Interview: DJ Youngsta

Cheers for taking the time to chat with us, what has 2012 been like overall for you?

Busy, it’s been a good year!

You've played more or less constantly across 2012, do you prefer doing the larger festival type gigs or the smaller, more intimate types?

I don't mind, I like both. They’re both good for their own reasons. I like doing the small intimate one, but I like doing the bigger rooms and festivals too. You can't feel a little detached sometimes in the larger ones, but it's just part of the job, you have to just get on with it sometimes.

Are your regular trips to FWD>> at Plastic People on a Thursday closer to "working late at the office" than a social thing?

It's more of a social thing for me

Do you even see it remotely as a job?

Yes, I love my job!

I caught an untitled dub of yours on Skream & Benga's R1 show (at least I think it was their show) at some point over the summer, is there any reason your productions are fairly few & far between? Will anything being seeing a vinyl release anytime soon?

Yes Skream & Benga did play a tune called 'Poseidon' by myself on their Radio 1 show. It's the flip side to 'Destruction', my forthcoming release on Tempa. Release date is December 10th for the digital and the vinyl will be out on the 17th.

The reason my productions are fairly few & far between is because its hard to find the time to get in the studio as much as I'd like to, I have to prioritise my DJ'ing because that's how I pay my bills.

In the long run though, the more I make & the more I produce, I don't think I'd ever want it to out balance my DJ'ing because I love playing out so much. I love them both equally for different reasons. You can't beat playing out though; the buzz of the crowd. Playing on a big system, dropping the tunes you love.

Is there any chance of seeing an entirely Youngsta produced album at some point in the future?

Yes I hope so, this is something I would really love to do.

What's Tempa got in store for next year?

We've got a release coming from Killawatt & Ipman at the start of the year. We've got an A-side but we're still deciding on what to put out as the second track but that's coming.

I've A&R'd loads of new stuff, we're not leaning on any one side style wise. We've always been very diverse & a lot of the new stuff I've been pushing as a DJ of course, so it's a real good look for us right now.

I was a really big fan of the J:Kenzo LP this year, particularly bits like 'Ironclad', that was a nice direction to go in.

Yeah there'll be another album from Kenzo next year. There's also a remix I've done with Jubei for 'Eyes Wide Open' which is one of the vocal led tracks from the album. That's going to be dropping around February time. That was a nice one to work on with the vocal and everything. There's going to be another remix from DBridge too.

The label has really pushed it's sound out in every direction this past year.

Yeah it's been interesting. The deeper stuff has really come back around this past few, there's so much more out there to choose from. You can't ever pinpoint when it's gonna happen but it's done a circle. It started showing a bit more interest, I'd say at least a year ago, but this past 12 months everyone has really been coming through pushing their brands, like Distance with the Chestplate stuff & Kryptic Minds with their Osiris label. Everyone has got their own style but it's all in the same pond. Interesting things going on, lot of kids into making the deeper more minimal stuff.

It's definitely looking like interesting times.

You can get tickets for the Get Darker vs D&B Arena Warehouse party HERE

And you can also catch Youngsta in his regular Monday night slot 11pm – 1am on Rinse FM.