He's electric: Interview with DJ Yoda

Barn Dance sounds like a really cool event! Every time I come to Ireland there’s a really good crowd so I’m very excited about it. Also, it’s my chance to stock up on Barry’s Tea which is the only tea I drink!” laughs DJ Yoda aka Duncan Beirne.

The UK turntablist is in good company for this year’s Good Friday event which also features Jamie Jones, Fritz Kalkbrenner, DJ Sneak, A Skills, Shed, King Kong company and ‘80s pop tribute act Smash Hits.

“It sounds like a really interesting event and a great lineup!” he enthuses. DJ Yoda shot to prominence in the early 2000s with his How To Cut And Paste Mixtape series and since then has released two well-received albums of original material: The Amazing Adventues Of DJ Yoda (2006) and Chop Suey (2012).

“My parents worked in the industry so I grew up surrounded by records,” he explains. “I began scratching with their vinyl and broke the turntable so decided I better get my own and the rest is history!”

On latest outing Chop Suey he collaborated with an impressive array of luminaries including Boy George, Police Academy’s Michael Winslow, Roots Manuva and Scroobius Pip.

“I would create the beat, think about which vocalist would work with it and then get in touch with them and see if we could work it out,” he notes.

He must have been chuffed to work with the legendary Culture Club mainman?

“I still can’t believe I got to make a track with someone who appeared on The A-Team!” he giggles.

Along with his musical activities, he’s featured as a regular judge at the respected DMC DJ World Finals.

“The sign of a true talent is if you can tell who’s DJing even if you can’t see them. You should be able to close your eyes and know who’s playing,” he proffers.

As for current activities, we have to query the background to his latest release, the uber-catchy ‘Rap Is Good 2014’...

“The heart of what I do is hip hop,” he concludes. “I felt that 2000 to 2010 was a really bad period for hip hop. It went really downhill. Over the past few years, things have picked up again. This mix was about bringing attention to that. I wanted to do a mix to show fans of ‘classic’ or ‘golden era’ rap that there’s still plenty of incredible hiphop coming out in 2014. You just have to look a bit deeper than most of the commercial pop stuff!”