Kidda – Singalongatong Mix (MediaFire)

Beyone vs Kidda – Ladies (Cockblockin in the Hen-Do Mix) (MediaFire)

We love Kidda. His album ‘Going Up’ provide the soundtrack to last summer, Hervé’s mix of ‘Under the Sun’ smashed pretty much every club we went to and it turns out he’s got a wicked sense of humour. Just check his blog and the video above he made to ‘Smile’. Turns out he’s an artist and animator as well.

Then we heard his DJ mixes. Far from being full of old school soul like you might expect, they mix up hip-hop attitude with a healthy dose of modern bass music. Just check this recent mix for Pete Tong TV and bootie of Beyonce (who has some booty herself) which he did under his more club-orientated alter-ego, Cockblockers.

He took time out of this whirl-wind of creative activity to talk about why he was happy to adverties Barcardi (it tastes good), why he sampled Ski Sunday (he was drunk) and what he thinks of EMI (they’re c***s).

You have quite a long, varied CV so we’ll start with the most obvious thing which is your music. Your album ‘Going Up’ was a massive critical hit. Brighton has a great tradition of sun-drenched soul with labels like Cat Skills and Tru Thoughts but do you think you also hit the zeitgeist by releasing your album when mainstream pop acts likes of Mark Ronson, Duffy and Amy Winehouse were also mining this sound? Do you see any parallels between yourself and these major label artists?

It’s always the case that people get critically pidgeon-holed, it’s the way of the beast unfortunately, but let it be known that I’m not chasing the coattails of any ‘scene’ created by major labels. If there’s any similarities it would be with Mark Ronson who came from a grounding in hip hop much like myself, and developed into a songwriter after digging into the legacy of soul and funk. Duffy’s just a singer with a voice that suits a certain sound, similar to Amy Winehouse who’s more stage-school gone bad. If we’re talking about a ‘scene’, I’d probably align myself with the likes of Parker, Aldo Vanucci and Sonny Jim when it comes to that sound. Them’s my homies.

In terms of club play, Herve’s remix helped ‘Under the Sun’ explode by appealing to virtually every DJ with it’s mixture of an infectious vocal hook and big-arsed bassline. What’s your take on the whole bassline sound? We were quite surprised to hear your DJ sets are as varied and dancefloor orientated as they are. What should people expect from a Kidda DJ set?

I got into the bassline/electro stuff a few years ago after djing with the Lo Fidelity Allstars at a residency at the Social. I’d do the warm up playing hip hop, soul, funk and all that’s in between, but sonically the early Switch/Hervé and jump-up garage they were playing filled the void left behind by so many duff hip hop records in recent years. Like everything else in music, dance got cliquey, chin-stroking and blokey a while back, but the scene at the moment seems a lot more inclusive, irreverent and fun, taking all the best bits from the past and melding them into killer tunes.  By the time I’d finished ‘Going Up’, I was only getting to grips with making the same kind of beats (which I’ll be bringing to the table in the next instalment) so on the remixes I went for artists like Detboi, Jack Beats and Hervé who I thought could make it happen… and they did.  I’ve been working on a side project called Cockblockers, remixing my own tracks to that end and with varying degrees of success, but it’s a start, innit. I’m hopefully working with Hervé on a few tracks on the next album, cutting out the remix-middle-man and getting him involved from the off too see what happens. Should be fun. I jack it out nowadays, throwing in bassline, electro, Baltimore and anything else that starts the party.  ‘Good shit’ I think they call it.

You’re also a graphic artist and animator. Did this come before the music or after? Or is it just born out of a necessity to get videos and artwork made when you’re signed to a small label in the current climate of the music industry? We really like the whole DIY aesthetic of it.  Did you sample Sky Sunday on  ‘Smile’ done with the video it mind? It definitely put a grin on our faces when we watched it.

I’ve been making music for about 15 years, the animation stuff came after finishing an MA in Digital Design back in 1998, I studied Fine Art before that so always had an ‘eye’. I moved to Brighton where I started making promos for Skint (Xpress 2, Midfield General, Lo Fidelity Allstars, F.C Kahuna). At the same time I was putting out little 7”s and then a couple of EPs with Catskills before the deal with Skint. It used to be the case that animation was how I made my living, but with budgets getting cut and the ongoing money balls-up, it’s all so tight that I’m making more money from music, a near impossibility and not much, but it forms some kind of career. Of course it’s handy being able to do all this stuff, but it’s hardly a buzz working for months on something that pays very little. Everything has a worth and being told what you do is ‘cool’ doesn’t hold much sway with loan companies. I had no idea that ‘Smile’ would be a single at the time, didn’t think I even had the deal with Skint, the Ski Sunday thing came about through looking for a way to get the track to go off. I thought about the biggest bit of music known to man and in my drunken state Ski Sunday popped in there. There’s a lot to be said for writing music pickled.

Did you have any qualms about signing ‘Under the Sun’ to the Bacardi ad or were you proud to have your track used? Moby got a lot of stick a few years ago for soundtracking a number of ads but it seems like one of the few ways for a musician to make money back.

All that stuff about selling out is kind of redundant nowadays, reserved for those who can afford to swerve syncs or small minded critics who think they hold the key to creativity in all of it’s purity. There’s only one person you can sell out to and that’s yourself. For me, the Bacardi ad was an opportunity and there’s a certain magic to seeing a track that you made in your front room, zip around the world and end up back there, coming out of the telly. I didn’t make a bean out of the ad due to the sample copyright thing and EMI (US) being a giant bunch of c*nts, but it cleared my debt with Skint on recording the album and the PRS payments are starting to add up.  It’s a good looking ad directed by a big LA director, I drink Bacardi and don’t mind them using my tune to flog booze. EMI are still c*nts though.

If all the joys under the sun were manifested as a person/place/object then who/what/when would it be for you?

All the good people in the world, everyone else can fuck off. It’s an instruction to go out and be impeccable human beings to each other.

What’s in store for album number two?  Has there been anybody approaching you to do collaborations or doors opening so you can go out and pick someone you’d like to work with?

I’m leaving samples well alone this time. I know what’s necessary to make a tune work now so don’t have to rely on found sounds as much to kick thing off. Because of that it’s coming together a lot quicker and sounding better than the first. I did some animation work for Kanye West’s ‘Glow In The Dark’ tour, also he blogged ‘Under the Sun’ on his site so I figured I’d get in touch and see he was up for it… his man got back saying he was into it, but too busy… ho hum. It’s early doors on album two but I’ve got few irons in the fire.

Are you, or were you ever, Jedi Knight Tom Middleton?

Oh fuck off and get me some bookings. Ha.

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