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Let’s break the ice. Let us know who you are, where you are from, and when did you fall in love with Turntablism?

What’s up skratchers? I’m DJ FUMO, born in Florence, Italy, raised in Tokyo, Japan, and currently in Tallahassee, FL.

I fell in love with turntablism around the age of 13. Growing up in Tokyo I was surrounded by DJs, Hip Hop, record stores, stores that sold DJ equipment.

A longtime friend of mine happened to drive by the Vestax Headquarters in Shibuya, and invited me to check it out one day after school.

The rest is history – I ended up spending most of my time in high school hanging out at Vestax, meeting DJs, watching people scratch and juggle.

Who or what are your influences? When did you first hear or see someone scratching?

I first saw someone scratching in front of me at the aforementioned Vestax HQ in Tokyo – but before that, as a young kid I had heard scratching in Hip Hop and Pop music.

I didn’t put 2 and 2 together until I actually got to see the art form in front of me. Fun fact – a friend had given me Limp Bizkit’s “Chocolate Starfish” album a few years before I was introduced to scratching.

It had their DJ, DJ Lethal (originally House of Pain’s DJ) scratching and cutting up tracks in this rap-metal-thrash mash. That sound was stuck in my head for a while.

I’d have to say DJ Gruff is my biggest influence. For those of you who are not familiar with Gruff, he’s one of the founding fathers of Hip Hop and Turntablism in Italy.

He happened to be living in Japan around the same time I started hanging out at Vestax. He was judging a Vestax No Tricks Scratch Battle, and I got the chance to chop it up with him afterwards.

Kindly, he gave me one of his battle records “Puruchan” as a gift, and told me, “You’re 14. If you don’t start now, you never will.”

That’s when I decided I was going to learn how to skratch, and began saving up for my first turntables.

Fun fact part 2 – my name “FUMO” comes from a track that Gruff recorded, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usqhe2M-2tc

My other influences are ISP, Shortkut, Q-Bert, Mixmaster Mike, D-Styles, P-Trix, Skizo, Zak, Tay-One, The X-Ecutioners (Rob Swift, Roc Radia, Total Eclipse, Mista Sinista), DJ Kentaro, Kireek, Craze, Jazzy Jeff, Kayper… the list is long!

You’ve been around…Italy, Tokyo, Canada, and now Florida. How have your travels influenced your DJ style and musical tastes?

Traveling opens your mind to new languages, people, cultures, and ultimately music for a DJ like myself. Growing up outside of the US, where Hip Hop has remained “real”, I was exposed to the arts – DJing, Writing, MCing.

I like to take bits and pieces of music from where I’ve lived or traveled to, and incorporate them into my sets. Sometimes for the general public, sometimes just for myself.

Are there differences in each location’s scene? Are there similarities?

The main thing I see after traveling around is that Hip Hop has stayed in its pure form in many European countries, as well as Japan.

The four elements are strong, and if you don’t have enough skill, or aren’t good enough to represent the culture, people will be openly honest and tell you. On the other hand, Hip Hop has been raped in the United States, and repackaged as mindless “urban” music in which somebody lacking lyrical skill can become a big, famous “Hip Hop” star. DJing in Europe, even for crowds who listen to mainstream American Hip Hop, I can get away with throwing Old School tracks in my sets. Not so much in the US.

What’s one thing you can tell someone about DJing you wish you knew when you first started?

Here’s a big one – I wish I would’ve learned how to blend, mix and beat match BEFORE learning how to scratch! For almost 2 years I had one turntable (good enough to use) and solely concentrated on learning how to scratch. If I would’ve learned how to mix before or at the same time I was learning how to scratch, I would’ve caught on to different techniques much earlier than I did. Also, don’t be afraid to express yourself with different genres of music! It may be hard coming from a Hip Hop background, since heads aren’t very accepting of electronic music.

What equipment do you use? Do you have a favorite piece of gear?

I use two turntables and a 2-channel DJ mixer. Currently I use Technics SL1200 turntables, but I’m also a big fan of Vestax PDX 2000/3000 turntables. As far as mixers go, I’ve been through Vestax and Rane mixers, but at the moment I’m using my trusty DJ-Tech DIF-1S mixer (I was demoing this at NAMM earlier this year). Since I use a DVS system, I use Serato ScratchLIVE with a pair of Novation Dicers to trigger cue points, samples, FX and loops. My favorite piece of equipment is something I’ve left overseas at my family’s house – my prized Vestax QFO, a turntable and mixer built into one piece of equipment!

What was the last song you listened to?

The last song I listened to is a remix my friend SoulStruggle made of Fat Joe’s “Lean Back”. It’s a super funky version of the track, heavy drums with a Guilty Simpson feel to it.

Here’s the link to listen to it: https://soundcloud.com/soulstruggle/terrr-squad-lean-back-rawmix

What style(s) of music do you enjoy spinning in your free time?

I love spinning funk and soul breaks on my free time. Usually anything I don’t spin in the club, I enjoy spinning at home. Mostly stuff that wouldn’t work in a club setting. A lot of people seem to assume I’m solely a Hip Hop DJ, maybe because I emphasize scratching and technical routines and I use turntables. Most DJs who spin electronic music use CDJs these days. I’m open format, I spin everything from Hip Hop to Big Room House, from Dancehall to Trap, etc.

Do you have any skratch tapes or other work we can check out? Where can we get it?

I’m currently working on a scratch tape and hope to get other talented turntablists from across the world to join me on it! I’m not sure when I’ll be releasing it yet, but I do have a mix I recently dropped, called “TW3RKINTABLISTRVPS”. It’s a departure from my usual Hip Hop mixes, and focuses on EDM Twerk and Trap music. You can still hear my Hip Hop background in the mix, there’s plenty of scratching in it! You can download it for free from: https://soundcloud.com/djfumo/tw3rkintablistrvps

Where can we connect with you online?

Any last thoughts? Shout outs?

Shouts out to Skratch Tapes! Big up to all of tablists, new school and old school, pushing the boundaries and the culture. Shouts out to AtotheL, Big Lo, Drumma J, LQ, Nocturnal, Pharaoh, Soulstruggle, Supagi, Thatkidnamedcee, Willdabeast..

Thanks for having me homie. PEACE!