Jonas Blue Quotes

My father was my first inspiration. He had an incredible stereo and a turntable, and I was told not to touch it. But I'd go back and touch it anyway. I gained a respect for the turntables when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I came up with a 'cueing system' to work the turntables because they didn't have it at that time.

I developed the Clock Theory to help me time records; you know, spin the record back two revolutions or whatever and then play the break, spin the other one back two, play, like that.

I had also done a little disc jockeying.

All the records I've made have pretty much been big club turntable records. You need to feel the rhythm.

For instance, if you're playing a record with drums - horns would sound nice to enhance it so you get a record with horns and slip it in at certain times.

I was the little white kid who rocked the turntables.

Pete Dj Jones was the first person that I saw with 2 turntables. This was 1972.

I certainly considered DJing. I bought four vinyls, and I bought some turntables, and I was like, 'Um. Yeah. I'm not gonna do this. This is not my thing.'

I begged and begged, and my uncle gave me his old turntables. It was one hi-fi and one old Stereo Lab turntable and a rusty mixer. I was really chuffed. I kept that for five years - that's where I learned to mix.

Yeah, I actually still have my crates that I used to DJ out of when I was first DJing - my crates that I would travel with and take to the club.

Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow are going to blow your funky mind!

I've been DJing since before I could read the labels on the records.

There's a lot about records that you cannot feel from a CD.

I used to love listening to Jazzy Jeff.

I've been DJing a little bit, so you get used to the fact that music sounds brilliant when it's loud.

I didn't have a record player.

I named myself Flash many years ago, as I loved the cartoon. Then my own fans said that I should call myself 'Grandmaster,' because of the way I operate turntables. I put the two together and that was it.

If the music in a groove fits with what you're playing, then play it; if not, then you can play it backwards. If that doesn't work, you try it at a different speed. If it really doesn't work you just break it. The whole ritual to put a record on a turntable just to listen to it, I don't do that too often.

The type of mixing that was out then was blending from one record to the next or waiting for the record to go off and wait for the jock to put the needle back on.

I knew there was a way to blend records together, but I didn't know how to. This was haunting me when I was in my teens. In my frustration, I decided to start experimenting with electronics. I tested the torque factor on different turntables. I had to figure needles out. See, there are two kinds, elliptical and conical.

My kids love vinyl, I had to teach them how to put the needle on the records. Now they're worried about scratching the records, but it's incredible!

I prefer to unwind by DJing. I learned that from Mike D from the Beastie Boys. After a show, he would DJ. Once I saw that, I wanted to do that. And now DJing is like my lifeline. I love the power it represents.

For me it all started with two turntables and a mixer.

There's individual turntable setups devoted to piano, bass, drums and a set for soloing as well. We like to try and explore the gamut of what a turntable can do.

To me, the whole thing with the roots of rap music was when the DJ had to supply all the music for the group with two turntables. And the whole criteria of what that DJ would use had nothing to do with what type of band made a record.