Last weekend saw the first of the 2 Semi Finals where 6 DJ’s battled it out for a place in the final, 6 were reduced to 3 and it was close. The 3 DJ’s that were left standing after the dust has settled where Amy Taylor, DirtyLittleFunker and Andy Boph. All three will be playing in the HotBox Final and will play against the winners from the 2nd Heat semi final which are Dave Joyce, Concept, Jon Kirven, Little Jo, Tyrone Life and the winner of the wild card playoff Aaron le Doubles.

We catch up with the winners going through to the final Amy Taylor, DirtyLittleFunker and Andy Boph and the last and final wild card winner Aaron le Doubles who will feature in the second semi final on the 7th October. Make sure you come down and support your DJ as this is going to be a killa!

First of all well done to all the DJ’s making it through!

Amy Taylor :

The scores from the judges on the day showed just how close the competition was with only one point being the difference and deciding who went through to the final. In fact the competition has been extremely close all along. Moving into the final we expect it to be even closer with the winners from the second semi final leaving 6 DJ’s from an initial 45 competitors. Who are you looking out for, who do you think will be the one to beat?

I was really impressed with Aaron le Doubles skills, however for me it has to be Dave Joyce. The guys technical skills are impeccable and coupled with a heap of experience I think he is most definitely the one to beat. Don’t ask me to bet on it though, Andy Boph and Dirty Little Funker performed exceptionally well last Sunday so really the competition is anyones!

As usual you had a good group for mates there to support you, you were also lucky enough to get the final set of the day, as far as support goes you defiantly have a strong team on your side. We know that the judges are looking for crowd support and crowd interaction when scoring DJ’s. Your DJ’ing skills are getting better all the time and your support is growing with that, but do you think that this and playing last set helped you get your place in the final?

Having support definitely helps, however if I’d have had the penultimate set or the one before that I would still have performed the same. In the first heat I played 4th out of 10ish, played a completely different set of music and got through. Being a good DJ is about playing to your time and reading your crowd. I felt the crowd wanted something a bit tougher and it went down really well. I was surprised to have gotten through as all the other DJ’s played exceptionally well and I felt I could have performed a lot better than I did. But hey I’m chuffed to bits to have gotten this far, I never thought someone with as little experience as me would be up there in the final.

DirtyLittleFunker :

As usual you seemed to have suitably not only impressed the other judges on the day but also impressed the dancefloor and everyone that was there because this has shown by you getting through to the last 6. Where other DJ’s are very serious and focus a lot of their attention on their music and choosing the right records at the right time you seem to be having a good time behind the decks and I think your attitude has shown and come through for you in the end as this is what also makes a good DJ, the ability to have fun behind the decks and work a crowd! I am sure we could expect more of this from you in the final?

If I get drunk enough....

Seriously though, I hate watching DJ’s perform who never look up from the mixer whilst their playing. To me they may as well be in their bedroom, because if it makes no difference to them what the crowd’s doing, then why do they need a dance floor full of people? I’m playing these tracks because I like them, its the kind of set I’d like to be out there dancing to, if I didn’t have to mix in the next track I probably would be! Its moments like Sunday, when even the bar staff are bouncing around that gets the adrenaline pumping and makes me love this. Above all it’s a performance, people pay to see a DJ put on a show however they can, otherwise we’d all just be going out and listening to mix CD’s.

The judges have definitely warmed to your style and charisma, I mean you popped out for KFC just before the final DJ and the announcement of the winners. Only to return to find that the announcement had in fact been made, and that you where in the top 3 going through. How did it feel to find out that you had surpassed the stiff competition from the other DJ’s and that you are now in the top 6 HotBox DJ’s?

Well it was certainly a shock! I had the worst hangover in the world and hadn’t eaten anything all day. I thought I had a bit more time than I did... To be fair I didn’t think I played as well as I could and my mixing wasn’t very tight compared to some of the others. Listening and watching everyone play throughout the day I thought it was a very close call. I thought Amy’s mixing was superb, in my view technically she was probably the best out of all of us. I felt really sorry for Jay having to go first as well cos he actually played really well. It was great to hang out with all the guys before the competition started and I want to say well done to Andy and Amy for getting through and also for helping me through those dark hours!

Andy Boph :

All eyes have been on you through the competition as you have certainly impressed the judges from the very 1st round. It’s been a great competition and we expect it to get even hotter moving into the finals. You have certainly shone through as one of the DJ’s to watch, which of the DJ’s you have seen in the competition so far do you feel would give you a run for your money?

Well everyone has already given me a run for my money! It’s not been an easy competition, each DJ has brought something different to each heat and I’m sure everyone in the final will have earnt their place.

Well moving through from the 1st round thru to the final and brushing off some stiff competition from the other semi finalists, you did say that you fancied your chances on getting all the way through and that you thought anything could happen in the final!

Well I still stand by the fact anything can happen in the final, when your doing technical stuff and trying to impress you have more chance of messing it up, so the pressure is on!

The competition is definitely getting tougher what can we expect from you n the final more of the same BopH Magic or can we expect something a little different?

BopH Magic sounds good to me! I would like to think the only things the same in my sets is the energy and my dance moves, so I will definitely be stepping them up! I’m not sure what I will be doing in the final, all I know is that it has been a absolute pleasure playing in the Hotbox throughout the year and have met some great people in doing it, so I already feel like a winner.