DJ Dirty Boy, The Interview

Leicester Performance Artist and DJ, Dirty Boy has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this summer. In the run up to his court appearance he has had his new radio show banned from Mix Cloud and begun broadcasting on Thump FM across East Leicester (midnight onwards, most weekday nights).

DK: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed and for agreeing for me to publish a transcript of this conversation on Dark Strudel. First I am curious about the radio show. Could you explain a little about what you are doing and how it is going?

DJDB: You’re welcome. I wanted a new outlet after all the problems before lockdown and during. It’s been a shit couple of years and I have to make something happen. Just have to. I like the Thump FM channel as I’ve always enjoyed pirate radio and that uncompromising approach fits my brand. I take no prisoners you know?

DK: Indeed. But why an illegal broadcast? Surely you could embrace the internet and have a streaming show or a blog?

DJDB: I swerve you know? I cannot do the obvious. I need the risk and the confrontation and as you know I never allow my sets to be recorded, so a live performance that the listener can only experience in the moment is far better than something they can download and listen to when they walk their dog or clean their kitchen.

DK: Doesn’t the legal risk worry you in the light of your existing legal problems? You are publicly broadcasting on an illegal medium while you wait for a court appearance.

DJDB: So are you, right now my good friend. Welcome to life over the edge.

DK: Hardly the same, The authorities do not know my identity or location. You wear an ankle tag.

DJDB: True. True. You know, I think that it comes down to brand. The people that listen, expect something from me. I had a less tolerant audience and I prefer the commitment of a hardcore one.

DK: Yes, that is a theme I wanted to touch on. You are a fallen Angel my friend. You conquered the Balearics. You could play any decks across Europe or the Far East and name your price. Then you confronted the audience time and again. You were blacklisted. Attacked. You still have dressings from the last incident at the party during lockdown, another brush with the law.

DJDB: I think I am getting more and more true to my Art. I was never happy just mixing and throwing tunes, it was always the performance, the attitude, the Brand. The incident before where I got these [indicates bandages on hands] was loved by 90% of the people in the room. One group, people who had no idea who I was, drinkers just looking for a drink and a laugh, they took offence at a very tame part of my act. I like to close with something that shows the artificiality of the medium. Share the thread the whole performance hangs from. The dancers need to know that it is an illusion, vinyl, a needle, a deck, a motor, and that a simple action can end it. Like life. Life itself.

DK: So the moment you smashed the pies was symbolic?

DJDB: Totally. They brought me these two steaming pies, fresh from the microwave on these stupid paper plates. They were not food, they were a facsimile of food. So I made a statement, I balanced them on the labels of the two discs I had on, and watched them spin and spin. In the moment I knew what I had to do. I crashed down and took them out. Smashed them, smashed the illusion of food and the illusion of music.

DK: you had no idea of the risk?

DJDB: Of the burns? Fuck no, I’m not stupid! I had no idea how much skin I was going to lose, the grafts have been a nightmare. I thought people would get it. Instead those idiots turned.

DK: The police broke down the party and arrested you?

DJDB: Yeah and the owner of the club is seeking damages for the decks and the refunds they had to pay. But the party was illegal so they can’t touch me for that at least, I got lawyered up.

DK: Yes, I am curious about that too. The Ding organisation is helping cover the legal costs.

DJDB: They offered. We have a good relationship, they understand artists.

DK: Is that all part of the Koala Studios tenancy?

DJDB: In a way. We have an artistic as well as commercial relationship.

DK: How did you come to buy a recording studio, crammed with antique equipment, that openly has space for two small people and one instrument? Surely you cannot feel that an ideal working environment?

DJDB: [prolonged laughter] Yeah, funny story. I was in San Culo, just after a three day residential and I had seen by then that I was not going to have any more summers out there. Saw the studio advertised and I knew Leicester was on the up. Price was all my savings, but it looked sweet. I didn’t realise the photos were carefully constructed to make the place look big. I was hooked like a kipper.

DK: And Ding rents it from you?

DJDB: Sort of. Sydd and Pete from 9 o’clock Nasty had been thrown out of their studio for keeping amphibians at the start of lockdown and were forming the band with Ted and wanted a place to store their drum kits. Sydd has an antique kit made with animal skin and pearl, so they wanted a friendly base and a space to store things.

DK: They keep a drum kit in there?

DJDB: Well not when they are recording. They have to put the kit outside and then we can record and mix. Then when we finish we put the drums back.

DK: How do you record the drums?

DJDB: Oh we open the window. It’s a unique sound, but it works. They are in love with the warmth we get off the desk, it’s only 8 channel but the tones are sublime. We spend hours and hours working on songs in there, but never all at once. They pretty much all hate each other, so it’s an arrangement that works.

DK: You work in the studio with them? They denied your claims to have produced their songs.

DJDB: We have settled that. I am remixing Gammon v Pilgrims for them, to allow my artistic vision for the song to be surfaced. I have been too ill to do much recording with them since the early tracks like “No Garry No.”

DK: [laughs] ah yes the unreleased “problem song”

DJDB: [laughs] all bands have problem songs.

DK: What next for DJ Dirty Boy? Will you be performing away from the radio waves again?

DJDB: For sure. We’ve had a good response to the show. I think we are getting 500 listeners a night, and I plan to do some overnight sessions as the nights draw in. I’ve got a residence at a club just outside Coalville for early October where I plan to try some new material and share the new tracks I’ve been digging up in this quiet period.

DK: Well good luck with that and thank you for talking with us.