DJ Swamp is known for his weird and outrageous acts on stage in the DJ competitions. From his hometown of Ohio he took on thousands of DJ’s in the U.S.A. at the 1996 American Technics DJ Championships for the first time and took the crown. He now has many DJ Battle Records released around the world and being a very versatile DJ he is now touring with BECK to take on the alternative crowd. His solo performance at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney set the crowd wild with records juggling while at the same time scratching with many parts of his body. From his innovative and creative ideas he thought of an idea for a Battle Record which will take the DJ world by storm. This record contains only 3 Samples per side, and is basically ‘Skip proof’. This means that no matter where you land the stylus on the record, you will hear the same sample. By using this record, you can scratch as hard as you like and will seem like it never skips a groove as each groove contains the same sample. This Battle record will be released in Australia early May. I caught up with him for a quick chat when he came in to teach at the United DJ School.

How long have you been a DJ ?
10 Years

Which DJ’s Inspired you ?
DJ Squatter D,
Mix Master Fresh,
DJ Q.R.S.T.U.V.,
DJ SL 1200 Mk2,
DJ Sony Sone,
DJ Digery Doo,
DJ Space-Witch.

What projects will you be involving in the near future ?
Skip Proof Scratch tool. Beck Album.

What are your 5 favorite tunes of all time ?
Follow the leader,
Natural Born Killers,
Ugly people be quiet,
Boys in the Hood (Easy E),
Dankeshin (Englebert Humperdink)

What are your 5 favorite Battle tunes ?
Swamp Breaks,
Skip proof Record,
Anything by RUN DMC or LL Cool J,
Cartoon Records,
Sound Effect Records.

When did you first get involved with the DMC competitions ?
1996.

What did you think of the DJ Convention in Italy ?
The Pizza is better in the states..

In your opinion, what qualities are needed to become a world champion DJ ?
Originality period.....

From your tour you have seen the Australian Hip Hop culture and talent that exist here. How would you compare it to the standards from around the world ?

For my particular taste, it’s one of the better scenes. Better than I expected ! DJ’s here seem to put a lot of time into it and are into more aggressive tactics.

How did you get involved with Beck ?
I heard Beck was coming to Cleveland and I went down to the venue during the day, waited outside all day to see him, but never got to. but managed to meet his tour manager and gave him a demo tape of me scratching to beck’s songs. Didn’t think much of it. then couple of months later, I got a call from Beck asking me to come out to L.A. and try out for the band, and a week later I was on tour, and been on tour for a year now.

When do you think you will be coming back ?
As soon as I learn to throw a boomerang.

© 2008 DJsUnited.