Sometimes you need a break in your routine before you achieve your goals. Or rather, you may need a switch up. UK DJ and multiple DMC champion, Mr. Switch, recognized that in 2014 and, as a result, was crowned the champion at the World DMC competition for the 6 minute division. When you look at his passion to be unconventional with seeing what else he can bring to the world of DJing, you can only guess the direction he'll head in next. From DJing with a live orchestra to incorporating Shakespeare with his turntables for 2016, Mr. Switch is not your typical DJ by any stretch of the imagination. And he's proud of it. Check out our interview with the Dr. Who fan and believer in a positive outlook of DJing in the future, below.
First off, congrats on taking home the DMC World Championship this year. Do you plan to defend the title next year?
I'm not doing it at the moment just because I'm working on new material for 2015. I've got a lot of good projects. There's a possibility that I might do the team championship. I won't say who with. As far as solo DJ battling, I think I'm done. I forgot this year how hard it is. It takes a lot of your time to find the best material to scratch with. I've spent nights before the finals locked in my house, had microwave meals, didn't get out, didn't see any friends. It was all down to practice. Also, I want to see other DJs enter and see new talent coming to the scene.
So then let's go back before all of the DMC's, when you first started DJing. You started at 11. Why 11 years old?
As a kid, I was into Pop music and whatever was on the charts. UK Garage came up as a genre which got me interested in DJing because it was a different kind of music from everything else. It's a bit more beat-y and harder than Pop stuff. It has a lot more interesting rhythms. Rather than just singing, you had DJs in it. That got me into DJing in general.
The second thing is that a lot of Rock bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park had DJs as part of the band. In normal videos, you'd see them on turntables. There's this tune, "Frontier Psychiatry" by The Avalanches. If you have a look at that, it's a very strange tune but it's made entirely out of samples. There's no singer, just 300 records pieced together. Growing up, that was the most weird thing to see. When I found out that was made by a DJ… There was also a track called "It's Going Down," which was Linkin Park with The X-Ecutioners. There's a camera angle in that where it goes over the top of all eight sets of turntables and I remember that getting me interested. And my parents were really good to me. My dad got me a DMC video. That was it from then.
When did he get that for you? After you got into DJing or was it on a whim?
I can't remember exactly. My mum and dad are musical anyway. My mum plays instruments and my dad knows his Classical music inside, out. I think they wanted me to be musical. They got me on guitar and keys when I was young. When I was talking about DJing, my dad found a local record store and went and bought me a video for Christmas or my birthday. They even lent me their turntables to play around with. They didn't have a pitch controller or anything. I properly learned my craft that way. If you try to beatmatch two records without a pitch control, you have to push it or slow it down (laughs).
So they were supportive and not angry that you were messing with their records?
(Laughs) If they saw what I was doing to the records… I didn't generally mess with their records. My dad actually gave me lots of them, Classical ones, and said, "Oh, try this one. You might find something good. Mess around with that."
It's all making sense now when you look at your performance at the BBC PROMS. Your integration of DJing and Classical music was almost bound to happen.
Yeah, I feel really proud for my dad because if you have a kid and they say, "I want to get into DJing," you don't know where that's gonna end up. I think they wanted me to just be happy. To start up DJing and end up in the Royal Albert Hall, which is one of the biggest, most seminal concert venues, I think that was big for them.
Do you happen to remember the first house party you DJed?
Oh god. For the most part, I got the videos and was just practicing in my room. I didn't really do house parties. There were like local community projects and youth clubs. And there were local radio stations.
Did you have many other friends who DJed?
I had friends who were into music. I think I was the only DJ at school. I swapped mixtapes with kids and said, "Oh, check this out. Let me know what you think." I did meet up with other Garage DJs through the youth clubs I went to. Weekends, I'd go there and practice with them. At the time, UK Garage, being what it is, we would all DJ and emcee a bit as well. Or if you were an emcee, you could DJ. I probably have cassettes in my parents' house where I'm rapping.
Do you remember your emcee name?
I can't remember. People do ask me how I got my name, DJ Switch. Honestly, it was the only good name. I remember writing a shortlist of possible names. That was the only good one that was on there. I think I was DJ Scrappy for a bit. Then I thought that that was a terrible name. If people hear that, they'll think, "Oh, he's rubbish. He's scrappy."
"I've been confused [with Switch in Major Lazer] where I've been offered his gigs."
That brings me to the recent change in your name. How's the switch from DJ Switch to Mr. Switch been?
It's been really good. There are a lot of DJ Switch's. It's a shame in the DJ world, unlike the acting community and Rock bands where there's a whole thing when you pick your name, you go on a site and register it. There isn't anything like that for DJs. Over the past few years, I've been confused quite often with other DJs, primarily Switch in Major Lazer, to the point where I've been offered his gigs. Or people have interviewed me and said, "Okay, I want to talk about your upcoming festival sets." Halfway, I realize I'm not playing that festival.
Another reason I changed my name is that someone wrote an article leading up to it and I think the journalist was told that there are two DJ Switch's. The article said, "What's a House DJ going to do with an orchestra?" For a professional journalist and it's for a music publication that has a strong reputation, for them to make that level of mistake, I thought, "If they're so stupid and they're going to do that, I need to do something about it."
That makes sense. So you're a decorated veteran of the DJ community. Why did you switch from the Battle for Supremacy to the 6 minute competition?
You know every time my friends say "switch," they go, "Oh, you see…" (laughs) Over the past few years, I've generally been more successful at the head to head battles than with the six minutes. I've done the six minutes before. I actually won the UK title a few years and on my third title, I won the world. In some ways, it's a bit easier to do the Supremacy battles because in terms of time, there's more material you have to come up with but they can all be individuals as opposed to the main competition where you really have to put together more of a cohesive DJ set. I've only entered the six minutes when I'm happy with a cohesive set, not necessarily a winning set. In Supremacy, the routine is just a thing on its own.
In my mind, it sounds like the distinction between a single and an album.
Yeah, exactly. It's easier to do single, single, single, rather than albums. Like, "How do these all fit together?" It's an extra level of work. Part of the reason I did the six minutes was I had leftover routines from other competitions which I hadn't shown anyone and they still had technical ideas in them which no one had done. Some of the routines were four years old. I had enough bits to try and piece them together. It can be like a jigsaw in a way. A lot of DJs produce their sets. I haven't gotten into production. It's on my list of things to do. At the moment, I do so much live material. That's the little voice in my head telling me to do the six minute routine if I can come up with a better one and produce it. But I'm really happy with the set I've done and it almost killed me (laughs).
"I'll be like, 'Wow, I love the way you dissed my mum.' "
Moving on, one thing a lot of battle DJs do to fill in space is use voice samples from Hip-Hop to diss the other DJ. Have you ever come across a DJ who took it the wrong way?
Of all the DJ battles I've seen, I don't think there's been anyone who's been seriously offended. Some of the times, I'll be like, "Wow, I love the way you dissed my mum." When I watched them originally, I think that's why I enjoyed them more. You get more of a hype like a rap battle. You get to have fun finding unusual disses. I do remember having a dilemma about a really good German diss in case I met a German DJ except it was about Nazis. I kinda knew that that's too far. I wasn't going to use it but I asked people just to check.
I think battling has changed a lot because of Serato coming in. It comes down to editing. I think that if something I can't do, as a DJ, rather than practice and practice until i can do it, I'll try and do something else instead. To some extent, some DJs aren't pushing themselves. Editing can lead into that. Some DJs are doing cool stuff but technically, they're doing the same stuff every year.
Who are some of your favorite rappers to sample in your routines?
Jay Z is probably the top. The man is so quotable. Jest, who is one of my favorite UK emcees and such a lovely guy to work with. He's an amazing lyricist. I work a lot with him on beatboxes like MC Zani and Reeps One.
I've heard you speak on the mathematical approach to DJing. To me, there are elements to DJing (types of scratches, beat juggling), but you need to arrange them creatively. Help me understand your creative process of piecing it all together.
Ooh, that's a good question. I think my starting point was saying, "Okay, I have this routine"--the Run DMC routine. And I had the Royce da 5'9". So I had those blocks and I was looking for what to do in between those. At some point, I wanted to have a single routine with a tempo change that went from 100 BPM down to Dubstep of "Got To Know." I think I had two or three routines which could have joined those gaps. One of those was a David Guetta routine, which I haven't shown anyone yet. I have quite a mathematical approach. This routine was about joining the dots. I like the "Got To Know" routine. That whole routine comes up because it has three notes in it, which are a triplet. Very simply, mathematically, the triplets are in 3/4 time. They're at 70 BPM. If you put a baby scratch, you can make an extra note so you get 4/4 time. Then you can take it up to 100 BPM. Just that idea springboards the entire routine.
I'd love to do a lecture, breaking down the beat juggling and stuff. I think there's a lot of theory in beat juggling. It's a craft that gets lost out a lot these days because people tend to do scratching more. I think most of my routines are record specific. You couldn't take my routines and do them with any other track. They're built around that particular feature of that track. When I was 14 or 15, I went to DJ Academy and they run courses in different cities. I went on and learned from that. Now, I'm a teacher for them. I've done teaching for quite a few people like Access To Music.
That'd be really enlightening to DJs and non-DJs alike. An interesting thing I've seen you say in an interview is that the needle is limiting to turntablism. I took that as DJs thinking inside the box too much when they look at a turntable. Can you explain what you meant in your own words?
That's a good point. Actually, part of that was very literal. We have all this amazing technology like Serato and Traktor and MIDI controllers. I find that whenever I go to gigs and DJ expos, you see turntables, mixers, and MIDI controllers. I never see needle people there. If they are there, they're on a really small stand. Compare it to a violinist expo. You'd have tens, if not hundreds, of options for different bows and strings. For needles, we have Ortofon and Shure but they're very quiet. They're not as out there as much as turntables.
In terms of performing, if something goes wrong in the needle, it doesn't matter what other equipment you have. It's the weakest link by miles. When I practice, I practice with my Denon turntables because it saves me wearing down on my needles. That direction is where I'd really like to see DJing go. We upgraded everything else. We don't have to bring normal records. The needles, no one is doing anything about that, aside from Denon. Numark brought out a CD turntable with a 12" platter, ten years ago. I'm a little surprised we haven't gotten more of that. In my mind, a perfect set up would be a keyboard and it's got two turntables and a mixer built in. So I can just put it on a table, plug in, and I don't have to set anything up.
That'd be a huge set up. Do you see that being the direction the DMC going in, from analog to CDJs?
Kind of. Whenever I teach with kids and they want to learn scratching, the first thing they think is, "I can't scratch unless I have a vinyl turntable. I can't use anything else. I can't use a MIDI controller." I worry that that kind of thinking is going to lead scratching and turntablism into a cul-de-sac. All of the scratch DJs you see use vinyl. If you do a survey of people who started DJing in 2015, what are they gonna be using? Chances are that it won't be vinyl. That's why I try to do demos with things other than turntables.
It's nice to hear a champ like you to be forward thinking. I see the divide in turntablism similar to the one in Hip-Hop. It's a mix of people who have old definitions and boundaries vs. those who are innovative.
Very true. It's a difficult world. The young kids should always try and find out what's come before. For the older generation... I know a lot of DJs who are vinyl purists. I can tell you, very few of those guys are using vinyl when they DJ live, if they are DJing live. The amount of people who come up to me and swear by Technics turntables and the amount of time I go to gigs and use Technics turntables, and there's always something wrong with them. They don't work. The tone arm is bashed in. You can only be a purist to a certain extent. It's nostalgia. In 20 years time, the kids will be saying the same things the older generations are saying now. Everyone has their starting point.
As someone who's always thinking ahead, has there been a technique or routine that you've thought of but haven't accomplished due to the technology available or for whatever reason?
Oh, that's a good one. Uh, no. Most of my ideas tend to springboard [off each other]. If I've got a specific routine, I want to make a certain technique happen--like that button does that, if I press it in that way, it'll do that. I kinda like being given limitations to work with. Whenever I do mixes for people, if they give me a whole set of tracks to play, I'm like, "Brilliant. I've got these 40 tracks. I have to be really careful and specific in how I put them together." It's kind of the same with equipment.
I feel like if Denon or any company asked you to collaborate with them on new equipment you'd be overcome with suggestions then.
I guess so (laughs). I actually got to work with Denon because I was at BPM, which is the UK's main DJ expo, and I had a go at some Denon's. Somebody said, "Do you want to have a go at the latest one? We're bringing out the second version." So that's how that came about. They tweaked it and improved it. We talked a little bit about the platter--making it better for scratching. I didn't suggest anything as far as, "Oh, it should have a laser." Maybe I should've said that. We need DJs with lasers.
(Laughs) Lasers are always appropriate. Do you have plans for future performances that are outside the box?
Yeah, I'm always trying to look for interesting ways to push DJing. With the PROMS piece, written by Gabriel Prokofiev, he's written a second one, which is Concerto for Turntables, Percussion, Trumpets, and Orchestra, so it has two soloists. We premiered that in France, performed it in Armenia, and we might be performing that in Venezuela in 2015. No specific plans. There are some projects that are coming out but I can't really say too much about. I'll say the words Guns N' Roses and Shakespeare. If all goes well, that'll be 2016, if that [Shakespeare] happens. I'm so excited about it.
Last Call
1. What is your favorite movie of all time?Monty Python And The Holy Grail
2. As a young DJ, who was the one DJ you looked up to?DJ Netik from France
3. As a DJ, what's your biggest pet peeve?Overpaid DJs
4. What is your current DJ set up at home?I've got three setups. I have my gold setup--Rane 64 and Technics. My Denon setup--Denon 3900's and Rane 62. My Pioneer setup--Pioneer turntables and Pioneer 900 mixer. I can't live without any of them. I mostly use the Denon and Rane setups. The Pioneers are for clubs and the gold setup for very special occasions.
5. What's your favorite record of all time?DJ Yoda-How To Cut and Paste Vol. 1.
Look out for Mr. Switch coming stateside some time this year in July. Find out about his upcoming shows on his website, which also has a link to a game to play on the London subway. Stay up to date with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.
Bryan Hahn feels like he just watched a TED Talk on DJing. He's on Twitter: @notupstate.