Who is Kazell? For one, he is someone who is traveling across North America on a spring tour, appearing at each stop with one of the most simultaneously daunting yet sought-after tasks – opening each night for Sasha and John Digweed. On another count, he is a prolific producer and owner of Influx Audio. Last week I had a chance to ask a few questions of the only person that Sasha and Digweed want opening for them on every stop of the tour..
But before I get to the interview, I have to mention that my new single, Seismic, is now out on Pacific Front Recordings and is for sale on Beatport, and rumor has it, iTunes is soon to follow. I wrote Seismic with Dustin H and remixes come from Stefan Anion, Shiloh, and Powerplant. Have a listen to Seismic. Hopefully I didn’t just break the internets with all these links.
And on to my interview with Kazell:

How long have you been DJing? How long have you been producing?

I’ve been DJing for 17 years and producing for around 5 years.

What brought you to the US from the UK? How would you compare the scenes?

I had wanted to visit the US from a young age and finally made it over in 1992, I came over with a promoter and another DJ from Manchester looking to set up some gigs in Miami. The Southern US was still developing when we arrived which was quite a contrast to what was going on in Manchester at he time. I think I was really attracted to the US scene when I arrived as it had a funkier eclectic edge.

What is your philosophy on DJing? Why do you do it, and what do you hope others will get out of it?

I think any DJ’s aim is to do something unique with their music. Although you’re mainly playing other people’s tracks its really satisfying to put a mix together that has your sound embedded. I hope that the people that come to hear me play leave ready for more!

Between your tracks that you wrote with Mike Hiratzka and your latest collaboration with Habersham, your sound appears to be very diverse. How would you describe your sound as a producer?

I like to mix things up in the studio and spend a lot of time hunting down diverse sounds to draw inspiration from. If I had to describe my sound as a producer I’d say its currently a blend of dub, funk and electronic house music but it changes all the time and I’m fine with that. I personally respect producers that keep evolving and trying out new things.

How would you compare your sound as a producer to your sound as a DJ? Do you find your DJing influences your production, and vice versa?

I think they differ quite a lot as I write lots of tracks that aren’t necessarily aimed for the dancefloor. I do sometimes come home from a good gig and try and capture a certain type of new sound i’ve come across though.

What is the focus of your label, Influx Audio?

Quality forward thinking music

How do you see MP3′s effecting the underground music scene?

I think Mp3′s have undoubtedly changed the face of underground music in a terms of easy accessibilty but illegal downloads are really killing the scene too.

CD’s or Vinyl or Serato?

CD’s and sometimes Traktor Scratch

As a DJ known for warm-up sets, you must have a different set of influences than most DJ’s who are associated with Sasha and John Digweed. Who are your influences as a DJ, and what effect have they had on your sound?

Well the warm up sets are just a part of what I do as often headline too. For the warm up sets I like to play a lot of the deeper, atmospheric music that I collect. I think Terry Francis’s “Architecture CD” was a big influence in terms of a great chilled tech house cd as well as Swayzak’s first album “Snowboarding in Argentina”. The sound has changed quite a bit since then but the mood is still alive.

What future singles do you have in the works? Any plans for an artist album?

Habersham and I are planning a follow up “Paradise Rockers” single later this year and I’m currently working on a new band project which I’m really excited about. I can’t really say much about it yet but watch this space!

Websites you’d like to plug?

Well Kazell.com of course but I’d also like to give a plug to liquified.com, they throw some amazing parties and I’ve been there resident DJ for years, and mention my PR and marketing company, Volume Communications.

Thanks to Craig and Ali for setting up this interview, and of course to Kazell for sharing his thoughts.

charles had a really cool idea on saturday night. a cross-interview between the two of us. this is especially cool for me because i love asking the tough questions, and one of the things i miss about radio is being able to do that.
this is an interview with charles paul, also known as the man behind Chompers dubs and the Obakeh project. i asked him ten questions; he gave me ten answers:

1. what was your biggest accomplishment of 2004?
   Hmm, that’s a tough one. So many things happened in the last year. *pauses* I would have to say that there wasn’t one thing in particular that I’d claim as my biggest accomplishment, but rather a series of many accomplishments that amount to one big one. I mean, for starters, I have been able to find a voice through my music. Stylistically, the music I’ve made in the last 4 months or so has really started to become stylistically cohesive. Other accomplishments that I feel compelled to mention are; the decision to go back to school and continue with my studies; holding down two jobs, which was something I’d never done before. Actually, to be quite honest my biggest accomplishment of 2004 has been surviving what has been a very difficult year.

2. where do you see yourself in 2.37 years?
   Realistically, I’ll still be in school and in Victoria at that time. Hopefully I’ll have a vinyl release or two by then. Alternatively I may find myself in a larger city, but hopefully still working towards my degree.
3. where do you get the ideas for the little people that you draw?
   Where? Ummm, I dunno really. Sometimes I just put pen to paper and that’s what comes out. Other times, I look at something and try to imagine what it would look like through my eyes. And even further, sometimes I am merely copying something that I saw somewhere.
4. what is your ambition, and how do you plan on getting there?
   Oof. I wasn’t ready for that one. My ambition is a multi-headed goddess-beast. “She gives with one hand and then she takes with the other”[/kids_in_the_hall] I guess I have many ambitions. Most of them are to be proficient at expressing myself in a myriad of mediums such as; music, text, art, visual etc. I’d really like to be in a position to use those mediums to earn a living. I honestly couldn’t stick to one thing, I would start to feel limited by what I could say. Hardwork, discipline and dedication are the only things that I can use to get there. Unless there is some sort of secret udnerground rail-road I am not aware of?
5. have you forgotten anybody?
   Yes? I don’t know…
   

6. who was your first best friend, what was that persons name, and what earned them the title?
   Some kid named ‘Martin’ from California. When my mom brought down there, We stayed at my Uncle Michael’s. I must have been maybe four or five? Anyway, this kid’s parents came over and they brought him and we went to disneyland together. In all that excitement we became best friends. I’ve never seen or heard from/about him since. That was about 1983 I believe..
7. if you could be somewhere else right now, where would it be, regardless of time and space?
   Ooooh! Good one. So many possibilities! I’d like to witness Ney York in the 60′s, Edo period Japan( perfereably in a non christian denominitive faction) Can I choose to look different? Because that would make the Japan thing a bit easier. Even though it’s not too far off, I’d like to have witnessed first hand the rise of Electronic music in the Uk in the early 90′s. Geez, there are so many times and events I’d love to have seen first hand…
8. What is it about Japan/Asia that fascinates you?
   Ok, fair enough.
   Initially I was drawn to more contemporary aspects of Japanese media, mostly in the form of music and animation or movies, but deciding to invest more time in researching a culture on a less superficial context, I found a richness that I was immediately drawn to. I feel like I can kind of identify with the notions of tradition and routine. Asia in general is such an ancient civilisation, I think it’s among the first civilisations really, (i’m not sure of the dates to be honest) and because of that it’s developed such an intensely rich and colourful history. I am also quite drawn to much of the mythologies of asia, Ancient civilisations develop extremely rich histories and mythologies, the root of which forms much of the cultural norms today that I find so fascinating. *phew* Another richly rewarding facet of this interest is learning language. I am absolutley amazed by language. Japanese is my second language so far, demo mata, watashi no nihongo ga jouzu ja arimasen.

9. whats the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?
   Yeah… WE could go over that, Or, I can just say this; I don’t really believe that I’ve done incredibly stupid things, only things to learn from and to try not repeat. Most of my recent stupidisms fall under the ‘love’ category though. I’m kind of learning all of that stuff all over again.
10. whats the smartest thing you’ve ever done?
    Excercise a great deal of patience.

check out

• www.chompers-dubs.com

• Chompers artist page on the Pacific Front Recordings website

Charles is one of Pacific Front Recordings mainstays and an all-around good guy. part of the reason you see the degree of honesty that you see on my website is due in part to my own reading of his website and how clearly he writes there, not really too concerned with who is reading what, but rather more interested in getting it out of the head and written out somewhere. You’ll see Charles’ story of how he met me at the radio station when I was ego tripping at my prime time Saturday night radio show. My first impression of Charles was that he had incredibly good taste in music and that I wanted him to come back to the show many times to share his selections with us. I knew, right away, that this guy had something special going on in the music department — and that sentiment becomes truer and truer as time goes by.