Sean Leonard talks to DJ K-Delight (Christian Kay) about his aim of helping the music artists of tomorrow.

IN the 1980s electronic music spawned a new breed of producers and DJs eager to experiment with new drum patterns, keyboards and synthesisers.

Pioneered by artists such as Kraftwerk, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, the sound became known as Breakbeat, a new era in music analysed closely by a young Christian Kay.

For 15 years Christian, known as DJ K-Delight, has slowly established himself as one of the best hip-hop and breaks DJs in the country, wowing audiences from Edinburgh to Brighton with his eclectic track selections and turntable trickery.

"I started off as a breakdancer when I was about 13 and I just got into the music more and more. I eventually gave (breakdancing) up and started messing around with keyboards and putting together my own little tunes," said Christian, who lives in Darlington.

"Then I got some cheap hi-fi decks (turntables) so that I could have a go at scratching, after that I was hooked and ever since I have made tracks. The tracks have got a lot more professional as time has passed, looking back my first attempts were a bit shocking."

Like many DJs Christian, now 30, was heavily influenced by 1980s electronic music. He would practice for up to six hours everyday, mastering techniques after listening to mix tapes produced by his idols.

"I was massively into stuff like Mantronix, Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff and Kraftwerk. It was all really futuristic with synthesisers and massive drum breaks, I wasn't really into bands at all, just these samples and scratches that were pretty far out."

There are many different styles of DJing, and each DJ will have a unique area to their skills such as beat matching, cutting or doubling up. It is essential that DJs have a little something up their sleeve to separate themselves from the next.

"I pride myself on my scratching. I chop up tracks quite heavily, switching from track to track. It always depends on how an audience reacts

"If they like a certain track I'll keep it on for longer, but I'll always be doing a few tricks whilst changing between hip-hop, funk and soul as my sets change a lot. I like to keep my sound fresh by coming up with new ideas with new records"

DJing has taken Christian to many places over the years including Australia and New Zealand. He's also planning a trip to Japan next year, reiterating the popularity of hip-hop globally.

"I have managed to travel all over and meet many people from different types of background, DJing has opened up a lot of doors for me.

"When I went to Australia people were quite curious as to what I was going to play, they saw it as quite a novelty me being from England, their scene is very similar to ours, but is still quite young.

"New Zealand has an amazing scene considering they only have three million people living there. Their own artists sell 5,000 CDs without even trying, which is insane compared to the UK, where it is harder to sell that amount of CDs yet there's millions more people living here."

After making many a friend in the business, Christian hopes to dedicate this coming year to the production of his debut album, showcasing his talents as a producer as well as a DJ.

Though quite reluctant to tell, he has a few well-established names he plans to work with on the album.

"The album is something I've been wanting to do for the past eight years, I'm half way through doing it now and I am working on collaborating with a few well known vocalists.

"The album is all my own material, I am working with a guy called Voodoo Guru who is an all-round engineer, producer and musician." Ensuring that the future is full of enthusiastic upcoming producers and DJs, Christian has been conducting a course of very successful workshops called DJs Make Some Noise.

Through his wide knowledge of music culture, Christian is an ideal tutor for anyone looking for advice and direction within music.

"I did a few workshops a couple of years back in Manchester with the label Ruff Beats who I'm signed to, and I got a real buzz out of teaching future DJs how to mix and scratch records.

"Since I got back from Australia I thought it was something I could definitely do in the area, I basically just set up within the last couple of months and things are going really well.

"It's about incorporating different genres of music for everyone, if they want to sing or rap they can do that.

"I aim to give people confidence, it's not just about getting on the decks, it's about people expressing themselves. You see a lot of shy people come out of their shells, if they're not on the decks they're dancing and enjoying themselves through music."

If you are interested in taking part in a DJs Make Some Noise workshop contact Christian through Revolution at www.thisisrevolution.co.uk

Published: 18/12/2003