DJ Kutski is a name synonymous with the hardcore and hard dance scenes. His awe-inspiring deck-man ship, technical skill, and ability to mix just about anything have gained him not only an army of international fans, but a weekly show on BBC Radio1 where he has remade station history.

2008 was a whirlwind year for the Kutski, but what happened, how has he done it, and why does he keep on talking about Clown Step?? Ahead of his appearance at this year’s Hard Dance Awards, we found out everything….

Hi Kutski!

Thanks for taking time out of your manic schedule to chat to us. Where are you in the World right now?
I would love to tell you about how I’m in a 5 star hotel in Japan, typing the odd sentence between sniffing lines off groupies arses, but in reality, I’m at my Mum’s house watching Top Gear with a brew!

2008 was a huge success for you. What were your pinnacle moments?
For me the pinnacle moment was being told I was to be offered a weekly show on Friday nights on Radio 1. I thought the meeting was going to be a “thanks for all your hard work, but we’re changing the line up”, so when Ben Cooper told me that, I was in proper shock! It could well turn out to be the biggest moment in my in my career!!

The sounds of hard dance and hardcore have never aired in a weekly format on Radio1, until your show that is... Do you feel honoured to fly this flag?
Yes, of cause, but I don’t take the responsibility lightly! I spend all week working on the show, getting the right balance of massive tracks and representation of the underground, big and up-n-coming producers, a good balance of all the different styles etc. Hopefully this shines through on the show, and people think I am doing a decent job of representing!!

You’ve toured down under, played for leading club nights, and have a forthcoming tour of Canada in the diary. How do you find life on the road?
I’m actually not a big fan of travelling! I always make the most of it but I’m quite the hermit if I’m honest. It’s great to see the world and play amazing clubs to different crowds but it can get lonely at times as you’re out of contact with friends and family, and I rarely get chance to spend more than a day in all these wonderful places. On top of all this, I’m a lanky fucker and plane seats don’t agree with my knees lol

You’re most well known for your cut-up DJ sets, scratching and looping. What goes into planning a set?
I spend a lot of time mucking around on the decks as a way of just listening to all different styles of music. So, I might play some rock track after a hardcore track, and think, “shit that actually worked quite well”, refine what I did, and make a metal note of it in case I ever feel the time is right to drop it in a club!!

What’s the riskiest bootleg or mix you’ve ever pulled off?
I went though a stage of playing a reggae record from the 70’s by Max Romeo called ‘Chase the Devil’, then mixing it into Prodigy’s ‘Out of Space’ which sampled it. Before the ‘Out of Space’ vocal drops, I did get some looks like “what the fuck are you doing man??”, but as soon as the well known part of the vocal is dropped, all was forgiven lol. Actually as I am typing this, I’m getting burned on Facebook for playing a hardstyle booty of Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ on Radio 1 haha, but I also got an unbelievable amount of messages saying they loved it and want me to play it next week! Back to the old saying, you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time I guess. I think people know my sense of humour now though; it’s just a bit of good natured banter.

Who’s been the biggest influence on your career?
There have been loads of influential people from Jay who ran Elevate in North Wales and gave me my first gigs and a residency; Billy Bunter who helped me break into to London scene, Jon Doe who campaigned to get hard dance and hardcore on Radio 1, and my manager Alex, who sadly passed away last year who gave me a lot of help, support and advice over the years.

The Hard Dance Awards - arguably the biggest event in Hard Dance – takes place later this month. Do you think events like this are important for the scene?
Yes! I’m personally not a big fan of campaigning for votes, and as with all awards, I think they do have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as he/she who campaigns hardest certainly have a better chance, but it’s great to have a formal setting every year, to gather the cream of the scene in one place where everyone will bring there A-game, almost like a cup final for hard dance DJs and producers!!

Your Radio1 show is the official place to find out about anything on the HDAs. What’s the latest news?
I’ll be there with my Radio 1 team, grabbing interviews with all the artists, vox pops from the clubbers, and we’ll be recording everyone’s sets to play snippets of the ones that really impressed us the following week on my show. Also, to show Radio 1’s committed to supporting hard dance, the Essential Mix following my show will be the set recording of the Best DJ and Best Newcomers from the awards!! This will all be going out on Friday night / Saturday morning on the 6th March, so make sure you’re tuned in!

I bumped into you backstage, at Radio1’s Big Weekender in 2008 just before you were about to go on stage. You were very nervous but your set went down a storm! How does it make you feel to take such an underground sound onto a commercial platform at an event as in demand as this?
Yeah, any one who performed after Pendulum last year would know what a nerve racking experience it is lol, but it turned out to be one of my best gigs of the year! It is amazing to have the opportunity to take our music to such a mainstream daytime radio audience, and maybe the fact that it was so well received helped put the gears in motion to my weekly show!?

You are one of the hardest working DJs around. What’s been the hardest thing you’ve hard to overcome to get where you are today?
I don’t think there has been one specific obstacle that I’ve had to overcome. I really have dedicated my life to what I do though, working several jobs to pay for all the equipment I learned about, and to produce professional looking demo CDs to give away. I’ve lost a few girlfriends along the way from always being away or working lol. I don’t really see much of my friends, and I don’t get to play nearly as much guitar hero as I would like, but anything I sacrificed along the way I would do again in a heartbeat, because as cheesy as it sounds, this is my world!

You even have your own column in M8 magazine. Is there anything you can’t do?
Yeah, I’m doing a lot to keep me out of trouble at the moment - I write in M8 and Core Magazine every month too! The M8 page is a rundown of the hardcore scene every month, and my page in Core is almost like a diary of what is going on at Radio 1, as this seems to be something a lot of people are interested in at the mo.

You’re pioneering a new genre called ‘clown-style’. What the hell is it?
Haha, this is all a bit tongue in cheek really! You know how people like to make up ridiculous sub-genres of music? Well, people have started calling drum n bass written in triplets (dum, der-dum, der-dum, as opposed to dum, dum, dum) “Cloud-Step”. A lot of hardstyle is written in triplets so I want credit for coining the term “Clown-Style” before anyone else ;) Also, a lot of hardcore has jumped on the triplet bandwagon too so I do believe this give us “Clown-Core’!??

Do you need clown shoes to dance to it?
No, but it helps… a lot!
What are you most looking forward to about 2009?
I’ve got loads of crazy stuff planned, and I’m just looking forward to rolling with things and seeing where they take me. Zane Lowe and me are doing a ‘versus’ battle on Radio 1 which is ace! I’ve pulled my finger out and done a bit of production this year, first of which has just been signed to Dutch label Detox. I’ve remixed D-Code’s new drum ‘n’ bass track, which is due for release on Shiva Soundsystem, and if I get more time, I’d like to get some more original productions sorted, possibly with the aim to sort out my own imprint. I’m also planning to start doing some video blogging type stuff, so if people are interested in what I do, then can subscribe and see little videos of what I’m up to in the clubs, in the studio, at Radio 1 etc

It was your birthday this month. How did you celebrate?
This is really sad: I celebrated the turning of the clock to the anniversary of my birth by having a bowl of super noodles while writing scripts and notes for the radio show… chicken flavour!

What’s your earliest childhood memory?
It’s actually very relevant! I was about two, and I remember sitting on my Dad’s record player and breaking it!! I only remember it a bit, but I clearly remember the horrible noise it made!! Who’d have thought I’d have gone to make a career out of doing pretty much the same thing lol.

Any regrets in your life so far? We sure hope not!
Nope, not really! I always say though, it’s better to regret the things you’ve done than the things you haven’t!

Thanks Kutski. It’s been a pleasure.

For updates on the Hard Dance Awards, tune into BBC Radio1, every Friday night from 1am-3am.
See Kutski at the Hard Dance Awards on 27th February at the O2 Academy, Leeds.

(words: NICOLA FREITAS)