The main man launches his brand new international show on Kiss Fresh – The Electrik Playground
Interview : Kelly Dayus-Cook
Andi Durrant has been a staple of dance music radio for many years now and last week launched his brand new international show on KISS Fresh – the Electrik Playground. A show that’ll be broadcast across the world, it seems Andi’s incredible music knowledge and position as a respected tastemaker looks set to grow beyond international boundaries. We caught up with the veteran presenter to find out his thoughts on the future of FM, the kind of music he’ll be pushing on Electrik Playground and where in the world he got into the most trouble…
As a veteran of the radio show presenting game, how have you kept your passion for it so alive to want to take on this brand new and exciting challenge at KISS FRESH?
“A few reasons I guess…the first one is that there’s new and incredible music to be found every single day of the year. Every morning I wake up, check my inbox, have a flick through Soundcloud and Twitter and hear something I’ve never heard before. Being in a privileged position of being allowed to play the music you love on the radio never gets tiring.
Secondly, as a presenter, you can always learn to be better. After doing the same show for a long time, I felt like I needed to take a bit of time out, help some other people launch their own radio careers through our production company Distorted, and come back with something I could be really proud of.”
How did you start out in radio?
“I started as a tea boy at Kiss 105 in Leeds aged 15, learning how to edit stuff together, sitting quietly at the back of the studio and watching some real masters at work. I spent every spare minute I could making my own demos and getting feedback from the bosses and other DJs. I was terrible, but everyone has to start somewhere. I used to leave college on a Friday afternoon, get the train straight to Kiss and work all the way through until Saturday afternoon. Sometimes pre-recorded shows would go wonky and I’d jump on to fill in for a few minutes…the buzz was amazing.”
You have also become very well known as one half of Riley & Durrant – are you two still working closely together?
“Nick Riley has been my business and music partner since we met at Gatecrasher as kids in 2002 – we’ve been lucky enough to play all over the world and work with loads of amazing artists, but last year Nick decided to take more of a behind-the-scenes role producing my shows and working on the music and business side. He’s sat right next to me in the Distorted office as I type this, telling a terrible story about poo.
I’m absolutely loving playing gigs and making music under my own name now, and every so often I’ll coax Riley out to play a party together.”
For those who tuned into you each week on Galaxy and then Capital FM, what will they find different about your new show?
“There’s no massive differences – my tastes in music have always been very varied and hopefully that comes through on the shows. I’ll be playing everything from EDM and house to drum & bass, techno, breaks, dubstep, trap and some big anthems. The main change for me (and the reason I wanted to join Kiss Fresh) is having a bit more freedom. Although I’ve always tried to maintain as much freedom as possible, sometimes you’re under pressure to fit in with a radio stations identity, and when that’s hit music and pop, it isn’t always a natural fit. Kiss Fresh and stations like Party 105 in New York and Radio FG are all playing electronic music 24/7 so it feels like I’m at home there.”
The Electrik Playground, as it will be known, is due to be beamed all over the globe in places like New York, Mexico, Columbia, Egypt, Cyprus, Australia, Canada and many more – do you have to think about that when designing your shows? Does everything transfer globally?
“Music, and especially electronic music is a truly global thing – there’s no barriers or borders so I don’t think it’s something that any DJ should think about too much. There’s obviously language barriers, so on the international show I tend to do a little less talking, but dance music is awesome wherever you are.”
You play a huge range of music on your shows, but what’s really doing it for you right now?
“I’m a sucker for a good piano line.. and there’s lots of that about at the moment. I’m loving house producers like MK, Blonde, Hot Mouth, Chocolate Puma and Wilfred Giroux, some of the more interesting EDM tracks, and a huge amount of Drum & Bass which is mind blowing at the moment.”
What do you think it takes to be a great radio presenter?
“It depends if you want to be a “personality” presenter or a music presenter really. If you want to do daytime shows you need to be funny and charming. I am not very good at either of those. When I was 18 I was told by a boss that I’d be much better putting all my efforts into being a music broadcaster as it was obvious where my passions were.
It sounds obvious, but the main thing you need to have is a genuine and massive love for the music you’re playing, and a geeky encyclopedic knowledge. A music show should be about the music, not the DJ – you’re there to find incredible music and showcase it to a bigger audience, not to get famous. There’s enough DJs on the radio who are out to promote themselves rather than the music, but for me it’s an honour to be allowed on air at all – if you can break some records and help get an unheard artist to a wider audience that’s the buzz.”
Do you think the popularity of Podcasts and things like Spotify have had a determent to FM radio?
“Absolutely yes, but I see that as a positive thing. I’m a radio geek and a child of 80s and 90s so FM radio will always be exciting to me, but things change, and radio in the UK is guilty of being bland, vanilla, safe and boring. When is the last time you turned on the radio and were truly blown away? When did you last hear something shocking, majorly exciting or ground-breaking?
Podcasts and online radio are the (at the moment) one of the only ways of hearing something really new, experimental and interesting.”
Where do you see the medium of radio heading in the next 10 years?
“People have been predicting the end of FM radio for years and nothing else has really made a massive dent yet, however the tide is turning and fewer of the youngest end of the audience is now listening to traditional radio – mainly because of what I was saying before.
The fact you can find and listen to your favourite track within about 20 seconds on your phone.. That’s why specialist shows are so important – giving DJs (from any musical genre) who are passionate about a certain type of music the freedom to seek out new stuff, take risks and introduce tracks that you haven’t heard before is the reason radio in whatever form will always be the most important tool in the music industry. People still want to get their music recommendations from DJs who know their scene – otherwise they’re relying on being marketed at by the labels and brands with the biggest budgets.
Of course online and on demand radio is already growing massively, but traditional radio stations need to start giving DJs more freedom and taking more risks, or they’ll find by the time today’s 14 year olds are grown adults who count for listening figures, there’ll be a big hole in the numbers.”
As an accomplished producer in your own right, do you have anything in the pipeline for your listeners?
“Loads! I’ve been in the studio a lot recently working on various different tracks and remixes, both solo and with Steve More. We were lucky enough to get a US Billboard Number 1 on our last remix for Canadian band Audio Playground, and I’ve just finished a new Drum & Bass thing I’ll be playing on the show in the next few weeks.”
Will you be having guests on your new show? And if so, who’s on your hit list?
“Definitely – I’ll be handing over to a guest for the last half hour of each show – from big hitting A List stars to up-and-coming new names we’re really excited by. The hit list would take hours to run down…”
You’ve toured the world as a DJ, where on your travels have you…
A…had the most fun
“Miami – we got absolutely no “business” done at the Winter Music Conference but had a disgusting amount of fun and destroyed a credit card in the process.”
B…got into the most trouble
“Russia comes the closest to actual trouble – a few years ago we were doing a massive arena show in Moscow and after the gig we were asked to take all the cash (in US Dollars) back for the famous UK club brand we’d been playing for. It wasn’t until we got safely to London we found out it’s strictly forbidden to take cash out of Russia and carries some massive penalties. Whoops.”
C…spent the most money
“Zurich airport. After another gig in Moscow we were flying back to the UK via Switzerland but in a post club haze ended up wondering round aimlessly and missing our connection home. It would have been fine if it’s wasn’t Christmas Eve so we had to spend all the money from the gig (plus a lot more) on the only flights home – 2 hugely inflated business class seats to the wrong city and a cab journey across the UK.”
D…been glad to leave
“It might be a bit rude to name the city, but there were so many fist fights in a certain UK club we were in once, that around 80% of the club had been thrown out by 2am. As we were leaving the owner told us someone had been murdered on the dancefloor the week before, and as we legged it down the high street there was a local meathead throwing a bin through a shop window.”
E…can’t wait to go back to
“I’d love to go back to Kuala Lumpur. I played a massive New Year’s Eve party on the worlds biggest man-made beach – which had a giant fake volcano erupt at midnight! I thought the city was an amazing place and would love to head over again in the future.”
And finally, sell us your new show in 3 words…
“Very Awesome Music.”
LISTEN TO ANDI ON ELECTRIK PLAYGROUND ACROSS THE UK EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT 7-9PM ON KISS FRESH
For more info: www.andidurrant.com
For DJ Bookings: lee@freshdjs.co.uk
For Music and Remix requests: matt.mwr@music-house.co.uk
For show info and syndication enquires: nick@thisisdistorted.com
For press: pr@slkassociates.com
To send music promos please use: music@andidurrant.com
