Sauce

He’s coming down, in leaps and bounds – straight to your town, ready to get down, it’s Nino Brown! Wow, that was lame. Moving right on, the man who thinks turntable-ism is an art form and has a habit for proving it is heading southward with Ken Hell, having just won a second Urban Music Award. He told me how he lets loose.

At what point does partying all the time as a job just become a job?
Well, you’re absolutely right. Don’t get me wrong – I love what I do. But when I’m out at a club DJing … for the most time, it is serious business, and I am there to do a job. But I’m an entertainer, you know? But I’m not getting drunk; I’m not carrying on – I’m there to do a job, and do the best job I can and make everyone have a good time.

So how much more do you let loose when you get a chance to not have to be “that guy”, who’s giving everyone else a good time?
I like to let loose, but I don’t always do it at a nightclub, because that’s where I’m always working. So it’s like, if you were a lawyer, you wouldn’t want to go and let loose in the courtroom.

So how do you let loose?
Man, I like to have a few drinks and party with my friends, you know? Go to bars and restaurants and all that kind of stuff. Just living the good life, you know? I’m just a regular dude, and I do the DJ thing … that’s how I make a living, you know?

So now that you’ve won this award for the second time in a row, let’s look back on your life – what are some of the pivotal experiences you had growing up that make you the hip-hop artist you are today?
Just a real passion for the music I think is what does it, you know? I’ve always done it because I love the music, not for anything else. I see a lot of DJs these days get on because they see people like myself doing big things, and they want to do those things, rather than … if you’re just loving your music, and loving the art-form of DJing and turntable-ism, then things are going to happen. You feel good at it; you put the effort in. The more work you put in, the more it’s going to reward you back. That kind of thing. Like, ten years ago, if you’d asked me, “do you think you’ll ever do this and this and this,” I would have said “No, I’m happy just doing my couple of gigs, and doing what I do.”

So what would be the one track, or one artist, that really inspired you to follow this passion?
Well I’m a huge fan of Snoop Dogg. The first concert I ever DJ’d was for Snoop Dogg in 1998, and that was a bit of a turning point – like, “Wow, this could be really big!” I’d just come second that year at the DMC, so I was pretty excited about that. And I was just kind of like, “Wow, I’d like to do this forever”. So I really put my mind to it.

In your press kit, you mention that “there are turntablists, and those who rock parties and clubs.” I think we touched on that a little bit earlier, but what do you see as the difference between the two?
Well you’ve got some party DJs who don’t really mix. They just put on songs – they’re like a human jukebox, you know? And then you’ve got some turntablists who are phenomenal at doing five-minute demonstration shows, but they’re not really great at doing parties. I think my niche is kind of incorporating the two, and making it an exciting show and an event, rather than just being a DJ.

What sort of things can we look forward to seeing at your live shows, or hearing?
Well at the show we’re going to be doing in Hobart, there’s going to be myself and Ken Hell – we’re promoting his new single Truck which is out on Blazin Records. It’s just going to be a very interactive hip-hop experience, with me DJing. There’s going to be a lot of chanting and singing along with the crowd. And then, Ken Hell is going to be performing some of his remixes of some of the major songs that people know and love, and also he’s going to be performing the single Truck, which has done huge on radio around Australia … He’s got a cover of Fergie’s Fergilicious; his alter-ego, Take It Easy Heezy, has got a version of that called Wogalicious, which he’ll be performing. It’s kind of like a pisstake … it’s pretty amusing and very clever.

Nino Brown plays Curly’s Bar in Hobart on the 14th of September with Ken Hell.

Listen to the full interview Below