Diesel fumes

>> America's big boss of drum & bass schools the yoof

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

When Dieselboy holds court and pontificates on his craft, as he does in a succinct oration on his Web site djdieselboy.com, all you young turntable greenhorns chomping at the bit would do well to pay attention. He's arguably the leading drum & bass DJ in the U.S. (his ferociously good double CD on Palm Pictures, The Sixth Session, shows why), and his only competition, DJs Dara and AK1200, got his back in the Planet of the Drums triumvirate, so damn it, he knows whereof he speaks. The Mirror rang him up in Philly for an informative earful.



Mirror: I was really impressed by "Can I Get a Witness," your advice for young DJs on your site. Why did you write that?

Dieselboy: I'm asked by so many people, by e-mail or at parties, how they can get into DJing and what advice I can give. There's a lot I can tell these people, but I don't always have time to go into in-depth detail with each person. When I started to write it, I was surprised at how it just flowed out of me. I wanted to make a contribution to my artform and help out other people. Plus, it was also a way for me to interject my own positive ideals about work and being dedicated to what you do, about being more positive than negative when it comes to DJing. I know a lot of young DJs get fed up really easily and end up talking shit, so to speak. They get consumed with the negative end of things. I wanted to say, keep your head down, be positive, respect others.

M: Yeah, 19's a bit young to be bitter. Have you had reactions from young DJs about it?

DB: Oh, yeah, I've gotten a lot of very good feedback. After I got the first letter, I knew I'd done the right thing. The next thing I need to do is write an article on how to get started as a producer. My skills in that area are quite limited, but I get asked so often about what gear I use and how I write tracks that I might write another paper up as well.

M: Let's move on to Planet of the Drums, which started as this power-trio tour of yourself, DJ Dara and DJ AK1200, but seems to have snowballed into something bigger. What's the status there?

DB: Right now we're between tours and all working on individual projects, so it's cooling a bit on the back burner. But we're gonna do another tour next year, and we're actually going to be teaching together at the Red Bull Academy in New York City this month, talking about the history of drum & bass. Basically, the main focus of POTD is to put more of a face on American drum & bass than each of us has done individually, to show people that there's unity in our scene, that the three big drum & bass guys in the States can get along and work together. Over in England, there's a lot of in-fighting and cliques, and we want to show that we don't have that over here.

With Shadoboxerz, Double A, Sase One and a bunch more at Jingxi on Sunday, Aug. 19, 9pm, $10