Skratch Bastid Q&A

It is safe to say that the Canadian DJ, Skratch Bastid is one of the busiest DJs in the country. While other DJs rely on promoters to book them for events, Skratch hosts his own, such as the second annual Bastid BBQ, which took place at the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto last month. Skratch also stays busy touring – he just came back from Australia and Ireland and he’ll be playing at this year’s Manifesto Festival – as well as putting out mixtapes. His latest project, Soul Sisters Stand Up, was released earlier this summer. Currently, Skratch is preparing to head off on another tour, as well as embark on side projects like production for Canadian emcee, Shad. The Canadian jack-of-all-trades spoke with Urbanology Magazine about his busy schedule and why he’s proud to be a Canadian DJ.

WHY DO YOU FIND IT IMPORTANT AS A DJ TO HOST YOUR OWN EVENT? 
I don’t think it’s a prerequisite, but for me, it’s just an opportunity to do things from my perspective and bring people the things that I wanted to bring to them. I guess, for me, it became a thing that I wanted to give back to other artists who hosted me in their cities and people in the city here that just want me to do it my way. I wouldn’t say that you have to do it that way, it’s fine to work with promoters, but for me, I had a whole bunch of ideas and a whole bunch of things I wanted to do my own way, so I just decided to do it myself.
WHAT DID YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT PUTTING OUT YOUR LAST PROJECT, SOUL SISTERS STAND UP? I just like the vibe of all the songs; it’s really positive music; cool music from an interesting time; the ’60s and ’70s and women and all the things that they went through during that period. It’s a really cool time. It was a concept mix so it’s a challenge to stick to a concept… It was a challenge to put limitations on it and because of the limitations the final product is stronger, because the vision is stronger and you can see the subject more accurately.
WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED TO STAY SO BUSY? I love my job, I love music and I’m very thankful and happy that music is my fulltime job and just giving back to the people that come to my shows and to the musicians. My job motivates me, because I always want to keep playing great music… and all the people I meet on my travels.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE KEY CONTRIBUTOR TO YOUR SUCCESS AS A CANADIAN DJ? I think it’s just that I love this country from the biggest city down to the smallest town. I have played in all the provinces and one territory. I still haven’t made it to Nunavut or the Northwest Territories, but I’ve basically been to every corner of the country to play shows, whether it’s the huge stage at Dundas Square or a tiny pub in rural BC. I’ve done a lot of touring and I can say that we’ve got some great people in the country and they supported me back. I’m from Halifax, which is considered one of the smaller cities in the country, but my time spent there was really valuable, because everywhere I go, I meet people from Nova Scotia and they are like, “Hey, I remember when you played here,” and I think people underestimate that that goes a long way, because when you show people love, then they give it back, and that’s kind of a rule of thumb… I’m really proud to be Canadian and I’m really proud to be a Canadian DJ, I guess that resonates with people across Canada.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR SKRATCH BASTID? [This month] I will be touring universities across Canada, I will be doing my “Skratch Of All Trades” video show for the universities, but in the coming months, I’m going down to South America for some shows and then touring the States. As far as projects, I’m working on the new Shad album and that’s my priority as far as production goes… And you’ll definitely hear another mixtape come out of me in the not so distant future.