Ninja Tunes

What's it all about?

It's going to be on Spike TV. They get up-and-coming producers and DJs and give them two songs to remix in a short period of time, and they have to turn it into a hit with basic equipment. The judges are really famous music-industry people and stars. It's credible; it's not cheesy shit.

More important, how has your ninjitsu training impacted the music you're making?

I've been doing it for five years.

Wow. Can you make yourself invisible yet?

That's the art of being a ninja, isn't it? I'm going to tour with the Art of War, a martial-arts group. The whole show is choreographed, and I do all of the music and incorporate some of those skills as well. It's really amazing what these cats can do. It's like watching The Matrix set to dance music. But what I'm really excited about is the club, Hush Hush at the Monday Night Social in L.A. DJs come to the club and play stuff they've never played before. People know they're going to see all the DJs there having a laugh and getting drunk, just having fun. It's where we can let loose and have a lot of fun.

Are you releasing tracks online?

Yeah, on Inta-Talent. I'm feeling passionate about breaks because I'm spinning so much, and it has to do with me doing the club night and wanting to do something different, and I've got radio shows on XM and on Q101 in Chicago. I fell in love with the whole breakbeat thing and started making it. It's something I'm doing for fun, and, as usual, when you do something out of passion, it ends up being a good thing.

There seems to be a lot of genre-blending going on in your work.

I've been doing this since 1988. My first album had songs on it. I've never been about playing one style of music, and that's why I continue to push the envelope. I wear a lot of hats, and I like lots of different music. I don't eat the same thing every day, and it would drive me fucking crazy if I had only one style of music to work with. Boredom is my worst enemy. I start drinking and getting all fucked up, so I need to entertain myself and keep myself busy mentally.

Are you bored with drum and bass?

Sometimes it's good, sometimes it isn't. It's increasingly hard to maneuver in that scene, what with everybody being so precious about a fucking dub plate, which leads me to be more creative in other areas.

How has that community responded to your new music?

I couldn't give two fucks how people respond. So long as the people I'm playing to respond, I don't give a shit. It's not a scene where people care about each other or get together and try to create something. There are probably five people in that scene that are really great to work with. I work with more people in the house scene than I do with people in my own genre, which probably speaks volumes.