DJ B: Again, from reading your bio, I was kind of intrigued to see that you started out really as like a battle DJ doing turntablist kind of stuff. That's kind of an interest of mine as well, I was wondering do you still keep up with that kind of stuff? I mean, are you like a Koala fan or...?
Bad Boy Bill: I mean I know QBert and Mix Master Mike and Rectangle. The stuff they're doing now is a whole other level from when I used to battle and the stuff that I was doing. But, I've grown away from it, I mean I still respect it, I still love it, I think it's amazing. But unless you practice twenty-four hours a day and that's your life, like for Craze and all these guys, it's a different mentality. Now I'm more focused on programming and blending and rocking the party and staying on top of my music. But I still love that art form, I still think it's a lot of fun, and that's why I still incorporate scratching and tricks into my sets. When I started out, I didn't just start out battling in hip-hop, I started out by playing house music and dance music, and electronic music and European music. But I've always had that little bit of technique where it's been cutting and doing tricks for records and always buying two copies of every record.
DJ B: I love that kind of stuff, and I was reading an interview with Kid Koala and he was saying he's actually working on trying to be able to build up melody lines with scratching records.
Bad Boy Bill: Absolutely.
DJ B: And he says that the problem is, is he can get it going but that he just, the muscles in his arms just won't let him keep it up for any length of time and it just collapses him. But that's his goal to be able to actually do melodies with scratching, and I just think that's just amazing to even try to do something like that.
Bad Boy Bill: No, absolutely man, that's just phenomenal. When you watch these guys work it's just, it blows you away, and I have nothing but respect for them.
DJ B: Well, speaking of respect, I guess the other thing I wanted to say to you before I forget is that I owe you a kind of debt of gratitude. When I showed up to do my show on Sunday I had forgotten to bring my stuff with me and I had your CD in the player in my car, so while I ran back to my place, which is about twenty minutes each way, I dropped in your Behind The Decks disc so you basically covered the first fifty minutes of my show for me this weekend.
Bad Boy Bill: That's nice.
DJ B: And I mean, there was like twenty-nine different tracks in just under fifty minutes, and it all flowed really smoothly. I was really amazed at the way we were able to take so many different pieces of music and just make one continuous mix out of it.
Bad Boy Bill: Right, thank you, I appreciate it. Yes, I mean that's the trick. I try to keep it interesting but keep it smooth as well and where it flows, it doesn't sound like it's chopping from one thing to the next. That's the balance, basically trying to make it sound as smooth as possible.
DJ B: It's really a wide range of people and everybody from like DJ Rap to Junior Jack, there's some Latin stuff. It looks like you got a chance to use some of Steve's music, I mean do you guys collaborate a lot? I notice he's touring with you.
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, he tours with me and he's at the studio working every week, so it's just a good atmosphere. I've got two big ProTools studios and between JJ, Bam Bam, Steve, and myself, it a network of good, cool people. We all bounce ideas off of each other and we're always working and trying to make the best music we can.
DJ B: Are you guys like all friends from the old days in Chicago or…?
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, we've all known each other for a while now. I don't know what the old days are but yes, we've been friends for a minute. And like I said, I mean it's just like a good atmosphere and a real positive vibe. So that's why I think a lot of music that's coming out is sounding good and people are really responding to it.
DJ B: So, do you want to talk a little bit about the Behind The Decks project, the CD, the DVD and the tour that you're doing?
Bad Boy Bill: Absolutely. The CD and the DVD, I mean the whole concept is more based on the DVD, Behind The Decks was basically just meant to be my live show and a way to bring it home, because I've been incorporating live visuals during my sets for the last like maybe a year and a half, two years. And that was the main thing, I just wanted to bring that visual experience, put it onto some sort of packaging and let the people bring it home. With the DVD capabilities, and now with the 5.1 and the DTS, I just felt that it was the right time to do that. And then, there was a lot of stuff that I had footage of, of behind the scenes stuff of us traveling in various place like Germany and going to Colombia and I thought people would be really interested in seeing all that. So we really focused a lot on the DVD, and I figured, when people bought it, they'd want to pop it in their car stereo and hear it immediately so that's why we threw the CD into it as well.
