We’re celebrating our favourite aspects of DJ culture this December with our MIXMAS series as you may well know.
Kenji, meanwhile, is celebrating an entire decade of releases.
Bring the two together and you’ve got one ridiculously high energy, full flavoured mix. Pray silence please for Decade Of Drums…
An absolute bombardment of the senses, riddled with twisted sound design, grotty textures, odball samples and a big fat flabby X of history, the mix captures Kenji’s energy, personality and consistency over the last 10 years with a walloping 64 tracks in 50 minutes. Pure white knuckle, hyper concentrated dancefloor welly; along the way we’re treated to cameos by the likes of Bou, Simula, Teezy, Warhead, Pengo, Alex Slk plus MCs and vocalists such as MC AC, Traumatik, Endo and Kule T and multiple check-ins with long-time Latvian friend Dispoze who got Kenji into this fine mess in the first place.
We catch up with Kenji to find out more about his last ten years in drums… And where the next ten might take us!
10 years!! Does it feel that long?
10 years!! Does it feel that long? Ahh, to be honest, time is so weird to me. I have such clear memories of the beginning, but at the same time it feels so long ago because so much has changed in my life.
I find that, when doing a retrospective type of chat with a lot of artists who have hit such an anniversary, they find it hard to listen to their earliest tracks because their skills have progressed so much. Can you relate?
I feel a different way – when I listen to my very first releases, it sort of makes me happy to compare that with what I’m putting out now and hear the progress clearly. When you make music every day, it’s so hard to keep track of your own progress, at least in my opinion, because you always only aim forward. It’s great reflecting on your work every now and again. Sometimes, even inspirational. Like I’ll hear some forgotten “tricks” I used to do in my old tunes and re-implement them in my next projects.
Ah nice. Gifts from your younger self! Were there some tracks you just couldn’t bring yourself to put this mix?
Oh, for sure… There’s plenty of those that completely didn’t stand the test of time. Unfortunately for me, most of them are released as well. That’s just how the world goes – if you put something on the internet, it can come back to haunt you in 10 years time, haha.
Haha. Story of my life! Which tracks of yours did you simply have to include in this mix?
Hit The Beat. I think this track is in a way timeless, and it had a great response back in the day too. The support I received from a bunch of established artists then… It was a big moment for my music. I think this track really shaped my sound as well. There’s a certain vibe to the track that I still have in my music now, but I can’t put my finger to it. Back then some people even called it the Latvian style, haha.
There’s definitely a vibe! For me this mix shows your consistency, your love for high energy, in-your-face dynamics and your ability to create very addictive hooks. What has this mix shown you about your music?
Thanks for the kind words! This mix was in a way eye-opening for me, because, as I blended old and new tracks, I noticed similar patterns, similar vibes and sounds throughout the mix, which made me wonder. Over these 10 years so much has changed in my life – I had my first solo release when I was just 19, now I’m here pushing 30 and, you know, I’m all grown up. My mentality has changed, my routine, most of the people around me etc. But one thing has always been there – my music, and, to further my point, my very own vibe or signature sound. That’s what made me really appreciate doing this mix, it was a reminder that this music is me.
Ah yeah that’s special. The magic of your own personal expression. What have been the biggest changes for you in terms of your sound and your approach to writing?
I’d say the biggest change is how much time and attention I spend on the details now. I used to rush through projects, always wanting to make more and more ideas, but never really polishing them. Now, I want to make sure what I’m putting out has meaning and has a certain quality to it. This, however, is a double-edged sword, because I might have lost some of the “rawness” in my music throughout my career. That’s ok though, I really like it this way.
Yeah that’s only natural innit. Let’s go back to those early days and your first ever releases… How long had you been producing for before you started submitting your first tracks? And what are your memories of submitting demos to labels and starting to break through?
NOT LONG ENOUGH! I sometimes wish I would have been more patient with my craft and getting better at producing before sending in stuff to labels. But no, I pretty much sent my very first tunes out there (of course most of those did not get signed). Back then the whole process of submitting demos was very different to what it is now. I remember hopping on AIM every day, hitting up producers and label owners, and just sending them all my bits. When a label owner wanted it – they let me know – and the track was signed just like that.
Ah the old AIM days! Those first few years for you were pretty rampant weren’t they? A Street Series edition on Liondub, releases on Train, Gun, Multi-Function and more… From looking at your discography, and my memories of the time, when you started to release music things kicked off pretty quickly. Did it feel like that?
Yeah, I sure went all in for those first few years, I really released a lot of music. I’m not sure how big it felt, I just remember feeling happy to get my music out there, I had this absolute obsession and I just had to keep making more and more.
I’m not sure I really “broke through” back then, and I think I’m still on my way to that now, but I can remember moments like DJ Hype playing my tracks on Kiss, Grooverider supporting my music – these felt, at the time, like breakthrough moments. That shit got me real excited for the future.
So what was your route into D&B anyway? Was there much of a scene or culture in Latvia for it or was it mainly via the internet?
Right, so this is where Dispoze comes in. There used to be this venue, hidden away in Riga, called Nauda. This place was only open during the summer, and the first summer it was open was when I met Dispoze – we became friends and he started showing me all of the best jump-up of that time.
Artists like Majistrate, Dominator, Nu Elementz and many more. I instantly fell in love with the vibes and got hooked, so we started producing tracks together, playing sets together etc. I kinda owe my whole thing to him. In the beginning, we were playing sets to mostly a handful of people, and the sound was being frowned upon by the Latvian electronic music community, it was viewed as distasteful, classless, all that nonsense. But we didn’t care, we kept doing our thing. Now, things are different, there is a bigger scene for jump-up and D&B in general in Latvia.
Sounds like that type of attitude to D&B was universal at different points. What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you because of drum & bass?
Sounds like that type of attitude to D&B was universal at different points. What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you because of drum & bass? I don’t know about weird things, but I can tell you some great things that have happened to me because of this music. It’s helped me through the most difficult times of my life and has been the one and only tool for me to fully express all my anxiety, stress, bad vibes, but also all the happiness and positivity. Transforming stress into music is magical. Also, it’s made me feel like part of a community of like-minded obsessed nerds just like me. I wouldn’t trade D&B for anything in the world.
Ah I love that! Goosebumps! If you could go back 10 years in time and give Yung Kenji some advice what would it be?
I’d probably advise to go easy on the partying, haha, but if we speak about music, I’d advise to take more time with it, to pay more attention to learning the sound design. Nowadays, when I give advice to the younger generation of producers, I mostly mention that it’s not that important to worry about your mix/master at the “starting out” phase. Focus on the ideas, experiment, find your true sound… The mixing and mastering is more a thing of experience, your ears will get more trained with time and it will all start falling into place (of course by practice).
YES! How about future Kenji? What’s he got up his sleeve?
Lots and lots of new riddims, my friend. I don’t wanna be that guy who always says “big things coming”, but 2025 is looking nice. I already have some releases locked in, one of them being a very interesting track where I came together with Endo and Kule T, blending a bit of jump-up, a bit of rolling drums, a bit of MCing and some amazing, soulful singing… It’s safe to say that I got a little something for ya!
