Interview – Scratch Perverts

Interview – Scratch Perverts With five DMC turntablism titles and several mix CDs under their belts, the UK’s Scratch Perverts have carved a rather successful career for themselves. Originally comprising of eight members, the crew briefly split in 2000 before reforming with Tony Vegas, Plus One and Prime Cuts. BBM Live caught up with Tony Vegas ahead of their New Year tour in Australia,

Hi Tony – how’s it going?

Good – just been doing interview after interview and smoking a lot of cigarettes, which is probably not the best way to spend my night, but hey!

So how are things going with the Scratch Perverts now?

Good, we’ve been busy, still enjoying going out and playing music. Everything has the same appeal that it used to, you know? I mean it would take a foolish person to complain about doing this full time, so we feel blessed.

So why did you choose DJing as a career in the first place?

It wasn’t a choice really, it just kind of happened. I was into the Hip Hop scene since I was a kid. It was very much the youth music of that time, that’s all you did and that’s all you knew. But the DJing side of it was just the one part of it that I got into more than the others. You have the time and privacy to practice at home and you become quite immersed in the idea of trying to get good at something, without anyone out there to criticise you. And from that came the need at one point or another to do a competition and at the end of that we were lucky that there was the opportunity to play clubs and stuff up and down the country and around the world. But at that time you didn’t pre-plan that – just gradually it happens.

How did you find the transition from the turntablism scene to playing in nightclubs?

For me it felt easy enough as I spent a lot of time in clubs anyway. It was a big part of growing up in this country (the UK), with the late 80s and the kind of rave thing, I was about 16/17 at the time so there was a lot of…discovering new and wonderful things at the time shall we say.

So what kind of club nights did you go to when you were younger then?

Well the one I remember was Dungeons. This was an 80s thing that Mr. Thing started. That was the first dance music night I remember going to, and I remember going to Ibiza in the same year, and anywhere where the music was really. Then I kind of pulled back from it – I started working in a record store so I was already surrounded by music enough as it was.

You met Prime Cuts and Plus One in the record shop you previously worked in. What effect do you think the closure of so many stores has had on the DJ community?

I think if you ask somebody half my age it’s had no effect whatsoever. The communities that they’re a part of are the ones that exist online. I quite liked the human side of it really; people used to come in face-to-face and talk about and critique music. Through that I formed some very good friendships that still have to this day. All these people that I’ve met are through record stores. I don’t think I would have established the kind of relationships I got with them having only met them online.

There’s three of you in the Scratch Perverts – how do you co-ordinate your gigs? Is it spontaneous or is there a certain routine you follow?

Because most of it is about playing a club, getting people to dance and giving people a good time, I might play a few records, someone else’ll play a few records, and sometimes we’ll freestyle. I think just having DJ-ed so long together, you just have a feel for it. You can’t pre-plan everything because you might have the best 30 minutes worked out, but if nobody likes where that 30 minutes is going then you’ve got to change that straight away. I think we’ve succeeded by keeping it quite open and quite loose.

How much of a part does scratching play in your sets these days?

It’s not as obvious as it used to be. It’s always a part of the routine – you do 4 or 5 freestyle parts in a set, and before we come to Australia we’re gonna’ work some really good solid routines out. They’re a part of the set rather than being a sideshow to the set.

You’ve moved between lots of genres over the years. Do you think your versatility has been the key to your success?

I think so. We’ve been quite lucky that scenes have emerged in the last ten years that have had an audience already. If this music inspires us then we play it in our sets. It’s the timing of the whole thing really, because there was a time when there wasn’t that influx of new music that there is now. It’s easier now to play across the board and flick between genres.

Production wise, what are the three of you up to at the moment?

Plus One is spending most of his time at the moment doing the Jack Beats thing. That’s going really well and he’s concentrating most of his time on that. I just wanna sit at home and make house music; I enjoy sitting at a computer for 12 hours at a time, making music, whatever feels natural at the time.

What’s in your record bag at the moment?

Prime Cuts has just started a new record label called Black Gold and anything that he plans to put out on that in the next six months is definitely featuring. There’s this kid called Dismantle who is making a lot of sick music right now. House wise, anything on Dirty Bird I’m into. Drum and Bass wise Ram Records is still killing it, as are Playaz.

Finally, any tips for any budding DJs out there?

Well the only way to get ahead nowadays is to produce first, release records and then DJ. And when you do get the opportunity on the back of that to DJ make sure that it’s on point. Play to the crowd and never feel that you’re more important than them. It’s the people that are paying to see you play and you need to entertain them.

By Harley Sherman