He says that his latest album is “definitely his best work to date.” And with a huge club tour about to kick off, lauded breaks master Krafty Kuts is keen to take Australian audiences to the next level.

When inthemix caught up with him, Krafty had just downed his first coffee of the day and made sure we had plenty to share with his Australian fans. We begin with the sounds on the forthcoming album. “I feel like disco is really back and soul music and funk, and that’s what I tried to inject into this Krafty Kuts album in a very passionate way,” he says. “It’s taken me two years to make, because it’s just been so thought out. But it’s still so current and cutting edge, I feel like it’s my best work to date.”

So, what is the vibe leading up to the tour? “I’m looking forward to it,” he confirms. “It’s been a while since I’ve actually done a club tour, because usually it’s been festival dates. But with my schedule and my studio work and stuff like that sometimes it’s hard to lock down a good solid tour where you’re going to all the little cities and all the major cities as well. And this time, it’s taken a good year to put together to make sure that each individual place has a little Krafty treat.”

It’s a different way of living in Australia, Krafty says. “Australia has quite a refreshing outlook on life.” It is a welcome flip side to what he will be leaving behind in the UK. “The weather is stone cold in England. You can see the change in people. Literally. You walk into a shop to buy a cold drink, and everyone is like [big groan]. No one is smiling and no one is happy.”

Weather aside, how are Australian audiences different? “I find that the Australians are quite knowledgeable,” Krafty muses. “People do their research before the artist comes out. They listen to the DJ mix. They know a lot more about the artist. They have questions to ask you. Sometimes it can be quite intense. So it’s more of a challenge.”

To cater for this, Krafty says he does a lot of prep work to “take it a little bit further”.

“I’ve got tracks that are so current that people are like, ‘Wow, I know this track but not this version’. So it’s like I’ll be taking big tracks and making them really Krafty; putting my own little touches on it. I literally had to sit down and burn loads of CDs for my tour, and it took me six hours to print all my CDs. I’ve got four Dynamite CDs full of his vocals and at least another 40 blank CDs of music that I had to burn 10 tracks per CD.

“I’ve got everything to throw at [audiences] from the kitchen sink – from breaks to dubstep, drum and bass to house to disco and reggae. It’s going to be a real treat for me.”

When putting a set together, how does Krafty negotiate his way through all those sounds? “To be honest, if I tried to explain to you how I get round a DJ set by looking at my CDs, it would probably be an impossible task. Basically it’s really weird. There is a concept within DJs and I’d love to have a little book to know how DJs know their way around their CDs.”

Krafty laughs, then spins a tale about a DJ he was sharing a set with recently. “This is a funny one…He had the most bizarre labelling of his CDs I’ve ever seen. They were fuckin’ everywhere. He’d thrown them everywhere, and I don’t know how he knew which CD [to use]. One had ‘France’, one had ‘Germany’, one had ‘England’, and I don’t know how many tracks were on the CD, it had just some squiggle on it.”

These days, for many it isn’t just CDJs or a pair of Technics pumping out the sounds. Laptops have found their way into the mix. It is something Krafty says he as a great, if not qualified, respect for. Though for him, it’s all about getting amongst it.

“You’ve got the Serato DJs, who I respect immensely. But I do think that you’re looking into a laptop to search, and while it’s playing you’re still looking in there, and it’s kind of as though you’ve got your head away around from the crowd. Ever since I’ve DJed, Krafty Kuts is part of the crowd. There is another Krafty Kuts in the crowd. I place myself in the middle.

“My way of playing, I don’t know…it’s the strangest thing. I can’t multi-task, really. I couldn’t sit here typing as I was talking to you. But I seem to manage when I’m DJing to think of the next record I’m playing, and the last record I’m going to play on the night judging by what the crowd is liking, the next 10 minutes of where I’m going to go musically, looking at the crowd screaming and jumping, dropping a vocal, doing a scratch, putting an a cappella in and thinking about four or five things at once.”

It is all about professionalism and focus – a philosophy that has taken Krafty Kuts from a record store owner to one of the most respected DJs on the planet, having scratched and mixed his way into the hearts of multiple thousands. This tour sees Krafty play not just the big venues, but also venturing out to some of the smaller cities. It is something he says he is passionate about doing.

“Everything just fell into place, in terms of the timing and the clubs that wanted me. My job is to entertain people and that’s what I love. If I see people not enjoying themselves I mix it up, I change it because I like to make sure everyone has a really good time.

“Going to a new city can be a great challenge because you can throw in new music they have never heard. For example, dubstep. It’s huge. I do throw in a few dubstep [tracks] and a few cheeky things people may have not experienced before. It’s a whole new chapter in their life. It can open up some doors.”

Krafty Kuts tour dates:

November 5 – Vibe Bar & Lounge, Cairns
November 12 – Savvy, Adelaide
November 13 – The Great Northern, Byron Bay
November 19 – The Beach House, Port Macquarie
November 20 – Garden Party @ Chinese Laundry, Sydney
November 24 – Halo, Hobart
November 25 – Base, Magnetic Island
November 26 – Brown Alley, Melbourne
November 27 – Foreshore, Canberra
November 27 – Family, Brisbane
December 1 – King St Hotel, Newcastle
December 3 – Villa Nightclub, Perth
December 4 – Pang! @ The Grand Hotel, Wollongong