Halifax raised, Toronto based DJ Skratch Bastid, has been bringing the party all over the world. On April 14, he will bring it to Studio 54 in his Lethbridge debut, April 14 for the Ender Bender.
Skratch Bastid, known as Paul Murphy to his mom, always enjoys visiting new cities.
“When I was 16, my mom suggested I enter a DJ competition. She said if I’m going to be practicing so much in the basement, I might as well do something with it,” he said from the airport in St. John’s Newfoundland. It lead to meeting mentors like Buck 65.
“ I haven’t been to Newfoundland since t
he Juno awards,” he said.
He was nominated for a Juno award for producer of the year for his work on Buck 65’s album “Situation,” but lost out to Joni Mitchell.
“ I woke up one day and found out I was nominated against people like Joni Mitchell and Bob Rock, people who do this for a living. It was a cool way to be recognized for what I do and show my parents’ friends what I’ve been doing,” he said.
Dance club fans all over the world from Hong Kong and Seoul to all over Canada look forward to his parties. He just returned from a tour of Australia.
“A lot of people know what I do because they see videos on Youtube but you really have to be there for the real live experience in person,” he said.
“ You always learn something new about music, whether you are in Hong Kong, or Lethbridge,” he said.
he stared out as an avid fan of music and started collecting albums and sharing them with his friends.
“I used to make compilations of the best albums me and my friends liked, and from there I started to DJ and produce,” he continued.
Creating a good party is a matter of reading the room and the audience and playing to their tastes.
“That’s what I do, I let the magic appear instead of trying to pre-program everything,” he said adding he has never been stumped by an audience’s tastes.
“ I’ve never been to Lethbridge, always like playing a new stage where you have an open slate where they’ve never heard me before, though I’ve played Fernie and Calgary, so unless they’ve seen me there,” he continued.
“I’ll come and test the waters. People want to live in the moment,” he said adding he is happy to provide them the soundtrack to it.
Advance tickets for the show, which begins at 9 p.m. April 14, cost $15 from Boarderline, Blueprint Records and Studio 54 and the Lethbridge College Student's Association office. DJ Fuze and DJ Abel are also on the bill.
