Brisbane based hiphop turned edm artist DJ Butcher is well in to his 5 date tour which comes off the back of his latest $ werve EP release. Starting off as a turntabilist, his roots are buried deep within the Aus hiphop scene. His experience stretches from producing tracks for a number of well known MCs (such as Suffa ( Hilltop Hoods ) and Mantra ) as well as starting Born Fresh Records and being part of the network it has grown into today.
Now he has taken his hiphop foundations and thrown it all behind his massive recent trap release. This move into more dance and dj based sets has come with success as he currently stands as the Current Red Bull Thre3style Australian Champion. You can catch in Melbourne this Friday at CANT SAY doing his live-set thing or at Flinders Social in Townsville on the 19th.
- 12/4 Melbourne – CANT SAY
- 19/4 Townsville – Flinders Social
We had a chat to Dj Butcher about what it all means:
Matt Bladin: Your ‘$werve EP’ tour is well underway, how have you been finding the reactions to what you’ve been doing? Any highlights?
DJ Butcher:
I have been surprisingly overwhelmed. I’ve always been a bedroom producer and getting a reaction from people when I play my music live is dope.
Chinese Laundry
was silly fun, got to bless the stage with
Spenda C
which was a real experience in itself. Brisbane was actually insane…never had so much fun djing in my life. Perth was a whirlwind. My flight got delayed and literally went straight from a 5 hours flight straight into a car, straight into the booth. Was real fun. Can’t wait for Melb and Townsville
M.B: Having your foundations in hip Hop, how have you found the transition to the edm world? Have you found your self carrying any old habits from your turntable days across the genres?
DJ.B: Very smooth. The hiphop scene is very closeminded, was nice to enter a genre where people are keen for whatever you throw at them. I am yet to fully incorporate any turntablism into a song but definitely love having a scratch live. My love for djing started with turntablism so I couldn’t not keep it going as I move into EDM.
M.B: We caught a cheeky glimpse of your custom built golden Akai APC40, what kind of diversity can people expect this to add to your sets?
DJ.B:
Haha
solid gold baby!!! (note. Not really, please don’t rob me). The APC makes everything so much more flexible. With the way I have it arranged, I could play 8 songs at the same time all in the same key at the same tempo. Not that I ever would do that, it would sound terrible but I could if I wanted. Dare? Haha.
M.B: What’s your preference, Wax or Hardware?
DJ.B: Hardware. I’ve had a lot of records. I’ve thrown out a lot of records. I still have 4 or 5 crates of the essentials that I couldn’t bin/sell but I’d take a laptop over a crate of records to a show ANY day of the week.
M.B: With an extensive background in the hip hop field, how do you feel about the recent massive rise of trap into the EDM realm?
DJ.B: Its fucken awesome. I bet hardcore hiphop enthusiasts hate it but really its created its own genre. I don’t think anyone could honestly be angry that EDM Trap is ripping of southern hiphop.
M.B: The ‘$werve EP’ is defiantly doing some interesting things in this Trap/edm genre, what were your major influences?
DJ.B: Well I’ve always loved dubstep and hiphop so trap is sort of a great middle ground for me. When I made this EP the only trap that was really out/what I knew was some Mayhem x Antiserim and Flosstradamus . So they heavily influenced that EP. Moving on now a lot of different genres and sounds inspire me..
M.B: You’re the Current Red Bull Thre3style Australian Champion, for all those out there who don’t know what this is, explain how it went down, and what its meant to you?
DJ.B: Thre3style is basically a “club set” dj battle for turntablists.. You need to pump out the best 15min club set you can which incorporates at least three different genres but also be as technical as you can without killing a dancing crowd. It’s a really fun competition always full of creative and talented people. I suggest entering next time its on. Can be time consuming though.
M.B: What’s next for Dj Butcher in the near future?
DJ.B: Booty Hop is being re-released with a big remix pack. More touring in June/July. A new single “Gold” is coming out on Klub Kids in May and already working on my next EP after that which is currently unnamed. Also working on a duo project with my brother (real brother) cvrl which should be pretty grimey.
WORDS BY Matt Bladin
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