| | |
|
Not a lot of people at a young age can add "Been on Lamacq Live" to the old portfolio, but Kids In Tracksuits are 2 fellas that can, having received huge success and critical acclaim throughout the first portion of there career, I caught up with them to find out just what it is that makes, what some have claimed as "Britain’s answer to Dj Shadow", tick....introducing Andy & Matt, the Tracksuit lads...
[Andy] Hey hey, I'm Andy and/or DJ Snigger, coming straight from the fields of Nottingham and I'm one half of musical duo Kids In Tracksuits.
[Matt] Hello, I'm Matt, the other half, if you like.
[Andy] Yeah, going down to the show at Radio 1 was cool, we had to do 3 tunes with some little interview bits in-between. The music side of it alone was pretty shit scary to be fair, because it was live on air, plus we're hardly the chattiest pair in the world either, so it was the interview bits that were the most daunting I thought. Don't wanna make a tit out of yourself on national radio do you really! I opted for the say absolutely nothing approach and let Matt and Steve do their thing...was a great experience though. All the guys down there were really cool, plus the tunes sounded good which is the main thing ain't it!
[Matt] Haha, yeah the interview bits were pretty worrying. It was totally hilarious to think us two were on the radio though. That's the way I was looking at it you know? So to me it was such a ridiculous situation we'd gotten ourselves into that it kinda didn't matter that we had to be interviewed, 'cause the whole thing was so surreal. I felt like I could pretty much say anything to the geezer, rinse it a bit, like. Well proud about how the tunes came out sounding though, I think we proper nailed one of them. 'Rock n roll' I think it was.
[Andy] Nice one, glad you were feelin it. Well, we put a 7" out earlier in the year and that seemed to go down pretty well, so since then we've just been doing gigs all over the place and getting new shit ready for 'New Kids Rock The Block' which is an EP/mini album which is out now, finally.
[Andy] We've been doing bits and bobs with a few guys. We've done a couple of things with Non from The Shadowhuntaz not long ago, which is pretty exciting as he's someone we listen to and respect anyway, so gettin to do some tunes with him’s all good. We're also gonna be laying down a tune we started a while ago soon with local hooligans Blumonkey. Yeah we like doin the odd tune with MC's or any sort of vocalist really, we still can't sing or rhyme so its nice to work with people who can, gives us a chance to do somethin different from our usual stuff.
[Matt] Yeah, we just hooked up with Emcee Killa from the Lost Project crew, also outta Notts. He'll be at all the shows from now on, fucking ill he is as well and he brings so much more to our live set so if you come and see us play now its much heavier, for sure. We've recorded one tune with him so far as well which is the first thing we've done since finishing the mini album. No doubt there'll be much more to come as well, cause he's basically got lyrics coming out of his arse, and we've got tons of beats lying around plus, hearing what he does just makes us want to keep making new shit just to see what he'll do with it.
[Andy] Nah its all 50/50, yeah we do both have our separate things to bring to the table though as any group would. Matt does the production and I do the cuts/samples, that'd be the simplest way of describing how we work really.
[Andy] Music-wise, just being able to make a living solely from making music would obviously be pretty nice. Just not having to get up and 9 till 5 it at some dodgy job everyday, all i'm after is a lie-in in the mornings! I'm easily pleased.
[Matt] Yeah i'm with Andrew on that one, we just want to be able to be working on music for a living, that’s the only goal at the minute. If that happens then i'm sure we'll have a much bigger goal to aim for, but for now we just want a lie-in.
[Andy] Cheers. Some handsome fellow by the name 'The Fresh Prints' does all the art and design.
[Matt] Yeah, we keep him locked up all day working on Photoshop and only let him out when its dinner time. (Andy does it all basically!)
[Andy] Yeah, Wu's the biggest influence for sure, not that we sound anything like any Wu stuff. Jus' the rawness of it is what we go for. Yeah like Matt says though we've both got similar tastes, being a DJ i'm into a lot of 'tablist stuff as well as the more Ninja tune side of things...
[Matt] My personal favourite was one we did in Notts a long time ago, our first proper big gig at a club called 'The Bomb' which is no longer running. We'd go there when we were like 16/17 and hope not to get kicked out for being under age. To us it was always the best place in town to go out and hear hip hop/drum n bass/whatever, so when we got the offer to play there it was pretty amazing. The show went down really well somehow, which we were sure it wouldn't, but we managed to pull it off. We were on just before Jehst that night as well so the whole night was a bit of a classic to us. I think the biggest capacity audience we've done was also in Notts earlier this year at a big event called 'Detonate'.
[Andy] The Jehst gig was well good definitely, all be it a tad scary cos it was one of our first shows and we didn’t really know what we were doing! My favourite recently was the show we did in Paris though, the fact it was in Paris was all good to start with, but the crowd were really good when we got on, plus we sounded pretty tight which is always a bonus.
[Matt] Two laptops, a turntable, a mixer and Kaoss pad for FX ‘n stuff. Pretty much exactly what we use in our bedrooms when we're writing tunes. We don't go near proper studios, its all bedroom set ups for us, unless we're recording some vocals in which case we'll head down to anywhere we can get to in Notts.
[Andy] yeah that’s about it, plus final scratch too actually. Pretty simple set-up really, which is good for doing live shows because it means we can just take everything with us, so it sounds as close to being live as possible...
[Matt] I'm well into dr. whodat?, Jehst, loads of old hardcore tunes from people like Nebula 2, Criminal Minds, Acen, Altern8 etc. Lone, Clark, Madlib, Bibio, Boards of Canada, Company Flow, Lost Project, Loefah, Plastician, Pinch, Vex'd, Mr Oizo, Wu-tang, J Dilla, Luke Vibert and loads of other shit but i'd be here all day if i told you everything!
[Andy] Haha yeah, we could be here all day with this, a few i'm always listening to would be: J5, Mf Doom, Old Dilated Peoples, Wu-tang, Ultramagnetic MC's, DJ Format, Busta, Z-trip, A tribe called quest, Lone, Blockhead, D-styles, Bonobo, Kid Koala, Big L, Motown stuff, Edan, Biggie, Ugly Duckling, DJ Kentaro, Fingathing, Beastie Boys, Gangstarr...then pretty much anything on Stones Throw, Ninja tune, Def Jux too...you get the picture.
[Matt] We're working really closely with Killa at the moment and hopefully we'll record loads of tunes with him and other emcees/vocalists but KiT has always been and always will be about the shit me & Andy have cooked up in our bedrooms, we're not your typical hip hop crew. So I’d say it'll stay how it is, but you'll be seeing/hearing a lot more from Sir Killalot in the near future. Watch this space.
[Andy] Yeah, what Matt said...
[Andy] Haha bastard! I was gonna say enjoyably hectic. Yeah, its a mission getting around everywhere for shows, totally worth it though, its all gone a lot further than we ever thought it would, so its just funny the situations we get ourselves into. The Shadow things always very nice of people to say too of course!
[Matt] Jehst is always a good one isn't he? I've not listened to much hip hop coming out of the UK for a while to be honest, mainly stuff from Notts: Lost Project, Blumonkey, and Karizma. On the production tip, The Elementz are heavy as well. From Notts also.
[Andy] Same here, I haven't listened to a deal of UK hip hop for a while either, more production based stuff, but yeah, all the above hip hop-wise then DJ-wise I’d say The Scratch Perverts are basically untouchable, they've been at the top for ages as far as i'm concerned, I remember being blown away with their old DMC team routines aaaages ago, there's nuff ridiculously good 'tablists in the UK though...Fingathing have the live shows down too.
[Matt] Yeah: Sean, Harvey, Ste and all the Dealmaker peeps, all our mates, Summer, Naomi, the Cutler and Hemsley families. Big up yourself for this interview as well mate, you must be the first person who hasn't asked us how many tracksuits or shell suits we own, respect!
Huge thanx to Matt & Andy for answering these questions so well, and i'm gonna pat myself on the back for not asking about tracksuits haha, everybody go cop New Kids Rock the Block if you like the sounds of these boys, you can peep more at kidsintracksuits.co.uk or www.myspace.com/kidsintracksuits2 - thanx for reading, Peace.
|
© ukhh.com 2006
Kids In Tracksuits Interview
Evenin fella's, you guys have had more success and critical acclaim in the UK hip hop scene than most DJ's could ever hope for....but for the purposes of this interview, could you both state your names...where your from...and what your about?
I received the (extremely impressive) 'Campfire' demo a while back now...and quite frankly it was one of the most intriguing cd's I’d listened to for a long time...can you tell us what’s new and banging on the horizon? What's the next record to leave the KIT camp?
What’s your ultimate goal? What would be the perfect outcome for you guys, say, in 10 years time?
[Matt] We basically met through a shared love of Wu-tang, J5 and Dilated Peoples when we were at school. So we've always thought the same things are ill but at the same time there's loads of stuff that we listen to individually and play to each other, like most mates do I suppose. Before getting into hip hop I was totally obsessed with early 90's hardcore and jungle, and that basically introduced to me to hip hop, but stuff from labels like Warp and Ninja Tune have been a big fascination as well. The answer to your original question though has to be Wu-tang clan.
What are you both listening to currently?
[Matt] Enjoyably hectic I’d say, it's all been pretty strange, but funny as fuck, constantly. We're doing exactly what we want to be doing with it and feel very fortunate to be doing it, so we never get too stressed about anything cause its all good and it feels great to release music and play live.
[Andy] Haha yeah props for swerving the tracksuit questions definitely!. I'm the same really, big shouts/thanks to: Sean, Killa, Ste, Abbot, Jody, all the rest of the Dealmaker family that look after us really...plus Naomi, Pete, Andy, Lynch, Parky and anyone else who listens to us/fancies a shout out. Steve Lamacq and Huw Stephens too actually, big up yourselfs boys!
Related Links:
