At RV, we have a company subscription to receive the monthly CD releases from Fabric Live. For those who don’t know, the 42nd installment of the series was mixed by FreQ Nasty. If you haven’t heard it, I’m not sure I can accurately describe it for you. It’s a very different mix, which suggested (to me) it was created by a very different artist. With these thoughts in mind, I jumped at the opportunity to bring you an exclusive interview of FreQ Nasty, the man with an eye-catching hairstyle and ear-catching sound…Enjoy!
Q: It’s really a pleasure to be able to interview you. There’s a lot of industry buzz about FreQ Nasty right now, but let’s go back to the beginning…You were born in Fiji. Can you tell me how and when you started getting into electronic music? …and who were some of your most important early influences?
A: The first electronic record I remember hearing was at school when Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines” came out. I was just a kid and led a pretty sheltered NZ lifestyle, so I probably didn’t know it was about drugs…but the beats blew me away. The early days of hip hop are in part the roots of electronic dance music…but the first proper “electronic dance music” tune I remember buying was Baby Ford’s “Oochy Koochy.” I actually found the etched 12” in a shop in the UK years later, and it still sounded DOPE – acid house with huge bass. I remember reading in the (three-month-old) press that got to NZ that this record was notorious for destroying pre-electronic-music sound systems in London in the acid house days. Fucking brilliant record!
