DJ Yoda (DJ/VJ Mash up king)

DJ Yoda (DJ/VJ Mash up king)

*Firstly please excuse the hiss on the audio of this episode. I have no idea why it recorded this way, plus i was using a new camera which was a learning curve as well.. but needless to say - THIS is one of the more important episodes that i've done, highlighting a widely regarded legend in the VJ/DJ mash up world - an in depth talk with my friend, the UK's DJ Yoda. With decades of boundary pushing in the world of tech and video/music mash up, Yoda has hit all corners of the planet with his stylistic and conceptual Hip Hop and pop culture live shows. We get deep on all aspects of his legacy. ENJOY!

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KILLA KELA
Website: www.killakelaofficial.com
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DJ YODA
Instagram: www.instagram.com/Djyodauk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJYodaUK/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/djyodauk

KILLA KELA PODCAST  (TRANSCRIPT)  DJ Yoda (DJ/VJ Mash up king)

KILLA KELA: This is the Killa Kela podcast with a sunflower, you know standard. standard business for

those of you listening I have a stale sunflower on the table here. Yeah, central London or central as you need to be. Live and direct, don't forget subscribe. I repeat do not sleep on my repeat. My big shout out to our friends Graffiti Kings and to the right of me he's a man I've known for at least 20 years.

DJ YODA: I say longer than that man yeah. I mean its kind of embarrassing isn't it in away. let's just not talk about how long I’ve know you man.

KK: and… and finally getting you in the podcast as well. Let’s get into the flow of it; Yeah, ladies and gentleman, this is DJ Yoda. C’Mon!

DJ YODA: what's up, what’s up? 

KK: How are you?

DJ YODA: Easy Kela, yeah man, it's good to be here, man, yeah? 

KK: I’ve been trying to work it out when the last time we did a show was. 

DJ YODA: well, I got a real memory issue in my life where it's just everything, just everything,  that's in my past just goes into a black... I've got like proper memory problem like an actual one.

KK: really?

DJ YODA: yeah, I just for instance. I don't remember school at all, like not one room and that one teacher. It’s just a complete blank for me. and it happens with work too because I've been DJing for 25 years and more often than not. I'm playing at a club or a festival it kind of blurs into… into one. So, something like when was the at last time, I saw you, I haven't got a clue man. You can tell me and it might sound familiar or not but there's no way I would remember that. 

KK: that’s mad. Like you’d lose perspective on like a whole. whole chunks.

DJ YODA: I just live in the present . I’m like a goldfish. Just like.

KK: hey you know what that ain't a bad thing.

DJ YODA: Not such a bad thing. like it you know sometimes this it's a bit it's crazy when I hook up with friends and they're talking about stuff that's happened I'm like it sounds just like a story that happened to someone else. When people are telling me stuff that I've done so that's a bit weird but there is something to be said for just like I'm gonna focus on today you know like what am I trying to achieve today. 

KK: that is so cool. I really admire the people that can come and live in the now place.

DJ YODA: I hope. My philosophy isn't it that's, you know…. that's what a lot of people say is the best thing to do is the power of now isn't? it concentrate on… on the moment so there's something to be said for it.

KK: the spirit youth, you know.

DJ YODA: yeah

KK: well that being said. sit down in front of me though, again if you're listening on audio jump on television and check out this on YouTube. but there is a taking photos here which I gotta say it's fucking sick man like it's like 20 years of DJ Yoda mixes but not just in a tape form this is one of the USB business that I've seen come in the past but, I never know I've known a mate that has actually got one done.

DJ YODA: Yes it's shaped like a tape cassette and then it you open up a USB from it but you know

that's what started me off was tape cassette so that it felt natural to.. to provide it in that format and nuts. Yeah like I just said to you - that's like my life's work in one… one handy little USB.

KK: that is fucking beautiful innit?

DJ YODA: it's satisfying man. it's really satisfying. Especially because there's like 20 years twenty mixes and you just yeah just to be able to hold something physically and it not being some.  The last few things I've released you know, the last few years everything's just kind of in the digital ether,there's no thing. No actual thing to pick up and hold so that feels good to have that one yeah.

KK: I'd say I'd miss it. I’ll tell you what it is about having something to hold. You, you really do put a lot more value on the thing and it's like, I don't know man. it's like for us it's a whole different thing like we remember it.

DJ YODA: Yeah, that you've got the power of the… the nostalgia and yeah I guess you kind of conditioned a certain way a lot I got a tape player in my car. A cassette player and I keep all my cassettes that I had as I was a teenager out and I use them every week.

KK: aw, you’re so lucky.

DJ YODA: yes, I just listen to tapes when I drive around. like that's the way my favorite way to listen to music more than even vinyl. like it's just it to me. it's really hip-hop. it's just it's the best format for hip hop.

KK: so hip hop yeah I know so I love the warmth that you . Like a really condensed, crunchy warmth.

DJ YODA: yeah you get a lot of hiss. But I like that hiss. you get you have to

like rewind or fast-forward if you're trying to get past the track which is annoying but that's good because it

forces you to like make your way through an album or something like that.

KK: cool as fuck.

DJ YODA: it's just a good. it's a good way of listening to stuff and as useful as it is having the digital era.

it's overwhelming like and sometimes I'll sit in front of it just be like okay I can now listen to

anything ever.

KK: yeah, Brain freeze.

DJ YODA: that's a bit much because I like so much different things like where do you even

start with that. so yeah to limit yourself somehow is great and I like that's why I like having a record collection I like having a tape collection because it's somewhere to start you know.

KK: yeah, yeah, yeah so I say yeah it's your first…. first platform step isn't it.  I remember having so many tapes back in the day and … and I used to love the like…. like as the name suggests was you mix this cut and paste. I still love that know the approach of like well I'm gonna record that and then I'm gonna stop it and I'm gonna just constraint so I got a year and then you listen back into in retrospect you know just like oh that's what I was thinking yeah I don’t like that tune.

DJ YODA: that’s what my brain was thinking.  yeah and that's how I started making those cut and paste mixes was with a recorder in a pause button and…. and that pause button you're like I'm bored of it after this chorus, pause.

KK: yeah 

DJ YODA: and then yeah exactly and that’s how I made the first how to cut and paste mix about the first few of them. there was no computer.  it was a four-track cassette recorder with a pause button and I that's how I recorded my scratches. Pause.  don't like that bit. Rewind. copy over it. it's just yeah like I say

cassettes are just great man I love them

KK: yeah, yeah 100 percent. as 20 years goes it’s a mix a year that you're saying that you’ve?

DJ YODA: yeah, pretty much. I mean …it's … it's.. it wasn't like as organized as that. As I was doing them but by the time, I did a kind of I look back at all the mixers I've ever done and it kind of worked out like that there was a few that I didn't want to put on there, cos I didn't think they'd standed the test of time very well. There were others that people didn't know about so much that I did want to put on there. But I realized oh shit, I've been making like a mix a year that's what I've been doin.

KK: that is…this is crazy when you think about it  cos I remember we kind of jumped into the same you know dragon's lair of releasing records the same times each about each other pretty much yeah remember when Permanent Marker, my first album came out you’re ….your album had first come out yeah what was that like 2001. I do recall that that you had a real kind of presence that transcended a lot of DJ's there was a there was a clear like novelty factor like there was with me would be boxing

on an album but you'd somehow like managed to you know kind of separate yourself from there and make a record? 

DJ YODA: you know it took me a while to kind of figure out how to get my head around that and I actually looking back …. back on it like the problem with me with my first album the one we're talking about was it

felt a little bit too much like a mixtape by the time it had finished. And I think there was probably people that heard it that thought it was a mixtape didn't even think it was an album. Cos I had like I gonna happen might be thirty songs on there and those skits and it was the way that I was making mixes as well so it took me like album to album three to get my head around okay and albums a different thing I got really like focus on the songs and like you know as I've tried to steer clear of skits since then just as a way to kind of like differentiate albums and mixtapes.

KK: Yeah. Do you remember those skits?  The Nextmen and Unsung heroes. all these guys the producer guys they use to love a good skit.

DJ YODA: Skits was a thing. We were doing skits on mixtapes me and Dan Greenpeace like you know that's just hip-hop man. like it was copying Del La Soul. and the stuff that Prince Paul was doing and…. and Wu-tang and Gravediggaz and all that thing that's what they do.

KK: aw yeah, you just hit a nail back and it I love, I used to love the early Wu-Tang stuff. And ….and the Gravediggaz was sick for a conception.

DJ YODA: yeah…. yeah it was next level.

KK: yeah, yeah, chop the fuck out this song, we’re not even gonna finish it properly.

DJ YODA: yeah, yeah but it's to me like it taps into that whole thing of like music being entertainment and that was always my thing from the start was like there's a lot of people that take music especially in hip-hop in the way that we came up they were very serious about it and very straight-faced about the whole thing and to me I was like what is this ultimately it's music that you're dancing to in a club on a

Saturday night or its music for you play when you’re on own time. Do you not want a smile on your face? like is this not entertainment? so the skits thing was like… it's jokes isn't it? like and I like music that puts a smile on your face as much as I like kind of… there's a space for like darker stuff as well but it just comes more naturally to me to try and do something funny or fun and I've always really liked equated stand-up comedy to deejaying. the two things are I think it's the most similar two jobs.

KK: are you talking from like a standing up one-man kind of?

DJ YODA: I'll from every perspective not even like from the lifestyle to the way that you construct the stuff that you're making.

KK: It’s true.

DJ YODA: you're taking the audience on a journey. you'll want to drop. You want to build. Yeah you want a peaceful bit, you want to end on a big bit. but yet the way that you live. your traveling around just sound checks clubs’ drunk people in front of you.

KK: yeah, yeah. There’s heckling. mixes go wrong and shit.

DJ YODA: yeah, it's to say and you know there was one tour I did I mean this was about ten years ago

or something where I thought we know what I'm gonna instead of having a DJ support me I have a comedian support me so this fucking brave comedian Carl Donnelly, really came on tour with me we turn the music off in the clubs and he did straight stand up for like half an hour before I came on

KK: stop it.  yeah that's crazy and how did it go down?

DJ YODA: It was really mixed some places he crushed it other places it was a disaster. you know .

KK: you went in man.

DJ YODA: that's why I call him brave man. like not anyone would have done that and the gave it is all everywhere and I mean to really be honest like I felt a little bit like the more…how can I put this… the more cultured a crowd was… that it really worked and places where that wasn't so much the vibe people were like turn the music back on. Yeah, Hardcore.

KK: yeah, I can imagine yeah.

DJ YODA: but it was really interesting, and it was just you know that's always been my thing just try stuff out you know just to keep it interesting. I'd rather have a failure that's something that no one's done before than just cruise and do the same thing every year. and that's how I've carried on this long is just try something different every year.

KK: Oh, when I think back to those times actually yeah, let me just rewind for a second so those you that don't know DJ Yoda because we international with this motherfucker. Outside looking in. Yoda is clearly in my mind one of the pioneers of kind of not only the kind of putt and cut-and-paste aesthetic putting it onto album but also visually one of the first VJs. Okay, I remember bro like you actually did to cut and paste into it visually you made the whole thing a massive performance piece um but…. But, you also came from the camp like you're saying that the kind of more Fat lace, Dan Greenpeace and ? like this…this… this side of the of the hip-hop queen British coin that I’m like …I look I remember that as being incredibly in a real kind of cozy, affectionate way yeah because it because it was light but it was from a cynical meets.

DJ YODA: but also, from like loving it from the heart.

KK: yeah, yeah like, love hating it almost.

DJ YODA: well no I don't know; I wouldn’t say hating. 

KK: Cynical. But

DJ YODA: what it was …. Was… we're in a unique position in the UK as hip-hop fans. Where we are… we were… things work as things are different now, but we were very far removed physically from where is all happening but, we still had the love for it, an all-encompassing love for it from every aspect of the culture. That was we live breath slap shat hip hop, in the same way that someone in New York might have done. But we're so disconnected from it physically, that basically, you can afford to have that level of criticism about it. And also, that with their kind of British sense of humor.

KK: That's it.

DJ YODA: that's the thing that like Americans don't really get sarcasm, do they? So, I think when you're saying cynical, I think it means sarcastic really or something like that. It’s that British way of like being able to take the piss. Like you you call someone you love a dick in England. That's just what you do yeah, it's the way that we…. we do things.

KK: but it also fell at a time of shiny suits and all that kind of it was a transition of like backpack a hip-hop

with British hip-hop and there just felt like a huge disconnect, where hip-hop connection had to report it. You guys were almost like that but times 10 him more your independent ethos.

DJ YODA: Yeah, there has always been that strain running through hip-hop. If you really love the kind of purest kind of hip-hop there's always been something to love in every era but what's poppin is a different matter. There was a time when like what we would consider like hardcore underground was poppin I mean that was yeah the golden era right? But yeah, you're talking about that the time of Mase and  Puff Daddy and all that whilst all that was happening there was a whole different there was stuff to love yeah totally but there was stuff to take the piss out of it as well.

KK: and that's what the sarcasm has a really shot through and is like you know sometimes he's getting too real kind of heated like articles on matter.

DJ YODA: some of it was like luckily, I wasn't involved in some of the more dangerous bit but there were dangerous bits.

KK: oh yeah, yeah.

DJ YODA: yeah, there are stories you know. That especially when um the rest the guys from Fat Lace spend time in in New York and in America like some of the stuff they've written came back to bite, you know.

 KK: really, its culture clash.

DJ YODA: Yeah it would do, because people wouldn't get it but, yeah. That's…. that's what we came up with there's just like taking the piss out of something because we loved it and then at the same time like, trying our hardest to do cool stuff with it. Yeah, so yeah.

KK: You had a real brand affiliated with it as well. And I remember when I first saw your early mixtape, that came out with Fat Lace like you I really felt like you guys had met like this really cool brand.

DJ YODA: There’s a space for it, yeah… that was definitely like no one else was doing that um and it felt right and it felt honest above all else. Cos that is the thing like, especially within hip-hop more than other kind of music you can't really be out there pretending to be something you're not. people see through that. and it as a DJ as well like that's be my number one rule always is just I only ever play what I love, you know. For instance, I don't really like Drake, never really liked Drake's music, I don't mean Drake,  with Drake's music, it just doesn't really connect with me so I won't play it. I will never play a Drake song unless I like it.

KK: Unless you like it.

DJ YODA:  and there hasn't been a Drake song that I like, so I don't play it. As a DJ and I just try and maintain that honesty with everything that I do. Like what is the point of working for this long, doing something, if you're working with stuff that you're not into?

KK: I couldn’t agree more. I think integrity is everything when you like…

DJ YODA:  It just it keeps me sane. it's nothing to do with anyone else it's just like for my own sanity I can't be here playing stuff that I can't believe.

KK: by numbers and you're not enjoying it.

DJ YODA: so that was, so Fat Lace was out, our kind of honest genuine reaction to the culture that was going on. All the AV stuff that I do or the everything that I play, when I DJ the music that I make my number one we're all it's like do I love this because if I don't love it what why am I bothering you know .

KK: when you were first coming up parents still together?

DJ YODA:  yeah yeah.

KK: So you grew up in London yeah?

DJ YODA: North London Yeah.

KK: North London um so when did you first discover like hip hop when was that?

DJ YODA: Well the very first my parents both worked in the music industry.

KK: okay.

DJ YODA: so, I was surrounded by that my dad managed Eurthymics.

KK: Oh amazing.

DJ YODA: yeah, my mum worked for music Producer. my dad managed Eddie Grant.

KK: Fuck A du…Eddie Grant, c’mon.

DJ YODA:  yeah, I grew up we have boxes of give me hope Jo’anna 7-inch in my bedroom just piled up. So, this is world I grew up in.

KK: like that this is just blowing my fucking mind bro. 

DJ YODA:  Like I was surrounded by music so it's not surprising that that became my thing and my Dad literally kept his record collection in my bedroom. I was surrounded by records just physically.

KK: It does make a difference. Doesn’t it?

DJ YODA: You know it just it was natural, and you know like the first kind of music that I got into was pop it was the 80s. it was…. like you know, Kylie Minogue whatever like just whatever was on Top of the Pops

But then the stuff that first caught my ear. There was this kind of era in the late 80s where you get kind of hip-hop remixes of pop songs or kind of that you get this kind of touch of hip-hop in pop where these little sample and scratching and it was that era of um Bomb the Bass and S’Express .

KK: and really chunky drops of samples

DJ YODA: yeah, yeah, yeah.

KK: I know what you mean.

DJ YODA: Whether they sample little things for movies and stuff and that was the stuff that caught my ear cos I've always loved film as much as I've loved music. Those would be my two big things so when you would hear little bits of kind of like old movies put into records …

KK: 20 seconds to comply.

DJ YODA: All that stuff, yeah, how do you do this the scratch sound? how do you do that? So that was the first thing that caught my ear. And it was about trying to emulate that with my parents record player and breaking …  breaking the hi-fi and you know and then just saving up and turntables and that's what started the whole thing.

KK: Your pops must have been like what the fuck?

DJ YODA:  Well, it’s a different world cos I say like I was surrounded by his records his records were all like psychedelic sixties white music basically.

KK: ? Kinda stuff.

DJ YODA: yeah just not my thing.

KK: Yeah, yeah, I get ya.

DJ YODA:  so yeah it must have been pretty mad for him, When I was like Neneh Cherry is what I liked.

KK:  oh yeah, and that Buffalo Stance, like she definitely had like this…

DJ YODA:  That’s definitely what it was yeah.

KK: yeah that choppy kind of …

DJ YODA: that's what I'm talking about I kind of pop hip hop crossover thing so yeah that was I was twelve thirteen listening to Neneh Cherry just trying to work out like how you make stuff sound like this.

KK: Wow, Dave Stewart, he’s one of your Influences.

DJ YODA: yea, yeah.

KK: yeah, he’s anice geezer.

DJ YODA:  yeah course man I was like on you was mix video shoots when I was five years old and stuff you know that was that was my childhood.

KK: That's amazing that's amazing. I heard he's got like a studio somewhere in Convent garden. so, I have a romantic idea that you know it's got an elevator that goes down and it's just like a massive car park of just studio stuff. 

DJ YODA: yeah, I don’t think… it’s quite like that. That would be cool.

KK: yeah, it would be cool as fuck. Well so, so when, when did you get like your first full track when was this?

DJ YODA: Like yeah well I guess the first equipment that I got was I got like a little Casio synth that you could sample and turntables and a mixer and then I got this kind of a four-track cassette recorder and that's where I first started messing around with like more, hang on a sec like I… I like this De la soul record or like this Nas record or whatever and then also like The Simpsons and I like Scarface. So I'm putting little  bits of audio from those things on top of the beats and that was just basically like it's like making a collage …as I'm you know there's all the stuff, you like put in one place and that's really like what appealed to me about hip-hop as I started to understand it. That's what it was you just took things that you thought were cool, it doesn't matter if they're from a country record or a movie soundtrack or a kids record if you've got a good bit, a funky bit whatever you… you make something new out of it. I mean I always think that if you're honest, totally honest with your influences and bring all that together you're gonna create something unique. Just because every person is unique, got their own… someone might be really into like German folk music, you know. But if you love German folk music, throw it in there, with that other stuff you like. I think a lot of people are embarrassed for some reason like oh people would think I'm not cool for liking German folk music. I don't like German Folk music, but I do like the stuff that probably other people wouldn't think is cool yeah. I don’t care this is what I like.

KK: so how do you… you’re a good person to ask this, how… how clear does your mind have to be that level of creative purity, to the point where it's like. I know that I like this it's not gonna come back and haunt me like, ten years down the line.

DJ YODA:  I think that’s overthinking it. I just don't think that much I'm probably just a bit dumb.

KK: which goes back to mind thing of like not kind of…

DJ YODA: yeah maybe just forgetting. Just focusing on what you're doing and in the moment I'm really the stuff that I'm thinking in a moment of creativity is like it's this making me laugh? or is this making is this funky? or is this like am I enjoying this? or is it boring ? and if it's boring that I'm doing the wrong thing.

KK: Yeah people I think people bore themselves into thinking that its cool or something. because someone else is doing something that sounds. Do you know what I mean? No,Travis Scott is Travis Scott

and although some of his songs come in moody there is an undertone of like intelligent music that's being orchestrated by numbers and they think that that's the order today and it doesn't always translate so.

DJ YODA: The worst thing you can do is copy something else. Yeah, so if you're not doing that then you're off to a great start like don't try and sound like anything else and then yeah I think maybe the way I think about things when I make a stuff isn't I never really think about how it will be received or who will like it or not like it it's for me a selfish man it's like I…. I felt with my last album like when I finished it I was like I don't care what happens now. I'm so happy with this it could be like everyone it could be ignored it could be hated, it could be loved, it makes no difference to me. Man, I'm just so pleased that I've done what I set out to do and I'm pleased with the end result that that's the end of the process.

KK:  So, what about …. with that in mind what's the next step?  if you're what you've got something you love but we didn't know Yoda at the time … where …where to you go then? what happens once you've got it ready?

DJ YODA:  For me and a lot of this comes down to my kind of the ADHD element of my personality, is I just need new the whole time, always I can't retread. So, every… a lot of this stuff comes in collaboration so I'm like oh like I could now collaborate with a brass band or with a classical Orchestra or with a neuroscientist or with a street artist. Just it's about, just bring in new stuff in because new stuff will be made out of that and so that that's always to me the way to keep…. keep things interesting, keep it moving and see what happens.

KK: that's crazy so… so, at that point when you've got a thing delivered and ready to go like, for a lot of new artist coming through like, nowadays it's like throw your hashtags out, throw your tunes out/ I just do it more like, daily, do another one, do another one, do another and just knock the algorithms into you know yeah people's lives but um…

DJ YODA:  that's a whole industry unto itself.

KK: it is isn't it?

DJ YODA:  and you could spend all day doing that instead of making stuff yeah? it doesn't interest me.

KK: it's so hard isn't it strike a balance when you think about the level shift to.

DJ YODA:  In an ideal world you want someone doing that stuff for you if you're creative. I think I don't understand how people on their grind like that, making anything interesting because he got put so much of your thought into promotion. I get it. This is so hard, its harder now than it's ever been. There's so much to fight against, there's so much noise, to make any noise. I mean I noticed it with the last album that brought out again, it's like there's no space for albums in this world. Man, like no one's got the attention span, there's no album reviews anymore. These the album reviews and all the papers that do that anymore, no one's got the time, so what you're gonna do like stop? Like no just carry on man but …but I'd I know that I don't want to spend my day thinking about how can I promote myself I do the social media that I do but it's it comes when I say something on social media its cos I want to say it I just can't force myself to.

KK: it's a risky road isn’t it.

DJ YODA: yeah it is it is I think it's real for people starting in this industry now. I try to work out well how do I balance those things I don't have an answer for that because its tough

KK: okay um yeah, I agree, I agree and luckily we… we hop back to a time in our early careers where we didn't necessarily, we didn't obviously have any of that but we actually had to figure out other ways of thinking things through anyway and thankfully you've garnered an awesome following and at your audience yourself I mean that totally helps. I always think to myself man, start right now because now there’s no better time than any.

DJ YODA:  and fail.

KK: and fail if you have to.

DJ YODA: Fail as much as you can. its helpful man. I still you know every now and then I'll play a gig where there's no one there and I appreciate that. I need that. I would hate it if it was every week, I don't think I could carry on like that. But if it happens once every few months for whatever reason I make the most of that time, that's a chance to play some tunes in the club that I don't normally play. Hear what they sound like on a big system, try out some stuff I don't normally do. All this failure is necessary, man you need it .

KK: You do don’t you?

DJ YODA: well, yeah, I think if you don't get it that's when you start spinning off in your own head about how incredible you must think you are. That's not gonna be any help from and that's gonna really mess you up you'll come crashing down.

KK: Hell ya.

DJ YODA:  so yeah I think just … just do stuff and that's the era that we come from and that the difference was as far as I can tell that it was so about skills, but that that era that we came up in. It really was about like what can you actually do. Like what are you doing that there's a step above what other people are doing and that doesn't, I don't see that.

KK: it's a fine line I mean for things like scratch DJ's. I think there is an ultimate test of showing improving in a live arena,

DJ YODA: Yeah but that also the flip side, as it went too far up its own ass like I've watched that happen and I don't want no part of them.

 KK: Chin's were stroking yeah.

DJ YODA: It was not my idea of fun. Like why we all out just to just watch a guy like, dude double click, orbit their things. I mean you know there's a time and place for it but it's not like yeah, it's not why I always thought about turntablism and all that sort of things. Like I want to learn this instrument, I don't need to be the best at it, I don't need to battle anyone. Even if I never battle that was never my that's not in my nature, I don't have that to kind of.

KK: No, but what you did have, and this is what I mean by cutting through, you had a conversation with people within like you say the Institute the boundaries of your restrictions. But then you heightened, and you opened up the boundaries and you started doing visuals like you said, the collaboration side it to me kind of transit, it's almost like you personified well. You put your message across what you wanted to within these where other people would let you say stick to the, the scene genre yeah what what's on trend within that niche.

DJ YODA: yeah, well that's what I was saying like it's always felt like I wanted you don't know how to scratch. I want to be able to play that instrument but then I don't have any need to like prove that I'm better than it anyone just doing scratching. that was not that… that's a different thing, that's about like I want to be the best.

KK: you uped skillset .

DJ YODA: All I did was like okay, Now I've got that skill to a point where I can use it now be interesting to

try something different with it.

KK: yeah, yeah.

DJ YODA: I like to say that the video thing was really the big move to me because I was throwing in all these kind of like samples from films and stuff anyway. And then the technology suddenly changed that you could scratch the actual movie is so not just the… the sound of it so that well that makes perfect sense crazy for me like I can I can do something with us you know.

KK: and there wasn't there wasn't kind of that YouTube Ripper back then like you or having to go from weren’t you.

DJ YODA: the first thing the very first thing I did with that was before you could even scratch the… the video was resound trucking movies so we had like we'd show like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and I worked our DJ set that that worked with the whole film so this song changed every time the scene changed and it will made sense with it mine.

KK: Oh, my god that’s cold. Wow.

DJ YODA: yeah, The Goonies as well.

KK: what did you do with the goonies?

DJ YODA: same thing like, everyone sat down in a cinema they played the Goonies and I DJed along with the film.

KK: oh my.

DJ YODA: That was my first like messing around with video and DJ as I knew I wanted they're like connect film and music somehow.

KK:  so you went to cinemas and did this.

DJ YODA: yeah yeah IMAX.

KK: that’s crazy.

DJ YODA:  and then the tech came out that you could actually scratch the movie so and the first thing was the DVD J's so you would put DVDs in like a CD J and then scratch the DVD. Like it's a really clunky way of doing it man. It was it was difficult, I remember like playing this Halloween show ones they wanted like at all scary movies be shot but and I had this kind of stack of horror DVDs but the thing is with that way through so every day you stick a DVD in the DVD J you have to wait for that shit at the start you know like warning and I don't show this an oil rigs then get to the menu and then cycle to the scene that you need and like you know it's a very slow way doing stuff .

KK: and when you're on a timer you know.

DJ YODA: yeah, the songs running out and the other thing, so it was a mental. I do think but then the next stage after that was just Serato. Serato video which is the way that a DJ anyway so now these a/v shows that I do the aesthetic, the setup is two turntables in a mixer.

KK: and it's beautiful.

DJ YODA: just perfect - like this is actually what I need.

KK: you definitely had like some tech of followers you know people that were like that appreciate what you were doing at the time, early doors with the technology who you work with that some there was a good kind of level of like people intellectually knowing how hard that was.

DJ YODA:  well the point is to just try something new and with that you've sometimes got used yeah tech that people aren't using yet or use it in a way that people…  because I still think with this kind of like AV stuff, I'm aware of who else is out there doing it. No one's doing it the same way, still is, I still feel like we're very early in they're kind of like era of that stuff we'll look back at this time it'll be prehistoric but some people are using it just for psychedelic swirly abstract shit. Yeah stuff some people are to play music videos just play a Dr. Dre video and then player but my thing has always been movies films and YouTube and samples.

KK: the times at times I've seen you perform live albeit like it would be either before after a show so I've already had a drink yeah but I do remember like the amount of kind of processing that you got into like to make these things work and it is like a bombardment like you've got you've got a visual for every sample and.

DJ YODA: yeah I’ve got an arsenal and now the way that I do it is it's like DJing, so I don't even have a. well it depends some of my AV shows that I've got a theme but the one that the ones that are unthemed is like DJing, I turn up I kind of feel out the crowd see that are they like reggae. okay reggae visuals yeah oh they're like 30s music 30s music visuals. So it's um it's just free you know like and there it's the tech the tech allows me to do that which is wicked.

KK: That’s incredible. What the sampling clearance on something if you had like a

situation we don't have talked too deep into this but like is… is you know there are any times where you just like oh yeah maybe I shouldn't be doing that one because it's a little bit bad.

DJ YODA:  no, it's… it's illegal but I don't think I'm a big priority and like the FBI I'm gonna come in like …

KK: No, I feel you, I feel you.

DJ YODA: yeah, it's just I think if I was doing this stuff in arenas around the world on a different level it might be… it might be an issue but the level that I do it out, I don't think it is I mean I know that cos I played I've played to George Lucas. You know George Lucas has been in the crowd and I introduced him at the end and I thought well if I'm not getting sued after tonight. Yeah yeah I don't think I'm getting sued.

KK: yeah, yeah. It’s like, that was pretty good. I liked your DJ set, and your like ya you sure?

DJ YODA: Yeah, exactly. Don’t wind me up. So yeah, I don't know it's a …it's a line to balance so I have to think about that stuff sometimes but not too much.

KK:  You must spend a lot of time like, like I mean like I guess like an avid breaks fan or fanatical of double copy DJ.

DJ YODA: diggers. I spend a lot of time doing that. That’s just how I function. Like if I am watching Tv or watching a film, listening to radio. As soon as something happens that I want to use, it just clicks. I got notes on my phone. That read like a lunatic’s notes.

KK: no way.

DJ YODA: like 26 seconds into this thing.

KK: did you ever watch right, little footnote on this, did you ever watch the Bob Monkhouse documentary on BBC 4?

DJ YODA: no.

KK: BRO. Bro. you’ll appreciate it. I tell you man.

DJ YODA: I’ll have to check that.

KK The hidden story of Bob Monkhouse. I swear to God. He’s a comedian from the UK, for those who ain’t familiar. Old school dude.

DJ YODA: very old school.

KK: He collected everything man. Like his whole. Everything from like… right so he would have like TV TIMES and he would write next to the schedule if it was running late.

DJ YODA: oh wow. That’s like … he’s basically OCD. Like everything has to be organized.

KK: yeah, like everything. He had an archive. He basically had the BBC archive and just owns everything.

DJ YODA: wow. I’ll have to check that man. That’s interesting.

KK: I think you’d really appreciate it.

DJ YODA: I think that like I’ve tired really hard over the last few years to, excuse me, to like lose that collectors mentality. I don’t really have that anymore. I’m trying to shed all the physical stuff.

KK: its’ time isn’t it.

DJ YODA: well now, we live in a world where we can be digital. And if I need something, I can just rip off of YouTube. And I realised, like what is all this for?  There is people that have go so far down that route, that I watch them and think, I don’t want to be like that.  That’s not what I ever wanted. So, I have a level of it, like I’ve got like a big room full of records, tapes, My iTunes is crazy, my serato is crazy. But I think it’s under check. Let’s put it like that.

KK: all of it. like I’m not under check, whatsoever.

DJ YODA: your out of control.

KK: yeah, how can you tell?

DJ YODA: ? out of control man. Nah, this is not out of control. Like like…everything is relative.

KK: well thank you. 

DJ YODA:  it’s all relative. Have you been to Kish’s house?

KK: uh no but I hear. Big up Kish, He’s been on podcasts.

DJ YODA: shout out kish. But I look at kish and I think, nah I don’t want that much stuff. I need less stuff.

KK: what’s his.. what’s his. The sneakers. I mean the sneakers are what get me.  I mean, he’s just like.

DJ YODA: They take up more space then records. Like the records take up a huge amount of space and VHS’ cos I had a lot of them. These things are heavy. Every time you move its like no joke.

KK: yeah, that’s what I’m thinking like the ball and chain that weighs you down.

DJ YODA: so at least like hard drives are like doable.  That’s manageable.

KK: but, even more me like, a hard drive like, it loads of cables and boxes and hard drives and stuff.

DJ YODA:  It all costs money. It can all go wrong. There’s no like format where it can’t go wrong. Hard drives can get damaged, erased. Vinyl can get nicked, flooded. There something that can go wrong with all of it. 

KK: and that’s your biggest fear live isn’t? like you mention. If a hard drive goes down or 

DJ YODA: oh, I’ve had all kinds of stuff like that. Especially, because of what we are talking about, being kind of like, early adopter of tech, stuff goes wrong a lot.

KK: Super wrong when it wants to doesn’t it.

DJ YODA: ah man and its bad, it could be bad. Like I’ve played shows, in front of thousands of people where I start my AV shows. I always do a big intro and da da da DJ YODA da da da and then it just cuts out.you know, like no sound. Computer’s crashed.

KK: okay, well this, this I want to ask, right personally take me through that emotion. You have a thousand people and shit ? start.

DJ YODA: oh, I’ve had way bigger than that where it’s gone horribly wrong.

KK: what the .. what’s the.

DJ YODA: oh. I’ve had like 10,000 people and its gone wrong after 5 minutes.

KK: what’s your emergency reaction?

DJ YODA: um, you’ve got to through the actual logical solutions to get the shit working. In my case, its always just a restart of a laptop. So, it’s just a very long 45 seconds.

KK: yeah yeah

DJ YODA: it’s a very very long 45 seconds.

KK: and all this shit pops up and you’re like fuck off I don’t want you. Go away drop box. Let go.

DJ YODA: you don’t want to let your guard down to a crowd like that. You’ll fall apart, so you just gotta style it out man. Style it out. What other choice is there? Really just, go home?

KK: what you say with those quote, unquote failures. They are the making of you, aren’t they?

DJ YODA: once you know, that is the worst that could happen. Everything else is good man. You gotta have some gauge of all thist stuff. You cant.., imagine if you had a wicked show every single time…it just ..it wouldn’t be a wicked show because it would become your normal. It would just be like, oh another wicked show. 

KK: its linear. That’s your line.

DJ YODA: It doesn’t make it great it makes just the same. So, all this stuff and you know is a bigger philosophical thing, but you need bad with good. Otherwise the good doesn’t make sense. The bad doesn’t make sense. So just appreciate whatever happens.

KK:  it’s interesting you say that because the mental kind of thoughts I had was around 2004. 2005. Roots Manuva was doing his thing and I think it was something he said his verses or in an interview. well you can’t have one without the other. You have the ? ground it’s like a see saw.

DJ YODA: yeah man, exactly. Exactly. I would listen to him. He’s a spiritual guy a clever guy.

KK: yeah totally and there was definitely that thing. That thing where you have your shiny suit. You have your backpacker and this thing and somewhere down the line it come back to technology. Because with every technological advance there comes a breakthrough culture that we. We live within that culture.

DJ YODA: and that’s what makes an era, sound like of an era. Like I’ll be talking about and thinking a lot about blues music. a lot of stuff I listen to at myself for the moment is very old blues. The first blues.

KK:  like muddy waters stuff.

DJ YODA: yeah yeah, muddy waters stuff he went electric. I’m talking about like on back porches and stuff like that.

KK: ohhh 

DJ YODA: the old stuff. wow, what I love about it is the crackle and the hiss and basically the shit way it was recorded. That’s what makes it. Because if you have a song produced in a modern way, I don’t think the song would be very good.i I would take away from it. Every era of technology defines the sounds 70s funk breaks sound the way they sound because of the recording equipment that existed in those days; movies look that way because they were shot on film. And that makes the era and it gives it a flavour of something. And really it’s the limitations. oh, we’ve only got this much quality. Or this many mics. Early hip-hop, two tune tables. We’ve only got two turn tables, so we make music with that. We haven’t got an orchestra. We haven’t got like digital equipment. It’s about the restrictions that you find yourself in that makes the sounds and it makes like a thing. And really that’s my problem with a lot stuff musically that’s happening at the moment. Is that everything is made with a laptop, with plug ins, coming out… out of the box, you can make it exactly perfect within your computer program you can hitch every snare so it’s exactly in every key with every song. Every chord hitting precisely at that point. What your doing is Stripping away the soul. Your creating something that just sounds like  AHHHHH. It sounds like nothing. It’s the imperfection that makes stuff, I think. I did this whole album which is coming out later this year um not a DJ yoda album, under a different artists name.

KK: oh brilliant.

DJ YODA: Three rivers is the name.

KK: wicked.

DJ YODA: Totally different kind of music which is why I didn’t want it to be. Dj yoda thing. It’s very dark, very industrial um sparse filmic.

KK: really? Wow. Three rivers, yeah?

DJ YODA: yeah totally different kind of thing but the starting point for that project is, I just collected hiss from everywhere. It’s like, I wanted crackle from the 70s records. I wanted VHS hiss. Cassette Hiss. Pops off of like dusty needles and stuff. That was before even the music. 

KK: collecting.

DJ YODA: Collecting yeah, collecting imperfections and starting with that.

KK: mmm is that a deeper desire to like to want your own thing authentically? Because like there is samples packs or plugs in but, you wanted it. You wanted to know where it 

DJ YODA: yeah, find the crackle myself. I don’t want the crackle everyone’s got.

KK: no no, glitch mob do that. Yeah, like I’ve had them on the podcast, and they are all about that. They like go into a field to find a beat. 

DJ YODA: exactly man, like I’ve gone and recorded in lifts in hotels and you know sounds of doors shutting and but yeah, collected it yourself so it makes it mean a lot more to you as well. But yeah, I think this whole idea of like stuff being wrong or like I said, like restrictions , limitations is really like where you find good stuff. There is nothing worse than total freedom. 

KK: that’s right and that’s what happened. I do belive what your saying is true.  I come from that same ethos and there is something to be said about having too much on offer. Too many options, 

DJ YODA: with um, with the AV shows I do now. There is not a theme a lot because otherwise I just sit in front of YouTube and I’m like what’s good? 

KK: hmmm

DJ YODA: and there is nothing harder than thinking what is good in the world. In front of youtube. Its too much I lik e too many different things. Um, so I found like the way to do the av shows is I did one that is Stranger Things AV show and one that is all the best of Sci-fi movies.

KK: Oh that must have went down well.

DJ YODA: I did one that was the history of video games. The one that I’m premiering this weekend is all Tarantino. Tarantino.

KK:  Oh my God, where’s that?

DJ YODA: So, this weekend, the first one is EveryMan Cinema in Crystal Palace. I’m touring film festivals and cinemas. It’s a sit-down thing though. Sit, eat popcorn and watch an AV show.

KK: I love that, I love that. Um, damn, how was I going to? I think, with podcasts the whole cinema value when it comes to um, putting across what it is and put it in live context. Like conceptualising it and putting it one housing of well this is, it’s quite an inspiring idea, for me that.

DJ YODA: It’s a way to get stuff done. It’s the same thing, give yourself a limitation and then I’m not worrying about stuff that nots a song Tarantino hasn’t used. I’m not worrying about a film that’s not a Tarantino film. I know, like this is my remix. Watch Kill Bill, watch Inglourious Basterds. Listen to the soundtracks. Make something out of that. And don’t worry about the rest of the world, because like I said its overwhelming. And it’s great, I love the research process of these AV shows. I spend one week of just watching Tarantino films in order from Monday morning Reservoir Dogs, Monday afternoon Pulp Fiction and carry on like that all week and that watch the new one on the Saturday night. I would say I can go a bit mental.

KK: All the sudden you’re walking into bars really slowly. 

DJ YODA: Exactly

KK: You want the saloon doors opening and shit.

DJ YODA: Everything starts to become film like.

KK: Um just going back to the technical thing. Bomb squad. 80s. that’s real huge moment in time

DJ YODA: That way of thinking. No one had done that before which was just chuck it all in man. Chuck it all in. 

KK: The way they made that work.

DJ YODA: With noises that sound horrible too. Yeah, abrasive noises and car horns and sirens and explosions. Horrible sounds and make it good. And that’s really hard. It didn’t always work as well. I mean there is some bad bomb squad stuff but, there Is some classic legendary bomb squad stuff. Interesting, Interesting producers.

KK: Because without those experiments, those people that are really. you know, really trying to cut through the noise and I guess like 80s hair metal and shit like that.

DJ YODA: Yeah, think about the stuff around. Even the hip hop was around before then was very clean and sort of like.

KK: Like disco almost.

DJ YODA: Yeah so you just react to that stuff that’s going on and take it to a completely different place.

KK: A whole other place. And I don’t mean there is obviously other people from technology and generations. Skrillex was another one.

DJ YODA:  I mean, yeah, he pushed it in another way. I mean in way it was a terrible thing what Skrillex did. It did that age-old thing of like British people come up with something good and then American people ruin it. 

KK: Market it.

DJ YODA: Just market it, brand it, testosterone it out to the max. Bro stack, yeah know. But, it’s interesting sonicially he took it as far as it can go.

KK: He really did man.

DJ YODA: He pushed it as far as it can go. So great, we get to hear that but, it did kind of kill a genre in the process.

KK: Yeah, it did kind of strangle it a little bit. 

DJ YODA: But I think it will come around. I think It is coming around.

KK: Yeah, circus records and all those things. They are still…

DJ YODA: I feel like Jungle is coming. There’s gonna be a 2020 jungle drum ‘n’ bass thing. It’s just come around the circle is.

KK: Jungle and drum ‘n’ bass is just one of those kinds of scenes that feels like it’s like so ingrained in like British music culture.

DJ YODA: It is so, so British. It doesn’t exist in that way anywhere else. And that’s great.

KK: Yeah, yeah.

DJ YODA:  And that’s great, and it’s always been there. It didn’t go anywhere but, it’s really been low level for a long time.

KK: Yeah, yeah.

DJ YODA:  But, um…

KK: But what separates that from dubstep, because dubstep is bigger in states than anywhere.

DJ YODA: That’s what happened to with Skrillex-ed, right? It got like maxed out.

KK: Ownership immediately it comes to America. 

DJ YODA: It drops. Where’s the drop man?  It’s quite an American thing. And a lot of these things they start in the UK and there much…I can’t even think of a better word than cooler. It’s just cooler.

KK: It’s just more human and functioning and 

DJ YODA: We are just more humble with it. Its just more a communal thing. As soon as it shifts up that level it starts to become about money and brands and success. And I think if you think about how dubstep started here, its wasn’t about all those things. 

KK: Yeah.

DJ YODA: Do you remember hearing Jungle for the first time?

KK: Yeah, I do, yeah, I do.

DJ YODA: It’s a mad thing isn’t it, because it’s not. Like, the first time you hear that kind of music your like woah. What? It’s so fast.

KK: it’s like fast and invasive. When you listen to it you know, decades on, it’s not as harsh as you thought it was when you first heard it. But, at the time, when it came through, it was like, you know there’s like an emergency in your head of what the…. It’s all changing. Things are moving. What the fuck is this? It’s crazy.

DJ YODA: I know, I love that.  Kinda like, what the fuck let’s do it.  Especially those that kind of messed around with break beats, like Vortech and.

KK: Oh my God, yeah.

DJ YODA: and like ? , its mad. What is this?

KK: Vortech was way ahead of his time.

DJ YODA: Vortech was incredible man.

KK: Crazy. Do you know what he does now? He does scores.

DJ YODA: That makes sense, yeah.

KK: Crazy. And Claim and what are they called….um Ed Rush And that whole kind of …. that era came through. That really inspired me on the beatbox. Like woah.

DJ YODA: Yeah, cos who… I guess I can see how that would be because who else would that happen to. Not really anyone else. Not gonna be getting Rahzel getting inspired by Ed rush and oldskool. It’s amazing for you to be that unique person who like taking this in,like. 

KK: Yeah. Yeah.

DJ YODA: This is gonna become something.

KK: Yeah, yeah. That combined with like yeah, the advantage of, cos drum ’n’ bass had its own identifiable snares and synths. Like this was pre anything massive or?, it was just like 

DJ YODA: Yeah, there was trends and sounds and metal heads were the thing. ? thing was another thing. It was a great era.

KK: Great era. And we have a way with the Brits that will take like, Rolling Stones did it back in the day. Take in and just repackage it. get something more… and throw it back to America. And America is just like uhhh.

DJ YODA: What have you done? 

KK: Yeah, what did you do?

DJ YODA: I put it a lot down to our weather. 

KK:  Hmm, I do to, I agree.

DJ YODA: The rain and grey and cold makes us stay inside and make stuff. And I’m a pretty firm believer that not much good music comes from places where the weather is nice.

KK: Ah no, it’s true, Its true.

DJ YODA: So, that helps and it’s just a very rich, cultural place. London especially. I feel so lucky, to have lived in London my whole life. There’s nowhere else like it. Nothing like it. Nowhere is. The mix that you get and the respect for culture that you get. I didn’t really appreciate it until I started travelling the world DJing cos you start to see other places. You know I’ve been to cities in China where I asked the promoter what is there to do here and there like, nothing. I mean, what do you mean nothing? There’s a huge city, there has to be something and he’s like nah. So, we got on the subway system that goes to the most kind of central looking station, where most things change, got out, looked around yup, there’s nothing. Like it’s just nothing.

KK: They must love you over there. Like when I think about like the way your show is interpreted, now more than ever, particularly with the way the clubs are hidden out in that part of world. Like I’ve done a couple of shows their recently and it’s just like Pink Floyd.

DJ YODA: It’s really different. Every time I do an Asian tour, it strikes me every time. Every time. The east coast is totally different vibe. I dunno it’s so like, I saw someone write something the other day about there’s like this pan, Asian fuse restaurants. Imagine like, if in Asia there was a pan European restaurant, where you get German schnitzels with pasta and French cuisine, it just makes no sense. Why we painting Asia with one colour, like the whole thing is the same.

KK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

DJ YODA: And the difference between ? to Singapore and Hong Kong and Toyko or Bali.

KK: Way different.

DJ YODA: Mad different.

KK: But, the clubs now, if you were to turn around to them and say like can you put a screen up? There will be a screen up, can I just plug…like that.

DJ YODA: Especially in Japan. Just respect and being on it. That’s where we fail a lot in the UK, just it goes beyond music, just people having pride in their jobs doesn’t really exists in this country.

KK: Trains showing up on time and shit. 

DJ YODA: Like you try talking to a video event guy at a venue about how you want your stuff speced out, in like Nottingham and it’s not going to be like

KK: Not to take anything away from Nottingham sound guys.

DJ YODA: No, I’m saying specifically in Nottingham. Yeah, on the whole people don’t really care about what they are doing enough. It frustrates me, it frustrates me in a coffee shop. it frustrates me everywhere. Just have some pride.

KK: Like, where does that come from man, cos I get it, in the UK’s defence you are confessed ADHD. You want things bang, bang, bang but, even I can appreciate where you’re coming from. The amount of times, you like c’mon man.

DJ YODA: You see it in America, for all their faults, but in their service. Like, you come in they want to please you.  Welcome, what can I do for you? That doesn’t exist.

KK: Yeah, does my…. It does it does. If they had to work a tip system, then now your...

DJ YODA: Exactly, that will change. Yeah, I get it, it’s probably that your right. I feel like that is proper old man talk.

KK: It is, it is. But here’s the new thing right. This is proper old man talk, here’s the new thing and its only recent. Okay, this is gonna suck but, it’s the truth. I gotta say it to myself as well I’m talking, n like it does my head in, like today, a pint of beer, particularly on old street,  is like 6.50, 7 quid, right? So, when someone serves you, puts the pint in front of me, and the bubbles go down at the top, so there is nearly like quarter gone, mother fucker, fill that thing up. It gets me so angry.

DJ YODA: yeah, that’s money.

KK: Yeah, I get so angry now.

DJ YODA: Yeah, that is old man talk now, like you might as well be 80, in your pub, like, no you’re right. You’re also right, you know. Like you can’t argue with that.

KK: Yeah, yeah, like it’s got to the point where I’m like, okay, I’m gonna pack myself right, Its gonna come to my …I’m might as well drink it.

DJ YODA: I’m a terrible drinker. I’m not very good at it. Like I wanna drink more.

KK: Dude, I remember when you go drunk. Do you remember when we was in ? and we got absolutely hammered?

DJ YODA: No, I don’t know anything about this story.

KK: Right, so they had these fruit vodkas.

DJ YODA: Oh, shit, yeah. And there was upstairs in the pub and there was all these sweeties flavoured.

KK: Every single style chocolate, coffee, skittles. Like thrown them all in and left them for like twenty years and just thinking of pulling them out. We got absolutely filthy drunk. Absolutely hammered.

DJ YODA: Oh man its nice to hear that story. It reminds me of a time when I could get drunk. I try now and it just doesn’t really work on me. I dunno what it is, like.

KK: Like your constitution is just like…

DJ YODA: Like a lot of time, I’m like okay, I wanna get drunk tonight. I actually want to. But, if I drink past a certain point it either just makes me tired or just not feel nice. It’s annoying. I think probably I got such a sugar addiction that, that’s probably where I’m getting all my sugar from and when I get it from alcohol as well Its just too much.

KK: That’s the one, bro. That’s the same with me. Big Sugar head.

DJ YODA: It’s my one problem, sugar

KK: yeah, It keep you up doesn’t it.

DJ YODA: It’s the joy. The joy.

KK: a bag chocolate, whoo, damn. No fucking around.

DJ YODA: No messin around. That twirl is an intense hit, isn’t it. But red bulls, Maltesers. 

KK: Red bulls all day.

DJ YODA: I like all kinds of crap man. I like American Breakfast cereal, like marshmallows.

KK: That lucky charms shit.

DJ YODA: its evil stuff but I love it, I love it.

KK: Breakfast cereal in the evening.

DJ YODA: Yeah, I wouldn’t have it for breakfast, it would be like midnight. That’s my Lucky Charms time.

KK: Oh, hell yeah. Crunch nut cornflakes is my business. Cereal killer. What about that chocolate you get when its like … its like not even nice.. well it’s like once you get going with it , it’s the Tesco’s own 1 pound, it’s the kind of stuff that they make Easter eggs out of.

DJ YODA: I like chocolate the same as coffee, like I either the really, really high end artisan expensive shit or the really ghetto cheap hit shit. I don’t like the medium in between, no interest in me. I like a coffee that is properly done by some origin bean or like a McDonalds coffee, like a service station coffee. I don’t like kind of Nescafé or those pods.

KK: or I got this new thing the missus went and got it.

DJ YODA: is that the coffee you just made?

KK: I’m just looking around.

DJ YODA: You’re not happy with it?

KK: Well, I’m not satisfied. I put two spoons in my coffee just to get it out of the house at the moment. But yeah no, I do feel that with that. Like I don’t wanna fuck with Twixs and not really a kit kat man. It’s like one or the other isn’t it.

DJ YODA: I like limited edition, that’s my whole. You wanna see my Instagram, that’s my Instagram, it’s basically limited edition Oreos, and limited-edition ben and jerry’s flavours and shit. That’s what I’m into.

KK: I’m feeling that.

DJ YODA: We all got our vices. 

KK: yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because I think that comes from people like, I watched this South Park Documentary, and how like when they are into the eleventh hour of making an episode. They are eating McDonalds, Getting that too much sugar. Sugar rushing. Because they aren’t enjoying themselves, so they find things to make it more pleasurable.

DJ YODA: yeah, it happens on tour. Well, you must experience that. It all goes to shit. Like any attempt to look after yourself .

KK: Starts with a good couple of days.

DJ YODA: You might start off well but, by the time your doing motorways and whatever it is you’re just kind of bad and its just a way to get through. You’ve got to balance that out at end.

KK: yeah, yeah totally. So hard because alcohol comes in as well as its just a whole leap of stuff. Have you followed beardy man and his exercise into tech and stuff? 

DJ YODA: Yeah, its really interesting what he’s doing isn’t it? Yeah, I mean. I made a mix tape with him once. 

KK: Did ya? Is it on here?

DJ YODA:  I totally recommend everyone….Well, no its not on there actually. Um it’s a totally different kind of thing. We called it wrong and it was just the worst songs we could find. It’s literally an hour of the worst music.

KK: That’s amazing.

DJ YODA: Literally the worst music you could ever here.

KK: Because it’s funny.

DJ YODA: Its hilarious but, if you can get through that whole hour, I will rate you. Um So that’s where our interests. Where we found like the cross section of our interests. Um he’s a really old mate of mine, I’ve known him for years, it’s really interesting to see what he’s done with his career. Have you seen what he’s done with video?

KK: No.

DJ YODA: Have a look at that man, its totally different. It’s not what you’d expect.

KK: Damn, he’s another person that a least on the social media front and you gotta hunt him down and you guys share a really similar.

DJ YODA: Yeah, I think we are very similar in that respect. Neither of us ignore social media. I’ve got a presence on it all but, yeah, I can’t just jump in head first with that stuff. I just, dabble.

KK: Do you think, if you condense what you do put out, do you think Twix bars or whatever bars, the sugar stuff you put out, what if you were to do an IGTV 10 minute, sort of AV thing.

DJ YODA: It makes perfect sense.

KK: But just leave it like that. Nothing else.

DJ YODA: I should do that. You’ve kinda given me an idea to be honest with you. Cos that… IGTV is probably the way to do cos I’ve done little bits on my Instagram but they are kinda sketches. Like they are little ideas. Or sometimes I do a little video mix and think that’s pretty cool so I just llike to puff out somewhere and stick it on my Instagram but, yeah, it’s a difficult medium to kind of show people what I do other than a live context. 

KK: It compromises what you do.

DJ YODA: It does and it’s just. I’ve avoided putting video mixes on YouTube for instance, partly because there is licencing problems with doing that anyway. But, IGTV, I’m gonna take that one on board.

KK: Yeah, I think it’s the timing of it it’s just the sweet spot it Like You have a 10 min max which is obviously more than you get on.

DJ YODA: It’s more than enough to get an idea across the way it’s kind of stored in such a way that it doesn’t get lost in a feed. It will always be there.

KK: Mmm, totally yeah 100 percent. Well I think we are coming to a nice spot.

DJ YODA: We covered a lot of ground.
KK: We’ve covered a lot of ground. So, what’s coming up, you got the new project? 

DJ YODA: So the album came out earlier this year which is homecooking. That’s very much a Jazz/ soul kind of album. Which is the way it came out.  Um, I’ve got the USB tape, which is out.

KK: gotta check that out man.

DJ YODA: yeah, that will keep anyone busy for a long time. Then um the 3 rivers album will be out later this year, yeah. Which is a totally different kind of thing and I’ve already started working on the next Yoda album which is for next year. Which takes it further down the route of Homecooking which takes it further down this route of no samples, all I do is instruments. Much more song writing, just trying to make songs.

KK: Nice, wow Yeah constant man.

DJ YODA: Just keeping it going man. I’m enjoying it. And I’ll carry on as long as I’m enjoying it. Ya, I’ll stop if I’m not enjoying it and find something else to do. I’m a serial maker.

KK: yeah, Well let’s hope not. The mighty. The prolific.

DJ YODA: Well, I dunno man, I got good ideas for cereals. You might want to hope.

KK: That’s what Gary Vee, not so long ago. Do you know Gary vee?

DJ YODA: No.

KK: He’s a …he’s on YouTube I’ll send you a link. Outta know where he decided to make his own cereal and people went crazy for it.

DJ YODA: I can respect that. That will be me one day.

KK: You can make anything nowadays can’t ya.

DJ YODA: I’ll just come up with some cereal ideas. Yeah, Genius.

KK: Ladies and gentlemen, the man, the myth, the legend. The contender still killing it outside, with new material and more. The don. Thank you so much G.

DJ YODA: Thank you man, it’s been a pleasure.

KK: Yoda inside the house.

DJ YODA: Peace.