KITTIN on:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/misskittin
- SoundCloud: @misskittin
HOW I MET THE BASS on:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/howimetthebass
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/howimetthebass
- Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/HowIMetTheBass
QUESTIONS to KITTIN:
Q: Let´s talk about your mix for HOW I MET THE BASS. How did these tracks have an impact on your career? So: how did you meet the "bass" once?
A: I met the bass in our local New Wave club in Grenoble who hosted the first Electronic Music party in 1989. It was very bad music, spanish Bacalao by a group of DJs on tour. But how I really „met the bass“ was shortly after at our first rave party in a small town near by, first time we had a flyer in our hands too, Rave Virus. We all went with The Hacker in the same car, same group of friends today. That night had a huge impact on my life. We went to an after hour, and when I came back home, I packed my things and left. I remember saying to myself: how are you going to cope with so called „normal life“ after that? I knew I had to work very hard to write my own path, I knew I would have to make choices that would hurt my family, but I was determined to be free. The same freedom I felt dancing non stop that night on such music. My mix is based on these early rave years memories. The excitement and freedom of each rave, each trip, each DJ, each record. It’s impossible to summit it in a one hour mix, but for example, the track from The Hypnotist (“Pioneers Of The Universe“) in the middle of the mix, the longest too, really brings me back to a special party, the Docks in Marseille in 1993. CJ Bolland played live, among Robert Liner (The Source Experience) and huge Belgian DJs like The Fly or Yves de Ruyter. I also included tracks I listened to before and after a party, at home with friends, like LFO, Aphex Twin, Lhasa or B12. I was massively influenced by the early Warp stuff, and the Artificial Intelligence compilations I still listen to today. When I started DJing, I was playing very hard, Acid Core, but I always tried to bring a left field tune in the middle such as Autechre, Boards of Canada, or The Prodigy. A challenge I kept all along. One hour is really too short, I wanted to play early House tracks too but I am definitely a rave kid. I could have include Gat Decor too, always in my bag, but as a lot of DJs play it back, I focused on more forgotten ones. To meet the bass in my case means „I understood music“ for the first time. I analyzed sounds, closed my eyes and saw shapes, colors, stimulating my intellect. I LIVED the sound. I was not a passive listener anymore, for the first time. What struck me, talking about it, is: many people don’t have that relationship to music. They just play commercial stuff from the radio but don’t feel deep inside this incredible sensation. So I feel very fortunate. Nevertheless I never wanted to be a musician or DJ, but it did change my life. Big time.
Q: In now 25 years of DJing you´ve been playing all over the planet. Which places and experiences were outstanding for you?
A: It’s an impossible question. Too many to say. It happened that I cried out of emotion, in Barcelona, in the big Razzmatazz years, people chanting so hard I had to stop the music and hear them sing. Or lately playing B2B for 6h with Marcel Dettmann at Panorama Bar. Never thought I could live that again in my career. I also had my best experiences out of rage, live with The Hacker, at Benicassim when I nearly missed the show trapped in traffic, had to run on the side road in the heat with biker boots, arrived on stage nearly fainting, threw my boots in the audience as my feet hurt so bad and did the whole show barefoot, full house. Love Parade 2001, at the Siegessäule, one million people, they say your name on the microphone „Miss Kittin, Grenoble, France“ and my dad saw me playing for the first time, this was quite life changing for him, acknowledging I did pretty well for a raver.
