He may be known as “Troublemaker,” but Josh Kouzomis has done some pretty amazing things with his music such as teaching DJ workshops in the slums and ghettos of Africa during his participation in the HOPE Campaign. Josh was also a performer at the Manifest Hope Inauguration Party in Washington D.C. and previously held a past residency at Wasted Spaces in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. With an extensive background in the industry, dating back to his college DJ and music director days at Ohio University’s ACRN, Josh has continued to push the boundaries and enter new realms along his musical voyage. On July 28, 2009, Josh released his first official solo project, The Maestro. The album is a true reflection of Josh as an artist and shows his ability to steer the momentum of producing and remixing popular tracks such as Lincoln Park’s Runaway into creating his own masterpiece. China Shop was able to catch up with Troublemaker as he was taking a break from working on his latest project, involving Benji Madden.
So why are you known as Troublemaker?
T: The short story is one year at Winter Music Conference I was doing a show and a friend of mine got busted by the bouncers at the club. He was also a performer and we were like “Why are you harassing us?” He started to get all uppity and in his face about it. I was young and dumb and decided to jump up and grab the bouncer around the neck because he was threatening me and my friend. And Raymond Roker, who does URB Magazine, was standing there watching the whole thing and as all the bouncers were carrying me outside like cartoon character, if you will; I just overheard him say, “You’re such a troublemaker” and it kind of stuck at that point.
How would you describe your musical style?
T: Schizophrenic. I ride thru all types of genres of music but the way that people say they know it’s me is because of the drum programming and the bass that’s on the track.
What do you like better: producing and remixing for others or creating your own stuff?
T: I like them both. I really like remixing because I typically only remix stuff that I actually like and so I like to see what I’m able to do and where it goes and what happens to it…and how I put my take on it…and see if other people that are fans of that group like it and it if makes new fans for that group. I like working with other people because we can just try new shit and it’s more than just you. It’s like making a baby. It’s like half of you, as opposed to when it’s just me. I know where I’m at. I know me but I don’t know this other person. So it makes it more interesting.
Tell me a little bit about your experience with the HOPE Campaign in Africa?
T: The HOPE Campaign, I kinda got with in a roundabout way for the work that I did with Obama with Shepard Fairey. When I was over there. Shit. I had no idea where I was going and what was gonna happen. I was just down for the ride. From the moment I got there, it was completely foreign to me but it was totally awesome. I’ve been to some pretty crazy places in my time but this was definitely the realest that I’d ever seen and also at the same time it was the most rewarding. The people that you meet there, some of them live in places that most people here wouldn’t even go to that neighborhood so to speak. Overall it was a really wonderful experience to go there and meet the people that I met. I’m working with some of the people, like there’s a rapper over there that I’m working with.
I heard you did a lot of DJing in the slums and teaching in ghettos…
T: I taught a DJ class. I did a ton of interviews with people. I went up on the commercial radio there, and then just kinda hung out with people. They have so much good local music over there that we have no idea about over here. Record label people, if they went over there and heard it, they’d be like “Holy shit!”
What was the story behind you going from LA to college in Ohio and then heading back to LA.? How did that all transpire?
T: My parents are divorced and my dad was living in Cincinnati, OH at the time. I made a pact with my folks when I was young that given the opportunity to go to college, I would attempt to go closer to my father, which was how I got over to that side of the state. Originally I was into journalism and advertising. I was into music and I worked on music but I didn’t realize at that time that I wanted it to be my career. When I got there, I ended up becoming a radio DJ and working at the radio station and doing parties with some of the kids out there and started to produce and work on my friend’s indie rock band. When I came home for the summer, I had made the decision that I wanted to do an internship at a record company. I got this internship for Epitaph Records and at that time they had just had this big Offspring record called Smash come out and the Rancid record, And Out Come the Wolves and they went from being this moderate independent label to like the largest independent label at the time. There were like 15 of us interns and they pulled us into a room one day and said, “If anybody wants a job, we need to hire people.” Immediately I made a U-Turn after a year, called my folks, got an apartment in Hollywood. I was 17 or 18 years old at that time and was like: “Let’s do this” and it worked out.
You’ve had some really great career accomplishments so far. What sticks out personally to you as the best?
T: I think getting to be in D.C. for Obama’s inauguration and being involved in that event with Shepherd and Manifest Hope. That party was like: De La Soul who is one of my favorite groups of all time and the lifers of hip-hop. It was like them and it was Santigold and Moby and myself and there was a lot of celebrity hosts. It was for the inauguration of our first African-American President. The combination of all of those things make it that one thing that I’ll always remember. When people ask me this question, at least until something else happens, that’s my answer.
What’s in store for you for the rest of 2009?
T: As I mentioned before, I am finishing another album right now, which is a new group. It’s me and Benji Madden from Good Charlotte and we’re calling it Rad Omen.We’re basically mixing the record right now and the plan is in the next couple months we’re gonna give it away for free on the Internet and we’re gonna do some touring with similar sounding groups and hopefully do some festivals overseas. The record is an electronic record, like really hard in the direction of let’s say Daft Punk and some really hard gangster electronic music basically. It’s by far the best thing that I’ve ever done. Usually you say that every time you make something new but when I listen to the songs I’m like, “I can’t believe I made that shit. It’s pretty crazy.”
Words by Nicole Jones, photos by Heath Grout
