Cut Chemist

Q: You and DJ Shadow have a great dynamic onstage. How would you characterize him as a partner?

Cut Chemist: It's like a good-cop, bad-cop routine I guess. I'm the bad cop. He sticks to the game plan, and I'm the one who tries to improvise it and throw away the script.

Q: So you're like the Hutch to his Starsky?

Cut Chemist: There you go. Wait, am I Starsky? I mean, I'm not totally going to make him out to be a square peg. He's got his own bats in his belfry. It's like two mountain climbers. We can't make it up there alone.

Q: You and Shadow go way back, but how exactly did you two first hook up?

Cut Chemist: Through a friend of mine, a local DJ in LA named Rob One...in 1994 we were up in Berkeley selling records at a record fair and he told me to give my new 12" that I had just pressed up with my group Jurassic 5 to this guy...so I met him and gave him a couple of copies and we became friends through discussing our influences and realizing that we had a lot of the same tastes and a lot of the same things that caused us to want to DJ.

Q: "Hard Sell" is quite an ambitious project and tour, how long did it take to get all this put together and the performance perfected?

Cut Chemist: We have been working on this show since April of last year...initially it was for the Hollywood Bowl show. We took 3 months to rehearse for that. When we did that set we realized we wanted to make it longer...we had more stuff we wanted to do. So after that show was finished and we did a few more shows in Europe we came back and said let's rehearse some more for a possible full length expanded tour through North America and the world next year. So we got back together again and looked at the set that existed and tweaked it in certain places, expanded it in certain places, moved things around...it was an on-going process all year.

Q: Any up-and-coming talent that's inspiring to you now?

Cut Chemist: With all the technology now, seems like everybody can make music. That can be good and bad, but sometimes when people don't know exactly what they're doing, they make some really cool, naïve stuff. When people really start to figure out what they're doing, that's when the stuff starts to go downhill.

Q: Any examples?

Cut Chemist: I think if Meg White were to play the drums any better, that group would not be as successful. There's just something about her naïve, sloppy drumming that makes that shit work; it's just so swinging. I hope she's not taking drumming lessons because that could be the end of the White Stripes as we know it.

Q: As a very amateur DJ, I'll put together rather rudimentary mixes with just two turntables and a mixer and even those seem to take forever to put together...so I definitely appreciate all the work that must have went in to getting this all set up. I'm sure most people realize this, but maybe not everyone?

Cut Chemist: There's still those people obviously that don't really, even though we explain it really well in the introduction with video what we're doing and what's involved they still don't seem to get it. Certain people don't...they go to a show and they just kind of see turntables and two guys and they expect whatever they expect, there's nothing you can do about it. And I think that's kind of what went into the name "The Hard Sell," which was targeting that state of mind.

Q: You also picked up Kid Koala for the tour?

Cut Chemist: I was telling him about the show when I saw him last year and it piqued his curiosity and interest so he called me up and was like, "hey, do you want me to open?" We were searching for a support act in different regions but this seemed to be a lot easier and perfect just because...he stands for a lot of the ideals that we do, with DJing and turntablism and records - he uses all vinyl - so there's an underlying subtext politically I guess of vinyl versus digital [laughs]. Me and Shadow obviously use digital means for our own shows, but for this tour in particular we're using all vinyl and Kid Koala is using all vinyl. So it really works out great. He's such a great performer and it's a good energy that he sets the standard with so that when we come on people are already excited and have seen some great stuff. He's one of my favorite DJs of all time so it's great to have him.

Q: DJs cringe whenever they get asked this, but anything in particular that's grabbed your attention musically recently?

Cut Chemist: Well, I love everything...In fact I was in Atlanta record shopping and that chick that's in every iPod commercial now, what's her name? [Feist?] Yeah, that's it. I love that...I'm like, man that chick has got an album full of hits! I listen to a lot of Ethiopian traditional music and I listen to a lot of indie stuff, Bat for Lashes I'm in to...I dunno, this set is a reflection of how people might think we're only into funk and hip-hop. But when you hear us play the set it's like, no, they're into new wave, they're into country, they're into rockabilly, they're into doo-wap, they're into...everything.

Q: So speaking of indie stuff and listening to everything, here's a random question for you...if in another life you were a rocker instead of a DJ, what ideal band would you like to be in?

Cut Chemist: Dude, I would be in The Kinks or maybe the 13th Floor Elevators...or you know what, since I'm from LA, screw that shit...I would be down with Arthur Lee. I would be in Love.

Q: Do more people recognize you now that you had a role in Juno?

Cut Chemist: Okay, so I have been doing music for, what, fifteen, twenty years? Twenty years versus five seconds onscreen. And yes, that five seconds onscreen has meant more. People are like, Oh, the guy in Juno, the chemistry teacher. It's like, Oh yeah? He's also done a little bit of music too. Go check it out.

Q: Any other cameos coming up?

Cut Chemist: Well, now that you ask. The Juno people are doing a new movie and I am in it again. It's a bit of a stretch. I am playing a DJ A lot of coaching needed for that one. But it's not really as big of a role.

Q: So it's three seconds instead of five?

Cut Chemist: Yeah, but at least they're still calling me up.

Q: And you're coming to Brooklyn next week, playing a drained-out pool.

Cut Chemist: Yeah, what is this place? At least it's not the weirdest place I ever DJ-ed. That was at this bar in Melbourne. They got the idea to have me DJ in the women's toilet, but it was still a working bathroom!

Q: Wait, were you in a stall?

Cut Chemist: I was by the sinks. And there was a line of people waiting to use the bathroom. But there were other people in there dancing. I'm just glad it wasn't the men's room.

Q: Wow. Well, here they usually set up a Slip 'n' Slide. Will you be taking a turn?

Cut Chemist: [Laughs] Yeah, like in between the sets! There's actually a part during the show where we used to take a dinner break. There's this 45 that we play, it's a wonderful, long minute-and-a-half drum solo, and so we were like, What are we going to do during that? So Shadow came up with this wonderful idea to come out with lawn chairs and have waiters serve us gazpacho soup to it. And so maybe we strike that and we just go on the Slip 'n' Slide for a minute and a half.

Q: Maybe you could combine it with a dinner break. Go down the Slip 'n' Slide eating a chicken leg.

Cut Chemist: Maybe a big turkey leg. I am going to advance that idea. Call my manager.