Interviews

Interview: DJ Yoda – It Aint Easy Being Green

• 15th Oct 2012

DJ Yoda has a knack for turning rooms full of perfectly calm and civilised people into a heaving mass of happy, sweaty, partied-out folk. Combining a well-honed beat-heavy DJ set with tongue in cheek visuals mixed live with the music on a cinema-sized screen, DJ Yoda assaults your senses with a killer combination of good humour and infectious party music. Our writer Glen Byford caught up with him to find out more about the man behind the wheels of steel.

What album, artist or other musical outlet do you tune into when you just want to kick back and relax?
Generally a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. I really like all the obscure Twin Peaks soundtracks that have come out recently – incidental music from the TV show.

How did the guests on Chop Suey come about, were they long time acquaintances or artists you specifically envisioned and requested?
I treated choosing the vocalists like a DJ set – I wanted to represent all my different influences and tastes. In some cases that meant reaching out to people I didn’t know, in other cases long-time acquaintances.

Was there anybody you wanted for the album that didn’t work out?
Yep. I don’t wanna blow up their spot – but one person in particular was really unreliable! That’s just the way the cookie crumbles though – I’d rather end up with reliable people on the album that are good to work with, than anyone flakey.

Do musical obscurities and oddities get referred to you, or do you stumble upon many yourself?
I always used to wonder this about DJ Q-Bert – who is the world’s best scratcher. Whether whenever anyone invented a new scratch, they would just take it to show him straight away, so he’d get the heads up anyway! Truth is, in most cases I find my samples and tunes myself, but I also do get sent a lot of cool stuff from people cos they can imagine me using it. Twitter and Facebook are great for that kind of thing.

If you were to provide a new soundtrack to an animated Disney film, which one would you choose?
Fantasia.

Are there any plans for future “how to cut and paste” releases or will you be concentrating more on your own productions and albums?
I’ll always be making “How To Cut and Paste” mixes – in fact that’s what I’m going to turn my attention to next.

What colour is January?
Grey, unfortunately.

Who would you put on the cover if you were editing a relaunched Smash Hits magazine?
Group shot of Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen and M.O.P.

Have you ever pulled the ‘don’t you know who I am’ line?
Absolutely not!

Light side or dark side?
Gotta have a balance of the two, otherwise you will be a mentalist.

Do your a/v sets work like a comedian’s set, where a whole new routine is needed for each tour, or more like a band or musicians, where you keep in the crowd pleasers and your ‘greatest hits’ while also trying out new material alongside it?
This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. Conclusion – mostly like a comedian’s set, i.e. a whole new show for every tour. But with a few classics thrown in.

DJ YODA – THE AUDIOVISUAL SPECTACULAR
On a full cinema sized screen.

With support from:
Dj Cheeba (Live AV set)
Atlankis (Live)

Saturday 10 Nov 2012
9pm-2am at The Forum, Kentish Town
Tickets: £19.50 // £22.50 // more on the door
Tickets & info:
www.djyoda.co.uk/
www.soundcrashmusic.com