:: INTERVIEWS :: KUTSKI

If you don’t know who Kate Bush is, ask your Dad. If your Dad doesn’t know, then you are too young to enrol for Tidy High. For everyone else, take your seats, stop skinning up at the back and pay attention. Your first lesson is about to begin.

The subject for today is Kutski. Say Kutski to your self. Say it again, and again, a little louder now, a little more quickly, over and over again. Keep saying it. Now stop. What is “Kutski?” A model of Nokia phone? A style of scratching scabies from your skin? A city in Belarus with a population of 10,293,011? Or is Kutski the name of a Russian Tsar? If you are seriously considering any of these answers, then there has been a mix-up in enrolment administration and you should immediately leave campus now, find an internet café and log onto http://www.tiny.cc/SlVcy to assess the gravity of the situation.

There is of course only one Kutski that will be discussed here at Tidy High. Definite candidate for Tidy High Head Boy, the Radio 1 DJ and Weekender favourite takes time our for an exclusive interview ahead of his contribution towards what promises to be the loudest, fastest and tidiest school disco in the world. Bunk off this lesson and you’ll be the last to know who Kutski would like to meet behind the bike sheds.

Ru: I’m sorry if I’m the thousandth person to ask this, but where does the name Kutski come from, the only reference I can find is to a model of Nokia phone?

Kutski: Is there seriously a Nokia phone called a Kutski?? If there is I recon I’m well in with a chance of blaggin’ one of them!!! Basically it’s either to do with the scratching or my royal Russian ancestry depending on how battered you are when you ask me ;o)

Ru: Your Radio 1 show backed by your trade-mark style makes you a house-hold name, does that not conflict with your view of “maintaining support and loyalty from the underground club scene”

Kutski: Not at all!! If I was claiming to be an underground DJ and playing flip n fill on the radio, maybe that would be true, but I probably play to more extremes on the radio than I do in most club gigs!! All I’m doing is getting underground music much needed exposure on a massive platform!!!

You will obviously get a minority of people that don’t want the music on the radio, as they want to keep it for them selves, but that is not constructive for the scene, and it is only a drop in the ocean that will feel like that!

Ru: I’ve seen you play a number of times and each time you surprise me with some of the samples you drop in to your sets; you dropped a Kate Bush track, for example, during your set the Tidy New Years Eve Weekender. By your own admission, your style “bends the rules a little of what's expected in hard dance clubs”. At what point do “the rules” snap? Have you ever, or would you ever include cheesy pop like something from Steps, The A Teens or The Cheeky Girls for example?

Kutski: Kate Bush is actually a very good artist, so I wouldn’t really group her with The A Teens etc… its kind of good to drop random bits in, but I never play stuff for the sake of being quirky! That completely misses the point of what I do!! Everything I play is because I like it, and I think I’m able to make it work within the context of my set. That is bending the rules! Breaking the rules would be playing something stupid, for the sake if it, just to be like “ohh I’m crazy” when in fact you are just patronising the dancefloor!

Ru: You said in an interview that Britney Spears new album features a couple of hard-core mixes; not knowing if this was some Kutski humour or not I scoured the net and found a happy-hardcore mix of her “I’m A Slave 4 U” – I take full responsibility for having switched off “safe search” on Google but no amount of counselling has got me through the audio trauma. What deems a mainstream pop song suitable for such treatment?

Kutski: Errm… I may have been jesting there mate, sorry, but I too have spent many a happy hour searching for good old Britney with safe search off!! The Slave 4 U track was just an unofficial booty!!

But to kind of answer your question I do think hard dance and hardcore has a place in the commercial market!! Every scene needs depth, underground and commercial! It’s the entry point for people getting into our scene so it’s all cool. Even if the Club Land CD’s aren’t your cup of tea, it’s all helping out!!

Ru: Have you ever got to a gig and quickly realised that, despite your obvious talent, immense reputation and massive fan base, that the promoter has got it badly wrong and you’re the guy that’s just turned up to a cheese and wine party wearing a chicken outfit?

Kutski: I’ve had a few gigs over the past 12 month where people have booked me off the back of the radio one thing, where I think they have miss judged what I play, but I’ve always been cool to adapt my style to the different environments, which is what a DJ should be able to do!

I’ve played loads of sets that you might not associate me with, like a hip hop, d’n’b, and just this weekend I had to take things but from 135bpm electro house and build up it up to a classic hard house set after!! That’s when you have to DJ properly!! Anyone can come on peak time, bosh it out, and have everyone going mental! That’s not really an achievement.

Ru: As I’ve said, I’ve seen you play, you pack-out rooms every-time, have you had any fans that have overstepped that fine-line between dedicated fan and “stalker-fan”?

Kutski: Unfortunately not, but I’m open to any offers!!!

Ru: You’ve been using decks since you were 14, what influenced you to develop your style of DJing?

Kutski: I listen to a lot of different music that influences me in everything I do. I’m also really into the whole turntablism thing so that had a big impact on my style from a technical point!

Ru: Last year you went down a storm in China and Hong Kong, how different is crowd reaction between clubbers in Asia and the UK?

Kutski: That was quite crazy actually!! They hadn’t heard anything like what I play out there, it was all house and like Tiesto trance… I just played big accessible tracks and bootlegs of stuff they might know and it absolutely went off!!

I think over there, and other countries that are developing a healthy dance music scene, the promoters try to follow western music trends by booking all these ‘credible’ DJ’s, but in reality the clubbers just wanted the music to be fun, and to accessible enough for them to really enjoy it.

Ru: You’re making a welcome return to our next Weekender, “The Tidy High School Romp” – will you be including any special “high school” soundtracks in to your set?

Kutski: I haven’t really given it a lot of thought as yet, but I’m sure I’ll manage to come up with something in tune to the theme of the event ;o)

Ru: Did you used to wear a school uniform?

Kutski: Yeah, it was kinda like a bottle green nasty colour… if you wore the sweater though, you didn’t have to ware a tie, which was an advantage. Could have been a lot worse, like we used to take the piss out of the posh kids going to the private school up the road wearing blazers!

Ru: What would your ideal school uniform be?

Kutski: I do actually agree with uniforms, as I wouldn’t want to waste any money on clothing for school!! Maybe the girls could have a maximum skirt length as opposed to a minimum... for the benefit of the boys at school of course, as it would be wrong for me to look at girls in school uniforms…. now… wouldn’t it?!

Ru: What was the one thing they should have taught you at school but didn’t?

Kutski: They could have done a better job with music lessons I recon! Have you heard some of the shit I play out these days?? We never did a stitch of work other than watch Greece and throw rubbers at the kick drums on the top of a cabinet… but when I actually think about it, maybe that has had a massive impact on my career in music… hmmm…

Ru: What was the most useless thing or subject you were taught at school?

Kutski: Probably business studies. Should have been useful, but they never taught us anything!!!

Ru: Which school did you go to?

Kutski: Kingsway High School, Chester, not to be confused with a Kings school or something, I went to the pikey one.

Ru: With yourself as an exception, are there any famous people that were once a pupil of your school?

Kutski: Not in a major way I don’t think. One lad was on telly for doing boxing, and another lad was good at snooker. I recently read in the local paper the other day, a lad that was in my class has been banged up for 5 years. Probably a few of the better looking girls have done low budget porn, but give it a few more years and I’m sure we’ll have produced a few infamous serial killers!!

Ru: With the benefit of hindsight, if you were to have your school years again, would you do anything differently?

Kutski: Narh, School was pretty shit and nothing I did there has had a particularly positive or negative effect (I don’t think!?). For the sake of going back and doing it again, I think I’ll just settle for the outcome I got lol…

Ru: Who would be your ideal head boy/girl?

Kutski: Head Boy/Girl? Is that a southern thing or something? Haha… I don’t think I have an ideal head boy in mind, but with regards to a “head” girl, I’m not too fussy ;o)

Ru: If you could change one school rule, what would it be?

Kutski: Maybe, allow the consumption of alcohol, that would be quite funny, but that would mean I condone underage drinking which of course I don’t, so scrap that… errr… as you leave school at 16 there’s an underage sex issue I shouldn’t touch on either… OK, just make lessons optional!!!!

Ru: Did you ever get caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing behind the Bikesheds?

Kutski: Unfortunately not… maybe I had a sheltered school experience in that way.

Ru: Who would you most like to join you behind the Bikesheds at TW11?

Kutski: I’m not really up with current affairs on the scene with regards to who is courting who, and I don’t what to upset anyone by saying I fancy a crack at there Mrs, so I’ll say… Andy Whitby!! Haha… now watch the rumours fly!!!!!

Ru: What track (hard-house or otherwise) sums up your school years?

Kutski: Probably one of them boring techno-hard house crossovers from around 2004 ;oP

Ru: If you HAD to become a teacher, what subject would you teach?

Kutski: I recon I’d be a good careers adviser actually! I think it would be pretty easy as you can pretty much tell what people are going to do with their lives by looking at them! Like “you could be a scientist” to the small kid with thick glasses, “you could be a model” to the girl who’s well developed for her age, “you could work in a fast food chain” to the spotty, lanky, skinny boy… although I’ve never flipped a burger as yet, there is still time!!

Ru: Did you have a favourite teacher at school?

Kutski: They maths teacher was pretty cool! Like this old professor that was a bit mental. He would let you eat sweets as long as you let him have some, and he had this water pistol that he used to squirt people with when they where talking. Actually, after describing that, he may well have been a paedophile!

Ru: Have any of your ex-class mates or teachers appeared unexpectedly on a dance-floor while you’ve been DJing?

Kutski: No, but Crissy Criss who I used to do “The Residency” with (Now on 1xtra 2-6am Tues Night) did. We where doing a bank holiday special I think, and his old woodwork teacher hit him up on myspace and asked for a shout!!! That was pretty funny!!

Ru: The Tidy High School motto is “Music For The Harder Education”. If you were running a High School, what would your motto be?

Kutski: “School as it’s portrayed in “Barely Legal”

Ru: On that note, class dismissed. Thank you for your time Kutski and we look forward to seeing you in March.

Tidy Weekender 11 is The Tidy High School Romp. On from 23rd March at Pontins in Prestatyn, Kutski joins the other Head Boys and Head Girls for what promises to be the best weekender yet. Check www.tidy.com for details but don’t leave it too long to book. This is one High School that you’ll want to be at.