The Fresh ii aduce pe DJ VADIM, DJ FOOD, TERRENCE PARKER, JONAS RATHSMAN si multi altii la balul combinat al celor de la Arte si UNATC. Pe 10 noiembrie 2012, de la ora 22:00. Facebook event. Am profitat de ocazie si l-am “inghesuit” pe DJ Food pe mail, unde ne-a raspuns (foarte frumos) la cateva intrebari:
Cosmin: You’re a veteran DJ with hiphop roots, turned producer and graphic designer. You’ve remained the low-profile guy who just wants to play his records. Your style is not for the uninitiated. How would you describe it? Is “experimental” adequate or is it just a meaningless label?
DJ FOOD: I’ve never really thought about a description for the DJ style, it’s always been like this as my biggest influences on what I played as a DJ from the beginning were the megamixes of Double Dee & Steinski, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmixer DSt and Coldcut. As you say, I’m originally from Hip Hop as far as the roots of my DJing, and that has always meant taking the best parts from all music and mixing it together in new and interesting ways to me. I’ve never strayed from that but I never stuck to just the main ingredients of the original Hip Hop DJs either as time and new music progressed.
Why do you think “A recipe for disaster” was a landmark for the experimental hiphop genre?
I think it was one of the right records at a particular time when a lot of people suddenly switched on to the Ninja Tune label after the groundwork it had laid along with MoWax into that style of music.
Are you kind enough to share some of the intricacies of your creative process? I’m curios to know the process behind all these rich sounds you’re putting forth
Lots of beach-combing of records and films from the obvious to the not so obvious, similar to a DJ set in miniature – find the sounds (tracks) that interest you and edit them, certain ones will naturally sound good together, other won’t or will have to be altered to fit. Once you have the framework of a few good things working together you will know what’s missing so off you go to find those missing parts or you make them by playing them. A lot of it is listening and choosing very good source sounds with which to work with and also knowing when to leave or take things out.
Is there any MC you would particularly see on one of your tracks?
Edan is one of my favourites, I could listen to him on anything but I’m more interested in sung and spoken vocals right now (I’ll probably end up making a rap album next after saying that !)
I like what you’ve done with the Kraftwerk covers, you’ve gone in deep with this series. How did it come to mind and how was it received by the audience?
It came about because I was noticing more and more covers appearing and that tends to happen because fans want more so they make it, mainly because the group had been inactive for a long time. The more I dug the more I uncovered, it was like a gold mine and it’s telling that so many covers exist in so many styles, not just electronic, and that the reach of the band is huge, to me they are as important as the Beatles in the history of music. The mixes have been very well received, when I did my Kraftwerk month on my site earlier this year they ended up going viral, some with over 60,000 plays. I still have enough to do another 2 volumes with mix no.8 all plotted out, it will be like a mellow jazz selection, the sort of thing you could put on at a dinner party.
The “Search Engine” is pretty cosmic. What’s your zodiac sign, by the way?
I’m Taurus – the bull, slow and steady wins the race.
I think you could easily create soundtracks for cinema. Have you thought about this, and if so, for what genre would you like to compose?
I have and hopefully this will happen at some point but I’m not ready for that just yet. I’d either like to do something that involved Op-Art, collage or something with huge robots fighting :).
What were your aspirations as a child?
I just drew and read comics all the time until I was 10, then I got into pop music very heavily and wanted to learn the drums (still do) but my parents couldn’t afford a set. At 14 I fell in love with Hip Hop and started to learn to scratch on the stereo system i had until I could afford to get 2 decks at age 17. I was writing graffiti and always wanted to do something with art so I went to art college, it wasn’t until I was nearly at the end of my degree that I realised I could marry the music and art into a career.
Do you have any daily routine?
If I’m at home: wake up at 8am, get the kids ready for school, have breakfast, turn on the computer in my studio and do what needs to be done that day (designing, writing, recording, listening, blogging, reading, watching, editing, searching) until about 1.30 – lunch, back to work until the kids need to be picked up from school. Sort them out and play, watch or make stuff with them until dinner at 6, then another 2 hours until their bedtime when my wife gets home. Then I’ll usually work on and off until 2am and crash.
You’ve visited our country a couple of times, but haven’t got around to much to grasp the vibe. Nevertheless, I’m eager to know what are the words that come to mind thinking of Romania. And if there are any artists here that you know about.
I had one of my most memorable (and unfortunately miserable) DJ experiences in Romania, back in 2007 so I do approach the country with some trepidation. DK (Solid Steel) and I were playing at a festival a 5 hour drive and 1 hour boat ride out of Bucharest to the Delta Danube. It’s a long story but in short we got blown off stage by a tropical storm, thought we would be marooned at the festival site, nearly died several times due to a reckless driver to and from the airport and then had our return flight delayed by 5 hours. Hopefully this gig will be a bit mellower 🙂
Since you’re playing at their ball, are you preparing anything targeted to arts or cinema students?
From what I’ve seen on the website I’m very interested to be playing there, it looks a little different than your average club. I’ve been editing some new pieces this month to update my DJ set, it’ll be interesting to see how much cinema students can recognise in the AV set as I use vintage material (lots of classic animators that any film student should know as standard) as well as new film and collage it together like my DJ sets.