Krafty Kuts interview: The Bass Phenomenon 'Tells Us How He Feels'

Krafty Kuts, a.k.a Martin Reeves, a.k.a one of the most talked about break beats operators in the game today, is no stranger to Australian shores. Dominating the scene for over a decade, he has graced our clubs and festival stages more times than Eddie McGuire's commentated football games. Mixing a broad variety of musical genres, his sound combines everything from light hearted funk to underground breaks. And it is Krafty Kuts musical style that has gained him notoriety amongst peers and punters alike, spurned many a copycat and provided the highlight of countless breaks-fiend's evening out.
Coming out again this month to headline the much anticipated Parklife festival, Krafty Kuts is looking forward to revisiting some of his favourite audiences and to working on his tan once he hits Port Douglas in a couple of weeks.
Enjoying a cup of tea in his house in Brighton, the man himself took time out to say g'day to Kate LeMessurier.

You've mentioned in a previous interview that you draw a lot of inspiration from the Australian crowds. Is that part of the reason you tour here so frequently-
Yeah. I think there's a good energy between the two. At the end of the day, I come out to Australia and I don't take it for granted. It's important to myself for me to perform at my highest level, and to give to people exactly what they'd want on a good night out, and that's what I try to do. I try and play forward thinking beats for forward thinking people

You play a broad variety of music on your CDs and during your live performances. Is there a particular flavour you'll be steering towards on this upcoming tour and with the new record, 'Freak Show'-
It varies, I'm more on the Breaks tip at the moment while the new record has a diverse range of Latin, Disco, Hip Hop and Funk fuelled stuff. But also I'm all about the vibe; so I let the people do the talking - if there's a really good energy and vibe in there (at a gig) then I'll just take (the crowd) on a musical journey or I can just give them exactly what they want.

And that's what I'm all about. I love entertaining people, I love putting smiles on faces, I'm all about the ladies. Getting the ladies on the dancefloor and creating a nice vibe in the room. If you just go in there and start playing, or don't really care it won't work. Ozzie's are very clued up. You guys get involved when you see someone putting the hard work and energy in.

How much longer do we have to wait until the album comes out- I know it's been slow off the presses (we've been waiting all year!!)
It's been terrible! Lots of issues with sample clearances and they always take time. Emails from major record companies, saying they'll deal with this in such and such a time frame, so really that took around three months, and then there's the artwork. We had to find someone that we felt would be really good for this project. You spend two years on an album, you want it to look as good as it sounds. And we wanted to do things the right way.We didn't want to put out an album full of uncleared samples and wind up in court, so we made sure we cleared all the samples on that.

Funnily enough, I got the finished product yesterday, and I felt so proud. I thought, 'my god this is my first solo album', the artwork looks amazing, I'm really happy with the tracks, really happy with the final product. I just can't wait for it to come out now. It has been too long, but maybe good things come to those who wait, and I feel that the whole project has come together really nicely. And it's happened at a perfect stage in my career where I've released two of the strongest singles of my life in Bass Phenomenon and Tell Me How You Feel. With Freakshow and the rest of the album coming out at the end of September, it'll be a good time 'cos that's bang in the middle of when the tour really starts hotting up with 'Parklife'.

You've collaborated with a number of arti

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• Krafty Kuts
• Parklife06