ALL MASHED UP
Bootie is A Plus D, aka DJs Adrian and Mysterious D. Together, they show us how too much of two good things isn’t a bad thing; but a dope one. They front the first night club in the States dedicated to solely worship the art form that is the bootleg mashup – which now also happens to be the biggest event of its kind in the world. We chat up the duo from San Francisco on the eve of its local debut at Zouk (on 2 May).

So how did the two of you end up in the mashup scene?
It first started when we heard our first mashup – it was either 2manyDJs’ “Smells Like Booty” or Freelance Hellraiser’s “Stroke of Genius”, both were on a CD called “The Best Bootlegs In The World Ever.” It was reviewed by Entertainment Weekly magazine back in May 2002. I then went online to find it. We’d just started DJ-ing back then and mashups fit in with our very eclectic, all-over-the-map DJ style. It was love at first listen!

So tell us – what the hell is a mashup?
Also known as “bastard pop,” a bootleg is a song that’s “mashed-up.” Usually, this means the vocal track of one song is mixed over the instrumentation of another. Using audio editing software, DJs and mashup artists combine different artists and musical genres to create new and unique songs that are often greater than the sum of their parts. Imagine Michael Jackson rocking out with Nirvana, David Bowie crooning with MGMT, Madonna fronting Daft Punk, or Kanye West rapping with Beethoven, and many other unexpected combinations!

What else have you people been up to apart from touring?
We just did an exclusive mashup for UK indie-electro group The Young Punx, who provided the multi-track stems off their new album to a select group of producers so we could create a mashup version of the record. So we mashed them up with Lady Gaga’s brand new track “Telephone,” and make her sound like she’s in an indie-electro band.

What are the toys that you can’t get your hands off nowadays?
Adrian likes his Numark iDJ2, where you can DJ off of an iPod using actual DJ controls, but that already feels obsolete. We’ll soon be making the move to all-digital DJing, and the Stanton touch controller, which has no knobs or faders, it’s all touch-sensitive controls. I can’t wait to play with it! Either that, or wait until there’s a DJ controller application for the Apple iPad!

Bootie hits Zouk on 2 May – to get invited, click here and use the code “JUICE”!

www.bootiesingapore.com
www.bootiemashup.com
www.dope.sg

Interview courtesy of: MRDOPE