Krash Slaughta Interview
I first met you at a gig at the Imperial pub in Hastings many years ago and was blown away by your skills. For those that don’t know you can you tell us a little about how you became a dj and your career?
Back in the day you were also part of Monkey Mafia which I still absolutely love to this day. This included Douge Reuben who incidentally was also at the Hastings gig. How did you get involved with Jon Carter as part of the band and can you share any stories with us about that time?
The first DJ gig I ever had in front of any crowd South of the border was in a club called the Hub in Bath. Jon & I were there supporting for the Propellerheads first ever live show.
Prior to that, I was already noted as one of the best scratch DJ’s in certain circles of U.K. Underground Hip Hop but I hadn’t played out for people to actually dance to the music, only as performance with scratching in hardcore Hip Hop groups like II Tone Committee and Killa Instinct. I made a demo tape which had unbelievably been noticed by a record label who had actually heard the track playing in the background whilst in the phone to a Glasgow record shop (Rub A Dub). They showed immediate interest & asked me to record some more!
I thought that it was a piss take to be honest, but it turned out to be real. Please remember that this is all pre-mobile, pre-internet, so I was just talking to some bloke on the other end of a phone in a record shop. Turned out it was Richard Norris who was starting a record label. All out of a phone call from a cassette tape playing in a record shop that I was playing to a friend on the shop system, I made my way into the music industry totally unplanned. “Always Remain Hardcore” an E.P. Consisting of three tracks, was the result. I was there at the Hub club night to promote this release and more importantly to represent the launch of the new label “X Records” the Propellerheads were planned next to be releasing music with the label, so it was a big promotion night, even the Clash were there. I was talking with them backstage and never even realised it, nice guys and really down to earth. Jon asked me after my set being impressed with my cutting skills whether or not I’d be interested in meeting him in London and that he was planning to create a live group to perform Hip Hop, Dub, Reggae stuff, later labelled by the press as “Big Beat”. That group turned out to be the incredible Monkey mafia. I met Doug’e Reuben at the Blue Rooms studio in London (I think that was the name of the place) we had an instant ease and respect with one another. I remember we went straight into a track that Jon played that day, Douge’s lyrics “Every Day Is A Fishing Day” I can still hear in my head, an amazing vocalist & one of the best lyricists and front men I’ve ever seen perform live in a band. Never meeting each other prior or any of the other original band members, the main foundations for that group were formed that very day. The rest is history. We went on to perform live as a full band & smashed the place to bits!
I’ve kept busy by doing production, creating a four part cut n paste at the start of the first lockdown and of course producing the Sugarcubes/ DOOM project. Also forthcoming this next couple of months, is a 45 vinyl-only release tilted “Rebel Base” featuring the incredible “Phill Most Chill” on vocals. There will be two different cover variants of this and I can’t wait for people to both hear these tracks and see these covers. These will be available via www.krashslaughta.