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.