Reaching new heights and discoveries, Thud Rumble Ltd. continues to drive the industry to the next level of technology, music, films, and beyond. I had the opportunity to interview the Mastermind himself Ritche "Yogafrog" Desuasido (Co-founder) and the Undefeated World DMC Champion Richard "DJ Q-bert" Quitevis (Co-founder). The interview takes place at one of Desuasido's estates on the island of Oahu, Hawaii with a great overview of the Pacific Ocean.
Roxspin How has things changed for you in the turntable culture over the years?
DJ Q-bert As far as the culture everyone is doing their thing and of course if you know me and Yogafrog we are pretty much in our own world. The QFO just came out and pretty much experimenting on different ways of using it outdoors. Living out here in Hawaii we go out to the beach and scratch. We just came from this mountain where we were scratching.
Roxspin Have you been keeping up on the new people?
DJ Q-bert Kind of here and there. I hear kids on the Internet. Everyone are ridiculously crazy now days. There's a lot of new kids scratching creating new styles blah blah blah you know?
Roxspin Crazy as in good?
DJ Q-bert Crazy as in good hell yeah! Everyone has a different personality so everyone is going to contribute a different niche to the whole scratch scene. I'm over there learning all of the different niche that are out there.
Roxspin How's Hawaii treating you?
DJ Q-bert It's totally spiritual out here.
Roxspin What's your daily routine like here?
DJ Q-bert Practice all day and make music. Work is my fun. Everyday I swim pretty much.
Roxspin It's a big change from San Francisco to Honolulu.
DJ Q-bert Every time I leave Frisco I'm happy to come to Hawaii and every time I leave Hawaii I'm like dam I'm leaving to Frisco. I'm kind of leaning towards living the rest of my life here, but I do go back and forth every month just to catch up to get updated on current records and all that stuff. Frisco does have the advantage of a bigger population and art to intake.
Roxspin So how's the scene here in Oahu?
DJ Q-bert Nocturnal crew all those guys. All kinds of kids. I would be at the beach and DJ Mad came by the other day showing me a technique. Of course a lot of tourists come here. DJs from around the world come here.
Roxspin Any new inventions since the crab scratch? Combos?
DJ Q-bert Tons. Combos as well as philosophy on scratching techniques. Millions. Definitely.
Roxspin Turntable TV, is that still going? I remember getting the first copy of it in VHS and it was dope. (Laughs)
DJ Q-bert Yeah, the DVD is coming soon.
Roxspin How's the chicks here?
DJ Q-bert The chicks here are beautiful. Once again many tourists here so this means half mix breeds and stuff. Definitely beautiful specifies out here. Beautiful women. (Laughs)
Roxspin Couple of years ago the word was that you wanted to accomplish a threesome as one of your goals. Have you already accomplished that?
DJ Q-bert No comment (Laughs) I did say that in one interview, because there was a bunch of stupid questions and I said I'm going to answer back stupid.
Roxspin Keep in touch with the old crew?
DJ Q-bert Short just came out here. D-styles is on tour of course in Japan. Mixmastermike just did a show in San Francisco. DJ Disk is doing something with Herbie Hancock still. DJ Flare is finishing up this thing called Magnafrying Glass. Me and Yogafrog is just doing the whole QFO thing and doing the Turntable TV DVD.
Roxspin QFO suppose to replace the 12s?
DJ Q-bert It may not replace it. You can't take the Technics outdoors. You can't take it to the living room unless you hookup a mixer with it. QFO is something you could sleep with and bring it all around the house.
Roxspin How about needles? Do you still use Shure 447s?
DJ Q-bert We are testing this new technology from Ortofon. We just tested it out on the video just now. It's pretty flawless and it's not even the final product. It's called the Spin Pin.
Roxspin So what got you interested in designing?
DJ Q-bert Yogafrog pointed out to me "What if one day every single thing we made was designed by us?" The turntable, we got that. Slip mats the Butter Rugs. Under that there is the Flying Carpets. We made those. Of course the scratch records. All we got to do now is design the needle. We do want to make the headshell the bug logo (Needle Beetle). We have our Thud Rumble wires from Monster Cable. Almost everything will be Thud Rumble. Complete thing. I would be tripped out to see that one day. What do you think about the stuff we doing?
Roxspin I've always enjoyed observing your innovations in the Scratch DJ world and I think it's cool that you continue to follow that path. I'm still scratching on the PMC-06 Pro with my 12s and I still love it. (Laughs)
DJ Q-bert I've designed that mixer too. (Smiles)
Roxspin Tell me about this Temple Warplex you speak of.
Yogafrog I bought two lots up here. I didn't finish it see. We were going to build a grand studio (Temple Warplex) here kind of like a slash recording, slash performance, slash training grounds kind of thing. We've been traveling so much that I've ended up planting a papaya tree. I didn't plant it. It's my mother so I can't take any credit.
Roxspin How's Thud Rumble?
Yogafrog It's evolving on greater and grander ideas trying to out do all the stuff the years past. The company use to be focus solely on trying to teach everybody about scratch music and the whole scratch dj lifestyle. We've moved out here after Scratchcon and we kind of laid low and kept it quiet and started planning the next big thing and moved out to Hawaii here trying to build the necessary tools and materials we need. Before you go to war you have to get your arsenal ready.
Roxspin Like what kind of arsenal?
Yogafrog From records, to slip mats, to needles, to the turntable itself. We just wanted to have that aspect and to be ready for the next step we are doing. Q is working on new music and working on more productions myself. Thud Rumble is basically our creative outlet. Whatever we want to do it's not really set to any kind of rule we just try to break every rule we can and try to build something amazing and more unique than anything out there.
Roxspin Ever imagine yourself standing here staring at that ocean view 10 years ago?
Yogafrog No not 10 years ago. It was always a drive. Q and I were always relentless about scratching and just that. We've gone through so many different ways we've could've gone producing, scratching for a band, playing clubs which is all part of the DJ lifestyle, but we've stuck with just scratching and the love of what you can do with this crazy sound that no one ever seems to believe in and what don't we just spell all the mysteries about it and make it cool.
Roxspin Your DJ resume?
Yogafrog I started around 86 or 87 around the 7th grade. There were so many DJ crews at the time that you just had to start one. Even though if you were a DJ or going to be one, you just had to start a DJ crew because that's what everyone has been doing. The first crew I was in was "Cuts and Scratches" with my boy Billy Padia and John Hadden. Then I went to another crew called "Showtime Productions" with Charlie Sumolong, John Gavyerries, Rob Cabrerra, and Eugene Euriza from Knuckle Neck Tribe (KNT). He's the one who actually showed me scratching back in Junior Highschool. Of course Second to None my main DJ crew that I started with in Highschool back in 89 90.
Roxspin They say Turntablism (Art of using the turntable as an instrument) was just a phase and would eventually fade out. This was like 5 to 6 years ago. What are your thoughts on that?
Yogafrog In every generation they say it will fade away. It always has it's ups and down peaks and valleys. You never expect Q to this big superstar. He is a superstar DJ, but you know this big mainstream thing when were just after our own little quest. Everyone says that Q will do nothing after this year or this would be the last year for scratching or something like that, but we've heard that for years and decades now.
Roxspin Do you see another wave coming?
Yogafrog I really do see another wave. What happen was there was so much technology and so little artform that's being created. Everyone is a DJ if you think about it. Everyone is downloading and remixing and playing with their final cut pro and soundtrack. I think the big revival is when the artform catches up to the technology. We were just with Pioneer and they are already making this crazy DVD scratching machines, but there is no artform in that yet. You know what I mean? You have to create the artform. Vinyl has an artform. People now have to create this new technology and create something artistic about it first then that whole catch up game will re-ignite in two to three years. That's my prediction. Like 2007 it's going to be Djing, re-mixing, producing, drum machines. They all will converge somehow I think.
Roxspin How long did it take to complete the QFO?
Yogafrog It took about a year. We left Vestax when we moved out to Hawaii. No offense to Vestax, but they were kind of in limbo and didn't know where to go after we did the 07 ISP. We moved out here and kept new hidden secrets that should come out and see what would happen to the whole industry. They've experimented with the Vinyl cutter and Samurai Mixer and the guitar scratching thing and non of it really worked. Honestly that's what happen and they brought us back in and we brought the QFO in the game and we have two more coming but we need to see how successful the QFO project does. I'm sure it will do very well. It was always something Q wanted and I wanted to scratch like right here instead of a wall. When you scratching from home, you are scratching in front of a wall all day. I hated that.
QFO is actually us, powered by Vestax, and distributed by Korg. It's a bunch of different partnerships just so we can ensure this time around. When we were younger we designed all this stuff and never got rewarded for designing it. Everyone had an 05 and everyone made copycats of 05s. Those sold everywhere. It's the most standard mixer, but we never really benefit much from it as far as gain wise and money wise. We got smarter and a little older and we were like hey this time around we are going to at least benefit from it to keep continuing and growing to strive to push the develops further. We struck a great deal with Vestax. We were jumping around with who we were going to design with. That's what we've been doing like designing with Ortofon, monster cables, and pioneer. We are kind of in that game so we try to contribute as much as we can to all the manufactures for their technology be enhanced by our ideas.
Roxspin 1200 versus QFO?
Yogafrog The 12 will do it's job what it's suppose to do play music. It's served as our stepping stone for the next music evolution for like the scratch DJ. Eventually you would have to admit the fact that you would want to go out and play like a guitarist or like someone who would like to go to the beach and just scratch to do this for musical love and expression. You kind of want to have it on your own time and your own will. That's what the QFO is for.
Roxspin Would you say they both serve different purposes?
Yogafrog Yeah, it serves a totally different purpose but it can do exactly what the 1200s can do, but in more hyper qualities, faster and stronger pitch controls and skipless controls and faders. It's all there. All in one package. It seems overwhelming right now, but it's like when we made the 05 Pro. That was overwhelming. This is the next step of it and we are going to keep going and step on more boundaries. 12 does what it does. It's a classic. It was the best turntable and probably it still is for what it serves its purpose for. The QFO is a totally different trip and I think people will really grab on to it.
Roxspin Weight?
Yogafrog Yes, totally light in weight? It's about a quarter the weight of a 12000 that's for sure. It's totally portable. We are trying to make it even more portable now than this one. This is still the first step.
Roxspin How did the QFO get its name?
Yogafrog It's Q-bert and it's shaped like a flying object. Relm actually put that together. We were all in Japan and we were like outer space, UFO, QFO. We try to find the weirdest and coolest names out there. That fit perfect for it.
Roxspin Knowledge of the music business and marketing seem to be a gift for you. Did you go to college for this?
Yogafrog I been Djing since I was like 13 or 14. It's always been there. You love it so much you remember it when you were a kid. When you were a kid it was when it was the most happiest for you. You need to tap that part of you always being inspired of the drive. You still see it in the kids today getting to know hip-hop and the culture. They are just hungry and thirsty to let loose on something creative. We try to put our mentality in that creative feel all the time thinking nothing is impossible. Nothing is. Create your own thing from that be original all the way through. If you love it then you'll be happy.
Roxspin What made you decide to get a 2nd home in Oahu?
Yogafrog Surfing! I've created all of the stuff I've contributed to out in that water. I told myself I'm going to be on the water all the time then. Whenever Q and I need creative energy, we just go out to the water and brainstorm on ideas. We've created them all from Wavetwisters to Scratchcon to QFO. Everything was invented through the inspiration of Hawaii. I think this is the most beautiful place on the planet. It's got to be.
Roxspin You see the battle scene returning?
Yogafrog I think people have to take more risks. It's not on fire like it use to be. We can all agree on that. There is not a lot on the line. When Q use to battle there was a lot on the line. To be honest, I haven't gone to the last 3 to 4 years of DJ Battles so we are totally lost in our own world. (Laughs) I think it's all coming back. It's the 3rd or 4th little plateau I've seen. I can't wait to see it re-energized and re-ignited again. It will be.
Roxspin I enjoyed this interview. Thanks for inviting me to your crib. Till next time.
Yogafrog This is a cool interview. You got some good questions especially because you are a DJ. (Laughs) Take care.