- 6 weeks ago
Fatboy Slim talks with Miles the DJ backstage at Coachella about the festival's evolution since he played the inaugural edition of Coachella, and how he's the "crazy old uncle" who keeps coming back to check on the kids.
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00:00The world-famous KROQ at KROQ. Miles, the DJ here, KROQ music director with the legend himself, Fatboy Slim.
00:06Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
00:09How are we doing, man?
00:09I'm good, yeah, yeah, just got here. Soaking up the Coachella vibes.
00:13Yes, sir.
00:14And immensely looking forward to my sixth appearance here.
00:17I was going to say, you played the first ever Coachella back in 1999, several times in between.
00:22Yeah, I'm like the crazy old uncle who comes back at Christmas.
00:26You have to invite him because he's your uncle.
00:28And he comes back at Christmas to find out how his nieces and nephews are growing up.
00:33And, yeah, every year it's an eye-opener to see how big it grows and how beautiful.
00:39And very diverse and varied as well.
00:41Big time.
00:42Really, that's something that I think a lot of festivals lose sight of the fact that it should be for
00:47everyone.
00:48Coachella, Golden Voice do such a great job of reinventing this festival every year.
00:52In fact, the Quasar stage, which is the stage you're performing on later today, that wasn't here back in 1999.
00:58Or 2001.
00:59I remember when all this was trees.
01:01That's right.
01:01Yeah, yeah, exactly.
01:03A stage like that, you play for like two to three hours on the Quasar stage.
01:06A big emphasis on visuals.
01:08I know you're a big graffiti person, a visual person.
01:11What can you do on that Quasar stage that you haven't really been able to do at Coachella?
01:15I'll tell you what you can do.
01:16You get to know people.
01:18Yeah.
01:18Because if you just get like an hour 15 on a main stage, you're just getting warmed up and you're
01:25just getting a feel of it and then you're off.
01:27But for a DJ, I mean a band, you can like shorten your set and you can just get in
01:30there and like wham, bam, thank you, ma'am.
01:32Right.
01:32But a DJ, you kind of, you know, you need the first half hour to get to know people and
01:36then they get to know you, you get to know them, you know, you break the ice and then, you
01:40know, the second hour is always like when the magic happens.
01:43So for a must, it's just more relaxed.
01:45Yeah.
01:45And that stage, I just went up and looked at the stage.
01:48And it's great because I'm not that far from the crowd.
01:50Right.
01:50There's people around you.
01:52Because that's the other thing when you play big stages, it's quite lonely out there.
01:55Is that right?
01:55Yeah, yeah.
01:55It's just like you and a table with a couple of record players.
01:58Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:58Totally.
01:59And I like that kind of communication with the crowd.
02:03So it's quite a low stage, which is nice.
02:05But then we've got the fabulous visuals.
02:07And then the visuals, they just come out of my laptop.
02:10Sure.
02:11But they're on to like the shades of sunglasses.
02:16Okay.
02:16Have you seen the stage?
02:17I haven't.
02:17Oh, I've seen the stage.
02:19Yeah, but I'm trying to picture what your visuals are going to come up.
02:22Well, I'm the nose between the sunglasses.
02:25Gotcha.
02:25Yeah.
02:25Word.
02:26Okay, cool.
02:27Let me ask you this.
02:2827 years ago, you played the first ever Coachella.
02:31We're back.
02:32Anything about crowds that maybe you didn't understand then that you're kind of getting now?
02:36How have they changed over the years?
02:38What's a crowd like in 2026 versus 99 at a Black Boy Slim concert?
02:42Well, there's a lot more phones, let's face it.
02:45Phones is just...
02:46I can't remember if we had mobile phones 27 years.
02:49If we did, they didn't take photos.
02:51That's right.
02:51And they didn't connect with each other and share their photos incessantly.
02:55So, I mean, that's the main thing that's changed about everything.
02:57But it's weird because it's a double-edged sword.
03:00On the one hand, it's a bit of a...
03:02When you're trying to have people in the moment and everybody just vibing together as part
03:07of this big crowd and connecting with each other, it's hard to do that when you've got
03:10your phone in the air.
03:11You know, but other people...
03:13We were talking about actually watching the gig through other people's phones.
03:16You're like...
03:17Because they're in front of you.
03:18Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:19You end up watching it through their phone.
03:20The phone is blocking the set so you're watching through someone's phone.
03:22The phone kind of takes away from it.
03:23But at the same time, it shows everybody what we were doing.
03:26Because when we first did this...
03:28That's a good point.
03:28There was...
03:29You know, nobody really knew about club music.
03:30It wasn't played that much on the radio.
03:32So, unless you were old enough to go to a club, you had to be over 21 here, to go
03:37to
03:37a club, then you never really know what went on.
03:38Now, it gets beamed around the world.
03:40So, when you go and play, more people come because they know what you like.
03:44People know what to expect.
03:45And it takes it for...
03:47Your relationship with the crowd goes further because of social media.
03:50So, like, the social media side, good.
03:53Selfies, not so good.
03:54But you take the crunchy with the smooth.
03:56It can make the actual show sometimes a little trickier, right, as a performer to try to
04:00maybe connect with them because they're looking at their phones so much.
04:03Is there...
04:03Yeah.
04:03Do you have any tricks, any particular songs that always work?
04:05There's a bit in my set where I get everybody to sit down, right?
04:08Okay.
04:08And I climb down onto the front of the stage where I can...
04:11And everybody...
04:13Normally, people are up for it, unless it's raining.
04:16And you see people getting down.
04:17Then you see this one guy, it's like, he's standing there filming me.
04:20And I'm going, get down, get down.
04:21And he's like, no, I'm filming you.
04:22I'm like, no, get down.
04:23Seriously, everybody around you has got down.
04:25You haven't even noticed.
04:26He hasn't even noticed that there's, like, 100 people all sitting on the floor.
04:29And he's the knobhead.
04:31Excuse my French.
04:33Yeah, he's the idiot who just hasn't realized that he's part of a bigger thing, you know.
04:38Right.
04:39So, yeah, I mean, I try.
04:42I just...
04:42I play to the crowd.
04:43The ones I can see their eyes, I can see they're having fun.
04:46They're the ones that I connect with the most that we...
04:48Us two have a really good night.
04:50And then the other ones, they just film it and show their mates.
04:52And they could tell them I was going, I saw Fatboy Sim, yeah.
04:55He waved at me.
04:57No, he was trying to get you to go down.
04:59Four decades in the game.
05:00Is there a moment, a show, a particular set where you really took a second and looked around?
05:05Whether it was, like, I don't know, you got invited to a house party last minute at some super famous
05:09person's house.
05:10Or I'm just trying to think.
05:11Is there a particular moment in your career where you said to yourself, wow, like, this is my life.
05:17How did this happen?
05:18There's been many.
05:19There's been a lot.
05:23I don't know.
05:24I did a couple of shows on the beach in my home city.
05:27One where a quarter of a million people turned up.
05:29And that was pretty, you know, just to look at everybody in the city that you live in.
05:34And another 150,000 people who have driven down all having a party on a beach and all united.
05:40And for me, that was a sort of celebration with my relationship with my hometown.
05:45And that took a lot of beating.
05:47That was just like, you know, the pride and the, and also the love.
05:52It was back in the day, there were no phones.
05:53Everyone was having fun.
05:54Right.
05:55Yeah, exactly.
05:55Like, in the moment, you know.
05:57So many classic K-Rock hits from Fatboy Slim, Right Here, Right Now, Praise You, etc.
06:03Satisfaction Skink, right?
06:05Yes, come back around.
06:06A bootleg, a mashup, one of the, probably the most notable mashups of all time, been in the mix for
06:10like 20 years.
06:11Officially released not too long ago.
06:13You got the official masters from the Rolling Stones themselves.
06:16Tell me about, like, putting the song together officially and the official release that just came out.
06:22Well, the putting the song together I did 27 years ago.
06:26But didn't you get, like, the original, like, the stems, or didn't they provide you with...
06:29They did give me the stems, but I didn't use them.
06:32Oh, word.
06:33Well, I didn't want to clean it up too much.
06:35I mean, the good thing about it, I mean, the beautiful thing is that we're finally legally allowed to issue
06:40it.
06:40And we'd given up.
06:43We'd asked so many times, and the Stones management just said no.
06:46And then I think they've changed, they've moved on with management.
06:50And so that's beautiful.
06:51But the other thing is, it's like, after 27, it still sounds good.
06:54It's amazing.
06:55I mean, it is what it is.
06:56Yeah.
06:56It's like, it's made of rough old samples and records ripped up and glued together.
07:01And I did, I sort of roughly remixed it from the original version that I've been playing for 27 years.
07:07But I didn't get too into, like, oh, I want to clean it up now.
07:10I've got mixed vocals cleaner.
07:12I tried it, and I thought, oh, no, it doesn't sound the same.
07:14There's something about that grit when you sample off a record.
07:17No doubt.
07:17And also, you know, it's one of those records where, you know, you sampled it, you made the mashup 20
07:23-plus years ago, whatever it was.
07:24But at that point, the song, the original had been around for decades prior, right?
07:28So it's almost like when you created it initially, it was instantly timeless.
07:33And that hasn't really gone away, I think, right?
07:35Because you already kind of remix an older song, and new generations are finding it.
07:40Like, the original is such a classic, and then, obviously, Rock of Ellis County was a big hit.
07:45So it doesn't necessarily mean that adding the two of them together will be bigger than the sum of the
07:49parts.
07:49But it does seem to have a kind of energy to it.
07:53Yeah.
07:54But, I mean, there's so many mashups over the years that, you know, you hear it once at a festival,
08:01you go, ah, what?
08:01Yeah, yeah.
08:02And then there's other ones that kind of stand the test of time.
08:05So I'm glad that that one is, you know, the people.
08:07I mean, that would be the most awful thing.
08:09If I waited 27 years for the Rolling Stones management to allow me to put it out, and then no
08:13one cared.
08:14Yeah, yeah.
08:14Oh, that old thing.
08:15It sounds a bit old.
08:17But, no, it still sounds fresh today.
08:19It sounds incredible, man.
08:20Congrats on the official release, finally.
08:22Well overdue.
08:23I'll get you out of here on this.
08:24Again, you know, been doing this for a long time.
08:26So much longevity, four decades in the game.
08:29What separates, maybe this could be like an advice section, you know, a parse some wisdom on to the up
08:35-and-coming artists here.
08:36I don't really do wisdom.
08:37Sorry.
08:37Well, what do you, like, what separates an artist who's been around for 40 years versus maybe some that aren't
08:45around for as long, you know?
08:46Like, is there a secret to it?
08:48I don't know.
08:49I mean, I don't know how I've managed to do it in the first place, let alone carry on to
08:54it for 40 years.
08:55I mean, for me, I mean, it's just a passion for me.
08:57I love music, and I love entertaining people.
09:07Yeah.
09:08I don't feel like, I think some people maybe with an ego would be like, I deserve this.
09:13I deserve your adoration.
09:15Right.
09:15I'm just like, I can't believe I'm having fun, and I'm still invited to do this.
09:18So, and then during the lockdowns, during the pandemic, when I couldn't do it for a year, then I really
09:26realized how much it meant to me.
09:27And it was like, just give me that, give me this back, give me this back.
09:31And I promise I'll never take it for granted.
09:32I will cherish every moment, and that's what I'm doing.
09:35It's like passion over entitlement, you know?
09:36Do it for the love of the art, you know?
09:38Yeah, yeah.
09:38And that probably is, that's probably the key to longevity.
09:41Big time.
09:42You're a legend.
09:43You're an icon.
09:44Thank you so much for stopping by.
09:46Well, you're a gentleman for some time.
09:47My man.
09:47Appreciate you.
09:48Fatboy Slim, K-Rock, Coachella.
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