British Dubstep producer and DJ Rusko is a funny guy. Candid, and warm, he's comfortable chatting about everything and everything from the Lion King, to medical marijuana. Rusko's also a guy who recently started taking a no bullshit, totally independent approach to getting music to his fans, quick and easy.
making some pancakes out of things like Oreos and Rice Krispy treats. Is
that something you're doing?
had a couple of months off touring and a couple of months in the
studio, I think that a lot of musicians find when you do that, you put
on a lot of weight. I've just been eating like a monster. I don't have
to do a show every night, and when I'm not doing crazy drugs like I do
on the road, I just (makes sound) balloon out when I get home. It gets
crazy. Playing shows and doing drugs is a great diet!
my God. Trying to think of something other than my one story. I'll just
tell you my one story. My friend was doing a DJ set on a private island
on the third night of Holy Ship!!. It was my best friend from London,
Doorly, it's his birthday and he'd never ever done acid before. Never.
So we decided to trip It was his 28th birthday. I never ever do it. We
were both like, we're on a Caribbean island, our friend's going to DJ to
us privately, on sand, it's 100 degrees, we're like fuck it, let's do
it.
sea making sand monsters. I had the worst day ever. The worst place to
have a bad trip is a cruise ship. People screaming your name, wanting
your photo and unable to escape the rocking of the ship. It was like the
longest 12 hours of my life. It was unbelievably crazy. Everywhere you
went there were people everywhere.
was awesome. Everyone was so friendly. It wasn't annoying with everyone
around all the time. Everywhere you went people were just like, "oh, my
God, come hang out, come sit down, come have a drink." It was great.
They had a treasure hunt on the boat where people had to collect things
across the trip. And one of the things you had to get done was your head
shaved by Rusko.
razors saying "shave my head! Shave my head!" I only tried shaving
someone's head with a Gillette razor once. That poor guy went home with
like scars. From then on I was like, I'll only use proper hair trimmers.
People were like literally running up to me with like one blade, rusty
and a full head of hair, down to their chests. I was like dude, I'll
take your scalp off with that. I had a couple of failed attempts at
shaving people's heads into mohawks. Which was fun. Well, not for them!
please don't ask me to cut your hair into a mohawk. Made a few
lookalikes, that was fun. Please don't come up with me with a razor.
Usually, he hangs out on the bus. When we're driving he goes and sits
right up front by the window. He's cool in the green room. That's just
his life. He's grown up with daddy making music and being on the road.
really wrapped up with it and spend all day on the tour bus or
backstage, but I take my little buggy for a walk a few times a day. It's
quite cool. I get to get a walk out, see some cool stuff. It's a good
excuse to explore whatever city I'm in. Take the dog for a walk, smoke a
cigarette, go down by the river, find a little coffee shop. If I was
single, it'd be the best thing in the world. Every single man should get
a cute looking, small dog. It's like a chick magnet. But I'm married.
If I were single, I'd have like two.
day, I want to get some of those so that I can take him out on stage.
That'll be awesome. It'll be like a Lion King moment. Like Simba on top
of the world. It makes me cry every time.
I was a huge Cypress Hill fan. When they hit me up saying they wanted
to work together. I felt totally honored. It was really cool. The first
thing we did when we got in contact with each other was hang out without
making any music. Just listening to tracks. Watching YouTube videos. It
was totally cool. It all just came from hanging out. We really had no
idea what we were going to do or how we were going to do it. It was
daunting though. They were pulling up YouTube videos of me DJing like
four years ago, "what's this track? What's this track? I love it." I was
like, they were like hardcore fans.
fans of each other. I also interviewed Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors
and the song you worked on with her "Hold On," it's great. It reminds
me of like going to gay clubs when I was younger.
considered a dubstep producer and DJ, but, like that track, you also
make other kinds of electronic music. What do you consider yourself?
kind of bass focused dance music. I do a bunch of different stuff but
the focus is always on the bass line. So, bass line focused dance party
music, there you go! How's that?
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