2005 has been such a frantic year for Adam ‘A Skillz’ Mills he can’t even remember where he played last weekend. “Did I play on the weekend?” he wonders aloud. “Yes, I played in Prague at… a… big festival called…er…”
The Love Planet Open Air festival. The 23-year-old played in a huge field alongside Adam Freeland, the Stereo MCs and DJ Hyper. Adam swears his temporary amnesia isn’t due to an overdose of Czech absinthe, just a timetable that’s bursting at the seams. The DJ lifestyle may be a blur for the 23-year-old hip hop party-starter, but it is a happy blur. “I do love every minute of it,” he professes.
The weekend before Prague, however, he has no troubles recalling. He played a show in Amsterdam with hip hop pioneer and good mate Kurtis Blow. Since working with Kurtis on the seminal A Skillz-Krafty Kuts collaboration, ‘Tricka Technology’ in 2003, Adam’s been stoked to keep in touch and play the occasional gig together. “We’ve just been doing the old school block party jam type of gig where he sits out there on the mic and we get breakdancers on stage.”
In a conscious move, A Skillz has cut the umbilical cord to Kamp Krafty and has been busting out his own grooves for a year now. After all, while the success of ‘Tricka Technology’ established the duo as the formidable tag-team in the scene, it meant his name was always going to be mentioned in the same breath as his partner-in-crime. Like a DJ version of Batman and Robin, except now this boy wonder is off on his own adventures.
“It’s time now for me to really try and build up my name as A Skillz,” he explains. “Last year was really good. I wasn’t sure how it would go by myself, without Krafty, and whether people would know who I was. So it was really a pleasant surprise that people came along and enjoyed the set. I just need to build on that now, touring now and then next year coming out with an album.”
Of course, his debut album will go a long way in declaring A Skillz a sole trader in the business. Just don’t expect it till next year. “It’s in early stages,” explains Adam. “I’ve got tons and tons of beats together but I’m in the middle of trying to hook up different vocalists. It probably won’t come out till summer next year.”
As for Krafty Kuts (aka Martin Reeves), the pair are still best mates and occasionally play out together. They recently won the ‘Best Mini Mix’ award on BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac show, and Adam’s pitching in on a handful of tracks on the new Krafty album. There’s no plans for Krafty to return the favour yet, but that could change in a day.
“I might try and get together to knock out a track [for my album], but he’s been really busy and I’ve been happy to get on with things. He’s doing his breaks album, and my album will be more like the follow up to ‘Tricka Technology’, which is more where I’m at.”
“I’ve heard his [album] and there’s some brilliant tracks on it. I think he’ll do really well with his album. He’s done a track with Ashley Slater who worked on ‘Tricka Technology’ and that sounds amazing. It’s called ‘Welcome to the Freak Show’. Hopefully I’ll have a copy of that when I come out, along with the tracks that he and I have been working on.”
In the meantime, he’s been busy planning his tactical assault for his upcoming Australian invasion. Making a living out of hip hop party breaks as he does, he’s aware there’s already plenty of players in the game and only so many Snoop Dogg or Crooklyn Clan records to share.
“I get really nervous about going to gigs with a crate of classic party hip hop, because you’d get there an hour before the gig and the DJ before you could just rinse every track you’re going to play,” he admits.
“I remember once when Krafty and I went on after Prime Cuts from the Scratch Perverts in Bristol. We had our first five six records worked out and he must have played all of them at the end of his set. We were just sitting there going ‘I can’t believe he played that!’ Then he’d drop another one and we’d be like ‘noooo!’ It was a wake up call then to make our own bootlegs from now on.”
“Somehow I’ve managed to filter most of the funk out of the set and gone straight into hip hop. You think the production is not fat enough on these funk records, so you can’t play them out. So I’ve gone through my favourites and beefed them up on my computer to bring them up to the production standards of all the other stuff I’ll be playing.”
Australia will always be a special place for Adam – almost two years ago he proposed to his wife in Sydney while out here on a summer tour with Krafty. “I proposed in front of the Opera House on Christmas Day and it was lovely,” he says.
So, obviously he didn’t have to get her a Christmas present that year. “Yeah, exactly,” he laughs cheekily. “I killed two birds with one stone.”
And how’s matrimonial bliss working out for Mr and Mrs Mills? “I’m really, really enjoying it. It’s been a bit crazy to be honest because I’ve been away a lot of weekends and my wife, who’s a dance choreographer, has been busy too. She might be coming with me this time. We’re just trying to figure out if she’s got the time to take off.”
A Skillz tours Australia this September and October:
Fri 23rd Sep – Bustin’, Wollongong
Sat 24th Sep – Gearin’s Hotel, Katoomba
Sun 25th Sep – Parklife, Perth (BUY TICKETS)
Wed 28th Sep – Honkytonks, Melbourne
Thu 29th Sep – La La Land, Byron Bay
Fri 30th Sep – Lot 33, Canberra
Sat 1st Oct – Parklife, Brisbane (BUY TICKETS)
Sun 2nd Oct – Parklife, Sydney (BUY TICKETS)
