DJ Fu Interview
Drum'n'Bass has been undergoing a renaissance of late, with a new generation of DJ's, producers and ideas eager to take the mantle from established headliners who have monopolised the scene for over 10 years. One of those about to blow is DJ Fu, who has recently been touring a groundbreaking show alongside Jungle Drummer (London Electricity). Combining skilful scratching, live drums and big D'n'B mixes, ravers have been going sick for it at Global Gathering and Glastonbury. So it was about time I caught up with the turntablist to discuss his decks'n'drums revolution.
For those who are unfamilar with your skills, what is DJ Fu about?
Quick mixing, scratching and lots of mixing 'n' blending. Its about keeping things interesting. I'm not scratching for scratch heads. I present turntablism but for the Drum'n'Bass heads, kept within the Drum'n'Bass realm.
How long have you been DJing Drum'n'Bass?
Not too long, about 4 years now. Before that I was playing UK Hip Hop and party tunes. But I got bored of playing the same tunes. ‘Simon Says’ and all those are good tunes but I got to a point where I thought Hip Hop was losing it. Especially the American stuff, that really started falling off. Wu Tang lost the plot...
… for sure, it’s a long way from 1993-94!
Yeah man. I was into [Tribe Called Quest's] Midnight Marauders. Doctor Octogan got me into scratching. I was always checking the underground stuff - Artifacts and Necro were wicked. Even back in the day the commercial tunes were worth buying. Tribe’s ‘Can I Kick It’ was a worldwide Top 20 hit.
So when did you switch to D'n'B – was it a rave you went to, or tune you had heard?
When I lived in Bromley I never really went out to nights. But I found that playing Hip Hop out you’re often just the warm up for D'n'B. I started going out to more D'n'B things. I remember checking Marky and thinking he was wicked. Andy C was fucking sick!
A lot of people such as DJ Craze, The Mixologists and Scratch Perverts have been using bits of D'n'B in their turntablism sets, but only in limited amounts. With your style you incorporate D'n'B across the whole set. Why do you think not many DJ's get booked with DnB-oriented turntablism?
Because its all about producing tunes - that’s what it all it comes down to. If you make your name producing you don’t necessarily need to be that good at DJing. But if people have heard a few tunes you’ve done then they're going to come check you out. That gets you involved in labels as a lot of labels run nights. If you’re involved in Hospitality you’re getting 13 gigs every 6 months just off the back of the franchise in Bristol, London and elsewhere. And when you got tunes to give out, you then get tunes from other big producers, - so you have big tunes in your set. It all comes down to producing – it doesn’t really matter how good you are at DJing.
Do you therefore feel pressure to do something drastically different to get noticed as a Drum'n'Bass DJ?
Yeah, but I never planned it that way. I just really enjoy playing out and wanting to play good sets. It was total fluke that I met Jungle Drummer as well. I was resident at an Oxford night and I played out with London Electricity and he picked me up from there. Before that I was just spinning at open mics and that.
Your DJ style is a blend of Hip Hop and D'n'B. techniques. Do you see the two forms as being intrinsically linked?
I think nights like Dekefex [@Mass, Brixton] forged that leap. When I was out in LA, the promoter was telling me that the two are not associated. Abroad there is lot more of a rave culture involved in liking DnB – so you like Techno or other sorts of rave music. Whereas with Hip Hop you’re not that linked into it. For me though, the two have been linked - but I don't know whether that’s just the environment Ive been in. I doubt many Hip Hop heads in America like D'n'B that much. But there definitely is a cross over.
The decks'n'drums show with Jungle Drummer must take a lot of preparation... Yeah. Its different to DJing where I am able to come home at 1am, put my headphones on and just mix in my room. Once I started doing stuff with Jungle Drummer I realised the complications of being a drummer - you cant just set up in your bedroom like a set of decks. You need to hire somewhere to practice because you make a lot of noise. Its difficult because financially you have to constantly pay for rehearsal rooms. It needs a lot of preparation. Our problem at the moment is not having anywhere where we can leave everything set up. The first time I rehearsed with Jungle Drummer we rehearsed in Bethnal Green because it was really cheap to practice. I got fuck all money really and theres not much money in doing what I do. So I had to get my decks in 2 flight cases, my mixer in a flight case and a massive bag of records. I then had to get to Bethnal Green on public transport from Oxford. It was a nightmare. I had a trolley but if I wanted to get it on the train I had to unpack everything, get it on the train really quickly then back it up along the train! The show definitely needs a lot of practice and I wish we could practice more.
You’ve managed to rope in quite a few top MCs into the set up (eg Rodney P, Eksman). I like the emphasis you place on the importance of an MC on a live set. How do you feel about MCs in DnB in general?
There’s loads of good MCs out there. But it depends on what you want – there are different MCs for different things. When we choose an MC we want to know they are gonna work well within the show, so all the ones we pick have an element of being able to work well with decks AND drums. Not just shouting over a record for 90 minutes.
So hows the reaction been to the Jungle Drummer vs DJ Fu show?
Its been really good. I liked Eastern Europe - Slovakia was really good. We did Drummer Live which is a drum festival - that went well. It was a bit different because they’re used to having, like, Kylie Minogue’s drummer there! So a lot probably hadn’t heard live D'n'B before. It was interesting. Global Gathering was pretty crazy – it went off. Glastonbury went off too, although I think I was probably too stressed to enjoy it! I did a gig the night before that finished at 5am. I got home then realised I left my mixer there so I had to go back to pick it up. By that time I had to leave in an hour so I didn’t sleep!
You have also been running D'n'B event, Hit And Run, in Oxford. How long has that been running? About 7 years - and its still popping off. Most nights are sell out. Fortnightly Wednesday’s at Cellar Bar is really popular. We've also done nights at Carling Academy and Brookes Student Union, which all sold out. Its been pretty successful.
So what are your personal ambitions for 2008? You know, I have never planned out what Im doing. Ive always just taken it as it comes. Obviously I want to progress the DJing but I don’t have a set vision – I just go with the flow. Keep practicing and see what happens.
posted by Killa Dan at 11:41
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