Hey man, thanks for doing this. Tell us about yourself. How did Revrt come to be?

That's okay dude! Thanks for inviting me :) My name's Liam Cooper A.K.A. Revrt, I am a DJ & newbie Producer based in Bristol (The Land of Cider, Hobbit accents & Stephen Merchant). I am the 2018 / 2019 Redbull 3Style UK Vice-Champion, Sponsored by Rane DJ Hardware & am an aspiring beatmaker (DnB, Jungle, Half-Time, HipHop.... Whatever I feel like really).

How did I become? Haha...I was first introduced to DJing & Scratching when I was 14, taught how to mix Drum & Bass at 17 but didn't manage to purchase a set of vinyl turntables until I was 25, so I'm a bit of a late bloomer. When I started out, I was still fairly confident with my blending, but I always wanted to learn how to scratch & do something that would set me apart from the guy before or after me. Because as you can imagine, everyone likes to call themselves "a DJ" so you've got to do something to try and breakthrough the noise.

What's the turntable scene like up in Bristol?

It's here & there. There are people flying the vinyl flag in this city, which is good to see & you have small, independent record shops such as 'Idle Hands Records' & 'Friendly Records' keeping that alive and true, as well as the more mainstream shops such as 'Rough Trade'.And of course, in Bristol, we have the 'St. Pauls Carnival' with its rich reggae sound systems on every street corner and a Rasta lowering the needle onto a 45 & swapping it over once it's finished.
But obviously, with the ability to now deliver clean, uncompressed, uninterrupted audio in a DJ set that isn't affected by someone knocking into the DJ table or the sub making the needle jump, it's not the most practical thing in the club anymore. The event/club industry standard is basically a Pioneer 900 & a pair of CDJ's. Being able to rock up with just a USB is super convenient, I've done it before & I totally get why it's the norm. But unfortunately, because I'm me, I feel somewhat restricted using that equipment when it comes to doing my sets.

I can't hit cue points (unless the CDJ's are the latest ones & you can't exactly pad-drum on them), I can't trigger samples, I can't use silent cue (google it, it's a good way of giving your set character), I can't do instant doubles. I basically can't do anything flarey.

When I'm on stage, especially at DnB or Jungle events, it's standard for me to give a performance, set myself apart from people & introduce the audience to a side of DJing they may not have seen before or knew was possible.

But unfortunately, most promoters aren't willing to take a risk with me. Because in order for me to perform, I have my set-up (a Rane 72 mixer, a Rane Twelve Turntable or Phase Remotes & my laptop), which takes up room & also they may not think it's worth it. Plus, they want music producers spinning at their events/nights that have made tracks that people know so that they can get more punters through the door.I know I sound like I'm devaluing myself, but I'm just being honest about the situation, despite the flattering things my peers in the DnB & Jungle scene say. Things such as: "Your style of DJing is needed in the scene. It's so dope to watch".

That's completely fair. It's true, I don't see many promoters looking to take risks as we ease out of covid. I hope things in that respect can look up in the future, for me it certainly seems the UK is slightly behind when it comes to putting on turntablists at their events, do you think this will improve in time? It certainly seems to have picked up in the US in recent years, which is hopeful.

In the US, they get it! They know what turntablist DJ's like Craze & A-Trak can offer to an event, night or festival. The turntablism side of them doesn't dominate their set, they garnish it over the top. Like coriander onto a curry. However, if we jump back over here, in the UK I don't see it changing anytime soon.

The scene is kind of stuck in its ways of "play the tunes, blend, stay in the pocket & bring a vibe".
Now I have no problem with that. To some, that might be all they want or need. But what if someone wants to bring something more? That's where the murky waters begin. Because in terms of progression, aside from bringing in more female acts (which is commendable, good to see & should be more of), it almost feels like the only thing the scene has progressed from is Vinyl to CDJ's & nothing else has changed since the 1990s.

I think turntablists have a lot to offer the underground music scene, in terms of bringing 'a show'.
I try to be extremely careful with how I pitch myself to promoters who are willing to take a shot at me. In the UK DnB scene, being labelled as a "Turntablist" I feel is like a mark of Cain. The second a promoter hears your a turntablist (especially if they aren't familiar with your work) they'll instantly brand you as someone who's just gonna do nothing but scratch all over the tunes & do no blending.

Which as you can hopefully understand, is not the case. I think a lot of people tend to forget that what we first and foremost are, are DJ's. So in this instance, I tend to let my Instagram videos, Soundcloud & SWU FM show to the talking & pitching for me. Obviously, it will NOT happen overnight, but I can only hope & pray that there'll be some form of open-mindedness in the near future towards artists that have their own unique & interesting way of bringing a vibe to a nightlife event than the current norm.

To cap it off, do me a favour. Go & watch Jon1st's London Boiler Room set from 2017. And once you've finished watching it, come back & try to tell me that there is no room in the UK Underground music scene for turntablism. (Mic drop)

What kinds of tools are you using to make beats?

My DAW of choice is Ableton. The people I look up to all predominantly use it, the workflow I apply in the software works for me & I also have people that use it, who I can turn to for help. Obviously, there's YouTube, but... ;) Hardware-wise - I'm on a 2012 Macbook Pro. For keys - I'm using an Akai MPK Mini MK2 & for Pads - I'm using a Native Instruments Maschine MK2

Presently - No monitors, No Soundcard, No flashy shit. Just my initiative of applying an idea to software using what I've got at my disposal. So as of the date of this interview, if you've heard any of my beats on Soundcloud, they've all been done in headphones. It's almost a testament to what it is you only need when getting an idea out.

Love that haha! "A good workman won't blame his tools", I think the minimal setup is refreshing, and having too many gadgets came be something of a creative blocker at times. In my experience, headphones is the way to go, and if you need monitors for a reference mixdown, then there's plenty of studio spaces these days that can hire a few hours at anyway. Which headphones are you on?

I'm currently rocking the classic. A pair of Sennheiser HD-25 MK2's. However for studio production people have said to me that they apparently do accentuate the low end and are heavily EQ'd for DJing, so will probably look at switching them soon. My housemate is a DnB producer who uses and swears by the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro's. After trying them out, acoustically & dynamically they sound pinpoint.

What're your plans for 2021?

Well.....I don't smoke, but I've got a cigar primed & ready for that evening I play my first live audience set since the beginning of the pandemic. I hope I get to play some shows, but making plans for this year is a hard thing to forecast. Especially when you don't know how things are going to pan out. I had DJ residencies in Bristol, but I left them in Feb 2020 to pursue making music & then a month later we were hit with the pandemic. So it was almost a blessing in disguise to give me a kick up the ass, knuckle down & make beats since gigs were off the table indefinitely.

I'm not gonna kid myself though. I don't consider myself a well-known artist at all. Mainly because I've only been applying myself to properly making music since the start of the pandemic. Making beats, to me, was always on the backburner & something I said I would do, but never got round to doing it.

And you know what? So far, so good. Considering I've only been confidently putting out music onto Soundcloud in the last 3 months, I've done a bootleg of The Fugees & Prince (half-time vibes), made a 160, Jungle edit of "Dreamer" by Livin' Joy & presently I'm taking part in a beat battle hosted by American HipHop Producer 9th Wonder. It's a Beat Battle to flip Bob James - "Nautilus" which, legally for the battle is only allowed on my Instagram. And the response I've had to the flip I did has been overwhelming, so the encouragement has definitely given more fuel to the fire.

Will I get booked this year?....(shrugs)......Let's wait & see.

You're certainly on the right path. It's great to see you growing, and what we've heard so far is really fresh, excited to see how it goes for you! How have you found things in the social space? These days it seems pretty important to maintain an online presence, and you seem to do a good job of it. Do you have a strategy for keeping on top of things online, or more just an instinctive flow?

For me, Instagram is my main thing for promoting myself as a brand. It's my predominant platform of choice because what I do is very visually driven. The way I approach it is, I only post things that have a cause of promoting what I do. For example Video routines, events I'm playing, radio shows I'm doing. And then when I'm not doing that or have anything to post, I find that Instagram stories are a good way of staying active with your audience while you're cooking in the background. So in doing that, there's a light "less is more" vibe from the interaction. People with a large following I feel may not need to do this as often, but for people building a following, I think it's a good thing to practice. Facebook is just....there. It's there to tick the box so that you have all grounds covered. I don't mess with Twitter. I never really used it or found that my stuff could flourish there. And it just seemed like there was more toxicity on there than any other platform, so I deleted my account.

Any tips for aspiring DJs this year?

The only tips I can give are to people that want to "do more" than just stand there playing tunes. Not saying that's a bad thing because I've seen people crush it during a set where their selection was on point & they didn't do anything flarey. But to stand there, slamming a single channel fader up & down during a blend to the rhythm of the tune & behold it like it's gods gift to DJing wizardry makes me yawn!

I'm not naming names but I'm just stoking the fire for people to up their game & bring 'a show' for people who have paid to come to see you. I don't expect people to have an interest in turntablism because I feel like that would be a slightly narcissistic thing to presume, so I'm gonna keep these tips to a CDJ user.

Any other artists your feeling right now?