Rade Sklopić aka Raid Kyu is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist of Serbian origin who entered music as Dj during the 90’s. Talented beatmaker and tablist, he composes music that stands out. On the occasion of the release of "Stray Cats & Sunsets", his third album, we wanted to know more about his approach, which is still nearly unexplored by Dj.

Where did you grow up and was it a musical environment?

I grew up in Serbia with my grandmother until I was six years old. When the Yugoslav war broke out, my parents sent me to Switzerland, where I lived for the next 20 years. None of my family members were musicians. My musical journey started with my friends in Switzerland. I bought my first turntable and mixer when I was 15. I only had one, so I would make mixtapes with one turntable and a Walkman on the other side. I also only had 2 or 3 records, so I remember that I ruined the acapella vinyl from Meth & Redman's “How High” because I used it for my scratch practice. My environment and friends were focused on hardcore Hip Hop at that time, so it was natural for me to deeply explore that genre of music. Later I developed an interest in Jazz, Downtempo, Electronica, and of course the Piano.

Did your musical interests start with scratching or piano playing?

Scratching was my first serious musical adventure. I fooled around with some kids keyboards when I was younger, and even recorded some stuff on tape, but it was more or less just using the generated grooves on some old  keyboard. Although music always fascinated me, it wasn't until I turned 15 that I became obsessed with it. The piano playing came a lot later. I started playing piano when I was 25, which is quite late if you plan to become a serious piano player. A lot of people told me that there was no chance for me to learn it properly and become a professional musician. Nevertheless, I am glad I didn’t listen to them. Today I am a full-time artist while most of them are stuck in jobs they hate. Not that I am happy about their wrong choices, but the moral of the story is to follow your passion and not take other people's opinions too seriously. However, I have to say, it wasn’t easy. I had to practice like a madman and I am still far away from achieving a level that I would consider great. On the other hand, most people are surprised to hear that I don’t have one day of official music education or that I never stepped foot in a music school.

Today you live in Switzerland. Are you still connected to the Serbian hip-hop scene?

Well, it is the other way around. I live in Serbia but I am still kind of connected to Switzerland. Altho now I am kind of connected worldwide. I did some collabs around the world, so it’s not just those two scenes. I consider Switzerland and Serbia as my two homes because I have a lot of both mentalities in me. I don’t know where my path will take me, maybe I will move back to Switzerland, maybe not. We will see.

When did you first start making beats? Since when did your way of producing and your gear evolve?

I started making beats after I began DJing, maybe half a year later. A friend of mine installed Cubase on my PC and I started to explore it. It was very frustrating because there was no one around to teach me, and no tutorials, YouTube, or anything to learn from. I remember how happy I was when I accidentally discovered midi in Cubase and realized how to draw rhythms into the piano roll. I sampled a lot of classical music because I loved to sample Piano and Violin compositions. I think this love came from French Hip Hop records like “L'Palais de Justice” from Freeman and “Où Je Vis” from Shurik’n. Needless to say, IAM is for me maybe the greatest rap group… For a very long time, I worked in Cubase with samples, until one day I decided I want to be able to choose every note by myself, and not use sample chops, so I decided to learn to play the piano and compose. The piano was a great source of inspiration and it took my musical journey to another level, but when I discovered synths and sound design, it refreshed my music-making and I felt reborn in a musical sense. Now I see almost unlimited possibilities. There is so much to discover and so much music to create. I have a pretty solid hardware synth collection, but recently I developed a taste for modular, so I think I will be pretty broke as far as money goes, but a happy man when it comes to creativity.

Tell us about your connection with Dj Revolution and your featuring on "King Of The Decks" released in 2008…

I met Rev in Switzerland because one of my friends organized gigs for him. The funny part is that I was one of the few people who had a Rane mixer at the time. I ordered it from the U.S.A., while most of the people in Switzerland were using Vestax mixers. Revolution wanted to perform on a Rane, so my friend asked me if I could lend Rev my mixer for the event. I agreed and we met at that event. The next day, we went to my studio so that Rev could record some cuts for a Swiss mixtape. When he was finished, he asked me to show him what I can do on the turntables. I scratched for about 2 or 3 minutes. After that, we sat down to eat, and he told me: “Raid, I would really love to have you on my new album. There will be some Hip Hop legends on it, but you have to cut on it as well, I don’t care if you are a newcomer because talent is talent!”. I was only 19 or 20 years old at that moment and I have to say I was so happy that I almost cried. :) Revolution was probably the biggest influence when it comes to scratching. His track “Work of a Master” changed my life and my perception of turntablism. So yeah, a couple of years later the album “King of the Decks” was released and I was featured on a record with legends like Q-Bert, Jazzy Jeff, Krs-One, Royce the 59, and so on. These days I don’t hear a lot of Rev, but you never know, maybe we will do something together again in the future.

Tell us about your exhibition called "Listen to the pictures, look at the music" based around “Little Box”…

The connection between music and visual arts has always been important to me. We know it from the hip-hop culture with graffiti. My album “Little Box” is an instrumental album that I released in 2015. I wanted it to have pictures that could translate my musical ideas into a visual format so that the listener could get an additional experience. To achieve this, I worked with a photographer named Ana Danilovic. The idea was that every song had a picture that would capture the essence of the  composition. It was pretty natural to present it in exhibition format once the album was released. Every picture was displayed with a set of headphones next to it so that visitors could listen to the connected composition. I also encouraged people to send me their own versions of visual art they would create while listening to my music - from drawings to photographs. I love the artistic exchange in that sense, it is like the most intimate conversation you can possibly have. I also got a lot of artistic dance videos from people who danced to my music, which was amazing. I continued with this concept on my newer albums as well, but this time using illustrations and drawings.

You've worked with rappers like Smoke Mardeljano but you don't invite Mcs on your records. Why?

I like to tell my story via instrumental music the most. It is very personal, so I like it to be as pure as possible. To work with rappers means that we will tell OUR story, which is fine and I love that as well in some cases, but some topics are related to my life, so it’s on me to communicate them directly to the listeners. In the future, there will be more collaborations with vocalists.

You wanted to develop and link images and sound. For that, you started working with the illustrator Anđela Janković for your second album "12 Rooms"…

I worked with Anđela because my second album is a Music/Comic book hybrid. Every song has a story which is underlined with a short comic. When you order the Vinyl you get the comic book as well. She is an amazing artist and it was beautiful to see how she translates some complex musical stories into a comic format. As I said, from 2015 until now that combo of music and visual art has been important to me, and that will continue in my upcoming releases as well.

"Stray Cats & Sunsets" is your third album in the making. Will it be different from the others? Will there be more scratching?

So far I have released the “Live” jam for this album on YouTube, and the official release will happen this year. It will be in two parts, the first only digital, and then part 2 as an upgrade on vinyl (parts 1 & 2 together). Again I will have some visual artists working on some pictures and drawings. Musically it will be more focused on one genre. “Little Box” and “12 Rooms” go from hip-hop, classical, and ambient to electronica. “Stray Cats & Sunsets” will be dedicated to jazzy hip-hop, with more turntablism. I got inspired by a variety of different music, so it's hard for me to find a way to fit all of these vibes into one album. I think that in the future I will make more EPs which will be more focused on specific genres and sounds. I released an Ep with Piano music only that I composed for a theatre play. I will do an all-ambient album, and also one that is electronic music only. You will be able to find all of them on my Bandcamp.

Do you have a message for the public or is your music only to entertain?

As I said, every song has a story, so I would say that it is not here to entertain only. Most of all I would like to have this deep emotional communication through music with the listener. I think that is the most magical part of music. When someone has the need to create and express something through art, that will spark a response in someone else. We don’t have to meet in real life, we don’t have to know each other, but we can have the deepest possible conversation in this way.

What is your best memory as a DJ turntablist?

When Revolution asked me to be on his Album. I mean, that was the gratification for all the hard work. On the other side, I met all of my lifelong friends because of it, so in the long term, I would say that those people are the best thing that happened because of Djing.

And the worst memory?

Playing a party for a friend who wanted to open some sort of Club. I was a straight-up hardcore Hip Hop head back then, and they wanted me to play some commercial R&B. It was a nightmare. I played only Hip Hop classics no one wanted to dance to… I couldn’t wait to finish my set and get the hell out of there. That is when I learned to say no to stuff that is not my cup of tea. I wanted to do this dude a favor - turned out to be a mistake for him, and even more for me. But hey, an important lesson learned nonetheless.

For some people editing a song and adding scratches is a remix. Do you like to do remix ?

I am not a fan of remixing or let's say I don’t like to do it. I can enjoy listening to a dope remix, I just didn’t do it so far. I don’t say this will always be like that, maybe for a club set I could see myself doing some funky remixes of songs I like. But when it comes to my albums, nope. As I said, I am trying to tell my story, so it has to be based on my art and not a deviation of someone else's vision. Working with video is also something I can see myself doing in the future.

Did you also founded a Dj school or was it just workshops supported by IF Srbija?

I run a DJ school in Belgrade for a long time. The first event happened back in 2007, and I did a lot of educational workshops since then. I did some stuff all over the Balkans and some in Switzerland. I worked with brands like Novation and Native Instruments, which goes from DJing to Synthesizers and composition. I love to work with people and help them achieve their creative goals. As I said, I never had a formal musical education, so I know how hard it is to learn stuff. IF Srbija helped me to organize a workshop with the amazing Dj Skillz from France. It was amazing to have a multiple DMC world champ as a guest professor in Belgrade. I will continue with this kind of stuff as long as I can because it is a big inspiration for the kids here who wouldn’t find all this education in an official school.

There are not enough or no more turntablism bands. In my opinion, it is more necessary than competitions for the evolution and development of the scene…

I agree with you 100%. It is great to see all of these competitions, it is crazy how technical advanced scratching has become in the last decade, but musically it has become one-sided. "Ahhhh" and "fresh" over and over again. There are so many musical possibilities with all the new gear we have, I really hope that the scene will explore it more in the future. I try to do it myself, I do a lot of tone play next to the hardcore scratch stuff. I hook up a MIDI keyboard to Traktor and play musical phrases to be more melodic. I am surprised how often people ask me how I set it up - it’s not that complicated or innovative, but it seems like DJs don’t explore enough. Some heads like Kypski and Turkman Souljah take the dive and try to find ways to reinvent the turntable, I have big respect for that.

Are you still diggin’ and what kind of music are you obsessed with?

I listen to a lot of different music, from jazz and electronic to ambient. Bonobo is one of my favorite artists, also Jon Hopkins, Moderat, Nils Frahm, Lapalux, and Cinematic Orchestra. As far as the classics go, Portishead, Radiohead, Tom York and Bjork. For new jazz related stuff, I would say Matthew Halsall, Rob Araujo, J3PO, and of course all the jazz greats. I love music, not genres, and also not only specific gear.

What do you dream of tomorrow?

I hope to continue to make music, to progress as an artist, to be healthy, to be a great dad, partner, and friend, a great educator, and an inspiration for the young people around me. Simply a good human being. I also hope that the world will dedicate more energy to empathy because right now selfishness is on the rise. Humans, animals… There is so much suffering because of selfishness.

Is there anything else you would like to discuss before we finish? Perhaps about your life as a dad?

Dad life is great! It is not easy, but everything makes more sense. Composing music makes more sense, but also washing the dishes makes more sense because you are building a home and a healthy environment for a new little soul. I think that a big chunk of happiness comes from giving, and when you have a child it’s all about that. As I said, I wish that everyone would dedicate more energy to empathy - we have a serious shortage of it in the world right now.

 Interview by el tablist cosh... / Photo by Marko Obradović Edge