Down and Dirty with Rusko

Special thanks to Rusko for taking the time to chat with us and answer some questions before he takes the stage for UK Thursdays at Monarch Theatre for our Official Global Dance Festival Pre-Party at Monarch Theatre, this Thursday November 20.

Relentless Beats: What opportunities have you had to participate in charitable events or causes that were near and dear to you?

Rusko: OMG well recently, the last couple of years I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able too, but for a year or so I worked in a restaurant for homeless people. It’s a proper restaurant, with table service and everything, not a soup kitchen. I did that for about a year, then touring got busy unfortunately , but next year I plan on getting right back onto it because that was absolutely awesome.

RB: What are the biggest differences between the U.K. audiences and those in the U.S.?

Rusko: There’s not a big difference crowd reaction wise. Reaction wise it’s pretty much the same but American crowds are way way noisier volume wise- they really let you know. The European audience you can tell –you can just watch them you don’t need to listen to them. Music wise I find in my set I have to play at least a couple of tunes that people know or are very fond of -of mine in the US or else I get a lot of complaints on twitter or facebook and if I go to the UK and play those songs instead of brand new stuff, then I get the same amount of hate on facebook …so that’s another slight difference. US crowds expect to hear one or two of the hits you know, but playing those in the UK is a cop out. As far as if you stuck me on stage in front of 2000 Americans or 2000 Europeans, and asked me to play for 60 minutes I probably couldn’t tell.

RB: What is the craziest interaction you have had with a fan at your show?

Rusko: Craziest interaction, I’ve had a few crazy interactions with fans at the show. I got punched in the face by a fan at a show once, uh a girl, I once got pinned down backstage by a girl and she squirted boob milk in my face, real boob milk, real 100% boob milk I have no idea where It came from but yeah, I’ve had some backstage fun after a show and a kind of pillow fight turned into a small wrestling fight…which turned into her putting her two giant tits in my face and literally sprayed about a pint of tit milk… like it was all over my shirt, everywhere it was in my nose, that’s a pretty wild thing…

RB: Have you ever had a catastrophic failure of some type during one of your shows involving your gear or tech? How did you get through it?

Rusko: Every week is a catastrophic failure I kind of ride away, but I feel like I just about manage to pull off every show, I’m (hands) this close to failure all the time, so yeah I’ve got failure most of the time, I get through it … if I’m going through a set and if its really difficult, I just purely playing for myself and start playing the things that I want to hear and get a bit selfish with it sometimes

RB: After years of playing pubs, clubs, and bars I’m sure you have had your fair share of bad experiences with alcohol. Is there any particular drink that you simply cannot look at anymore without feeling sick?

Rusko: Tequila, I can’t smell or be anywhere near tequila. I went to a tequila bar in Germany. Some German friends of mine took me out- we went to a tequila bar first, drank tequila, and then we went to a Chinese restaurant, in Germany. And let me tell you German Chinese food is not like American Chinese food. Or even Chinese Chinese food. It is some new level of grossness that I have never imagined, and that show, that night in berlin is the only DJ show where I nearly filled a whole Ice bucket with sick. It was mix a tune, fill up bucket, mix up tune fill up bucket. Pretty fucking gross but completely true.

RB: On more than one occasion you have featured the elderly in your music videos. What is the message you are trying to get across to the audience using this imagery?

Rusko: The main message was an idea that I personally had for the somebody to love video a couple of years. That was totally my idea. I wanted to do this for years, bring a real old couple to a rave have them absolutely scared, check it out. That was kind of a goal of mine for a while and I definitely was very hands on in that video, so when the director for the Lytah video came and approached me with his idea for the video I was instantly like rad lets get the old people! lets get more old people in there! It’s becoming a theme. I just find the idea of the over 80’s people dancing to hardcore EDM, music funny. May there be many more to come, cuz that’s the tradition. Next time it may even be my own grandparents. That’s gonna be the biggy. Me playing the piano naked singing falsetto with my old grandparents dancing, with my coconuts out.

RB: Other than fellow musicians, have there been any other people who have influenced your musical style and vision?

Rusko: My ex wife. Cuz some of the real early real aggressive angry music was made when she proper pissed me off. We would get an argument and I would go to the studio and get all my rage out and it turned into some really great tunes. I guess when I was first married and happy in love and stuff I made some real nice pretty tunes, especially on my first album. So, I suppose in a way, in good and bad ways, the women in my life have influenced the music that I make.

RB: When you were growing up who was your favorite comic book character?

Rusko: My favorite comic book character was dennis the menace from the beano, which is a British comic, I don’t think the beano is really over here, but I still have every beano manual, from my childhood. I have 85 through to 97 or 98 so I have 12 years of mint condition dennis the menace beano manuals I used to get for Christmas. My mum always said keep these safe, every toy everything you had, she said keep these safe, so I still have the original manuals in this sleeves and everything . So yeah Dennis the menace, the naughtiest cartoon character there was, the little mischievous boy.. that ive grown into today 😉

RB: What are the big upcoming projects you have been working on?

Rusko: Big upcoming projects—finishing up the last of my EP series, finishing up volume three, and then the next project I have no idea, but that’s the absolute greatest thing about it. I’m gonna get some more live instruments involved, take a bunch of time off of touring, and just make music. I’m gonna work in some different places, I’m gonna do some traveling. I have a whole 12 months of making music in different ways and unusual ways, so yeah who knows what’s going to come from that. But, a lot of music is going to come out next year. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a reggae record, and definitely some kind of ambient record as well.

Catch him up close and personal on Thursday, doors open at 9PM.  Also, don’t forget to bring a non-perishable item for the St. Mary’s Food Bank, each item (up to ten) will get you a raffle ticket to win prizes including tickets to, VIP upgrades, and meet and greets at Global Dance Festival on Friday night at Tempe Beach Park.