I know the pose and bike is as hipster as it gets, and the grafiti
background is pretty tacky, but I still quite like this picture!
(Just be happy it's not the one with his sunglasses!)
Click on the picture to see some other shots I took of him!
Sup? Been a while since my last interview, but I'm back with another one, and this one has more goodies than the other ones ever did! Firstly it's got piercing questions with answers that give you an insight into the life of house DJ/producer Lukas Lyrestam, better known as Stupidrichkidz.
He's also given us a new free tune to download and dance to! Last goodie is he's done a photoshoot with me. Anyway that's enough chatter from me. Well apart from the when I ask the questions...
So are you really stupid and rich? How did stupidrichkidz start?
The name really should be stupid poor kids, as I never seem to have
any money. The name is reflective of the music I play, which is all
about indulging yourself without having to worry about careers, money
etc. Stupid rich kids just have it too easy!
You seem a bit dare-devil-ish. Most stupid thing you've ever done at a gig?
Two years ago I was playing a new years gig in the Phillipines. At
the stroke of midnight a gorgeous french girl snuck into the DJ Booth
and gave me a proper snog. The stupid thing about it was probably not
finding her afterwards and giving her my number.
What's your musical background and which artists/genres
do you gain your inspiration from?
I've been involved with music from a very early age. At school I was
very involved with musicals and all sorts of performance related
material. It soon led to me pursuing a vocal career singing with the
local jazz band/choirs and even a singing competition
in Holland. I've been playing guitar for about 8 years now and played in
a large number of bands when I was younger. I was a real guitar wanker
but couldn't pull off a career in the heavy metal scene with my generic
Swedish curls. Recently I've found myself
admiring the work of 80's outfits such as The Police, Prince, and Simply
Red.
I would describe your music as funky chords with punchy kicks which
gives it a really nice, very danceable balance! Is that what you would
say you intend to do with your music or am I putting words in your mouth?
That's one way of describing the sort of stuff I do. I fell in love
with dance music because of electro but the longer I keep doing it, it
becomes more and more important for me that the music is groovy and
forward thinking. I love a bit of bang but I'm
not going to sacrifice dance-ability for noise. Coming from a deeply
harmonic musical background I'm also a big fan of chords, it's the sort
of thing that gets the hairs on your neck standing up.
Is there any sort of feeling or 'journey' (as all the djs on the
essential mix seem to put it) you want the people on the dance floor to
be going through when you play out?
There's a lot of very good music out but often people are too lazy to
search for it or don't know where to find it. I feel it's my job to
educate these people and show them what they are missing, to stop them
polluting their ears with meaningless GaGa Guetta
shit. Feeling the general atmosphere of the night I try and push the
boundaries of what people know, without alienating the vibe or killing
the groove. I'm always keeping an eye on the floor because at the end of
the day, dance music is all about enjoying yourself
and forgetting about everyday life.
Where would you say the house scene is at right now? As diverse as it is
and can be, it doesn't really seem to be catering for people on the
heavier end of the bass scale (I personally, am still waiting for a
fidget house comeback...) at the moment
Over the last year in particular house music is slowly reinventing
itself and drawing influence from soul, jazz, and hip-hop rather then
indie, punk, or metal. The large influx of banger inspired music since
the rise of electro around 2007/2008 saturated
the sound and gave rise to a large number of sub-standard impersonators.
Personally I feel America in particular killed electro. Banger fixated
culture has slowly made it more important how loud and dirty a track
rather than it's general musicality. If you
listen to the fathers of the banger sound (Justice, Daft Punk,
Digitalism etc) the songwriting comes first, and the bass second. This
an aesthetic that I wish more producers would adopt. When people start
realizing this we will see a return to high quality
bass music.
Another similar development has occured in dubstep. The deep and
absorbing sounds of Skream's earlier work and Burials first and second
album show a great modesty and acceptability, which is a shame since an
exposure to the mainstream has warped dubstep into
a noise oriented beast. Characters like Skrillex (whom I'm not a very
great fan of) have butchered the original aesthetics of dance music and
ruined it's enjoyability by making it a business and not an art.
House, Disco, and Techno in particular are having such a resurgence at
the moment because people are rejecting the plastic and often forced
sounds of Skrillex, Magnetic Man, Etc. What I personally see happening
is labels like Sound Pellegrino, Made To Play
and Turbo embracing the best bits of house and disco with elements of
the heavier end of the bass scale. This is a movement of which I
completely agree with and strive to be part of. Have a listen to my British Summer Mixtape to get what I'm talking
about.
How do you know the guys from not nice?
During my gap year I spent about 3 or 4 months living in Beijing.
After a few pilled up and regrettable nights out I started making
buddies with the local dancing music crews. I originally met Tom's
sister Alice first but after realizing that we were both
DJ's it was love at first sight. I booked him to play Ministry of Sound
last September and noticed we are all about that heart-breaker sound.
And finally are there any artists you'd like to introduce to us that deserve the exposure?
Nu-Disco and Future Garage has been making some serious appearances
in my cd-case as of late. I'd advise you to check out the warped sounds
of Canblaster and the post-dub hype of Evil Nine. But I couldn't end
this interview without bigging up the most underrated
artist of all time, Siriusmo. This guy makes the most heartfelt and
fulfilling music ever.
Big thanks to Stupid Rich Kids for being up for this! Make sure you look at the links bellow for the photoshoot, free music from Stupid Rich Kids as well as his deets especially if you're that gorgeous French that girl he met in the Phillipines!
ciao
