"I remember some really nasty Diadora tracksuits from when I was at primary school. Really ugly purple ones"
Kids in Tracksuits are Nottingham beats duo Matt Cutler and Andy Hemsley. They've been plying their musical trade in Notts over the last year to some notable musical success. Airplay on Radio 1 and a string of live appearances have done their reputation in the city no harm. Now we have them playing at the Orange Tree for our Christmas Party on Thursday 15 December. Jared put some questions to those pesky kids...
You’ve been getting a lot of airplay recently. Are things on the up?
Andy: Yeah we’ve been getting our stuff played on radio 1 a bit at the minute, which is all good… so yeh thing seem to be going well.
Matt: Sean at Dealmaker/ Camouflage sent them a CD and Steve Lamacq seems to like it, which is nice, so now we’re just working on getting our EP out for March…
Describe your style to people who haven’t seen you play before?
Matt: I suppose it lies somewhere between hiphop and electronica… it’s all pretty raw.
Andy: our style? You could call it the art of fighting without fighting. Failing that, hiphop.
Who are your influences?
Andy: J5, Dilated peoples, Wu-tang, big daddy kane, mr.lif, madlib, ultramagentic mc’s …too many to mention. Any decent hiphop really, aswell as a lot of stuff on ninja tune, any decent music actually, not just hiphop.
Matt: Aphex Twin, Wu-Tang clan, boards of Canada, madlib.
Who else do you rate in the Nottingham music scene?
Matt: Lost Project are dope. Always quality UK hiphop coming from those boys. We’re not really into conventional bands as such so we don’t check out that much. Always feeling Rikki Marrs work, I don’t know if he makes any music but I love his art stuff.
Andy: Yeah... Lost Project and Rikki are both fresh, Blumonkey too. There a lot of ill tablists around town all doing their thing as well….
Who makes the best tracksuits?
Both: Adidas
Who makes the worst tracksuits?
Matt: I remember some really nasty diadora tracksuits from when I was at primary school…ugly purple ones.
Andy: I'd say either gola or fila are top of the bad tracksuit charts, or all the shite the rudeboy types rock, lambretta and the such…I might be crossing into shellsuit territory there though I dunno…
Any of you got any kids?
Both: Thankfully not, no.
What will santa be bringing you for Christmas?
Matt: Not a great deal I don’t think. Socks are most likely
Andy: Good question. Yeah i'd have to guess at some sort of undergarment too sadly. I could do with some new headphones if you’re reading though santa!
What do you listen to when you’re chilling out at home?
Matt: Well we usually make music when we’re chilling out, so we tend to listen to what we’re making at the time. Other than that i've been listening to this guy called Bibio, his album ‘Fi’ is the most chilled thing ive ever heard.
Andy: Coronation Street or Emmerdale usually to be fair, music-wise blockhead, kid koala, biz markie, some motown or something along those lines if i'm relaxing.
What was the last film you saw?
Matt: I've had my mate Petes Easy Rider DVD for ages now, watched that the other night. An amazing film
Andy: i’m not really into films much so it’d have been something cheesy on telly I should imagine. Yeah, shit it was Enter The Dragon on channel 5 in the pub actually.
What was the last book you read?
Matt: Books? Nah, im too impatient. I read a few of my old 2000 AD comics the other day though… well, looked at the pictures mainly.
Andy: Nope, no books for me either, the last one I read would have been at school. Stuff on the internet or a newspaper is about as close as I get these days.
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
Andy: Peep show
Matt: Yeah, peep show
What’s your favourite breakfast cereal?
Both: We’d both rather have a bowl of coco pops than anything else.
What are your plans for 2006…?
Matt: Make as much music as possible I guess… get our EP out and see what happens from there
Andy: Yeah I agree, see what happens.
Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?
Andy: Erm... come check us out at the LeftLion Christmas party this Thursday.
Matt: Merry Christmas ya bastards!
The Kids In Tracksuits debut ep Get Your Kit On is out in March 2006.
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