit of it. Ultimately though all the collaborations have bits to them that make me like them, otherwise they wouldn’t be there. I read that the album title changed. Why? F: Well it was just too long really… "...I fell asleep with a woman in my arms once and woke up with a dog..." I thought that might be the case… F: Yeah it was meant to be ‘Don’t walk the walk, if you can’t talk the talk’, but ended up as ‘Walky Talkies’. And it’s funny I was doing an interview for a Polish mag and they told me Air’s new album has the same title. Which is freaky because they’re one of my favourite bands. The whole idea for the title was that all the people on there can walk the walk, they can all go on stage and smash it. I’ve seen them all live and that’s really it. They can all walk the walk and talk the talk. And throughout all your tours, shows and appearances, what would be the best ones? F: Best ones are the TV appearances. Because you get to travel in style, be put up in lush hotels and just live the rock n roll lifestyle. The worst maybe being stuck at the back of a van with Vadim for 3 weeks! (laughs) But they’re good as well, they’re some of the most enjoyable ones. The big gigs, TV shows are good but there is a huge come down from them, whereas the smaller shows, you get a better vibe. And if I fuck up I feel really bad, whereas on TV I don’t really care. "...the album took a long time because things moved at different speeds really..." Have you got any funny memories from tours or appearances?  F: So many man, too many to really remember. I fell asleep with a woman
in my arms once and woke up with a dog, I woke up naked outside a
building in Brooklyn once as well. So many fucked up memories, when you
go on tour it’s like entering a little bubble… and then you get fucked
and do shows which always means something fucked up happens! I always
end up thinking ‘how the fuck did I get here?’Do you enjoy the fact that you’re able to bring what you do with turntables to large audiences that may never have heard of it? F: Yeah definitely, it’s important to do that I think. Playing with a band on stage it allows you to do things and show people what you do in different ways. We went to Slovakia recently and all the kids were just staring at me and taking it all in, it was amazing. I think MMM is a great example of that, he always educates people at his shows, brings it to different audiences and shows them what can be done with a turntable. It’s like having dodgy breakers on something like TOTP, fuck that get some real breakers instead, show people how it’s properly done. "...Like I hear people say the Skinnyman track is good but First Rate is shit and I hate him. How the fuck can you hate me and not even know me?..."  And it’s
the same with DJs and all other artforms, being able to bring it to
audiences who’ve never seen it is wicked because it spreads it further.
It gets the artform out. I found out a long time ago that if you stick
inside your own scene it’s shit. People are so quick and happy to hate
on you even if they don’t know you, but go and play at a music festival
and people just lap it up and enjoy it for what it is. That’s what it’s
about. Like I hear people say the SkinnyMan track is good but First Rate
is shit and I hate him. How the fuck can you hate me and not even know
me?I know what you mean. Well actually before we wrap this up I wanted to ask you about the new stuff coming out of the turntablist scene, like what D-Styles has been doing in America, and what other people do in Europe. You’ve done shows with Tigerstyle as well, and I’m just wondering what you think of it and whether or not it appeals to you? F: I’m on it mate, I’ve been using the Faderboard for a while now and I got a loopstation a while back as well when I was in Texas. Got one of them guitar ones and they’re wicked. The whole show I do is now automated between the decks, loopstation and faderboard. I like to do some of the showcase sections where I’d normally do routines with the loopstation and faderboard now. Build a groove and then gradually get it into a song. And using the faderboard is dope too, you can do so much with it, it’s a great tool for stage shows. I like the fact that you can extend notes with it, fill it with samples and turn them around, create chords etc… The loopstation I actually saw it being used by these guys in Belgium… "...The main team I work with, Bombay Monkey, are now doing an album with Tommy Evans, and they were really key in getting this album the way it is..." Grazzhoppa?  F: Yeah him and Lamont did a showcase with it and I was like ‘I need one
of them!’ And I showed them the faderboard as well and they freaked out.
It really throws people off. Fingathing have got one now as well, Vadim
has one which is funny. Hopefully it’ll help move things on as well,
that’s what I wanna do now, build a show around all these things, make
it closer to the album. Have a drummer, a beatboxer, a singer, bassist
and bring everything together.Wicked. And you got any last words? F: Yeah just hit up bud@codaagency.com for bookings and visit www.lo-tek.co.uk which is Bombay Monkey’s site and also has stuff about me and Mr. Thing on there. And thanks for the time. Many thanks for First Rate for his time and Dave at the Outpost for the hook up. First Rate’s new LP is out now on www.scenariorecords.com. You can catch the man on tour in a town near you as well. - Interview by
K-Per
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