The Cut up Boys Return With Mash up Mix 2007

How did the two of you meet?

We  hooked up at some long forgotten time in the early 1990s, introduced by a mutual raver friend and spent the next couple of years coaxing strange noises from analog synthesizers and drum machines under the impression that we were shaping a brave new world for the people of Earth… looking back now it’s clear we were just very stoned!

Can you remember the first time you laid an acapella over another track and created your very own mash-up?

To be honest, not really… our mash-ups really were just a stage we evolved to after spending years working with samples… working with full acapellas / instrumentals has only really been practical since computing technology got to a certain level, but its still the same techniques being used as when we would cut up bits of hip hop vocals over loops from other tracks using samplers. So it’s hard to say quite when our stuff became recognisable as  “mash ups”.  The big revelation was more when we started archiving all our records by key so you started being able to have a good idea what would work with what and having real fun with it all.

What constituted your big break? How did you go about getting yourselves noticed?

Matt ran the record label at Slinky (Bournemouth superclub)  and Nick was running the studio there, that’s where we hooked up with DJ Daniel Bailey who was the “Mix Selecta” at Radio 1. Daniel started using a lot of our drum’n’bass bootlegs in his radio mixes and they were hugely popular. To cut a long story short, this evolved into us broadcasting a “Cut-Up Mix” every Thursday on Dave Pearces show  which in turn led to us getting the slot at the front of Judge Jules show and subsequently a deal with Ministry of Sound putting the Mash Up Mix albums together.

What set up do you use when DJing? Who does what? Does it ever get a bit complicated or are you well practised? And is it all your own stuff or do you play other people’s mash-ups too?

Next to nothing we play out at gigs can be heard anywhere else. We like to keep all the mash-ups we play completely exclusive to people who have bothered coming to see us… it’s all our own stuff, we very rarely play other peoples mash-ups even though there’s some great ones about. This is hopefully how we keep the sound of our sets unique. It seems to go down really well. Technically we keep it quite simple – one of us will be using CDJs to mix the mash-ups while the other will be dropping in acapellas, FX or playing synths over the top.  We don’t tend to make any plans for what we’re going to play or do… it’s all about reacting to the crowd and making sure you have the material ready to take it in the direction that will make people go nuts!

How did the Radio1 gig come about? You must have been over the moon when you found out about that one...

Yeah, as mentioned above we owe Daniel Bailey a drink for facilitating that really. We work really hard on our Radio1 mixes and don’t really earn hardly any money directly from it… but it’s just such an awesome buzz to know that so many people are listening to your stuff and of course it’s a brilliant shop window for us to promote our skills and raise our profile. Love it!

Are there any bootlegs/mash-ups that you consider too hideous to be played? There really are some shockers out there!

Yeah! Most of them! The majority of mash-ups are pretty terrible, let’s be honest - anything that’s not completely in key and on beat is on a one-way ticket to the recycle bin. That’s not to say there aren’t some absolute gems around as well, you just have to wade through a lot of nonsense to find them. There’s a lot of very good mash-up producers coming through now, though, which is great.

Which are your favourite mash-ups on ‘The Mash Up Mix 2007’?

We’re really into the Farley Jackmaster Funk vs. FPI project track, also MARRS vs. Fedde Le Grand… it must be that old school flavour we like, probably because we’re so old!

Tell us about your ‘It Takes Boogie’ mash up...

It seems to be the track that a lot of people are picking up on, a good combination of killer tracks from different era’s Booty Luv “Boogie 2nite” and Rob Base + DJ EZ Rock “It Takes Two”.  They just went together so well and the track sounds distinctly different from both the originals…it’s one of those mash-ups that kind of defies categorization unless the category is PARTY!!

Do you think there are too many people who take dance music and DJing far too seriously?

Well, different people are into DJing and dance music in different ways… so it’s not really for us to tell them to stop taking it so seriously.. but yeah! We just want to have a laugh and get people rocking and smiling. We’re lucky to be surrounded by people who take the piss out of us all the time - so getting cocky isn’t an option!

Who else do your rate on a mash-up/bootleg/remix tip?

So many producers seem to blow hot and cold. They’ll do a killer mashup one week and then some dross the next. But we have to take our hats off to Mark Vidler (Go Home Productions) He really seems to have found his own style and that consistency of quality that others find elusive. Also Dunproofin and of course the pioneers such as 2ManyDJs and Freelance Hellraiser

And finally, where can we catch you playing next if we want a touch of the Cut Up Boys magic in person?

We’ve got a lot of gigs coming up all over the place, probably best to check them out via our MySpace page where you can also download a copy of “It Takes Boogie” as well. WHOOOP! Be our friend!

www.myspace.com/cutupboys