Retreat Blog

RIP Ray Manzarek

ONLINE STORE SALE

Everything has been reduced on our store and needs to go. Most tees are only £10.00, beanies and bobbles £8.00, sweaters £20.00 and hoodies £25.00

YES!!!

Adam Yauch Park

Many thanks to Lisa Martinez for emailing us this pic of herself rockin' our New Yauch City tee with Ad Rock!!

RIP Adam

Our tribute tee was by far the best made!!!!

Trill

Roa

More.

TTT

WAKE UP!!!

Sneaks and Peaks

Totally hectic weekend in Birmingham, met some nice people though and drank some Red Stripe so good times!!!

Werk with Andres and Sven Weisemann

Can House

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DJ Q Bert

We are completely honoured and stoked to be able to say we recently caught up with one and only DJ Q-Bert, for an exclusive interview with Retreat.

Q-Bert AKA Richard Quitevis has been a pioneering and innovative turntablist/musician/DJ for over 20 years. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, he along with his crew The Invisibl Skratch Piklz have been at the forefront of Scratch Djing for many years.

Creating and perfecting many of the open fader scratch styles used today by DJ's world wide (Flares, Orbits, Crabs), which opened up a whole new platform for scratch patterns and combinations. It's fair to also say The Invisibl Skratch Piklz were the first to apply the 'band' concept to turntablism, layering drums, basslines, horns and scratch solos on top of each other.

It's also rumoured they were banned from entering further DMC competitions in the early 1990's after successfully defending their title several times to "give the competition more of a chance". LOL

We hope you enjoy this interview with the legend himself

Hey Q thanks for taking the time out to speak to Retreat. First off, what does a normal day for Q Bert consist of ?
Well, it varies, but basically:
Wake up around noon, quickly write down my dreams in my dream log. Give thanks for the inspiration... Jump outta bed quickly before I get lazy, brush, freshen up. do my stretches, 200 sit-ups, 200 push-ups, yoga, meditation, bike for 30 min... Stretch again... Then drink my green smoothie (look for kale berry smoothie recipe at www.bloomandbeauty.com). Tastes like a banana shake!

Freshen up again. Cold shower to give me my energy for the day. Do my emails, check on the students at www.qbertskratchuniversity.com and twitter, instagram, etc. get all errands done... Check on the fam and hit up @yogafrog at the @thudrumble office, Grab some fresh sustainable food, go out in nature to get some insights.

Then the studio day starts after all that. Check the schedule, calendar, practice a few hours on skratching to warm up... Then some recording, composing, more skratching, and recording... Studying the recordings. Hunting for sounds, taking notes, mixing, juggling, looking for the new student beats online, and in the QSU, etc. This goes on til the healthy organic dinner comes from my awesome girlfriend, who is a holistic health coach! then brush, floss.

Chill for a bit, watch a vid or study some other types of music, then back in the lab to work on the album and other various skratch records... Drinking a giant bottle of fresh spring Water to loosen me up and sweat out the toxins as I skratch... All the way 'til around 4 am.

Hit the warm shower, stretch, do some evening yoga, wind down and check my emails for a second time.

Give thanks to the creator and wish for dreams on how to make the world a better place... Then it's off to the astral plane for 8 hours til I wake up and start again!

Towards the beginning of your career you were know as the RockSteady DJ's - How did that name come about?
Crazy Legs (Rocksteady Crew) saw Apollo, Mix Master Mike, and I do a routine in New York with our group FM20 and he put us down with RSC.

How did you guys then evolve into the Invisibl Skratch Piklz?
We needed our own identity instead of Rock Steady Djs. We're still down with them though...

Are you still on a mission to communicate with beings from other planets?
Music, art, dance, etc. is a universal language... Everyone who creates, whether they know it or not is speaking it.

How did you and your crew discover open fader techniques? Care to explain
I just imagined a planet with no mixer, and what the dopest dj there would do with skratching on only a turntable... Then ideas started coming.

And how did you and Mixmaster Mike come up with the questions and answers?
Just taking turns so it wouldn't be so noisy skratching on top of one another.

What is the most important scratch out there?
I'd have to say Stabs, because from that one skratch alone, you get: unison with both hands, cleanliness, it prepares you for Tears which is the other most important skratch, gets you ready for Chirps because it's opposite, etc. Lots of skratchers start off with Flares, but when it comes to doing a regular simple skratch, it sounds crazy sloppy when they have no Stab foundation.

Will we ever see a full Skratch Piklz reunion which will include all past members like DJ Disk, DJ Apollo, DJ Flare?
Now that would be dope, but over the years, we've all grown apart because of differences in lifestyles. I love all those guys dearly. Hope it does happen though.

What are your thoughts on DJing going digital including at the DMC's?
It's dope... So much creative stuff you can do now digitally, and they even have a separate category battle called the world supremacy, which is just purely vinyl only.

Serato or Traktor?
Well, since I skratch... I like to use Traktor because it's double the processing speed. I have both... You can hear the difference when you put on the wrong timecode vinyl because the sound will be sped up, lol! Speaking of... DJ Craze and I are coming out with a limited edition Glow in the Dark double record set of one Side Traktor control tone, and the other two sides will be Superseal 6, and Bully Breaks 5! Comes out April 20 only at www.thudrumble.com!

What makes an all round solid battle DJ/Turntablist?
Skratches, Juggles, Character, originality, musicianship, soul, confidence, the glow, the vibe, etc... But there's another element for me: Music & Sounds that don't hurt! I hate when djs have all this energetic music but it makes my ears bleed, lol! It's like saying, "Wow!!! That's an awesome elaborate chandelier!!! But I sure as hell wouldn't want it in my house :P"

What is your preferred equipment set up now?
Hmm, I have all kinds for various reasons, and different studio spaces: Stanton STR8 or Technics Turntables. Traktor Z2 (I replaced the knob with my Vestax knob which fits perfectly), Pioneer T1, any Pro Vestax mixer, the QFO of course... Oh and for simplicity and just to have extra mixers around the octagon, etc. we just came across these inexpensive mixers with the Dopest new Mini Innofaders in them! The D1F-1S! Only $199! Can u believe that? We started selling them on thudrumble.com and all sold now! We gonna get a new shipment in soon, and have some limited edition face plates too, so be on the lookout for that!

What are your current thoughts on todays Hip Hop in general?
Same as always, which is: you gotta dig for the hottest stuff! Same with bboying, graff, skratching, etc. Lots of incredible new music... I love listening to satellite radio hip hop stations like when Tony Touch, Eclipse, Bambaataa, etc are playing!

Name your all time top 5 hip hop DJ's/Turntablists
Well, you said 5, so you know I gotta mention the Invisibl Skratch Piklz crew first!
Mix Master Mike
Shortkut
D-Styles
Yogafrog
Flare

Is scratchy seal in danger because of global warming? haha
Actually he is adding to it with his farts

How is the Skratch University going and how did that come about?
Amazing! It's like the social media platform for skratchers, where you get your own page and everyone is helpful, giving each other tips, advice, encouragement, skratch secrets, etc!

There's all kinds of sections in there with different subjects like every skratch broken down with videos, jugglin tutorials with Shortkut and other guest djs, Ableton, Traktor, and Serato classes, production, all that!

It's really like a university where you learn on your own time! There's a section I do every week, where I record a reply video to students who send me a video question and show me what they got, and I take them to their next level!

I'm such a student in there, because every one has something unique to offer! Lots of ill beats too... when you log in, look for djs like goldvoltron, supaphonik and dj traps! these guys always post up the craziest skratch beats!

Every 3 weeks we have a DJ battle on one specific skratch style or subject and we give away our Thudrumble DJ Qbert Ortofon needles And other prizes like limited edition gold records!

Any new projects you are currently involved in?
Right now, the new album is my biggest thing I'm working on... It's been 10 years since my movie wave twisters, so it's time again for another!

Any final shoutouts Q?
One love y'all! Never stop creating to raise the vibrations of this planet, and using all your talents to help each other. Namaste

We gotta say a huge thank you for Q for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to Retreat. We are truely honoured. You can catch up more of what Q Bert is up on by his Official site and via twitter and Instagram search for @djqbert

Future is Mental

more here

Soon!!!

Exclusive Retreat interview.

ICB

Roses Gabor Exclusive Interview

To coincide with our recent collaboration with singer Roses Gabor We have an exclusive interview with the lady herself.

Roses began her rise after contributing vocals to Gorillaz single ‘Dare’, and has since worked on a number of collaborative projects, including those with SBTRKT (Pharaohs) and Redlight (Stupid) amongst others. Her debut single ‘Stars‘ dropped late in 2012 and her first album drops later this year.

Hi Roses,for those out there who aren't familiar with yourself can you give a quick introduction?
My name is Roses Gabor and I am a Singer/Songwriter/Creative.

Can you recall the time when you discovered music?
That's always a hard question, but I would guess our relationship began when I was a baby ....I have a picture of me around 3-4 singing with a pretend mic in hand ... dressed in my nightie ... I think the love had been truly cemented by then.

What types of music did you listen to growing up?
Growing up I listened to a real Melting pot of sounds but my main and constant love I guess has been Hip Hop /Rap mixed with a healthy dose of Bjork and Emiliana Torrini

We read somewhere that you worked as a banker in a previous life? How did you go from that to what you do now?
Lol yes loved that life ... but love this one waaaaay more ... I guess I jumped ... The only way to go from that world to this I suppose.

What does a normal day for Roses Gabor include?
My normal of late ... gym .. studio .. home in between this ... lots of tea and short grain brown rice ;-)

What made you decide it was time to focus on your solo career?
I guess there were things I wanted to share and things fans wanted to hear.... .

When can we expect your debut album?
Either the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

For someone who has been around for a while, especially in the 'underground' scene and worked hard to get here, what are your thoughts on reality shows which make overnight stars of people?
Different Strokes for Different Folks. I dont mind these shows... Personally I've had an amazing journey working and travelling the world with some of the most talented/respected Musicians/Super Humans in the industry. As Humans we are all stars.... everyone deserves their 15 minutes to be the brightest one ;-)

What can we expect from Roses Gabor in 2013?
To hear my voice a million times more than you did in 2012 but for starters, I have a gorgeous new single I'll be sharing with you shortly so you should definitely expect that!

Any final shoutouts Roses?
Shout out to you for the support and gorgeous Beanies, also to everyone supporting ... heart felt appreciation ... thank you .

Many thanks to Roses for taking the time out to speak to Retreat. Check out more of The Wonderful World of Roses Gabor here. and follow her on twitter and Instagram @RosesGabor