Rodi Style interview for Slinky in Bournemouth

Rodi Style will be DJ’ing in the Slinky Hard room on May the 1st as part of our double-birthday celebrations.  He’s a name that is becoming increasingly well know with hard dance clubbers having won Best Newcomer at the 2008 Hard Dance Awards.  He is also renowned for his deck-trickery and manic performance.  Slinky caught up with him for a few questions:

1. Hey Rodi, let’s get straight into this with some hard-hitting questions.  Where are you currently, what’s playing on your stereo, and most importantly has your credit been crunched or are living the high life as an international superstar DJ should be?

Hi Slinky!  I am sitting at home in my studio in Manchester right now listening to a house remix I just finished for Toolbox House.  I am making sure there’s no weird elements or strange happenings in it before I fire over the final to the label.  My credit is doing alright as is not as crunched as lots of other people but I am certainly not living the high life.  I wish!

2. You moved over to the UK last year from your native Canada, and in fact lived in Bournemouth for a bit.  How have you settled into English life?  In particular were there any culture shocks?

I think I’ve settled in now and have gotten used to calling garbage cans “bins” and car trunks “boots” and throwing the random “bollox” and “sound” into my vocabulary.  The culture shock wasn’t too bad although I almost got ran over a few times crossing the road and not carefully looking both ways.

3. You’re playing for Slinky on our 12th Birthday, and we’re holding two parties.  You’ll be DJ’ing on the second date and also making your Opera House debut.  I would imagine you’ll have a few surprises lined-up for the Slinky clubbers, so is there anything you’d care to share?

I’m very excited to finally get to play at the Opera House and as it is a birthday party, I will be putting together something very special for the occasion.  I haven’t quite decided on what yet but I’ve got a few ideas!  Regardless, I am really looking forward to it!

4. I notice you’re in a band in your native Canada which I’d like to know more about.  Not only that but when exactly do you get time to practice or even gig with these guys?  

Well at the minute all we’ve really done is made some tracks and slowly moved towards our goal of completing an album.  It’s more of a pop group so everything is sequenced and synthesized so we don’t have to practice at the minute… and aren’t well known enough to get shows as Sound Language.  

We’re just trying to make enjoyable music that even our parents can enjoy.  Although my parents fully support me, I don’t think they really enjoy or understand hard house haha.  Check out our Myspace page on http://www.myspace.com/soundlanguagemusic to hear some of our tracks!

5. You’re signed to the Tidy roster which is quite simply the biggest hard house label in the World.  How did you manage to join such illustrious company as that’s one hell of a gig!

I made my debut at the 12th weekender including a very last minute impromptu two track mix in the Queen Vic which I would probably point to as the turning point in my career as I must have done something right at that moment.  

I did try quite hard to make a splash including standing on the table and scratching.  Big thanks to Kieron for suggesting I drop two tracks during the Tidy dirty dozen fun times!

6. Do you have any ambitions, whether they’re related to the dance music industry or outside in normal life, what might they be?

Dance music industry-related I would really like to expand my house alias a bit more this year and make an artist album in hard house.  I’ve got loads of ideas that I think would sound great for an album but may not translate into dance floor killers.  However I think they’d really work in an album context.  

In the normal life area, I’d really like to become a British citizen and not have to worry about work visas anymore.

7. Many people (mostly nerdy) have said you’re one of the most technically DJs they’ve seen.  But let’s cut to the chase, what exactly does that mean?  Surely from one DJ to another you just simply mix… or is there something different about a Rodi Style set?

Hmm, I suppose I don’t really just purely mix as I like to do a lot of trickery, scratching and fx stuff…  really geeky stuff on the efx and equipment!  I get bored quite easily if I’m standing around doing nothing at all.  If the table is sturdy enough and I know I won’t “break the rave”, I will on occasion hop on the table and do a bit of feet scratching on the CDJs as well.

8. There are a lot of new DJs who are coming through at the moment and seem to be getting the support of the big events. Which DJs and producers do you feel are the next big thing in hard dance?

Jordan Suckley, who’s getting some great recognition now that he’s signed to PFA and all, is still one of those DJs that impresses me everytime I see him play and he is going to go very far.  

Also the guys over at Escape in Swansea (Rob Davies & Will Rees) are also very talented crowd rockers!

9. We’ve been asking DJs recently what they would do if they were PM for the day, given the current economical and political climate. If there was a Prime Minister Style, what would he be doing right now?

Grant me a Green Card and citizenship perhaps !

10. Last but not least, please name us five famous Canadians as I personally can only think of Mike Myers.  Are there any more?

Hmm.. well there’s always Pamela Anderson, Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder), Deadmau5, Jim Carrey and Elisha Cuthbert.  Reprazent!

11. Actually I’ve just thought of another one, Celine Dion.  What do you think of her, any good?  

Everyone including myself crack jokes about her but she’s probably laughing at all of us while sitting on a huge mountain of money. I wanna be able to write hit commercial songs haha!

12. Cheers for the interview, we’re looking forward to having you at Slinky so without further ado I will you have the last word:

Please visit http://www.djrodistyle.com for goodies, free mixes, and up to date info on all things rodi style !  And I will see you guys on May 1st!!

More info @ http://www.slinky.co.uk.