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It was way back in April that the buzz started to pick up around The D-Joust 2007 but Danny and Jim had been working hard behind the scenes since October 2006 to get everything prepared and sponsorships secured. With a DJ mag article coming out in May the mixes started to flood in with over 400 entrants from places as far a France and Belgium and even one from Africa! Things were certainly looking good… Slowly over the months, every CD was listened to and finally the team managed to whittle it down to 24 DJs. These DJs battled it out to win many prizes from the sponsors including 500 Downloads and an Opportunity to mix a digital album to be released for sale from DJDownload, a residency at Origami at the White House, a production course from 16 Steps, a Main stage set @ The BPM Exhibition and many more! It’s all over now for 2007 and what a close call it was. Respected DJs and promoters scored the entrants at every event from July until the final on Nov 9th and Ben Matthews was crowned D-Joust Champion 2007 following in the footsteps of the very successful Janette Slack who won in 2006. There is certainly more to come from this very respectable competition, so much so I hear they are already in the planning stages for 2008! I caught up with Ben to find out abit more about him and also see what his hopes are for the future. Hi Ben. First of all, congratulations on winning the D-Joust 2007. So what is it to be... Ben Matthews or Dr Fish? My name's Ben Matthews but my DJ name is Dr Fish and there's an interesting story behind it. Basically I was living in Australia with some mates in a pikey caravan, surfing and bumming about. One day, when we went surfing, my mate ended up getting drilled onto the rocks and split his head open. We took him to the hospital and got him stitched him up and then they asked us for 200 dollars for the treatment. At the time we were absolutely broke so couldn't pay. The hospital agreed to let us go on the condition we paid when he came back, to have the stitches out. By the time they were ready to be removed we still had no money, so I ended up getting roped into taking the stitches out of his scalp for him. Not a nice job. As I was doing it another of my mates randomly came out with the name 'Dr Fish' as I have a degree in marine biology, and we all pissed ourselves laughing and the name just kind of stuck from that point on. Did you have faith in yourself and think that you’d ever make it to the final? I had faith in my ability and my music but didn’t really expect to get through the first round being up against some great DJs that are pretty well known and regulars at some of the big clubs. When I won that, I knew I had a good chance of making it to the final. You seem to have a pretty loyal following in Bournemouth so much so they you had quite a crowd that made the trek to support you in the heats and Semis – Is this simply because you paid them or do you play a fair bit down there?! Admittedly they weren’t really my friends at all but a group of actors I hired at www.hiresomematesyouloner.com, it cost me a fair bob but I think everyone agrees they did a sterling job? But no, I had an amazing group of people that came along to support me so a massive thanks to all of them. The Dorset crew have been supporting and spurring me on for years since hearing my mix tapes years back. I’ve spent the last three years in France so they haven’t seen me play out much back in the Shire until this summer, so they were all well up for it. I also had a lot of people I met through my travels that live in London come along as well which was ace. The only condition the Dorset crew gave me for their support was that I had to win so thankfully I didn’t let them down. They can get a bit nasty those Dorset folk if you upset them. And how long have you been playing for? Has it always been breaks you have favored and if so do you have any breakbeat heros? I’ve been playing for about 7 years now. I’ve played loads of styles from funk, hip hop, and breaks, to electro, trance, and techno, but my main passion is most definitely with the breaks these days. I love the way breaks take elements from so many different types of music, before churning them back out with phat beats and bass. A Skillz has to be my favorite DJ/Producer, that boy rocks it every time! I’m digging Hexadecimal as well at the moment, great producer and bloody good DJ, he smashed it at Glade! Other personal favorites are The Rogue Element, Drummatic Twins, Ctrl Z and Vandal . You’ve won some pretty cool prizes. Did any particular one spur you on to enter the competition or were you just out for the fun of it all? The prizes were wicked this year so I’m really stoked, although I didn’t . I mainly entered as I wanted to see how I’d compare to other DJs, and to get the chance to meet some promoters and gain some exposure. One of the Prizes was a set at the BPM DJ Exhibition.. How did that go, you must have been pretty exhausted as that was after a heavy night of celebrating? BPM was great, I got to play the main stage alongside some great DJs such as the DMC boys, and got to wander about looking at lots of DJ stuff! We got free beer in the VIP bar as well which was quite cool. But yea was a tiring weekend, needless to say we celebrated the win until about 9am saturday morning, drove back to Dorset in the afternoon, celebrated some more and then drove all the way up to Derby and back on the Sunday. Do you see yourself going far with the production side of things? I’m looking forward to learning more about production. I really enjoy making music so I can definitely see myself spending a lot of time on it in the future. As well as wanting to produce my own original tracks and remixes, I want to get into making my own cheeky bootleg/mash up stuff specifically to use in my DJ sets like artists such as A Skillz and Nick Thayer. What have you got coming up any gigs in the pipeline off the back of all of this? I’ve had a fair bit of interest since winning and have got some good gigs in the pipeline for the new year. One of my favorite breaks nights ‘Break Da House’ in Bournemouth have said they’ll get me in for a set which is great as they put on some massive nights with DJs such as Krafty, Plump’s, Stanton’s, Evil 9, and Meat Katie on a regular basis. I’m also playing alongside the Loose Cannons at the Whitehouse on NYE which is going to be wicked. Tell me about your most ego boosting, self-satisfying, proudest moment. Successfully boardsliding a 25ft C Rail in the Alpe D’Huez snowpark a couple years ago. I think only a couple of people made it all season. It boosted my confidence in my own ability as I never thought I would ever be able to do something like that, and one day gave it a go for a laugh and made it after a few tries. Definitely helped me realize that we can sometimes do things we never imagined we could. What unfulfilled ambitions do you have? To play the Glade Festival and Fabriclive. To do a cage dive with a great white. To do a solo skydive. To do a surf trip through Indonessia, Western Australia, and New Zealand. And to have a threesome with Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman. Quick fire Round: What three words describe you as a person? Enthusiastic, Fun, Handsome! What do you like to do with your spare time? I don’t really seem to get a lot of spare time these days, but when I do I like to eat, drink cider, cook, surf, snowboard, dig for records, go out clubbing, visit friends, watch paint dry. What the strangest thing you have seen in a club? One time I was a bit worse for wear at the Fridge in Brixton. I was on the dance floor and thought I could see a table and chair amongst the smoke. I thought it might be nice to rest for a bit so sat down to find it wasn’t a chair at all and was some poor lad picking up some money he’d dropped on the floor. He wasn’t best pleased with me. Tell us your best Joke. I’m really crap at remembering jokes, Um, what does doing a bungee jump and sleeping with a hooker have in common? If the rubber snaps your fucked! Thanks a lot Ben. Look forward to hearing more from you in the future. Head to the DJ-oust site to download all the mixes form the DJoust 2007: http://www.djoust.com/web/djoust/downloads.aspx All Pics by Peds: http://www.dontstayin.com/members/peds Interview by Bugbitten Promotions: