Tonight 10pm UK time: drum & bass broadcasting history will be made once again on BBC Radio 1Xtra. Not content with hosting the ultimate showdown between four of the biggest labels in scene earlier this month, tonight the station will sees Crissy Criss hosting his final show after 10 years of representing drum & bass on the air.
This hasn’t been Crissy’s decision, but he’s flipped what could potentially be negative into a massive positive. The show itself promises to be the ultimate on-air party with all of Crissy’s peers dropping by – labels, MCs, DJs, producers – to wish him best of luck in the future with all manner of beats and banter. Meanwhile, Crissy will be embracing his newfound free time into something for his own future.
“I love playing other people’s music on air,” he explains. “But it’s really hard when you’re listening to everyone else’s music all the time to not be affected by the creativity and levels of production. It’s hard to come up with ideas because you do something and then think ‘hold on! That’s like so and so’s track or that’s like this person’s track’ I find it really hard… And I can’t wait to use the time I’ve got now to spend A LOT more time in the studio!”
This new influx of next-level Crissy Criss material starts right here with the poignant party-fire-up Create The Future. It’s massive. For more reasons than one. Here’s why…
It’s a deeply personal production…
“I started working on it the week the 1Xtra news came out. I was pissed off. I was emotional. I was reading all the comments and had A LOT going through my mind. So I thrashed it all out in the studio and came up with this. I made a few tracks in this vibe but this was my favourite and I decided to drop the release at midnight during my show. Obviously it’s a very personal track… How I’m creating a new future for myself. And how we all create our future all of the time. I still can’t believe I’ve made a deep and meaningful track for once!”
It’s released at midnight on his last ever 1Xtra radio show…
“I decided to release it at midnight during my last ever show. It doesn’t get more personal than that really…
Doing the radio show has literally been a dream come true. I remember a really early ambition I had when I was a really young kid. Well, more just a crazy thought… I wanted to be a DJ on the radio. This was before I could mix tunes or anything like that. I just remember thinking ‘I wonder if I could be a DJ on Radio 1 with my own show?’ It was a weird thing! I can always remember the thought… It felt like the most out there, never-going-happen thought. So yeah it was always pretty unreal.
So seeing all the supportive comments. Seeing all the love from people from all around the world. It’s like ‘okay… Who’s paid you to say this?’ It’s unbelievable. More than I can really describe. And it means so much to me.”
It marks the start of LOADS of new material from Crissy as a producer and as a label owner…
“I’m really looking forward to having more time in the studio now radio won’t be taking up so much of my life. Juggling DJing, production and the radio show takes up too much time! Radio takes up a couple of days every week so those two days will now be taken up with more production time and more time on my label The Zoooo.
On the label we’ve just put out two releases from Austrian producer Locuzzed and a monster five track EP called Outbreak from Callide & Intraspekt. Coming up next we’ve got singles from System D, Ravager and Upfront. Who knows? I might even put some of my own tunes out on my own label?
There’s definitely enough material… I’ve got loads of tracks done and ready to release in my various guises. There’s the Dead Exit stuff which has taken off really well on Firepower. Obviously there’s the drum & bass productions I’m working on. I’ve been working on a lot of hip-hop tracks AND I’ve got another alias planned as well. I’m not going to tell you any more about it. But if you see someone DJing and you think ‘that looks like Crissy Criss!’ It probably is me! It’s very early stages… I’m not going to say anything more about that. I’m waiting until someone identifies me behind the decks and ousts me!”
Sounds like a challenge to us. If you see someone who looks like Crissy DJing, send your pictures into UKF… We’ll break this mysterious new guise!
Photo Credit: Luke Baker
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