1). BBC Radio 1 have now included you in their weekly schedule (well done by the way), what sort of stuff will you be playing on your new weekly show?
Right across the board really! From tech dance to speedcore and just about everything in between!! Hard house, hard trance, hardstyle, UK hardcore, gabber, oldskool… seriously, it’s like an ‘anything goes’ free-for-all of rave music!!

2). Is the move to a weekly show an indication that the radio station recognizes that harder music is back en vogue?
For sure!! And rightly so too!! I’ve always made a strong point to management down at the Beeb, that if you class all the sub-genres of music I listed above as ‘hard dance’, then look at records sales, compilations sales, number of events, and club attendance etc, our scene is just as valid as house or trance! It’s very easy to back this up with figures too! Just walk into HMV at the moment and half of the top 10 compilations are hardcore, and that is just section of our scene! With myself now being part of Radio 1’s weekly dedicated dance music night, this is a big acknowledgement of how strong our scene is at the moment, and I think the show can only strengthen this!

3). On your DJ page on the BBC website it gives the track listings for the tunes you’ve played on your show. What is “Kutski’s Free Range Mix?”This is an elaboration of a concept I had earlier this year. I did a bootleg mixtape called the “free range mixtape”, addressing the problem that these days so much music gets altered from artists conception to hitting the shop shelves due to things like licensing problems, commercial viability, and even artist just playing there own track just for the publishing!! The ‘free range’ mixtape was a tongue in cheek alternative to this where anything goes, anything I thought would be cool was included, and as it wasn’t being sold or licensed, nothing had to be ‘genetically modified’ for record sales! The more I thought about this, the more I liked the concept and thought it would make a good weekly feature. Like an ‘anything goes’ mashup section of the show where I could explore some obscure niche subgenre of hard dance, or a particular time in music, or get a guest in to do the same!!

4). On the same page you have an entry for the “Hardest Record In The World Right Now?” – what is the Hardest Record in the world ever?
I honestly don’t know!! So much to choose from lol… it’s actually probably some 500bpm noise someone had made that has never left their bedroom! I’ve had some purists already saying that they know a harder record than the ones I have played, but I have to remind them this is radio, it’s a bit of a tongue in cheek feature, and yes we want really extreme tracks for this, but it still has to be listenable or have some kind of elements that isn’t just a million bpm noise. Saying this if you want to find something REALLY extreme, check out stuff by DJ Freak, Loftgroover, or an old bass generator tape… that should get your ears bleedin’!!

5). Are there any tracks that you have been given as a promo you had that we should listen out for?
Yeah, that’s the really cool thing about the show, getting so much new music to listen to!! This week I got sent a new hardcore track by Fracus called ‘Every Word You Say’ that I fell in love with instantly! It has everything you could want from music, big catchy vocal, pianos, a breakbeat section, but all very original too! On the hard dance side of things, I got Alex Kidd’s bootleg of “Love is Gone” which goes off, and some tracks by newer artists on the scene like Gridbreaker are really exciting!!

6). You’re set at Tidy Weekender 15 was recorded and is being released as part of the commemorative CD album pack, what tracks did you include?
I tried to span the more underground side of hard dance, using tracks from all over the world, by new artists as well as the bigger names. So you will have heard everything from Neal Thomas to Walt to Kamui… Dutchmasters, Zatox, Organ Donors… Right through to gabber at the end with a track from Evil Activities!!

7). Its fair to say you have quite an eclectic style of DJing depending on your environment, when your not working though what sort of music would you play for your own enjoyment?
At the moment, I’m really into Dubstep and Drum & Bass as a sideline interest!! Loving all the stuff from Caspa and Rusko, Tes La Rok, Skream etc… Big, bad and heavy basslines!!!

8). What is the one track guaranteed to get you up and dance?
Probably something painfully cheesy like Human League “Don’t You Want Me Baby”

9). The Tidy Weekenders usually have a theme (IE, Tidy Army, Dirty Weekender, Tidy High School). If there were to be a Kutski Weekender what would the theme be?
Hmmm, that’s a tough one! I’d probably go for something obscure like everyone has to go dressed completely back to front! Then spend all night dancing, but facing the back of the room, which would actually work out OK as most DJ’s in hard dance are pretty ugly anyway!!!

10). What is your most shameful moment?
Without a shadow of a doubt drinking a bottle of imported black sambuka after Nuclear Puppy in Edinburgh, then proceeding to try and bum Phil York with a mop someone was trying to clean up with, before retiring to my hotel room to be sick everywhere and miss my flight!! My mum would have been so proud!!

Tidy Weekender 15 LIVE - Featuring Lisa Pin Up / Kutski / Ilogik
Available online at tidy.com and from all good record stores NOW,
be sure to get your copy before it sells out!

Tidy.com
HMV.co.uk