Super humble DJ 'Tuffist' will play for Phanganist Hostel tonight (Friday 31st March) before he leaves Koh Phangan after the weekend. We invited him in for an interview to find out about his Bass Heavy roots and genuine junglist life...
Hey, so how have you ended up on Koh Phangan?
Oh wow, I’ve been in Thailand since September last year and initially came to Koh Phangan for New Year's Eve but got rained off the island so I decided to come back and visit a friend and see what it’s all about since I didn’t get a good look before.
You’re from New York originally, what was the scene like back in the 90’s?
It was up and down, there were hot points and bad points but generally it existed which was a good thing as in a lot of places there wasn’t much of a DnB or Jungle scene.
There was one point when there was a DnB/Jungle night every day of the week and earlier on in the ‘90s was really good when the music first came over, 93 - 95 and then for a couple of years it dipped a bit when the more minimal sound came. It took a while to build up the DnB scene afterwards, it had begun with Hardcore to Jungle when there were big illegal raves which we called ‘outlaw parties’. These got shut down and most got curbed and moved to nightclubs which made it difficult to attract new ravers.
Why did you make the move to Barcelona?
It was just a natural progression at that point of my life. I was born and raised in Brooklyn in my early twenties, I began to get restless so I started travelling and stumbled on Barcelona. I fell in love with it and the vibe there at the time was where my head was at.
When I first got there the street art was really prevalent and my first impression was the amazing art and people playing music on the street or beach until all hours. It was an open vibe different to New York that attracted me, it just sort of happened and I ended up staying.
How did you get into Jungle/DnB and this branch of similar genres?
One of my best friends took me to a rave, I was introduced to the music when I was 13 or 14 years old. My first time hearing Jungle was from the ‘King of Jungle’ compilations of early ‘90s Jungle Tech and I fell in love with the sound and would go to raves in New York and DnB nights.
I was blown away by the DJs, to me it seemed incredibly complicated, they had a touch of wizardry as the DnB breaks didn’t sound easy to mix and some of the DJs left me in awe.
I was a dancer at the time, BBoy and Breaking and from there I thought I gotta give DJing a shot and pretty much started with Jungle and Hip Hop.
I was buying Jungle from the beginning and it took a few years to put it together but once I did I was addicted to buying vinyl, especially ‘old skool’ which was actually just the early ‘90s stuff. I was always in love with that Jungle sound. I got my first DJ residency at Konkrete Jungle NYC!
Do you still mix vinyl?
When I get the opportunity yes but not when I’m travelling as it’s not practical to carry vinyl. I play a lot of unreleased material so it makes sense to go with a digital format but I would love to cut everything on dubplate and have someone carry it around for me.
You’re part of ‘Chopstick Dubplate’ with Jacky Murda, Aries and King Yoof, how did you all link up?
I know Jacky from New York, he moved there in the early 2000’s. Before the label began I would go around his studio to cut dubplates and see what he was working on. We were chilling but I had my own crew ‘Survival’.
Later on I separated with mine and he separated with his and we moved to Europe at the same time. We were just hanging out and it seemed logical to link up as we were coming from the same place and used to working with a crew.
Jacky had been introduced to Aries through people who knew of him and Aries would come to visit us a bunch every couple of months and get in studio time so that was the initial link up around 2007. King Yoof is our newest member of about one year now.
Why do you guys fit together?
Because we are all hardcore junglists and all come from a similar vision of what Jungle music should sound like and over the years we have become like family too.
Why the name Tuffist?
It just sorta fit with what I was doing, it is a Reggae orientated name and the original ‘Tuffist’ was Peter Tosh, so that was the inspiration.
From there the spelling I took from ‘Aswad’, and yeah I needed a name at the time, I had another which wasn’t killing it and I was making shows and mixes so had to come up with something. I meditated on it for a while in my friend's basement and came up with that.
So what’s your inspiration and influence?
Inspiration can come from anywhere, often hearing a fresh new tune or something that catches my ear and gives me that buzz and feeling that I wanna get in the studio and cook something up. It can be visual or from experience or inspired by other artists.
What do you hope to bring to Phanganist’s Bass night on Friday?
I hope to bring the vibes. A lot of smiles to people’s faces and a twists to their hips.
Your plans for the rest of the year?
I gotta head back to Barcelona as I’ve been away quite a while and need to start working on new projects cause I’ve been on a hiatus…
And leave us with your Music Philosophy...
No Bass No Fun!
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