Although not endorsed by a popular brand of cheese slices, Krafty debuted with a bang after winning a DJ contest at age 17 back when people had big hair and shoulder pads and he has grown from strength to strength since.

His hip-hop roots and love of jazz, funk and soul helped him create a funky breakbeat machine with a revved-up old-skool engine under the hood.

Besides being a supremely well-versed DJ (he only has a record collection of 8,000) with scratching skillz to boot, Krafty has also made a name in the studio, producing waxen gems like 'Tricka Technology', 'Latin Bounce', 'Ill Type Sound' and 'Funky Elements'. 

He also took it upon himself to dutifully dig through his vast collection of music to  fashion indispensable compilations like 'Slam The Breaks' and 'Fingerlickin' Funk'.

In addition to all of that, he also runs two labels, Supercharged and Against the Grain, which put out much sought-after releases.

We talked to Krafty when he was in Bangsar for a spot of dinner and, of course, a performance for his assembled fans. He's a big fan of curry and mangosteens, apparently....

Having just won the Australian Music Award for 'Best International DJ', what do you think of music awards in general?
KK: They can be over hyped and over exaggerated, but I think it's good to have awards because it shows a kind of appreciation for music that people are playing... and of course when you win an award yourself, it's a good feeling.

You feel like all the hard work and effort you've put into the sets and style of music that you play has been widely appreciated, so yea I think awards are good but then I would say that having just won an award!

But it's an important part of music because it makes people aware of who's popular and who's not and it just shows general interest in a certain sort of music.

Do awards dilute the music in some way, though?
KK: With something like breakbeat or something like that, I think people see it and it encourages them to look at a certain style of music and how popular it is.

If awards are given for certain styles of music then... when it starts getting too detailed for a certain type of music and the list is endless with all the awards then it can become a little bit diluted, yeah.

You beat traditional favourites like Sasha and Paul van Dyk for that award. Is that a sign that breakbeat is getting bigger?
KK: Definitely. I think the diversity of breaks is what people find popular in Australia, particularly, because the range is like hip hop, breakbeat, drum n bass, and u can mix some house in there as well, if you please... so it offers a wide variety of styles, and I think that's what people find exciting and different, that's why more and more people are enjoying the breakbeat scene, really.

Why are breaks so popular in Australia?
KK: Well the climate's good for (being) outdoors (and having) big festivals and stuff.. there're a lot of young people that go over to Australia, and they get all types of people from everywhere in the world so it adds to that mixture of excitement.

People just like to have a good party there you know. They don't take a lot of drugs out there.... they don't drink and I think that encourages them to kind of enjoy the music more rather than taking drugs and getting worried about something else other than the music.

Which artists have been influential in breakbeat over the years?
The Freestylers have done a lot of good breakbeat, the Plump DJs, a lot of the Fingerlickin' records, because their stuff is really easy to digest and play.

Myself, I think I've done a lot of quite easily accessible music, Freq Nasty... just kind of like funky sort of breaks really, (with) big hip hop influences. There's a lot of one-off tunes that are quite good as well.

I suppose the best era for breaks was kind of like the '98, '99 sort of era. That's really when it was at it's big peak... and then the big beat thing came in and kind of over-commercialised it, but it's finding its feet again, you know, the nu skool breaks, and the funky breaks stuff is coming back up, so... I suppose '98 to 2000 were good years for breaks.

What about the older stuff like 70's funk and soul?
KK: That range of music is so huge, you've got the '72, '73 era which was a really good time for funk, and a lot of the breaks that were used in those records are what people sample now, and they've just been fattened up.

(artists) like James Brown, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire... and a lot of the instrumentation. Nowadays you can buy a lot of compilations with a lot of really good tunes on them, like Parliament, The Ultimate Breaks n Beats Collection. They're a good way of letting people know how good funk and disco was in the '70s.

How do you get hold of these rare records?
KK: A lot of it is going 'round to second-hand record shops, record fairs in England and a lot of jazz shops in Sweden and Germany... now, they sell a lot of good funk.

Sweden and Germany?
KK: Yea, Sweden was huge in the '70s for jazz, (along with) Switzerland and Prague. (There were) a lot of big festivals and jazz musicians, so a lot of good jazz and funk music was coming out from those areas in the early '70s, really.

So if you're not in Sweden or Germany, you're pretty much fucked?
KK: Yea! (laughs)

And America obviously, is the best place to buy funk and hip hop, you're just spoilt for choice. There are lots of second-hand record shops there and they're as big as some of the shopping malls.

Did funk originate in America?
KK: Yea, definitely. Very late '60s was when it all began... and a lot of the best musicians in the world all come from America, really, for funk. James Brown and all that sort of people... the list is endless, really.

Do you think classic sounds like funk will ever die out?
KK: No, there're still a lot of clubs that still only play funk music. It's very popular in England still and it's got a big following. There's a lot of modern jazz now that's kind of like, a new version of what funk is. There're a lot of bands playing cover versions of '70s tracks you know, so it's still very exciting.

Have clubbers today lost sight of early music like funk and soul, which are the roots of today's dance music?
KK: Yeah, they have. Because nowadays dance music in clubs, for instance now what you're hearing, has got like a fat beat and it's very driving, people will appreciate that more than they would a good '70s funk tune with like, out of time drums, vocals and saxophones that are too loud.

Nowadays it's very well-produced, very cultured into a kind of, big sort of beat, that people can dance to more. It's more easy and accessible to listen to modern sort of breakbeat than it is '70s breakbeat (for clubbers today).

Would you recommend the average clubber today to go back and dig up some good 70's funk tunes?
KK: Yea definitely, yea... that's where [producers today] get their influences from musically, because you can listen to how the structure of the music is, and u can gain good knowledge from that.

Who do u rate right now?
KK: Fingerlickin' and my own label, Against The Grain I would say. The Plump DJs, Stanton Warriors, Scratch Perverts, who're really good DJs, Cash Money... he's still doing the rounds and doing good, I've DJed with him, Freq Nasty, Skool of Thought... all really good DJs for me.

How's your collaboration with Freddie Fresh coming along?
KK: We were going to start a label up together but it never really worked, because Freddie lived in America, so basically, it's me and a guy called Skool of Thought now who run Against The Grain and Supercharged.

Freddie was never really a part of it, it was just an idea we had that never really materialised, because he lived so far away in America, we never really got together.

But you know, we still speak on the phone and keep in contact, but he does his thing and I do my thing, really.

What do you think of new formats like CDand MP3 and their effect on vinyl culture?
KK: I think vinyl culture is slowing down a little bit in terms of DJs, but the punters are still buying lots of records. If you get CDJ-1000s, the scratch CD players, DJs can be more creative, and, if they've got brand new tracks, they play them off CD.

So what's missing from new formats that vinyl has?
KK: A lot of people are playing CDs that are unmastered, so obviously you don't get the full impact of the tune until it's mastered. So vinyl still has an important part to play because vinyl is properly mastered, so people who won't go to get a CD mastered, might just get it on record.

And it also just sounds better on vinyl!

You travel a lot, how have the current political climate and terrorist threats affected you?
KK: It's always a worry because you never quite know what's around the corner, but I think we're still a long way away from a major war.

I believe that there's too much love and too much enjoyment in the world for people to go to a serious war, and I think the terrorist thing is still kept under good control and hopefully, nothing like what happened in America will ever happen again.

You've not felt personally threatened then?
KK: No, touch wood, not so far, and hopefully, err... never, really!

How did you pick up your scratching skills?
KK: When I first started out, the mixers weren't really good, but nowadays you can buy really really good mixers for scratching... so it was difficult for me and I learned the old way, whereas all the new jocks now are like, really skilful, like crabbing and flaring and all sorts of techniques.

But the mixers that i had, you know, you couldn't do all that. Some of them didn't even have cross-faders, so I learned the hard way. It was kind of hard work but I really enjoyed trying to be creative and doing things differently to what other DJs do.

How did they scratch back in the day?
KK: Because the cross-faders weren't as quick, it was more difficult to scratch... so I just had to keep practicing harder and harder. I watched DMC videos, went to clubs to see Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff, Grandmaster Flash, all the early DJs... and learn the techniques and skills of these people.

So are you a babe-magnet because of your quick hands?
KK: No, not really, hopefully more for my good looks but I don't know about that! I've got a girlfriend so I'm quite happy when it comes to that department.

I'm sure many people would be disappointed to hear that...
KK: Well I don't know about that.. but it'd be nice to think that there are people out there who are attracted, the women of course, rather than the men!

But yea, I'm a one-woman man, I think. I've got a beautiful Canadian girlfriend, who I'm just about to meet in Australia, so I'm very excited about that.

So she's Canadian and you're meeting her in Australia?
KK: Yeah... she's coming out. I see her once a month because I usually tour Canada and America once a month. I met her when I was DJing in Toronto about a year ago.

What's Brighton like?
KK: Fantastic, one of the best club scenes in the world! Unbelievable, really good. Lots of good DJs, lots of different mixtures of music, hip hop, drum n bass, house, techno, breakbeat, I mean, it's all there, and it's a small city.

Do you and Adam Freeland compete to be king of the scene there, then?
KK: Oh no, he's got a long way to go to be the king! There's only one king in Brighton and that's me!

No, I'm only joking...

-joon, Dec 02 @ Bilique, Bangsar

-thanks to Martin, the Beatmonkeyz and Loops!

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