RCGNTN was fortunate enough to get to talk to DJ Kenneth Francis who demystifies DJ-ing. Now a proud father and husband, DJ Kenneth is the second person to be featured in Roots and gives us his definition of being a DJ. For a veteran, he is as honest as we expect him to be and definitely does not sugarcoat his facts which we can appreciate.
So you do genre experimentation?
Yeah, generally I’m a breakbeat DJ but I sometimes do house and other genres in order to get by in Singapore. I’m not saying I’m a sell-out but I do house, drum and bass and dub step. I’m known as a breaks DJ.
What do you mean by saying you’ve to do other things to get by?
It depends, if I play sessions, I play house, tech-house and maybe drum and bass; I play what I like. I play everything when I play at residences, I put all the genres together; you can’t play what you like and have to follow the guidelines of the club.
That is not something many of the younger generation’s DJs seem to understand. Do you think they are complacent?
I don’t think so, I think they didn’t have the right people to guide them; perhaps they were misled by the fame of being a DJ. We were lucky to grow up in the 80s and were exposed to mobile discos and played a lot of 80’s tunes; equivalent to today’s top 40s. We had different influences and learnt how to play drawing inspiration/ ideas from that.
Would you say the culture was richer then?
I wouldn’t say richer, because we didn’t have many channels like now you have the internet. These days you can Google your favourite genre and artist and follow his lifestyle which is becoming a problem. In those days we didn’t have much pocket money so whenever we bought cassettes and vinyls, we’d listen to every song in it, not just the single song the musician is known for. We cherished our music a lot. DJ-ing was also more of passion not lifestyle probably because of what we were going through in the 80s which influenced how we felt.
But isn’t that how it always starts out; you follow your favourite artist first then develop your own style?
That’s why I don’t go around telling people I’m a breakbeat DJ although I’m more known for playing breakbeats from all the sessions I’ve done in the past. My advice is not to conform and limit yourself to a particular genre; you need to open your eyes (or your ears) and listen to all types of music. It’s a learning process and even I continue to do so.
Are you intimidated by the younger generation? The public now tends to look up to the younger DJs instead of the veterans unless the latter are still active in the DJ scene.
Yeah, I suppose but then again I think only a few of the older ones are left. The rest are probably selling insurance, doing other stuff (laughs). It was not lucrative for certain people back then to survive solely on DJ-ing and when you start a family it’s not feasible because in this line you’re away a lot. If you’re doing sessions then it’s a different story, you would need a day job because the standard of living in Singapore is so high. Hence majority of DJs from the 80s mostly do sessions and are holding day jobs; not exactly living the life of a DJ. Maybe that’s the problem for the younger generation that they don’t know what it is like to survive on just a DJ salary. It’s not easy, unless you’re lucky enough to work in a club that pays you the amount based on your years of experience. Session wise, in Asia, we’re quite recognized and there are quite a few good producers around. Sadly most of them are underrated, possibly due to the lack of exposure and monetary issues.
But wouldn’t they have acquired the sufficient recognition given the number of years they have been in the scene?
For example I know this guy who is very good at producing music but is entirely out of the DJ scene. The reason why he isn’t was not due to lack of recognition but that he couldn’t see himself going anywhere. It was not easy for people to accept him. But as time goes on, it gets easier with the internet, I suppose.
What is the life cycle of a DJ? Do people get tired?
Brandon P, who’s 40plus years old ( I think), was someone I looked up to when I first started. During those days there were only a few DJs who were worth listening to (I’m not trying to insult anyone) and I picked up many things watching him play. He started in the early 80s. He’s also good at production and has some stuff for sale on Beatport which is an MP3 online store where you buy dance music. I think he’s the only one of the few left who started out in the early 80s, the rest are mostly doing production or other things.
How has experiencing unpredictable fame been?
In the 80s it was intense because there weren’t many DJs around. It was really different, you get treated a lot better, if you play in clubs they look after you and people know who you are. When you’re younger it’s mostly about recognition but as you progress in life it’s more of the satisfaction knowing you can hold the dancefloor and you get more serious about your music. Fame fizzles out and comes back again, I guess.
What is your current drive?
For me, it’s my family. I got a media degree in Australia after studying for 4 years. Honestly speaking, I only did that to please my parents, when I was younger I wasn’t interested in studying. A piece of advice I would like to give to the younger generation is to study because you always need something else to back you up and studying opens up your mind. People like to talk about drugs and drugs make music but dance music is intelligent music. I mean of course not all dance music is intelligent music; some people just cut and paste. Studying helps a lot as the knowledge you learn can contribute to the music you make.
I heard about Mesh Radio that you’re currently involved in, what’s that like?
It’s interesting and something different. It’s a good change because we can play what we want; Mesh Radio has different categories for the different types of music genres. For Joshua P and I, we’re both breakbeat DJs but sometimes in the show we don’t only play that because we want to give the audience a good mix of everything from tech-house to electro-house. However, we play breakbeats the majority of the time due to the slot we were given. At the moment Mesh Radio is taking a break because the studio is moving but we will be back in November.
How is it like working with Joshua P?
It’s great! I think chemistry is very important because when we’re on the radio nothing is scripted, we do things on the fly. I would agree and disagree on saying that doing things on the fly is unprofessional but we do it as it tends to be more natural. No matter how you do it, when people read from a script it tends to sound a little robotic.
How is the popularity of breakbeats now?
In layman terms, I think people can’t take 3 hours of breakbeats. They used to be able to do that in the 80s and 90s, I don’t know if it’s because of the big B word, but not now. You need to mix it up nowadays like I do with tech-house. I like tech-house, it’s something to play with; you need to work with the beats and it’s good with breakbeats. Tech-house, breakbeats and techno are all similar in terms of structure, based on the family tree of how music originated.
What is the one thing they should know about breakbeats?
Anything below 128 bpm, don’t buy. (laughs) I realized that a lot of people find it hard to dance to breakbeats, the best way to go is just to let your body flow. I get a lot of questions on that all the time. I mean, I’m not asking you to do the shuffle!
How will the Poptrash DJ course be like?
In regards of what I mentioned about the younger generation being misled, the Poptrash course will be very in depth. I don’t think we will do much hands-on in the first few lessons because I want them to first learn the history behind DJ-ing so they can Google and find the particular genre they like to see where it started from. That should be the way. I find that many people don’t have an in depth knowledge of what they play. For example, you say that you’re a nu-rave DJ but do you know where nu-rave came from? Even for trance DJs nowadays, it’s still 4/4, so you really have to know your music.
What should a DJ who is starting out be prepared for?
Hand and ear coordination, especially when you’re catching your beats. It depends on what course you want; turntables or CDs. Turntables are more of a hands-on thing, so don’t be afraid to put your hands on the platter. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because I learnt things that way too. A lot of people are also worried about not being techy and knowing how to handle the equipment, don’t worry we’ll guide you through. Though I have to admit that DJ-ing is more ‘colorful’ these days with so many mixer and CDJ buttons.
Any last words?
Be true to yourself; people can call you a sell-out but as long as you know what you’re doing don’t bother, that is a ‘rubbish’ word. I know there are a lot of people out there who say it, worst of all, some of them are “friends”.
Do check out his myspace as well as meshradio.
