Big up to Ninja Gaijin, our Get Up Smashes It competition winner! We caught up with Ninja Gaijin to chat about the competition, his background and his slot at Get Up Smashes It. Dance Mission: Congratulations bro. Nice work on the mix! It was a stand out win for you. How do you feel about it all? Ninja Gaijin: Thank you for the awesome opportunity! It has been a wonderful experience, a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people. My mix was the last to be posted so I had my work cut out for me to move to the lead. It was a long week of bombarding my friends and musical peers with messages and networking but all paid off in the end. I was stoked to hit 100 likes, rank 12th on the DNB charts on Mixcloud and through the contacts made had a release on a compilation a few days ago, all as outcomes of this competition. Great work Dance Mission and I hope to see another competition and winner next year! Dance Mission: We get the feeling you’ve been around for a while, making tunes, spinning and participating in the scene. Tell us a little about yourself, are you from Melbourne? When did you start getting into Jungle/Drum’n Bass and what are some of your ambitions? Ninja Gaijin: I was born in Sydney but moved to Melbourne at age 2 so like to think I am a local! I first started composing on piano and singing age 5. It was around 1995 when I first heard Atom 1 on local radio playing some snare rush choppage and it blew my head off. A year later Goldies Timeless album was doing the rounds on Triple J and RRR and that album helped deepen my love of jungle and dnb. I got my first 1200 turntable around that time so by 1998 was buying drumfunk, dnb/tech step and jungle records and learning to spin (the first purchases being Paradox/Alaska, EZ Rollers, Calyx, Tech Itch and the like). Around this time I also got into the band scene, promoting, doing radio shows, playing in bands, putting out a zine, doing band interviews (including the Melvins on their first tour as a highpoint) and beginning to make simple tunes on Fruity Loops. After my main band broke up in 2004 I was more dedicated than ever to work solo in production and djing performance. I first started going to dnb shows in 2003 - Krachmacher, Just Rite, 40hz, Local Motion and heaps of other good crews and nights. From 2003-04 I focused on bad breakcore and plunderphonics mash ups. However in 2005 I found darkstep and shifted my production and djing from breakcore to darkstep dnb, drumfunk and jungle. In 2005, wanting to distance myself from my previous work I settled on the name Ninja Gaijin. Dance Mission: You’ve been smashing Drum’n Bass for days.. you need a break. Got any other hobbies/interests? Ninja Gaijin: No rest for the wicked! I love literally all styles of music so most of my life is spent acquiring, sorting and studying music - I usually spend 5-6 hours every single day sorting through what has come out that day or week. I decided at around age 6 or 7 that music was the purpose of my life, so I try to devote as much time as possible absorbing it. Ive been spending a lot of time recently working on my rapping and getting back into guitar, piano and mandolin playing as well as getting organised for eventually being able to do electronic live PA sets. I have many other hobbies and interests though, including independent and documentary cinema, animation and graphic literature, studying history, current affairs and philosophy, health & nutrition, shamanism/animism and spirituality. You might be able to tell from my name I am also a huge gamer (having been inspired from Ninja Gaiden). Growing up The Last Ninja on Commodore 64 was my favourite game. Id take my C64 everywhere with me as a kid. Recently I was lucky enough to win the last two Kill Screen retro game competitions at Revolver in 2011 and 2012 and also spent a long time playing in clans for the Americas Army free video game. I still play a lot but prefer to use my time on music more than games. Im also really into animation and graphic literature, if Im not listening to music Im probably watching cartoons or documentaries. Ive also been studying various martial arts including ninjutsu and practicing target compound bow archery most of my life, beginning at age 7. I hope to return to Bujinkan training very soon! Dance Mission: Your winning mix had some pretty epic Jungle styles going on. What can we expect from you on the night? Tear the place down, take us on a journey and/or get deep on it and let the bass do the talking? or something else altogether? Ninja Gaijin: My mix competition entry was a cut from a 100 minute mix and what I considered the most smashing part of it, so felt this was appropriate for the comp. Id also done some market research on my friends before it began to see what style of dnb they preferred so used that as what I thought would be the most easily likeable for them. I generally build from soft to hard, with a juxtaposition between light & dark, moving back and forth between the two and/or dropping tunes that have both light and dark sections or elements combined within them already. While I love tearout ragga, I will only be playing a couple of classics in this style as I think the new deep atmospheric choppage has a lot more headspace in it than a lot of old school vocal ragga tunes. Im planning a little old school choppage, a bit of footwork jungle, a couple of 90s and 00s anthems, a couple of drumfunks, a lot of jungle choppage and a few dark amen bangers.. Ill also be playing one of my own tunes if find the time [Carl Brown - Time Release (Ninja Gaijin remix)] and a 22/4 time signature jungle jazz track! Dance Mission: Having a love for more underground Drum’n Bass I’m sure you know of some amazing artists/tunes that we’re never heard of before. Wanna share a few? Ninja Gaijin: Always happy to share - there are a lot of names! Ill certainly miss some people deserving of mention. For jungle/dnb and influenced breakcore I love.. Enjoy, Kid Lib, Tim Reaper, Sumone/Sum, Abio-Genesis, Champa Badman, Moz@rt, Superkopter, St Kaaz, Omen Breaks, Bazia, Double O, Percussive P, ChopChop, Dwarde, Infest, Sixfootunda, Earl Grey, Jahba, Bong-Ra, Mole The Dipper, Dextrous, Resinate, Junglefever, Stivs, Shitmat, Lenkemz, Nation X, Warped Dynamics, Junglord, Ninjatron, Ricky Force, Om Unit, Feyder, HoT, Osci, Vocoda, Konekta, Livewire, Unsoundbwoy, WRE/3RE, Mr Sensi, Relapse, Theory, Drum Cypha, Smyla, Dub One, BKey, Equinox, Paradox, Alaska, Parallel, DIS, General Malice, Stray, Special Request, LXC, Of God, Chris Inperspective, Blocks & Escher, Machinedrum, Devnull, Dr...Um, Dubliner, 6Blocc, Direct Feed, Nebula, Bizzy B, Remarc, Sach Hybryd, Asymmetric, Limit, Dissociative, Antichristus, The Blunt Needles, FFF, Phuture T, I Wannabe, DJ L.A.B., Noistek, Ambrela, Submerged, Smokah, Slimjah, Eschaton, Greenleaf, Badman Moriarty, Sams Myth, L(3), The Disciple, Alpha Omega, Seba, Fanu, Axewound, Anorak, Default, Charly Linch, Carl Brown, Space Depth, Stranjah, Gremlinz, Nolige, Snaper, Dj-Sinister, Foundation Stepper, Dark Organics, JDon, Speak, Ruby My Dear, Hrvatski, Jonas the Plugexpert, Edgey, Skitty, Paranoid Society, Chrissy Murderbot, Soundmurderer & SK1, Abyss, Furianga, Fushara, Two Ghosts, Scape, Acid Lab, Senses, Sileni, Fracture & Neptune, Kelle, Krusha, Arsenic, Myst, Friske, DBR UK, DJ K, KGBKid, IJO, Yellow Then Blue, Fada, Indidjinous, Centaspike, Malicious, Nic TVG, dgoHn, Dr Bastardo, DJ Floorclearer, Idoleast, Core Corp, Sighnature, Delphonik, Mystification, SaTan, Resound, Verb, Manifest, Devastate, Breaker, Najeem S, Sixteen Armed Jack, SPKTRM, Andy Malex, LFO Demon, Throttler, Suicide, Skull, Deformer, Lowcut, Krumble, Ladyscraper, Mirra & Fay, Atiq & Enk, NA, Istari Lasterfahrer, Archangel, Rotator, Venetian Snares, Stazma The Junglechrist, Sargy, Sativa & Destroy2K, ToneDeath, Cenabite, I:Gor, The Riot/Vector Burn, Krinjah, Lastboss, John Rolodex, Wisp, Saskrotch, Breakage, Palmatron, Enduser, Bombah, Mumblz, Skip, Teknoist, Amiga Shock Force, Desert Storm Breakcore Squad, Maladroit, Toecutter, Misanthrope (Aus), Fexomat, Tactical Aspect, NCQL, Warbreaker, Bonk, Patrick Currier, Marukomu, Dub Elements, Kjah, Deadman, Macc, J.Digital, D.T.A., DSP, Alec Empire, Temulent, Serum, Bladerunner, The DSC, Bong Selecta, Nanotek, Kill Switch, Greyone, Zombie, Switch Technique, Xpander, Cytech, Hostage, Brainwash, Brainpain, Detest, Circular D/Circular Dischage, Mistic, Nano.strike, Angry Teenagers Who Want To Kill People, Lactation Sandwich, Mr Foul, Producer SNAFU, VRS, Libido Airbag, IndianJunglist, Paulie Walnuts, The Arkitex, Jamin Nimjah, Empire X, Bazooka, Cryogenics, Ars Dada, Techdiff, Aftermask, D-Jahsta, Ironska - the list keeps going and going. Ninja Gaijin will be play 12pm-1am this Saturday, 19th of July 2014 at Laundry Bar, 50 Johnston St, Fitzroy. Going to be epic fun! You can also check out Ninja Gaijin’s latest mixes here: Soundcloud: https://soundcloud/ninja-gaijin Mix archive: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Ninja+Gaijin%22&sort=-publicdate Mixcloud: mixcloud/djninjagaijin/
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 03:57:47 +0000
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