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  Yoda Interview
interview
0509 added 01.05.07 words: Hayley Coyle technical: QED
DJ Yoda is lauded all over the UK
as the ultimate mixing pundit. The
cheese-hop grandmaster has made a career out of sampling sounds from
random, reminiscent sources, and is famously credited as “the DJ with a
sense of humour”. But is this accolade still deserved?
 Cut and Paste has hip-hop credibility, despite relying on cheesy
classics, because samples from the masters –Wu Tang, Quasi Modo, and
Abominable – are deployed expertly into the mixes. But some say his
recent live sets haven’t been up to scratch. By counting on nostalgia,
any DJ can guarantee cheap thrills. But does scratching-up the A-Team
theme tune still cut it? He can’t have his turntable and eat it any
more, it’s about time we saw some more original tunes from the man who
has made a career out of spinning other people’s.
And so Playin Around featuring the Jungle Brothers, his latest single
from his debut solo Amazing Adventures album has just dropped on
Antidote Records. It’s in his own words: “The straightest hip hop track
on the album”. He’s out to ratify his roots.
Hayley Coyle chatted to Yoda to about his new single, his audio visual
wizardry and what he’s up to next.
So what were the
Jungle Brothers like to work with?
Really professional. It was a pleasure to work with people who weren’t
amateurish at all. They really knew what they wanted out of the track,
and it was great for me to work with them. I grew up listening to their
music, so to get the opportunity to record with them in London was
incredible.
"...I’ve basically got the
best job in the world, I can work by just sitting around watching TV..."
You’ve been
labelled the funny man of hip hop, and you’ve said you only work with
artists who don’t take themselves too seriously. Is that true of the
jungle brothers too?
 Absolutely. Playin Around is just a party song isn’t it? And the B side
of that track is a song just about fast food and vegetables – food
that’s good for you and food that’s bad for you. That was something that
really appealed to me as well because I try to eat healthy! I thought
that’d be something good to try… so there’s definitely a strong sense of
humour on that track.
Why did you choose
this one to release next?
Because it’s a really fun track and I thought it would go down well in
the clubs. And even though I’m influenced by loads of different types of
music, what it boils down to really is hip hop. I grew up on it and I
really wanted to get that across. It was influenced by sort of jazzy
soul hip hop, the album that takes all those influences.
You pioneered the
audio visual thing. Tell me more about that.
The technology has now come out so that you can scratch visuals, not
just sounds. As soon as I found out you could do that, it really
appealed to me. I was always making mix tapes and audio tapes, including
samples from movies, and the thought of doing that and showing the movie
while doing it was again, really appealing. There was some technology to
do it before, but not really with scratching. Now you can use it to
control video.
"...Even though I’m
influenced by loads of different types of music, what it boils down to
really is hip hop..."
Is it difficult?
It’s pretty hardcore at the moment, but in the next few years I think
its really going to streamline down and become a lot easier to do. But
yeah, at the moment I need like six sets of electronic equipment in
front of me, with about 200 buttons.
How do you warm up
before a set? Do you have any finger stretches and stuff?
 Before an AV set I just sit around and watch a lot of movies. The cool
thing now is, if I see anything good on TV that inspires me, I can just
rip it straight to DVD. For me, I’ve basically got the best job in the
world, I can work by just sitting around watching TV.
In what country
have you got the best reception?
Australia was really cool just because I started the tour with the
Beastie Boys and Snoop Dogg. I also keep having these failed missions to
get out to there to DJ. So I finally made it… it was long overdue so I
got a really good reception. I played the Neighbours theme song…they
liked that!
And what are you
up to this summer?
I’ll be at all the major festivals – Glastonbury, Big Chill, Bestival
and about 10 more – just check my website or myspace for details as to
which are DJ sets and which are AV sets. Plus I’ve started work on a new
Cut and Paste mix CD, as well as rehearsals with a classical orchestra
to perform a “Concerto for Turntable”.
What’s the last
song you listened to today?
That’s a really good question. It was some Brazilian thing… Brazilian
funk I think. Up-tempo Brazilian hip hop electro music.
I like to play more different kinds of music at the moment because
there’s not much hip hop out there that’s doing anything for me.
Playin Around starts with some classic scratching, and the sharp
rhyming skills of the JB bounce off a happy, trippy beat. It rings of
old school, but has the talismanic Yoda touch – a modern, cheery
after-glow. The chorus is quite catchy too. Eighties hip hop seems quite
innocent to us now, what with the bombast of gansta rap. Back then, most
tracks started jazzy and extolled self-improvement and redemption. And I
think Playin Around manages to retain that, while still definitely being
the post-modern property of Yoda. He’s proved his moxie.
-
Hayley Coyle
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