After bursting onto the scene 4 years ago, Mashd N Kutcher have been systematically spreading their sound all over the world. The Brisbane duo have been showing off their musical expertise by combining live instrumentation with electronic productions. Mashing up more than production techniques, Mashd N Kutcher have shown that their musical influences reach all over the map. You’ll be able to find rap, house, and even hardstyle in their sets. However as is clear if you look at their newest release, you can see that one of their biggest influences is rock.
Matt (unclear if he’s Mashd or Kutcher) was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about their new release and their mentality when it comes to performing live.
Both Adam and you play instruments along with deejaying and producing mash-ups and original songs. Did combining all those aspects come naturally for you or was there a bit of a learning curve when you started to incorporate everything?
Basically, Adam started out as a drummer when he was young, and I started out as a classical piano player. So, we’ve always had the instruments and we’ve always played them. That was the first thing we integrated into our live sets and then the deejaying came after that. Yea, instruments first and deejaying second.
“Don’t Stop Believing” is obviously a well-known classic rock song. What was your motivation behind remaking it?
The reason we remade “Don’t Stop Believing” was because we would always play the original record in our sets since the very start of our deejaying careers. We were mashing it up with other dance tracks and it’s a rock ballad, so we needed a dance version to play. And so, we decided to make our own.
You guys just completed your European tour. How’d that go?
It’s been great. We’ve played shows in Germany, Croatia, Austria, Portugal, and a whole bunch of places. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of really cool people. We got to collab with a couple different artists throughout Europe, as well. So, yea we had a really good time.
Was there any stop that stuck out to you guys?
Well, we played in a bunch of places, like I just mentioned that we hadn’t been to before. Our first show in Austria was really cool. We definitely never played in Portugal before and that was a real vibe. It was cool to play in new places that we hadn’t been to before.
Anyone who’s seen you live knows that you guys put a lot of effort into your show. How much planning do you guys do ahead of time?
I think it’s always planning on the go. We never really sit down and go, “Ok, what are we gonna do for the next month?” We kinda just take it week by week. We’ll play shows that week and then look at how we can improve them for the week after, I guess.
You can tell you guys tailor your shows and music choices towards the crowd and location. Is that on purpose or is that just something that happens organically?
Well, Rule 101 of deejaying is that you need to play to your crowd. Obviously we have things that we want to play. But I think it’s really important to be aware of who’s in front of you and where you are and play to the audience.
You’re also really well-known for messing with the crowd during your shows. You’re latest gag in Germany was pretty big news in Australia. It was front and center on all the morning shows and everything. Even for someone who’s new to Australia, the Frank Walker, National Tiles commercial is iconic. How did you guys come up with idea to drop the commercial into your set?
We like to do things that are unexpected. We’re all about throwbacks and we like to do things that remind of us of our childhood. That was an ad that was played in Australia when we were kids on radio and TV like a lot. So it was cool to show that to a different audience. We do it when we’re in the US or we’re in Europe, like we try and give different audiences a bit of a taste of what we’re about in Australia. They might not understand it at first, but if they get around it, it’s cool.
You guys are one of the more well-known Australian deejays globally. You definitely carry the banner for Australia. Is there anything special that you try to do when you’re touring to bring that feeling of home with you?
Well, we usually have flags at our shows that we like to wave. Of course the Aussie flag, but we also like to wave the flag of the city or country that we’re in. We like to let people know that we’re repping our own flag but we also get around wherever we are. We like to get out and experience the culture of different places. So wherever we go, we’ll always try to find where the dopest restaurants are or where the cool bars are and try to experience the culture of each place.
You guys have been touring and releasing music for a few years now. Do you think your sound or your mentality has changed over that time period?
Yea definitely, we’ve learned a lot. I think part of that is traveling to different countries and learning about different cultures. We’ve done about 700 shows now. I think, during that time, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and different people and different places.
A bit of a throwback, you guys had a Youtube series “Collabing with Pizza Men” along with “Strangers” and “Europeans” did any of those songs ever actually make it into a live set?
Not really, a lot of people asked us to play them live and a lot of people asked us to release them on Itunes and Spotify and stuff. But I really like the idea of leaving that piece of content as is. It is what it is in that video and in that moment and that’s it.
Finally, what’s next for you guys?
We got a whole bunch of music we’re about to release which is completely original. So that’s interesting because it’s obviously not a cover of something classic. So, yea we’re gonna drop some new music.
We’re gonna keep trying to travel to as many different parts of the world as we can. We’ve been to India. We’ve been to Asia. We’ve been to Europe. We’ve been to North America. We’ve been to Canada. We’ve been to a whole bunch of really cool places. But I want to see where else we can play. Maybe we can do some shows in some countries where deejays wouldn’t normally go. Let’s push the boundaries a bit and try to see how much more of the world we can get to.
Mashd N Kutcher are currently touring around Australia, you can find details of their next stops below. We just wanted to say thanks again to Matt and are excited to see how Mashd N Kutcher will surprise fans next.
Newcastle, NSW – 1/9 @ King Street Hotel
Port Lincoln, SA – 8/9 @ Grand Tasman Hotel
Port Augusta, SA – 22/9 @ Port Augusta Centre
Townsville, QLD – 28/9 @ FLNDRS Nightclub
Mooloolaba, QLD – 29/9 @ The Helm
Victor Harbor, SA – 30/9 @ Keg Room
Connect with Mashd N Kutcher:
https://www.facebook.com/mashdnkutcher
https://twitter.com/mashdnkutcher
https://soundcloud.com/mashdnkutcher
https://www.instagram.com/mashdnkutcher
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