Matt Minor and Adam Morris from Mashd N Kutcher share the origin story for one of their most revered trademarks ahead of an ambitious live tour with 'Mash Machine'.
When a metal drummer and a classical pianist joined forces, the end result was always destined to be something special. But for Brisbane dance duo Mashd N Kutcher, aka Matt Minor and Adam Morris, their eclectic stylings and razor-sharp flair have seen them hastily take Australia and beyond by storm; a fact set to solidify further with the pair's most ambitious live showing yet in the near future.
Coiled and ready to debut a brand new show Mash Machine, Mashd N Kutcher, for the uninitiated, are not your average DJs; from their debut track Do It Now going platinum in their home country, to sampling and/or reworking iconic tunes from Len (My Sunshine), to The Cardigans (Need Me), Journey (Don't Stop Believin'), and, more recently Aussie heavies Northlane (4D), the collision of two highly trained multi-instrumentalists into the dance and electronic realms has seen the group jump up on the decks nationally and overseas, recently take up a month-long residency with triple j - and even unwittingly concoct and release the COVID-19 Aussie anthem we all needed with Get On The Beers.
While the Mashd N Kutcher story is undeniably only set to get bigger and better as the pair set their sights on expanding their live arsenal and sonic repertoire, there's one additional quirk the pair are increasingly renowned for: trolling their fans in their live DJ sets, replacing usual beat drops with an array of unexpected bedlam, with everything from a Vanessa Carlton classic to a niche Australian tile ad confounding and/or delighting fans in the heat of the moment.
But just how did this hilarious trademark spring to life? Morris and Minor shared their trolling origin story on today's episode of The Green Room With Tiana Speter.
"I think the first time, yeah... I don't even know how to start with that," Matt Minor muses while chatting to host Tiana Speter.
"Well, it was that time where someone threw a bottle at you?" Adam Morris interjects.
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"Yeah! So, if you're familiar with Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO," Minor says, a smile curling onto his face. "Instead of the song continuing on after that... I just started playing a completely different song. And I think the crowd reaction that moment, they were so "into" that moment - to be disrupted from that: it wasn't good. Someone actually threw a glass bottle at the DJ booth at the same time, they were that, for want of a better word, pissed off that they were disrupted from their night.
"And I think... I dunno, something just triggered there, and it was like: "hang on, it's good to be disruptive a bit". And I think we just... yeah, we started finding entertainment... to be fair, it started more as internal entertainment... so, it's like: 'what can we do to have fun, aside from what we normally would?' And then hope some of that fun rubs off on the crowd too."
"It was interesting, the switch," Morris jumps in. "Because it started as us going "haha, we'll do this for fun and everyone'll hate us"... to then going to the shows and people saying (Morris' voice drops to an excited whisper): "So! Are you gonna do it, are you gonna do it tonight?! Are you gonna troll the crowd?!
"It's like, 'Oh, I thought this was just for us, and everyone hated it!' But - apparently not!"
As for whether or not we'll witness a patented Mashd N Kutcher beat drop troll in their upcoming Mash Machine live shows, that all remains to be seen, with the pair not giving much away. But it's safe to assume you can never say never:
"I don't really think there will be a clear troll in these proper shows....?" Morris says, turning to look at Minor.
"Well, I mean, if we have a power outage or something actually goes critically wrong in the show... people may wrongfully assume that that's what's going on!" says Minor.
"Or we could have an intermission where something goes wrong or something breaks or... yeah, I mean, look: we are certainly still open to the idea of adding odd theatrics to the show, that's for sure".
Even if a good old-fashioned trolling isn't technically on the cards in the impending Mash Machine shows, it's undeniably set to be a series of extra-special evenings, with the pair finally busting out proper instruments onstage for the first time in Mashd N Kutcher history.
You can watch the full video with Morris and Minor chatting with host Tiana Speter below or here; and you can also catch up on the full The Green Room podcast episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts (below) or wherever you usually grab your favourite podcasts.
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