The fact that Kutski’s mum got a little concerned about him when he locked himself in his bedroom to be alone with his decks and only ventured out to buy cartridges and records didn’t concern him. The young 15 year old was now hooked and his dedication paid off when he entered and won a succession of DJ contests This led to a residency @ Elevate in Bangor, then later Base in Leeds. It wasn’t long before the young talent was playing for just about every major club up and down the country. He brought with him something fresh and exciting by pulling in tracks from Hard House, Hard Trance and Hardstyle, then dropping in the phat beats and hip hop scratching. Indeed, he’d taken a lot of influence from the latter genre.

Kutski’s biggest achievement came when he was the first Hard Dance DJ to have his own show on Radio One, ‘The Residency’. Kutski had always seriously pushed the underground side of things, but now he was making inroads in the mainstream as well.

Now come Saturday the 2nd of February, the scratch master touches down on the South coast for Resonate presents: Future Music at the Old Fire Station in Bournemouth. Having now served five years in the business of putting on only the best underground Hard Dance parties, Resonate look too seriously up the ante this year with many big dates and tours to come. So to find out how Kutski is going to help Resonate off to a flying start in 2008 with another one of his awesome sets, we sat down and had a chat with him……

Kutski, Resonate Future Music back at the Old Fire Station is certainly looking like one fun packed stomp up. What are you most looking forward to about it?

I like the Future Music concept A LOT!!!! I’m not a fan of this culture where DJ’s are just bashing hard house anthems from 2002 to get an easy crowd reaction, and this makes it extremely difficult to push new music. Ultimately this will be destructive to the scene, so it’s great to see such a strong line up of forward thinking DJ’s all at one event, where the event its self is preaching the future music concept!!

The line-up is looking particularly strong for that event with acts such as Bournemouth’s favourite sons the Organ Doners, the fast rising Frisky and the master of all things hard Mark EG. How do you feel that you’ll best add balance to the line-up?

Even though we all have a similar ethic in the music we play, I think we are all very distinguishable. I think I play more eclectically than most hard dance DJ’s and often wander into different music genres if the mood takes me, so I’m sure I’ll be bringing variation and quirkiness to the night. Obviously I’ll be bringing my turntablist game to the table but with the brothers Donor on the line up too, I’m sure that won’t be something exclusive to my set

The Old Fire Station is seen as one of Bournemouth’s leading venues. What makes it particularly unique is that it’s a grade 2 listed converted fire station. So will playing at a venue that’s a bit different make a nice change compared to your normal purpose built venue?

I’ve never actually been to the venue before, but I’ve heard a lot of hype about it and am definitely looking forward to checking it out. I always find the strangest venues give the best atmosphere, such as St Matthews’s church in Brixton, or the Arches in Glasgow. These types of places are always much better than tin-can custom build clubs, so I’m very intrigued to see what The Old Fire station (which I’m assuming is an old fire station lol), has hidden within its walls!!

Resonate have been described as providing ‘the south coasts premier underground Hard Dance events’. Now as you’re known for championing underground music, do you feel that the clubs ethos particularly suits you as a DJ?

Yes, very much so! These are the perfect breeding grounds to test new music, push boundaries, and experiment, so I’m looking forward to a set where 1 in 3 tracks doesn’t have to be a bootleg to keep the crowd satisfied ;oP hehe…

It may not be massive, but there is quite a buoyant Hard Dance scene on the south coast and quite a few of the genres leading DJ’s hail from that area. What’s your current take on the scene in that region?

Being from Chester, I will quite happily tell you that clubbing gets better the further up the country you get lol… but quite honestly the whole of the south coast is rocking!! From the Honey Club in Brighton to Atmosphere in Seaton, there is a definite vibe on the south coast that is unique to it. Attendance at clubs always seems good which is encouraging, and has produced a hell of a lot of talent, from legends like the Organ Donors and Vinylgroover, as well as a lot of new talent!

When you first started playing back in your teens, you claimed to become quite obsessive with the whole thing. Back then, did you ever realise that your hobby would turn in to playing at clubs up and down the country week in week out?

I never really thought it would lead anywhere to be honest! I actually thought if I was going to do anything like this for a living it would have to be mobile DJ’ing So I never thought for a second what I have now would be on the cards, but it just goes to prove if you do things for the love of it, some pretty random shit can happen!

You’re well known for your scratching skills in your sets and you were influenced by Hip Hop artists such as ‘the Scratch Perverts’, ‘Cash Money’, and ‘Jazzy Jeff’. What added dimension do you feel that trickery gives your sets?

I try to use my skills to add to the music in the same way the early pioneers of hiphop DJ’ing did. So people on the dance floor are like, “I have this record at home but he’s doing something different with it!” which adds an extra buzz to the place! The scratching is an extension of this. It looks cool and it’s actually happening in front of people, so you can see what’s going on live! It works much like a big guitar solo in a rock track; it’s cool to listen to, but really impressive to watch it live!

You got a lot of your breaks by winning DJ competitions. What do you feel you did then to make your self stand out from the pack?

I’d like to think it was the fact I have never gone for the obvious music. Always looking hard for the right tracks, pushing new sounds and building bridges between musical genres… but in reality it was probably the whole turntablism things, which is cool anyway, ‘cause its great to get your skills recognised, and the fact I had strong musical roots meant I wasn’t seen as a one trick pony which has allowed my career to progress.

You also go under the guise of SPX. Can you explain to us what that’s used for?

This is quite amusing. I wrote a track in 2002 with Vinylcoup from 12 Inch Thumpers. When we sent it out to labels, it got great response and was signed to Knuckleheadz Records! This was amazing except for the label boss didn’t like the name Kutski; it sounded “too ravey” apparently (is that not what this music is?)!! So we came up with the guise SPX for the three of us (SPX as in the old skool tracksuits).

Up until fairly recently, you also held a job as a transport planner for the council. Councils and clubs/dance music don’t always see eye to eye! Did you keep your other job a secret from your bosses?

Narr, I worked for engineering so had nothing to do with the councillors or anything! I did play it down though, so I could have a cheeky Friday off sick when I had a busy weekend ahead ;o)

A lot of up and coming DJ’s emulate their peers style when they’re starting out, but you gave us something new and fresh. How important do you feel it is for a new artist to go out there and ‘do his own thing’, as it were?

It is the single most important thing, as no one will want to book an unknown version of “DJ X” when they can have “DJ X for real! But saying that, when you very first start out it’s a good and very natural thing to emulate you idols, as you need to find your feet before you can take over the world. It’s just a case of when the time is right and you start to become aware of everything around you, its important you start developing in your own right, and you will develop your own sound! Almost like a bird fleeing the nest hehe…

You love to hunt down rare and obscure tracks and you were the first artist to break that tune ‘Nobody likes the records that I play’. How does it feel when you’re about to share an unknown tune out to the masses?

Haha, that’s ace! I was playing that track about 12 months before I heard anyone else touch it, but I didn’t realise anyone had picked up on that! It’s great cause you get this amazing piece of music you buzz off and you know the place is going to go mental when you share it with them! It was better however in the days of vinyl, cause if I got an amazing and rare track that I’d spent proper time researching and tracking down, it was mine! Like a secret weapon!! Now if you play something amazing that no one knows, you just have every other DJ asking if they can have a copy, then 2 days later everyone will have it lol…

You’ve said that DJ’ing is about 90% reading the crowd and knowing music. Do you feel that some DJ’s get too bogged down in the technical aspects of things?

I do actually, which some people may find ironic, as I am a technical DJ, but as I said earlier, these skills should be used to enhance the music when the time is right. Like a scratch can sound amazing and lift the mood of a crowd, but no one wants to hear you scratch all the way through a track they’re trying to listen to. And effects too! You can achieve some fantastic results with the onboard effects these days, but no one wants to hear you just doubling the bassline on every other track.

So when you’re reading the crowd, what things are you particularly looking out for? And which area do you feel that you’ve got most of your deep musical understanding from? By just listening to it, or playing and collecting it? Or even having an innate understanding of it?

When you’ve been playing out for a while, rocked the shit out of a lot of dance floors and also cleared a lot of dance floors too, you get a feeling of what’s working or not. Like you may try and take things in a new direction and you kinda just feel the energy in the room drop so you know its time to back track a bit as that direction isn’t gonna work. I listen to a hell of a lot of music from 60’s soul and funk to metal, because I actually really like it all, and as with anything you like, you research and get into it, leading you to understand it better. Then in a reverse kinda way I can relate things I learn in other styles back to what I do in hard dance and hardcore. Its messed up, but it makes sense in my head.

You were the first DJ to have his own Hard Dance and Hardcore slot on Radio One and you’ve even managed to sneak a bit of nu-style Gabba on there! Are you proud of the fact that you’ve helped get Hard Dance mainstream exposure?

For sure! I’ve been with Radio 1 nearly 3 years now, and as amazing an opportunity this has been for me personally, I don’t let that cloud my perception of how important a position I am in, and the responsibility that comes with it. I spend about 2 weeks of the month trying to get the perfect musical balance between Hard Dance and Hardcore, underground and commercial, established artists as well as up n coming… It takes a lot of effort to get a balanced show to represent everything, and also be appealing to the listeners, to attract new people into the scene yet also satisfy that purists that really know their stuff!! I have made it a much bigger task that I thought it would be but I think what I do is important for the music and I take great pride in it, so I want that to be reflected on the show!

You’ve already made an impact on the production front, but are there any more trips to the studio booked up for you in the near future?

Yeah, at this point in my career I’m not mad for studio work so I don’t want just knock tracks out for the sake of having a presence as a producer on the scene. I’d rather just get busy when I have a great idea for a track as and when it comes to me! I have a couple of tracks from last year that haven’t been released yet as well as a harder remix of an electro track me and Alistair Storm have just finished… so you can defiantly expect more production from me, but it will be quality over quantity!

So what does the future hold for Kutski? And what other areas of the industry would you like to get involved in? Starting your own label or your own night perhaps?

At the moment I have no plans to start a night or label, but I have toyed with the idea of randomly putting out limited edition EPs when I have track to push out, but there will certainly be no consistency or planned release schedule. More of an “as and when” side project. I generally try not to plan too much into the future, as you never know what is round the next corner. Like when I was playing in my bedroom I have no idea I’d ever make it to the clubs, then even when I got to some of the biggest nights in the country, I’d never have dreamed of the Radio One thing! But I certainly will be working hard behind the scenes, working on my crazy projects and waiting for the next unpredicted move!

And finally, you’re particularly good at tailoring a set for the right occasion, so as Resonate presents: Future Music looks like one banging night and you should be in front of a real up-for-it crowd; what type of set do you reckon that’s going to get you playing?

Having never played to this particular crowd before, I’ll certainly be going all guns blazing to impress. I always like to keep the element of surprise as a weapon so I’ll just say expect the unexpected ;o)

Remember to catch one of the most exciting and freshest DJ’s Kutski at Resonate Future Music @ the Old Fire Station in Bournemouth, Saturday 2nd February!

©Greg Lynn 2008
Feature by Greg Lynn