Starting to make some serious waves on the drum’n’bass scene is Perth’s very own
Bad Robot. Comprised of Whetu Kay aka Phetsta and Ross Deschamp aka Rregula, their
own brand of heaving D’n’B has found a home with such labels as Technique and Habit.
Over the top theatrics is par for the course and don’t be surprised if you see them in full
body armor, capes, lights strapped to their heads and swords! Don’t forget the swords!
Drop in to see what ITM uncovers the Bad Robots and finds out touring plans, the love of
metal and what it exactly is that makes a robot bad.
ITM – How did you guys meet up? What made you decide to start producing?
Phetsta – We’d been producing for a few years solo, Rregula/Ross coming
from a band background (former guitarist of Perth band “The Dirty Whittler”) and I’d
been into similar stuff. We both just started out wanting to emulate guys like Stakka &
Skynet’s AudioBlueprint releases, Konflict etc. It just took off from there for both of us. ?
We’d heard each others stuff through a site named Perthtunes for local producers over
here, then swapped some stuff on CD for a while. Eventually we just started out for fun
and as a joke then the first bits we did got picked up for net based labels. So we pushed
it a bit more and American/European labels soon were on our case. Then gigs started to
come our way and the outfits kind of caught on as a fun gimmick. It’s all about not taking
ourselves seriously but delivering quality tunes and sets to the punters. We met in about
2003, but started producing as Bad Robot in 2004, and the gigs didn’t come until 2005.
But here we are backing up guys like Calyx, Teebee, BSE, Pendulum.
ITM – How’s the night at The Nine going? How’d you get involved? What sort of
exposure has that given you?
Phetsta – The Nine was basically started by Viper and MC Assassin who
were half the promo team from the old Drum Club here in Perth. D’n’B on a Friday had
been missing for awhile so they decided the same old tried and tested stuff had been
going on long enough. So they pulled together a few of the better Perth DJs who had
maybe been shunned by a lot of the other promoters for the most part and
bought them all into the one club, and they asked us to be involved. ?
In terms of exposure it’s been great for a lot of the younger crowds getting into D’n’B,
we’ve found a lot of them who come down to see us aren’t into D’n’B as a whole which is
really cool. ?
Unfortunately due to a dodgy by the owners the venue was sold off but they’re in
negotiations with a few other places so I’m sure it’ll be up and running within the next
few weeks. The guys have been nothing but motivated and industrious since day one.
ITM – What makes a robot bad?
Phetsta – Haha, the way we got the name was we were very much into a
lot of the neurofunk, techno based D’n’B at the time we formed in 2004. A lot of the guys
involved in it didn’t necessarily have the production skills and were more talk than
anything else and always seemed to have tacky names which combined a sinister word
with a technological term. We had a laugh and joked that they were all a bunch of “Bad
Robot” type names, and it stuck. ?
What makes a Robot Bad?? I’d say a lot of those shiny car window covers stuck to you,
and a cape. If you have that going then that’s a good start.
ITM – Are you at war with good robots?
Phetsta – Absolutely. We’re actually nice guys though. We enjoy hugging.
Not each other though, I swear.
ITM – What brought about the theatrics/costumes in the sets? Goth-metal
influences?
Phetsta – It started as a bit of a joke, opening up MSPaint on the computer
and drawing the shittiest robots possible. Then for our first gig at Pendulum (thanks
hotdog haha) we talked it up to so many people that we had to dress up. So we wore foil
suits and had lights on our heads. The head lights became a bit of a trademark, we wear
‘em even when were dressed normal for smaller gigs. The outfits and antics just took off.
Capes, a pink stack hat, a toy chainsaw, burned babies on the decks with pentagrams
drawn on them, swords, axe’s, rubber chickens. We like to fire it all up. ?
We love our metal. Arch Enemy, Darkane, Sepultura, BloodDuster. Cheese like Alice
Cooper and the theatrics are great. You’ll notice we both have a m/ tattooed on our
forearms as well haha.
ITM – What’s the story with Technique? Did you guys sign a deal or was it a one
off?
Phetsta – As Bad Robot we’ve signed on for a once off. As far as my solo
stuff is concerned I’ve signed on for a 6 single deal with Bassline Smith. So far I’ve had 2
singles out and more coming on the upcoming Street Technique LP.
ITM – And the full length I was reading about? Collection of singles or all new
stuff? Is it out yet?
Phetsta – That must be the Blacksunempire LP. It’s a ‘various artists’ album
called Endangered Species. We have a track on it called ‘Forever (Stay 2Nite)’ as the
sampler with Chris SU/BSE – Skyrider on the flip. It should be out anytime now.
ITM – So far you’ve gone to Adelaide. Any plans of taking the Bad Robots east
coast?
Phetsta - Yeah, we hit Adelaide last May. Well be back sometime this year
probably with BSE (Thanks Jase haha). Once the profile picks up a bit we’d love to hit
the East Coast. One thing I think we both agree on is that we’d love to hit US/Europe, but
there’d be nothin’ like blowing up home crowds. We’d like to build a following around
Australia, there definitely isn’t enough love for Australian D’n’B artists within Australia
itself.
ITM – Where do the Bad Robots slot into the drum n bass spectrum?
Phetsta – We’ve been dubbed “clownstep” by the neurofunk nerds and
“tech” by the clownstep chavs. Honestly, we just make what the hell we want. We’ve
done melodic mellow stuff, hard stuff for Habit Recs in USA, trancey switch up tracks,
vocal tunes. But we always aim it at the dance floor, big drums and heavy mix downs is
where it’s at for us. Stuff that can be slammed in at the club and fire up the dance floor.
We spend a lot of time on our melodies and leads. We like to show that harder D’n’B can
still be musical and fit in a lot of note variations/feeling etc but still be danceable.
ITM – What’s to be expected from Bad Robots in 2006?
Phetsta – A lot of our material has just been released, or will be within the
next few months. Were constantly writing so expect fresh stuff in our sets all the time,
and special VIP mixes of older stuff. Well just be trying to up our profile as much as
possible and deliver better tracks.
