ADJF 8ball Interview: ysm

[Cupe]

1. Where did the name come from?

ysm is short for Your Surrogate Mother.

I see a similarity between surrogate mothers and artists.

Each goes through a process of creating something for themselves but ultimately for someone else to enjoy and embrace as their own.

2. How long have you been playing & how did it all begin; What factors came together for you to take an interest in DJ'ing/Producing?

I have been playing guitar now for about 14 years. DJ'ing & Producing for about 2 years.

The interest in producing started with me playing guitar long ago.

I have always wanted to write music, play gigs, be in a band etc.

The problem I had with bands is the other band members. haha!

The Drummer was always too stoned to play, The Singer just had another kid and is too busy,

Bass player just can’t be f'ed today etc. etc.

Electronic music production caught my eye when I got a demo version of FL Studio. I realised with this DAW i could make music anytime I wanted. Day or night, in my own house & no need to rely on anyone else.

The idea of a DAW that was ready to go when i was just seemed to fit.

DJ'ing came about when i was looking for information on starting out in music production with DAWS etc. Stumbled across ausdjforums.com & never looked back

3. What do you spin? How would you describe your sound and what sort of style/DJ's influence you?

Usually i find myself mixing lots of Psytrance (which is funny because i really never listen to it any other time but when mixing) or as recent more down tempo, trip-hop flavours have got me pretty keen.

I like to try and mix most things. Try being the key word!

DJ's that influence me are literally the DJ's from ADJF. They have high standards, a great idea of what mixes well & constantly turning out quality mixes. It keeps me from putting out any mix that is not the absolute best i can do at the time & to keep practicing!

4. What are your weapons of choice?

DJ'ing - Traktor 2.6, Vestax VCI-100mk2, Traktor Kontrol F1, Sennheiser HD 202 Headphones

Production - FL Studio 10, Akai MPK Mini, Korg Nano Kontrol

To make them work - Dell Inspiron, M-Audio Fast Track Ultra, KRK Rokit 8's

5. If you could change 1 thing along your way up to where you are now, what would it be and why?

I probably would have listened to most people’s advice and gone with some CDJ's & mixer instead of a MIDI controller. It would have made my first gig much less sloppy and I found when out playing i prefer the feel of cdj's over midi controllers.

6. If you could put yourself as the resident DJ in any scene, where would you choose and why?

I would be more than happy doing the psy festival scene in Europe at the moment.

Fun music to mix, foreign lands, the out doors, beautiful ladies and party, party, party!

7. What other Australian DJ's/Producers do you rate?

I rate pretty high a local guy in Hobart called DJ Grotesque, amazing mixing, scratching etc. Mind blown.

Producers - Hydraglyph, Sokuseki Men, The Avalanches, The Scientists Of Modern Music

8. What was the first album you ever bought?

The Alan Parsons Project - Pyramania

[Cupe]

Nice one ysm

[Mitch]