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So out of the gigs you have done in Britain in Europe, who would you say was the best crowd and you don't have to say Glasgow 'cos you are here!
What mixer do you use? © ukhh.com 2000
interview
0043 added 07.12.00 words
Riz
That
pesky wee Koala was climbing up the curtains, eating vinyl slabs and all types of mad shit. Psycho D managed to get him down before DJ Food tempted him away with another slab of P-Loves vinyl and before he made his way to the chandeliers in The Message mansion. We sat him
down and fired away with a few questions.
For a Deejay, who would you say was the best Deejay out there at the moment in America, on a technical basis?
It depends what you are talking about? You know! Technical? You would have to be specific than that (laughter)
Technical, breaking it down to, erm, not necessarily entertaining a crowd, but just who, hell on point you know what I mean?
I don't know if that exists but if it does it would scare me! (laughter) I'm really into mistakes, needles skipping.. (laughter) You can come out like a machine all the time.
OK, OK, who's the best to come back from a mistake then? (Now lots of laughter!)
The best thing is when I saw a guy stop and start yelling at the equipment (He then goes on to do an impersonation of the poor chap) You know! You know they are yelling, but you're like in the balcony or something.
Well, unfortunately I'm gonna have to say Glasgow (Much Laughter) I don't know. What do you put in the water up here? you are all crazy! Very, very wild crowd, open, you are all crazy!
See this is the thing, in London you have a lot of clubs to go to, in Glasgow or even Scotland we are hungrier.
We are all about giving people their moneys worth, I mean in big cities you might have a wicked show, then you play there again with a different promoter and all of a sudden you've got a different crowd that it just does not go down, but you can have champion gigs like that, you know?
Right now I use Grain TTM 54, we like them, all the features, we don't need to change all the settings as a team.
Do you prefer to work alone or as a team?
I like Deejaying by myself, the only thing that will surprise me is when the needle jumps, then I can cover it but when you add someone else to the equation you have a new dynamic, you bring a band in and then the tempo is not mapped by me.
So what about work with Bull frog?
Well when you bring in live drums, the tempo is not static, it all opens up, then we all get into it and we can play louder and speed it up. You can turn the beat off.
"…there is so much enthusiasm, you know people pushing things forward, yet not everyone is still going to the same place"
So with the turntable as a musical instrument, where would you say it comes into play along side other instruments, drums, guitars and so on?
I think that's one of the main testaments for it really, rum the stuff I do solo is still very "trick" orientated, then you've got like a certain number of things you wanna try when you put a set together, things that you do, then put it with the band. In the band we have a role, a musical part, where our role is together. Keeping the groove.
I like that groove, I don't like it when a band would do say a song and then say "..OK, now lets bring on the DeeJay!" a little bit of scratching, then they say" OK, lets go back to the music" (much laughter again breaks out by Koala's addictive animated personality).
What do you think of British Deejays compared to American?
(They look toward DJ Food, I get out my chair and stand between them). Now tell me!
There are a lot of Deejays here! And a lot of them are very good, I'm always pleasantly surprised by that…
Name some?
Mr Thing, I mean I can only talk about what I have seen.
Have you ever then seen a Deejay and thought, "Hell, I need to go away and practise"?
All Deejays do that! You always wanna catch that energy, I mean there are kids right now that are practising right now (you guessed it, laughter breaks out!)They just came up with 5 new combinations while we were doing this interview, that inspires me, that there is so much enthusiasm, you know people pushing things forward, yet not everyone is still going to the same place. It's like almost a sport.
What makes you wake up in the morning? Apart from obviously waking up (laughter)
Erm.. hell.. that's a good one Riz, Oh two thing.. One a phone call to say you have three minutes to get into the lobby (the second
was'nt heard due to the hilarity!)
Have you ever seen a UFO?
Yeah, Once we did a gig with the band, it could have been tiredness kicking in, it was on the way back from a small town in the mountains of Quebec, we were all in a mini van, six of us. We had all the gear in the trunk, I was lying across all the gear, that's what you get for being the youngest! But not any more! (he points at P Love). He's just a baby, he's a child! Any way we saw this light in the sky, well I did!
So words of advice for new Deejays, what would you say to them, advice, what should they practise?
Enjoy it! That's the one thing, don't get stressed. Don't lock yourself in your bedroom or you will get all neurotic and paranoid "He thinks he's better than me!" I tricked them all one day, I called up these Deejays who where all "is he good?", I said
yeh, "can he scratch?" hell yeh, come round and find out!, so I called them all up, got them all round the house and they were all shocked.. "What's he doing here?" They were really just shocked 'cos Eric was walking about in his bowers (laughing).
"...The Sleeping Toad! Comedy, we all need to laugh more! How long can you watch scratching without a break?"
So A-Trak one of you boys, how do you feel about him?
He's crazy, I remember we had an Ice storm a while back and there was no power and after 5 hours he's like can I come and see you, I need to practice and there's no power! (Laughter)
He's like a monk! It's the only way I can describe it, practice, practice,
practice, that's his thing!
Ok, your down with Q-Bert? So what's the deal with Toad? Is he genuinely a friend or is he there to have the piss ripped out of him? He's a friend?
Yeah (Laughter)
So why do you have to rip into him all the time?
Aah we don't. (Extreme laughter is now going on!)
Is it to sell vid
eos? They are the best bits on the video!! No disrespect to the cutting
Alfred! That's our friend! The Sleeping Toad! Comedy, we all need to laugh more! How long can you watch scratching without a break?
So what of Mix Master Mike? Is he more serious?
No he's the man up front, he's the worst, like "Hey, what's up? Let's go party!"
So your last words?
I hope to come back, Everyone take care of each other, drive safely and drive to my album!
