A FEW MOMENTS WITH JD TWITCH FROM OPTIMO

The inaugural Mister Saturday Night is almost upon us and frankly I couldn't be more excited. Kerri Chandler is of course a total legend and we're ecstatically happy to have him holding down the main room. On a more personal tip though I'm extremely pleased to be sharing a bill with Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch of Optimo. I've been an enormous fan of the ground breaking approach Twitch and JG Wilkes have brought to DJing and party throwing as Optimo for over a decade now. Keith's relentless passion and prolific output of mixes, edits, remixes and his globe trotting egalitarian approach to playing other people's parties is a true inspiration.

I pestered him for an interview and he kindly obliged and not only that he also bestowed us with a hard to find gem from the past - one of his, no longer available, Optimo mixes from a few years back. Download it from a link at the end of the interview.

What's been keeping you busy of late?

Lots of things. getting ready for our huge annual new year party - we have Noze and Den Haan playing. What is keeping me especially busy though is a project I am working on for R&S. I have been given access to their entire back catalogue and an going to compile a best of R&S mix cd out of it called "In order to edit". I have several hundred DAT tapes I have to go through. It is a very big honour for me to be asked to do this as in the early 90s I was possibly the biggest R&S fan in the world. i am also in the process of launching a new label - Optimo Music and have a couple of other projects on the go that I'm not quite ready to reveal.

Do you still have the same hunger and passion for Optimo every Sunday night that you did when it started?

Absolutely, completely and utterly.

Is there anybody you always wanted to book for Optimo but were unable to get?

We almost booked Nina Simone just before she passed away and i still regret that we didn't make that happen. The only other acts we actively tried to book but were unable to get were Throbbing Gristle and Iggy and the Stooges.

You're starting a new label - Optimo Music. How does this relate to OSCarr and what's in store for the early releases?

I decided to kill of OSCarr as i was fed up explaining what it stood for and wanted to start completely afresh with a new label that would actually release some records. OSCarr only managed to release about 12 records in 8 years. I am hoping Optimo Music will release that many in 2009. Coming up are releases from Big Ned, Den Haan, Dollskabeat, Divorce and Older Lover.

What does New York mean to you and what can we expect from your set at Santas?

Optimo was very much inspired by the creative melting pot that was the New York of the early 80s so it has always had a very special place in my heart. As for what to expect, I never, ever know what my set will be like until I have sussed out what the crowd is like.

And finally whats in the works for 2009?

First off i'm doing that`mix cd for the reactivated R&S label and I also have a couple of low key 12" singles due out at the start of the year. On the gig front it's pretty much straight in there with a tour of Canada, The States and Mexico followed by a two week tour of Australia.

Winter Camp/Mister Saturday Night JD Twitch (Optimo Mix)