ITM spends 15 minutes inside the frazzled mind of dubstep’s biggest export, Rusko, who has gone from making the UK underground wobble to crafting insatiable hits for the US pop crowd after relocating to America. Oh and then he called Deadmau5 a cunt. Bless ‘im. ITM’s jagodahorowitz chats with Rusko about fame and the producer’s new album O.M.G.!.

Hey Rusko, where are you joining us from?

L.A. baby, it’s awesome! When I lived in London I was doing like four or five shows a week and kind of in and out of the house and studio and now I just do hardcore tours. It’s nice, I get a lot more time make music now and I still get to play all the shows. It’s great. I feel a lot more relaxed.

You recently played at Glastonbury. How are crowds receiving the new material?

It was crazy. I landed the morning of the show and my friend picked me up and we drove straight there and an hour later I was on stage. So it was kind of weird, I felt like it was the middle of the night. I was crazy jet lagged and was totally spaced out. Five minutes before going onstage I was slapping myself in the face like ‘come on, come on’ and then I got up there, went on the stage and did a big intro and I picked up the mic, turned the music off and the mic wasn’t turned on. I looked like a massive idiot! Everyone was like ‘eeyyy’, because I was like ‘Glastonbury what the fuck’s goin’ on?!’ And the people in the front row heard me but the rest of the tent just kind of laughed. I looked like an idiot.

What do you aim to create in a live performance?

The main thing is pace. I did a live show for a while with a bass guitar and an MPC and I couldn’t match the pace of the DJ. I like to mix as many tracks as possible, next tune, next tune, next tune. I have all the tracks trimmed down and they all have extra short intros so I can mix them in really quick. Intensity is the key. Just bang-bang-bang, next tune, next bass line. I think that’s why people outside of dubstep and people who aren’t super into it can enjoy my sets because it kind of varies and they’re not stuck listening to the same tune for more than like 30 seconds or a minute.

You seem to stress that you are a musician first as far as playing piano, sax etc. At this point in your career are you more of a producer, DJ, or performer?

I was very much a DJ, but now I’m trying to get back to being a producer and a musician. I never really was [originally] a DJ. I only started DJing after I released my first two vinyls and people were like, ‘yo Rusko we want to book you to come and play,’ and I had never even DJ’d before so I kind of had to learn to DJ really quickly. And I love it. I can’t live without it now. I’m making a lot of music now, working with a bunch of people so, yeah, it’s good. I got really super into my DJ head and spending all day online getting everybody brand new tunes and doing remixes and edits and now I’m trying to take it back to the old school.

Dubstep is on the rise, it has been massive in the UK for a while, and seems to be catching on other continents. What is the future of the dubstep in your eyes?

Well I think because the music is so varied, there is a kind of dubstep that sounds like reggae, there’s dubstep that sounds like minimal techno, and there’s dubstep that sounds like flippin’ heavy metal, that’s helped it grow. Lots of different people can be into it. It’s not such a narrow genre. I think that will also help it to continue to grow as well as a lot more radio play.

Your upcoming works are moving mainstream. Talk about that a little.

“It’s getting a lot more play on the radio. I’m working with M.I.A., Britney, T.I., and a kid called Cody Wise at the moment as well. Just basically getting the sound on the radio and just getting it into peoples ears and that will help it progress. I think it has already gotten a lot further than drum n’ bass has gone. Went, and gone, did go, can go [laughs], I don’t know what the right way to say it is. So yeah, it’s still fresh. From the sounds in 2006 it’s been changing and changing and changing so rapidly people haven’t gotten bored yet.

Might it be rather, that mainstream is moving to the club?

Yeah totally, the sound of a lot of hip hop records these days have that kind of club sound of like five years ago and that hard sort of clubby, Crookers-ish old school sound. When producers are putting the records together they look at what was cool in the underground five years ago and now that the records have come out that’s what’s on the radio. That sort of sound has started to disappear a little bit and now people are starting to look to dubstep. It’s an evolution. Pop music will always reflect what was happening in the underground of dance music like five years previously because it takes a while to break through. After dubstep is through then something else will be the hot thing in dance music.

Will the grime and bass follow?

Not as it is. A reason a lot of people like the music is because it’s very raw and stripped down. It’s not simple, but there’s a lot of space in the music and it’s quite raw and that’s what attracts a lot of people to it. As it is, it might be too simple for a lot of radio listeners and commercial records buyers.

Dubstep has many different musical elements to it that allows for freedom, but do you feel confined to the dubstep genre moving forward. Maybe by expectations from fans or trademark sounds?

Not at all. So many people who are absolutely my fans have been like ‘I can’t believe you’re working with Britney’. I’ve still got loads of fans and followers. I still have an audience. People still like what I do; it’s just different people. As long as people still like it, it doesn’t matter which people do. And as long as people still like it I’m happy and I can continue doing this.

It’s kind of like I have two jobs. I do Rusko and then I do the production stuff. It’s not Rusko featuring Britney, it’s me on the inside cover written as Christopher Mercer and then I go out and make some Rusko records and then go out on the road and make pop records. I try and turn it on and off.

How would you compare the sound of your debut album O.M.G.! to the sound of Fabriclive 37?
The tracks are a lot fuller on O.M.G.! I tried to make more like something that you can listen to on laptop speakers rather than having to have a super huge sound system and there’s a lot more vocals.

Was there an original idea or concept for O.M.G.! or did you do it track by track?

It’s still a straight up. It’s not deep. There’s no theme behind it or anything and there is no intro or outro or skits. There’s not even a thanks list or any pictures. The album is just a picture of my face and 70 minutes of tracks really. I just wanted it to be straight up all about the music and good vibes. It’s a party record, so every track is not jolly or happy, but it’s certainly not aggressive.

What music do you listen to outside of electronic?

Right now I’m listening to some noise rock. I listen to a lot of that. There’s a band called An Albatross from Philadelphia, they’re really cool, and a band called The Locust as well, from San Diego. It’s like electro grind and bizarre. I listen to crazy stuff I really do.

Word Association time:
Rod Azlan… G. [laughs] that’s really, really strange. I don’t know why I just said G. I’ll say Volkswagen, that’s better.
King Tubby… originator
Lee Scratch… Fabric
Lady Gaga… boobs
Ecstasy… awesome

Rusko’s O.M.G.! is out now on Mad Decent through Inertia. Check out the inthemix review of the disc over here to see if it cuts the mustard.