RS: What exactly is the difference between drum and bass and
jungle, or is there a difference?
AK 1200: I mean at the end of the day jungle is the traditionalist
music, the more urban type and drum and bass is what it's called
today. It's all basically the same thing. The only reason you don't
call it jungle anymore is because there's a lot of techy stuff out
there and a lot of darker, synth-based stuff, whereas all the jungle
stuff was more sample based with ragga, hip-hop, and funk samples.
Drum and bass adds kicks, snares, syncopated patterns, and washy
synths with layered bass lines and stuff like that. Jungle was more
of like a sub-sine wave bass with a big, heavy sub bottom that was
just rolling through, and drum and bass went beyond that and started
getting into the noisier side.
RS: Are you playing the more jump up or the more darker sound of D&B?
AK 1200: Planet of the Drums as a whole covers the entire spectrum of
the field. We play some light tunes, some hard tunes, and we play a
lot of middle of the ground stuff. We play a lot of anthems and a lot
of unknowns - we try to cover the entire spectrum of jungle and drum
and bass. To be more specific: Dara is more known as jump up sort of
DJ, Damien Diesel Boy is more known as a hard, dark DJ, and I'm more
known as like a roller, drum and bass rolling dance floor stuff. When
we each get together, we sort of feed off of one another and play a
bit of everything.
RS: So you, Diesel Boy, and Dara started the show, how did
Messinian become part of it?
AK 1200: Messinian came on the second year of tour. The first year we
had a guy named Dub Two who was Damien's MC, and the second year
Messinian, who was a resident at Damien's drum and bass weekly called
Platinum. He was just basically one of the MCs that would show up and
MC for a little while. We had plans on getting a UK MC from Metal
Heads named MC Rage for the second year, but his paperwork got messed
up and he got held up at customs and got turned back and sent back to
England. At the last minute we called on Messinian and he packed his
bags and was ready to go. From there on he's been, one of the crew.
RS: On the tour has there been a city that you've turned up at
and just surprised that the response was so big?
AK 1200: There's been a lot of places where we've just been amazed by
the reception. Earlier on, it it was Puerto Rico. Every city has its
phases, you know what I mean? The only city that I think has
maintained its strength with drum and bass for the eight years every
time we've played has been LA. Everywhere else it's give and take,
some years are good, some years are bad. We've played a couple of
weird cities that you wouldn't expect to be good but were actually
good like Iowa City. Dallas is always good, DC is always like in the
top two or three of our markets. San Diego's always good. Seattle's
always good. Nashville's been really good to us. All the main
markets are always good. Denver's always good. Orlando's always been
good.
RS: Is there any plans to take this international?
AK 1200: We did one Belgium date but other than that it's just really
hard to get it booked. It's four flights, work visas, and all that
stuff that's sort of difficult. I mean, maybe if we got to a point
where there was such a high demand for it which, who knows, who's to
say. We'll go wherever we're booked, but at the end of the day we
feel sort of obligated to keep it in North America, as high impact as
it can get, with as much momentum as it can get as that's where our
dedication is. We each play outside of the US on our own individually
and that's just not the same thing. There's people that truly really
appreciate us and everything we've done over here and all the
opportunities we've given the up and coming DJs. If we were to go
anywhere else, these are places that are already established and our
whole point was to sort of to establish the scene.
RS: Are there any other plans to put together the DVD or CD for the tour?
AK 1200: We've gone back and forth on that a million times and I think
the most likely scenario, if at all possible, would be a DVD set at
some point, but we're still waiting. We're eight years on our own
budget with no sponsor. This is the first year we actually even have
a magazine sponsoring us and that's more of a coverage thing. We've
done this out of our own pockets for the last eight years and the only
way we could actually afford to hire an extra guy to come on to record
us would with some sort of sponsorship.
RS: What magazine is sponsoring y'all right now?
AK 1200: Rinse Mag - www.rinsemag.com.
RS: What do you want to say to all your fans out there?
AK 1200: Thank you for your support over the years. Keep on coming and
support your local scenes and make sure you check out your local DJs,
artists and weeklies. They're the ones that keep the scene alive and
it's not just about us, it's most importantly about the local events.
If they do that then they're contributing to the scene and it makes
everybody's job a whole lot easier.
Posted - May 29, 2007
