Kosheen have been one of those rarities of recent times, not only for the massive impact they have had in a relatively short space, but also for the breadth of musical audiences they have been embraced by. Born almost three years ago in Bristol, this collaboration between Markee Morrison (DJ Substance), Darren Decoder and Sian Evans has met with nothing but success. Their first album, Resist, hit the top 20 selling dance album lists across the world, with Australia being no exception. Even if the album doesn’t ring a bell, many a person would have heard the singles, including Slip and Slide (Suicide) and Hide U, both of which have been played in settings as diverse as Helter Skelter to Drum and Bass Arena parties.

dB caught up with DJ Decoder to chat about the Kosheen DJ set that will feature at Twice As Nice at Heaven over the Easter long weekend. Playing alongside DJ Substance, also of Kosheen, Decoder enthused over his past visits to Australia. “We had a great time in Australia touring, the Big Day Out festival was awesome. The crowd really reacted to us and we felt very comfortable playing there. As Decoder and Substance we’ve pretty much DJed all over the world.”

Decoder was careful to make the distinction between Kosheen playing as an ensemble and a Kosheen DJ set. “Everything feeds off each other. They are two separate entities though; a Decoder and Substance DJ set is very different to a Kosheen live set. On our first Kosheen releases we would always do a Decoder + Substance remix for the underground. That’s how we built up KosheenÉ
When we DJ in a club it’s all about making people move and dance. The music that we play out when we DJ is a lot different to the sound of Kosheen at a live gig for instance. We play mainly breaks and house. Our sets our purely for the dancefloor, deep and dark!!!!”

The fact that many of the remixes of Kosheen tracks are done by the Kosheen DJs is evident at a glance to a record sleeve. Why did you choose to do the reixes yourself, and did you find it challenging to go over your own material with a fresh approach? “The main reason that we remix our own tracks is to feed them to the club scene through our DJ sets. Kosheen is not about clubs, that’s why we do the Decoder and Substance mixes, to get them heard in clubs etc. I really like the deep breaks mix we’ve done of Hungry, I’d say that’s probably my favourite.“

The fashion in which Kosheen have achieved widespread appeal with complete disregard for the boundaries drawn by ‘genres’, as it were, is an anomaly and especially more so for having come from drum and bass roots, such as the seminal Roughneck Ting parties run by DJ Substance and Co. Decoder mused, “I don’t think we really attracted people to the sound of drum and bass, more so we attracted people to the sound of Kosheen. A lot of our fans are very eclectic in there musical tastes I think. Resist is very diverse; there are a lot of influences and styles on that album. We were just introducing people to the Kosheen sound. The broad appeal we have had just kind of happened. We had lots of different remixes done of our music that have ended up in DJs record boxes [for example, John Digweed]. We’ve been lucky in that respect.” Did the fact that you hail from a little town called Bristol have any influence on this approach? “The Bristol scene has always been very vibrant and active, with a lot of variety as well. If there is a specific style of music you want to go out and listen to you’ll find it in Bristol. There are some great venues there, big and small with lots of character and atmosphere. There’s a big breaks/house scene in Bristol at the moment.”

Kosheen is a brilliant example of this diversity that charactrises Bristol. With a singer that hails from such former collaborations as Mike Harry’s Root Doctors to DJs which were involved in groundbreaking drum and bass acts, Decoder departs from his DJ Decoder-DJ Substance line momentarily to speak of Kosheen the band. “I think it is more interesting writing with people who have such a broad taste in music. I don’t know how but it all seems to gell and work in the studio. It’s just one of those things.” And success speaks for itself. “We were very surprised to the reaction of Resist, it most definitely exceeded our expectations. The new album is complete, we should be dropping it about August with a single a few weeks before. We’re really pleased with the way it’s sounding. Basically, it picks up where Resist ended. There is a darker/harder side to Kosheen on the next album.”

Kosheen’s attitude towards production is yet another thing about them that has proved to be quite unusual. Not only did they choose not to release Resist on their own label, Breakbeat Culture, but they decided to make it available for free MP3 download on their website. “We released the first two Kosheen songs on Breakbeat Culture. However, we felt we needed more push and backing from a bigger label to really break Kosheen tho, that’s why we signed to BMG. It’s worked for us. The reaction [to making tracks available on kosheen.com] has been good. I think the majority of people hear some of tunes on the net and then go and buy the album. I think a good balance is important. If everybody downloaded our tunes and no-one bought our music we wouldn’t be able to survive as a band. When the next album is released we going to upload exclusive tracks onto kosheen.com as well which aren’t on the album.”

Indy Lin

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