NEWS
EVENTS
DJ Yoda Interview
RnB/Hip Hop | Wednesday 7th September 2011 | Osh
Ahead of his AV show 'The Wonderful World Of DJ Yoda' on Saturday at The Roundhouse, we caught up with the scratch DJ before he sets off to tour the new show around the world.
You started putting out music at your university?
It was probably even before that, I was probably still at school, I got turntables when I was at school and I started off just kind of messing around almost as like a joke, a lot of the music that I heard had scratching in it and I used to try to pretend to scratch. I was making mixtapes and would copy them for mates and then eventually start selling them at a record shop.
I had a mate play DJ Yoda’s How To Cut and Paste 2 Mixtape and instantly fell in love with it. There is a lot of comedy in your music, is this a big part of what you want to get across in what you do?
Yeah definitely, it’s really important to me because I think that especially in the world of DJ’s, hip hop and dance music, a lot of people tend to take it very seriously and they forget about why people are listening to music, going to clubs or trying to dance, they want to have fun. For me that’s a really important part of it, not to forget. Even when I’m DJ’ing in a club, it’s just as important for me to see people smiling as it is to see people dancing.
I’m going to jump straight into it. You’ve got a tour coming up called ‘The Wonderful World of DJ Yoda Tour’. You a have a performance coming up this Saturday at The Roundhouse. It features a full screen cinema which is interesting because it really brings the cinema experience into it. Is this a conscious decision to change the dynamics to your shows?
Yeah well I’ve been doing these shows; mixing and scratching video along with the music and I’ve really just begun to notice that the bigger the screen the better. In fact last year I did a show in London at the Imax where everyone sat down and ate popcorn and watched which was really cool. So I just thought “What’s going to be the best venue to have a massive screen and people dancing aswell?” and The Roundhouse fits perfectly for that, I don’t know if you have been there but there have the space for it basically! (laughs)
It’s coming to the end of Summer now, how has the festival season treated you?
It’s been great, I got to go to some pretty crazy places, last weekend I was in a festival in Kenya which was pretty amazing, I’ve done one this summer in Tokyo aswell and I’ve been all over the place. After the Roundhouse gig I’ve got Bestival which really kind of rounds off the season.
The Guestlist Network have alot of love for Bestival!
Yeah, that going to be a big weekend for me!
Going straight back to your tour, you’re playing with The Trans-Siberian March Band. How did you get involved with them?
Well I did a project a couple of years ago with a full orchestra, it was more classic music rather than dance music. It was a concerto that was written by Gabriel Prokofiev who is the grandson of Prokofiev, the classical composer. He wrote a concerto for turntables, so I was performing with an orchestra and scratching but it was classical music. It was a really interesting project, it was maybe a little more avante garde than what I would normally play in the clubs. I saw these guys, The Trans-Siberian March Band perform in Brighton and I was like “Wow, they are really good fun, they would be the ideal collaboration for this idea”, so I managed to hook up with them and we’ve been rehearsing and we’ve worked out this big show, so I’ve got like a 14 piece brass band along with my DJ’ing and video set, so that’s what is going to be happening in Camden on Saturday.
You always seem be really pushing it, like when turntablism started, it was very much two turntables and a mixer, do you like testing the limits?
Well for me it’s just like about keeping it interesting, I don’t think I would probably be still interested in DJ’ing if I was just turning up at every gig with just a box of records and just doing that. I just want to keep things fresh and to try to find interesting and new ways to take it and trying something new.
You are a DJ who is constantly working with new technology, do you get excited about the future of music technology?
Things are moving really fast in the world of DJ technology so it seems like every few months something else comes out but I think to myself “Ooh, that would be interesting!”. There have been a couple of things that I’ve made some moves to get involved in this year, I dont want to give away any secrets but suffice to say that it’s going to be taking DJ’ing to new areas.
You released an EP earlier this year ‘DJ Yoda & Friends’. Is this a little precursor to your next album?
Yeah, it’s very much a precursor to my next artist album which is about 90% finished at the moment. That EP that came out was just tracks that I didn’t feel quite fitted in with the album that I was making so I thought I’d group them all together and bring out an EP. The album like I say is almost done and infact the first song was first played on Radio One’s Zane Lowe Show last night!
Pardon the cliche question but what do you think of the state of hip hop at the moment?
It’s in a bit of a funny place, I think it’s been going downhill for quite a long time, for me the golden era of hip hop was the early 90’s and definitely for the last ten years I feel like it’s been on a downward spiral. I think this is because of the way it’s been going in that it has become pop music and quite throwaway and less about the skills that it used to be. That said, I think that there’s starting to be a resurgence against that. From the underground, there is starting to be a few acts that are popping up and I feel like “Yeah, they are taking it back to where it should be”. So it’s been bad for a long time but I’ve got some hope at the moment! (laughs)
You said earlier in the interview that comedy is a big part of your life. Do you have any best scenes from films?
I do, I take my favourtie bits from a load of comdey films but I’m watching alot of stand up at the moment, so I’ve definitely got a reccommendation for that which if you havent seen him you should check out the comedian Louis CK, he’s my favourite stand up comic at the moment.
You really mix things up alot in your DJ sets. Have you ever mixed two songs that you didnt think would work, but it worked?
Yeah, that kind of happens every time I DJ, I dont plan DJ sets, I kind of see how it goes and if I feel like it’s time to mix a country and western song or even like a kids TV theme or something, that might work with some dubstep or drum & bass or whatever, it happens to me on a nightly basis! (laughs)
We’re going to round off with a few silly questions. If you were invisible for the day, what would you do?
Wow! Hmm! That’s a very good question. I would probably sneak into some record stores! (laughs)
We actually interviewed Pete Rock recently and he said he would loot all the record stores!
I’m going with the Pete Rock answer!
If you could fill a swimming pool with something other than water, what would it be?
Lucky Charms cereal with milk!
If you were exiled to a desert island, what three famous people would you take with you?
Wow, Johnny Cash, Biz Markie and Larry David.
Thank you for talking with us and good luck on Saturday!
Cheers mate!
DJ Yoda will be playing Saturday 10th September at The Roundhouse get your tickets at www.soundcrashmusic.com / www.ticketweb.co.uk
Keep up to date with the tour at www.djyoda.co.uk
You started putting out music at your university?
It was probably even before that, I was probably still at school, I got turntables when I was at school and I started off just kind of messing around almost as like a joke, a lot of the music that I heard had scratching in it and I used to try to pretend to scratch. I was making mixtapes and would copy them for mates and then eventually start selling them at a record shop.
I had a mate play DJ Yoda’s How To Cut and Paste 2 Mixtape and instantly fell in love with it. There is a lot of comedy in your music, is this a big part of what you want to get across in what you do?
Yeah definitely, it’s really important to me because I think that especially in the world of DJ’s, hip hop and dance music, a lot of people tend to take it very seriously and they forget about why people are listening to music, going to clubs or trying to dance, they want to have fun. For me that’s a really important part of it, not to forget. Even when I’m DJ’ing in a club, it’s just as important for me to see people smiling as it is to see people dancing.
I’m going to jump straight into it. You’ve got a tour coming up called ‘The Wonderful World of DJ Yoda Tour’. You a have a performance coming up this Saturday at The Roundhouse. It features a full screen cinema which is interesting because it really brings the cinema experience into it. Is this a conscious decision to change the dynamics to your shows?
Yeah well I’ve been doing these shows; mixing and scratching video along with the music and I’ve really just begun to notice that the bigger the screen the better. In fact last year I did a show in London at the Imax where everyone sat down and ate popcorn and watched which was really cool. So I just thought “What’s going to be the best venue to have a massive screen and people dancing aswell?” and The Roundhouse fits perfectly for that, I don’t know if you have been there but there have the space for it basically! (laughs)
It’s coming to the end of Summer now, how has the festival season treated you?
It’s been great, I got to go to some pretty crazy places, last weekend I was in a festival in Kenya which was pretty amazing, I’ve done one this summer in Tokyo aswell and I’ve been all over the place. After the Roundhouse gig I’ve got Bestival which really kind of rounds off the season.
The Guestlist Network have alot of love for Bestival!
Yeah, that going to be a big weekend for me!
Going straight back to your tour, you’re playing with The Trans-Siberian March Band. How did you get involved with them?
Well I did a project a couple of years ago with a full orchestra, it was more classic music rather than dance music. It was a concerto that was written by Gabriel Prokofiev who is the grandson of Prokofiev, the classical composer. He wrote a concerto for turntables, so I was performing with an orchestra and scratching but it was classical music. It was a really interesting project, it was maybe a little more avante garde than what I would normally play in the clubs. I saw these guys, The Trans-Siberian March Band perform in Brighton and I was like “Wow, they are really good fun, they would be the ideal collaboration for this idea”, so I managed to hook up with them and we’ve been rehearsing and we’ve worked out this big show, so I’ve got like a 14 piece brass band along with my DJ’ing and video set, so that’s what is going to be happening in Camden on Saturday.
You always seem be really pushing it, like when turntablism started, it was very much two turntables and a mixer, do you like testing the limits?
Well for me it’s just like about keeping it interesting, I don’t think I would probably be still interested in DJ’ing if I was just turning up at every gig with just a box of records and just doing that. I just want to keep things fresh and to try to find interesting and new ways to take it and trying something new.
You are a DJ who is constantly working with new technology, do you get excited about the future of music technology?
Things are moving really fast in the world of DJ technology so it seems like every few months something else comes out but I think to myself “Ooh, that would be interesting!”. There have been a couple of things that I’ve made some moves to get involved in this year, I dont want to give away any secrets but suffice to say that it’s going to be taking DJ’ing to new areas.
You released an EP earlier this year ‘DJ Yoda & Friends’. Is this a little precursor to your next album?
Yeah, it’s very much a precursor to my next artist album which is about 90% finished at the moment. That EP that came out was just tracks that I didn’t feel quite fitted in with the album that I was making so I thought I’d group them all together and bring out an EP. The album like I say is almost done and infact the first song was first played on Radio One’s Zane Lowe Show last night!
Pardon the cliche question but what do you think of the state of hip hop at the moment?
It’s in a bit of a funny place, I think it’s been going downhill for quite a long time, for me the golden era of hip hop was the early 90’s and definitely for the last ten years I feel like it’s been on a downward spiral. I think this is because of the way it’s been going in that it has become pop music and quite throwaway and less about the skills that it used to be. That said, I think that there’s starting to be a resurgence against that. From the underground, there is starting to be a few acts that are popping up and I feel like “Yeah, they are taking it back to where it should be”. So it’s been bad for a long time but I’ve got some hope at the moment! (laughs)
You said earlier in the interview that comedy is a big part of your life. Do you have any best scenes from films?
I do, I take my favourtie bits from a load of comdey films but I’m watching alot of stand up at the moment, so I’ve definitely got a reccommendation for that which if you havent seen him you should check out the comedian Louis CK, he’s my favourite stand up comic at the moment.
You really mix things up alot in your DJ sets. Have you ever mixed two songs that you didnt think would work, but it worked?
Yeah, that kind of happens every time I DJ, I dont plan DJ sets, I kind of see how it goes and if I feel like it’s time to mix a country and western song or even like a kids TV theme or something, that might work with some dubstep or drum & bass or whatever, it happens to me on a nightly basis! (laughs)
We’re going to round off with a few silly questions. If you were invisible for the day, what would you do?
Wow! Hmm! That’s a very good question. I would probably sneak into some record stores! (laughs)
We actually interviewed Pete Rock recently and he said he would loot all the record stores!
I’m going with the Pete Rock answer!
If you could fill a swimming pool with something other than water, what would it be?
Lucky Charms cereal with milk!
If you were exiled to a desert island, what three famous people would you take with you?
Wow, Johnny Cash, Biz Markie and Larry David.
Thank you for talking with us and good luck on Saturday!
Cheers mate!
DJ Yoda will be playing Saturday 10th September at The Roundhouse get your tickets at www.soundcrashmusic.com / www.ticketweb.co.uk
Keep up to date with the tour at www.djyoda.co.uk
