An out-and-out household name in the Australian dance music community, Kid Kenobi (Jesse Desenberg) must be feeling pretty damn chuffed with himself at the moment. Hard at work in London on his forthcoming Ministry of Sound mix CD, he’s currently in between gigs on an extended stay in the UK. When ITM spoke with him he was coming back down to earth after a weekend of gigantic proportions, having played to over 10,000 screaming Scots at the humungous T in the Park festival, and over the coming fortnight he’s got gigs at seminal UK breakbeat nights Blowpop and Fabric to look forward to. He’s also just been crowned Australia’s number 1 DJ for the third year running in the Technics inthemix50. Is there anything this breakbeat big gun can’t do? ITM’s i_have_ADD investigates.
Kenobi laughed when asked whether he expected to win the inthemix50 poll for a third consecutive year. One would think receiving the call to say he’d won the mantle would now come as little surprise. “I don’t know, to be honest I hadn’t thought about it that much. People mentioned that it [the poll] was coming up again, and I didn’t really have that much of an expectation. What I did think about was that it wasn’t really going to phase me too much either way. The gigs have been so wicked recently and that’s been the most important thing for me. I’ve felt really lucky having such great shows with such supportive crowds. I was surprised to win again though.” People theorised that because he’d spent a fair amount of the last year, relative to previous years, away from our shores touring internationally that Kenobi’s place in the hearts of Australian clubber’s may start to wane. That being said, he’s still managed to tour around Australia tirelessly, and his dedication for local audiences no doubt helped him retain the #1 position for another year. “We did a whole bunch of shows in WA recently and they were all sold out. Once the ball starts rolling it just keeps picking up momentum I guess, and it’s allowed us to go to a lot of places that other people may not get to.”
Having toured the UK late in 2004, Kenobi took longtime collaborator MC Shureshock (Cameron James Brown) along for the ride. The pair had a great time and the reaction from crowds was universally positive, and so for his present tour Shureshock returned to take his place on stage as hype man for Kenobi’s fans. “It’s becoming pretty well oiled now. Cameron knows the tracks and knows the movement of the sets. It works really well and we have a good understanding of each other. The more shows we do the tighter it becomes.” Shureshock, known for his work as front man for now-defunct Brisbane band Zephyr Timbre, has proved a popular addition to Kenobi’s sets and mix CDs, and after forming a close bond the pair have also begun working together on their own material, “We’ve done a few things but it’s just been so full on with touring and traveling that it’s just a matter of trying to find the time – as always! We’ve got quite a few ideas that we want to nail down, and that’s our first priority once this mix CD is done.”
With his appearance at T in the Park on the weekend still fresh in his mind, Kenobi is finding more and more that his expectations of what crowds and shows will be like, both in Australia and internationally, are continually met and exceeded. “The biggest spin out recently was the gig on the weekend at T in the Park. Playing on the same stage as people like Mylo, Alter Ego, Miss Kittin, Death in Vegas, all these massive names… we were thinking, ‘are you sure you guys want us to play?!’, but it was great and the crowd was really supportive,” says Kenobi, before continuing, “The quality of all the gigs has really spun us out. When I first started playing over here [Europe] I’d be at smaller nights and there might not be many people, but recently the support has been amazing. There’s a lot of Australians in the UK, and – touch wood – there hasn’t been a crappy gig yet! This will be the third time I’ve played at Fabric [on July 22nd], so I’m a little more accustomed to it and comfortable there now. I remember the first time I played there I was thinking, ‘you’ve got to be kidding!’, I was stoked even to be going to the club!”
At present Kenobi is putting the final touches on his latest mix for Ministry of Sound. With four compilations under his belt already for the label, this will be his first release for 2005. “The first disc is mainly breaks, although there’s a couple of 4/4 tracks on there! The other disc, I guess you’d call it a chilled mix? It’s got dub and reggae. It starts off with some down tempo stuff, German style electronic dub, and then merges into reggae style breaks. It’s got a lot of tunes that I’ve been buying over the past 5 years or so. I originally did it as a test for radio, but it ended up being one of those CDs I liked listening to over and over again. I think reggae has a really positive energy, it’s nice to listen to. I think the release date has been pushed back a week, but it will be out towards the end of August or early September.” Of late Kenobi has also made great inroads into the production world, garnering praise for his collaborative remix work on tracks like Ferry Corsten’s ‘Rock Your Body, Rock’ (with Poxymusic) and D Kay & Epsilon’s ‘Barcelona’ (with longtime friends Ritual and Q45 under the name RED). “Lef [Ritual], Tom [Q45] and I have started a few things. The remix we did of JDS – Rockstar, we turned that around in two or three days, so we proved to ourselves that we can get stuff done in a short amount of time when we need to. We’ll be getting back in the studio to finish the tunes we’ve started really soon, as well as get onto making some new ones.”
With fellow Aussies Infusion having recently announced their relocation to Brighton in the UK for a portion of 2005 to aid with their European touring commitments, the question about whether he’d ever be likely to follow suit is something Jesse’s had to answer, and ponder, on many occasions. “People ask me that every now and again. I have thought about it in the past, and not because of the work demands, just because I thought it might be nice for a change of scenery.” Fans of Kenobi need not worry about losing him to our antipodean counterparts just yet however, as the pull of Australia will always prove to be strong, “It would be easy to say ‘yes’ now, because it’s summer over here [London], but winter is a bit tough! I still love living in Australia so much that if I didn’t have to move, I don’t think I would.”
Congratulations to Kid Kenobi for taking out the number 1 position in the 2005 Technics inthemix50 DJ Poll. To see the final list of Australia’s Top 50, along with the international and state Top 5s, head to http://www.inthemix.com.au/50.
