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Honing his Kraft

Acclaimed electronica DJ brings up-tempo, funky breaks back to town
1524kraft
Art Electronic DJ Krafty Kuts steps up to the decks this weekend at Tommy Africa's

Who: Krafty Kuts

When: Sunday, June 15, 9:30 p.m.

Where: Tommy Africa’s

Tickets: $20

Martin Reeves, also known as Krafty Kuts within the world of electronica, is bringing his funky breaks back to Whistler this weekend.

As of Tuesday, Krafty was getting ready for shows in Banff, Vancouver, Victoria and Saskatoon before heading back up to Whistler for his show on Sunday at Tommy Africa’s.

While his career has taken him all over the world, Krafty, who is originally from Brighton, said he still finds B.C. is his favourite place to visit.

“B.C. for me is where it’s at,” he said. “I think the women are incredible, I think the scenery is beautiful, I think the food is great, shopping’s brilliant.”

He last performed in Whistler last July, playing to a sold-out show at Tommy Africa’s. Now, he’s set to play at Tommy’s again this Sunday.

“I look forward to Whistler every time, and there hasn’t been a dull moment in Whistler for me, so, touch wood, I expect the same. It’s a special place for me to visit, and I’ve made a lot of good friends there,” he said.

A former breakdancer, Krafty made his debut as a total novice DJ almost 15 years ago, stepping up onto the stage to enter a DJ competition. He shocked everyone by making it into the finals.

“I just found DJing was much more in tune with me, and music was where it was at for me, and that was where my life changed,” he explained.

With that single experience under his belt, Krafty began honing his craft.

“I just discovered funk, disco, soul, dance, hip hop, the whole lot, and that was it,” he said.

He didn’t immediately find his niche — it took a lot of experimenting and self-education.

“I was into hip hop for a long period of time, and for me it got rather boring, and when the gangster rap sort of thing came in and it was all about bitches and hos and stuff like that, it just didn’t appeal to me,” Krafty explained. “… I needed a more up-tempo form of music.”

During the late 1990s, he began getting into breaks and developing his own energized beats that really seemed to appeal to his audiences.

“I realized, that’s it, this is where I’m at, this is my passion, this is my desire, this is where I’m going,” he said.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that he’d worked at a record shop for years.

“I gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom from that,” Krafty admits. “It taught me a lot about how to understand people and what they want to hear, and when’s the right time to drop it, and what emotions music gives off, and how it can change you.”

His music certainly has transformed the dance scene, and people’s lives, over the years.

“I feel very honoured that the power of music coming from me can be that strong and that’s what I’m about,” he said. “I love and live for music, hence why I’m single and unfortunately never give my time to any woman, not because I don’t want to, but my love for music just kind of overpowers everything else in my life.”

It’s pretty tough to settle down with the kind of schedule he’s on — he has 14 tour dates in the month of June alone and has his own record labels — Against the Grain and Supercharged Music — that he launched back in early 2000.

But he didn’t actually release his first solo album, Freak Show , until 2006.

“It took some time,” he explained. “I think I felt that if I was going to do something, I had to do it and it had to be memorable.”

The end result was a diverse, well-rounded album that boasts an impressive list of collaborators, including MC Dynamite, Tim Deluxe and Yolanda.

And Krafty still feels he has room to grow as an artist — he aspires to the heights of Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada, Pendulum, and Fatboy Slim.

“Sometimes you can strike a one-hit wonder, but to constantly do it is quite difficult,” he added.

New DJs, or at least ones looking to make a career out of their music, need to really study the style of music they want to play, and practice.

“Just get to grips with exactly what you’re playing and make sure that it’s the music that you can be with for a long period of time, and really learn how to be better and different from the other DJs,” Krafty advised.

Now, he’s started work on his second solo album, but finds he’s spending more time touring than in the studio, because downloading has made it really difficult to make money selling albums.

Krafty seems like a relatively laid-back character, but he’s pretty passionate about the issue of pirated music. He doesn’t download, and only accepts files from other artists who want their music played during a set.

“I think that there needs to be a big shakeup,” he said. “I think people need to realize, people who really… love music need to take a step back and say, ‘look, we all are killing music by downloading people’s music for free.’”

While many artists seem to have resigned themselves to giving their music away for free in hopes that people will be encouraged to come to their live shows, Krafty points out that people would create more music if they were able to spend more time in the studio.

Despite the problems with pirated music, Krafty has seen breakbeat grow in leaps and bounds, especially in Canada, over recent years. But he said there’s still some room to grow.

“Canada is not actually realizing the potential that it, clubbing-wise, has,” he added. “People want to party in Canada, and it never used to be like that. It always used to be known as this place of beauty, and people get drunk and watch hockey… it’s now one of the clubbing capitals of the world.”

While our rave scene has died down a bit, Krafty said it’s promising to see events like Shambhala Music Festival and Pemberton Festival springing up, because they allow people to explore different types of music in a great environment.