Words: Snafu
Easy, so first post isn't about Yorkshire, but they'll soon come. Just need tog et into the swing of this blogigng ish. Anyway, here's an articles I wrote for Leeds-based newspaper and http://www.leedshiphop.co.uk/:
Last Friday, Narow P and I [Snafu] got a call we’d been waiting on, offering us the chance to meet and interview DJ YODA. For those thinking that’s a stupid name, it is. But so is Snafu. Plus, it doesn’t matter. DJ Yoda is a legend, and he’s firmly established himself as everyone’s favourite DJ. Even your mother’s. Entering our lives with his “Jews Paid” and “Unthugged” mixtapes, it was not until his “How To Cut & Paste” (herein HTC&P) series that he really blew up, injecting humour into DJing whilst displaying world-class abilities. His production debut, “The Amazing Adventures of…” came out in 2006 and he now tours the world with his fantastic, eclectic “Yoda Goes To The Movies” Audio Visual (AV) shows (Google it, then buy the DVD), as well as rocking clubs like Mission with his straight-up anything-goes audio sets.
Easy, so first post isn't about Yorkshire, but they'll soon come. Just need tog et into the swing of this blogigng ish. Anyway, here's an articles I wrote for Leeds-based newspaper and http://www.leedshiphop.co.uk/:
Last Friday, Narow P and I [Snafu] got a call we’d been waiting on, offering us the chance to meet and interview DJ YODA. For those thinking that’s a stupid name, it is. But so is Snafu. Plus, it doesn’t matter. DJ Yoda is a legend, and he’s firmly established himself as everyone’s favourite DJ. Even your mother’s. Entering our lives with his “Jews Paid” and “Unthugged” mixtapes, it was not until his “How To Cut & Paste” (herein HTC&P) series that he really blew up, injecting humour into DJing whilst displaying world-class abilities. His production debut, “The Amazing Adventures of…” came out in 2006 and he now tours the world with his fantastic, eclectic “Yoda Goes To The Movies” Audio Visual (AV) shows (Google it, then buy the DVD), as well as rocking clubs like Mission with his straight-up anything-goes audio sets.
We arrived just after 10pm (not bad considering HWD finishes at 10 at LSR!) and after some faff we head for the VIP room to await Mr Yoda, £3.80 beers ensuring we all stay sober. Some time later we get word that we will have to wait until after his set to interview him, which will be 2am. No worries, except we have to cancel another interview with Zero7 booked in for 2am at the Faversham (oh! the things we do…) After a suitably mixed up set mashing anything from Indiana Jones and country to big beat and dubstep, we meet a rather spent legend.
He informs us he’s got the sniffles, feeling a bit sorry for himself whilst scratching. DJing with man-flu? I can’t even get out of bed… We offer him a Japanese strawberry koala (“I only eat sweets from Japan, haha!”) and crack on with the interview.
One topic both Narow P and I are eager to ask about is his AV sets. He was instrumental in developing the Pioneer DVJs and has really pushed the djing to another level with these sets, visually scratching DVDs and cutting them to music. Although he now needs “8 pairs of hands to do those sets” he doesn’t care as “the worst kind of djing is pressing play… and waiting for the song to end, that’s not djing! You need skills, you’re paid to do something!”
In truth, however, he also has a short attention span and gets bored of songs quickly, ADHD perhaps? We came back to his AV shows later on, and the prospect of a DJ Yoda IMAX show popped up. He confirmed it as “being in the works” and I damn near ejaculated.
He informs us he’s got the sniffles, feeling a bit sorry for himself whilst scratching. DJing with man-flu? I can’t even get out of bed… We offer him a Japanese strawberry koala (“I only eat sweets from Japan, haha!”) and crack on with the interview.
One topic both Narow P and I are eager to ask about is his AV sets. He was instrumental in developing the Pioneer DVJs and has really pushed the djing to another level with these sets, visually scratching DVDs and cutting them to music. Although he now needs “8 pairs of hands to do those sets” he doesn’t care as “the worst kind of djing is pressing play… and waiting for the song to end, that’s not djing! You need skills, you’re paid to do something!”
In truth, however, he also has a short attention span and gets bored of songs quickly, ADHD perhaps? We came back to his AV shows later on, and the prospect of a DJ Yoda IMAX show popped up. He confirmed it as “being in the works” and I damn near ejaculated.
Moving on, we get onto his collaborations – his dream guest list effectively became the Amazing Adventure album, and now he’s got some intriguing collaborations lined up. Notably, he’s working with classical artist “Dame Evelyn Glennie… whose a deaf percussionist… and she’s a dame!” He also admits, humbly, that after doing two tracks with Biz Markie he felt he may as well retire, “He’s my favourite rapper, so after that I didn’t know what else to do!” The idea of Yoda being humbled to work with someone seems amazing, but makes us realise that he grew up, just as we did and do, in awe of the likes of Biz – people at the top of their game and pioneering new styles. For him, being in that position today has given him scope to do these things, and, despite taking it in his stride, you know he still can’t quite believe his luck. If you do really make your own luck, then Yoda clearly deserves his.
His next release will be a fantastic sounding ‘HTC&P – 1930s Edition’, cutting swing with dubstep and blues with hiphop! While I’ve dropped Tommy Dorsey with Lewis Parker in dj sets before, the challenge with this sort of mix (and as Yoda pointed out to us) is that old jazz and big band songs aren’t electronic and do not follow set rhythm, tempo or beat structures, so mixing them requires constant fiddling. A complete mix is an epic undertaking, yet you know Yoda won’t do it half-heartedly; he’ll take it beyond what anyone thought possible, pull out all the stops but make it all sound so effortless.
The conversation reminded me of a phone interview I did with him for HOW WE DO last year where he mentioned a ‘HTC&P – Country & Western Edition’. This is now complete, he informs us, and apparently very good, but the copywriters didn’t like hearing Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton cut with hiphop – so expect this as a free promo sometime in the summer! In light of this experience, he chose the 1930s partly because the copywrites have expired, but mainly for fun.
In a brief geek-out we talk about his current set up [non-djs/music geeks feel free to skip this]. For audio djing, he uses the awesome Serato Rane TTM56 with 2 Technics, in battle-style, with Serato Scratch. For AV, however, he has “6foots worth of equipment”: A Pioneer SVM-100 AV mixer, 2 Pioneer DVJ-1000s, 2 Technics and Serato, joking “I need many, many plugs!”
Being a vinyl lover, I had to ask whether he still DJs vinyl at home and he admits to not having done a vinyl mix in ages, put off by years of carrying backbreaking record boxes – a familiar story that is making me eye up Serato enviously.
After comparing breakfast cereals (his ultimate is the “Vintage Cinnamon Toast Crunch”, although he now rates “cereal mash-ups… a classic blend would be Rice-Krispies with CocoPops!”), we move on to another favourite of his: 80s cartoons. Dungeons and Dragons is his favourite, but Mysterious Cities of Gold and Dogtanion are up there. For those not down with the kids, get MCoG, its possibly the best cartoon ever. Ever ever.
With time running out, we fired off a few quick questions submitted by our listeners, from which we learnt: he’s never worn a kilt, but if he did he’d go commando; he feels like he turned into his dad 5 years ago (“I’m like future dad… Nu-Dad!”); he’s never tried laughing gas but has tried helium… For the gents, his current toilet reading material is frankly excellent - he has three toilets, each with different reading themes: in one is the ‘Schott Almanac 2009’ (trivia book), in another is Timeout and lastly he has a hip-hop toilet with “all my hip-hop reading in”, such as the ‘Ego-trips Book of Rap Lists’ (“a toilet classic!”).
With that we bid him farewell, humbled to meet a hero and surprised at how friendly and down-to-earth he was. He’s left us with much to anticipate from this year, including a new Adventures album, 2 HTC&P mixes and Yoda Goes To The Movies 2, not to mention that loin-moistening IMAX show. A massive thank you must go to Yoda, and Mark at Metropolis for the opportunity.
The interview was filmed by Willis “Brighton” Lock for How We Do TV and will be available to watch at www.youtube.com/howwedotv soon. How We Do airs every Friday 8-10pm on http://www.lsrfm.com/, featuring weekly guest-spots and live performances from local underground acts, as well as blagging interviews with our heroes. For more information, facerape ‘How We Do’ or visit www.myspace.com/howwedoleeds
Peas! Snaf
