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Panther God: Where you from?
Kidsmeal: I was born over in England, I've been in Nashville for about 15 years.
PG: What's your favorite restaurant there?
K: I love food... so I can't really narrow it down to one. My neighborhood has a killer deli called Star Bagel, and an awesome taco spot across the street called Local Taco that's always good.
PG: How do you account for your turntablist chops? What's the secret?
K: I think that because I started scratching at such an early age, I was able to get a head start on developing my chops. Then practice, practice, and more hours of practice is the obvious secret. I was obsessed with the art form of DJing so much that when I was learning, I never stopped practicing different techniques and drills. I would have a break through and it would motivate me to set another goal for myself. I wanted to eventually acquire an arsenal of multiple styles of turntablism.
PG: I noticed this really cool effect you were doing live by staggering one record a bit behind the other and cutting between them. Explain?
Yeah, for sure. That's the basic idea behind that trick. It's an old hip-hop DJ method of taking two of the same track to create a delay or extra beat. The rhythms are just felt by using the cross fader to switch back and forth between the doubles. Keeping the doubles of the track running together, with the second running ahead, I switch between the two to create new rhythms within the track. I use this same technique with electronic music to create a different kind of connection between Electronic and Hip-hop beats and techniques.
_________________________________________________________PG: What's on the horizon for Kidsmeal?
K: I'm looking forward to making some music videos with my buddy Dylan Mire. I also always feel like I need to be out on the road performing more. I love experiencing different environments and performing for fresh crowds. Meeting new people that truly love music and art, and spreading my stuff around for those folks to appreciate is what I'm really trying to do. I try to remain open and experimental with my music and the genres I use and produce, so there is no telling what I might do next?!
PG: Do you do DJ battles? That kinda thing...(It seems you certainly could win a few)
K: I won a couple of battles back in the day... just local stuff... I always loved watching battle videos when I was learning, and they definitely helped me dig deeper into the turntablist culture at a young age. I used to follow the worldwide battle scene pretty close and aspired to one day try my hand at it, but I'm not really competitive in that way. I compete with my self hard enough. I always set standards way above what I think is possible on the turntables, and try to out do myself. There's a lot of time and pressure involved in battling at that level, so I have mad respect for all the DJs committed to keeping battling and real hip-hop culture alive.
PG: The CD you gave me, with your brother producing as well...had a definitely video game feel. Which video games had the biggest impact?
K: Metroid and Arkanoid had the biggest influence on the EP because I sampled both of their main themes to create the remixes.
PG: Favorite piece of gear?
K: I love my Rane 57 mixer.
PG: Is there anything you wanna tell people about what you're doing?
K: I do what I do because I really, genuinely love the music and the culture surrounding it. I just love to get on stage and crush it for an awesome crowd, and I love getting the opportunity to expose people to what I think is musically relevant. Finally, I would just like to thank everyone for the constant support so far! I'm really grateful for being able to do what I love.
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