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It's all in the name
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Ever wondered why some DJs have strange names?
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Even the DJ's name needs to sound cool.
RIDICULE OR amused wonder or both will follow you if you have been unfortunately named Dale E. Bread (daily bread) or Faye Tallity (fatality), but if you have named yourself Coldcut or Arris Da Kat, then you are inviting these reactions. And, disk jockeys around the world enjoy doing that, or so it seems.
Probably, Matt Black has more than a rational liking for a "cold cut" (or a slice of cold cooked meat) along with cornflakes and porridge on his breakfast table. You really don't know why, but this is the name he wants his remix and production works to be credited with.
And when DJ Darren Knott, said he was part of a collaborative project called DJ Food with names such as Coldcut, we were baffled. "What is he talking about? Some recipe for the micro-oven?" When we gave voice to our puzzlement, Knott explained, "Coldcut is a DJ, but DJ Food is not." Did that help? Not a bit. Never mind.
International image
You may call it one of their idiosyncrasies, but DJs, or most of them, love to give themselves and their works strange, and we are tempted to say `inappropriate', names. One of the reasons adduced for this liking for unusual names is that it lends the spindle-turner an international and larger-than-life image.
Arris Da Kat is a dead ringer for an Englishman. He looks and speaks like one, and, what is more, he lives in England. And his name makes for international associations. If it does not remind you of Felix Da Housecat, known for his dance album Kittenz & The Glitz, it definitely takes your mind to the cartoon character Felix The Cat. Now, for the reality behind the persona. , Arris Da Kat once took us to Jalandhar, his hometown. Under a pleasant evening sky, we sauntered along the agricultural farms that belong to his family. As the day wore on, he drew the veil that lay over his real name Hardeep Singh Sandhu and the munda even told us that he was hoping to marry a soni kudi from Punjab.
DJ Logical Lloyd revealed another facet to this naming game. If a DJ does not assume an outlandish nom de guerre, his friends or associates will foist one on him. Noticing that Lloyd was able to come up with sound combinations that followed logic, which was beyond their grasp, his friends named him Logical Lloyd.
Then came appropriately named DJs such as DJ Tall Paul and DJ FreeAtmah. A glance at his six-foot-six-inch frame told you why the former is called so, and listening to the latter's spiritually uplifting Goa trance lay bare the logic behind his name. How can we forget Whosane, with or without a question mark? If ever there was a nom de guerre that packed in so much wit, this surely was one.
All this takes us to the inevitable question. Why has this "name-yourself-crazy" bug not bitten all DJs though every other week some peripatetic DJ bearing an unusual name pops up in the Page Three columns? Whether at the dinner table or the turntable, Kunal is Kunal and Karan, Karan. Well, the question is right there for our DJs to answer. Who knows, they probably have a convincing argument to offer against the name-yourself-crazy fixation.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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Metro Plus
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Chennai
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