mAdcaT on the Virtual Sessions presented byThe DJ Sessions 6/23/25

The DJ Sessions interview between host Darran and electronic music artist Mad Cat on The DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. Mad Cat, a neurodiverse artist with Tourette’s, ADHD, and dyslexia, discusses his unique creative process, advocacy for individuality, and raw, genre-blending music style—ranging from Brazilian funk-inspired bass to electro house. He emphasizes authenticity, rejecting industry polish in favor of vulnerability and self-expression, symbolized by his masked persona.

 

The conversation delves into Mad Cat’s disdain for pre-recorded DJ sets and the commercialization of music, advocating instead for grassroots talent and patience in building a genuine audience. He shares personal struggles with mental health and his mission to create inclusive spaces, particularly for neurodivergent and marginalized communities. Humor and honesty shine through as Mad Cat recounts his local community efforts, love for cosplay culture, and disdain for London’s “piss smell.”

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: mAdcAt (Electronic Music Producer/DJ)
Runtime: 60 minutes

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1. Introduction & Background (00:00 – 10:00)

• Mad Cat joins from Poole, South England, humorously dissing London’s smell and traffic.

• First video interview for Mad Cat, who embraces his neurodiversity (Tourette’s, ADHD, PTSD, dyslexia).

• Origin of the “Mad Cat” persona: A symbol of individuality, anonymity, and defiance against societal norms.

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2. Music Style & Creative Process (10:00 – 20:00)

• Genre-blending approach: House, tech house, dubstep, trap, and Brazilian funk-inspired “funk house.”

• Rejects copying trends; draws inspiration from life experiences and raw, urban sounds.

• “Brazilian bass on steroids” – his signature heavy, gritty basslines.

• Upcoming releases: Drops a new track every two weeks (mentions “Simon Says” hitting 5K streams in a week).

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3. Advocacy & Mental Health (20:00 – 30:00)

• Neurodiversity in music: How his conditions shape his creativity and public identity.

• Message: “Be proud of being weird” – Encourages self-love and rejecting conformity.

• Cosplay culture: Praises its inclusivity vs. the “real world’s” intolerance.

• Mental health struggles: Shares his journey with PTSD, depression, and recent fitness efforts.

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4. Industry Critiques & DJ Culture (30:00 – 45:00)

• Against pre-recorded DJ sets: Calls it disrespectful to fans and ghost producers.

• Success metrics: Prefers organic growth over Beatport charts; warns against buying streams (Spotify bans).

• Social media’s role: Laments how follower counts overshadow talent in bookings.

• Fan interaction: Critiques phone-obsessed crowds at festivals; urges living in the moment.

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5. Personal Life & Future Plans (45:00 – 55:00)

• Off-stage life: Low-key—designs clothing, plays basketball, watches football (soccer).

• Bucket list: Playing in Rio de Janeiro, but jokes, “Only if they hire me.”

• Hollywood casting: Picks Jim Carrey or young Tom Hanks to play him in a biopic.

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6. Closing & Where to Find Mad Cat (55:00 – End)

• Website: wearemadcat.com

• Instagram: @wearemadcat

• Shoutouts: Thanks Darran, teases future collabs with The DJ Sessions.

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Key Quotes:

• “I prefer one stream being different than a million streams being just another one.”

• “If you don’t like me, tell me to eat shit—just be yourself.”

• “Cosplay conventions are where tolerance lives; outside, the world is shit.”

Final Note: A riotous, unfiltered chat blending humor, activism, and industry truths—Mad Cat is a movement, not just an artist. 🎧🔥

 

Darran and Mad Cat also explore broader industry issues, from DSP visibility pitfalls (like buying streams) to the importance of setting realistic goals. The interview closes with Mad Cat’s low-key personal life—designing clothes, basketball, and sobriety—and plugs his website, wearemadcat.com. The dynamic exchange blends humor, critique, and inspiration, showcasing Mad Cat’s unfiltered voice and Darran’s knack for drawing out compelling stories.

 

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host Darren Swaparoo right there. And right now I’m in the virtual studios with none other than the one, the only Mad Cat.

Mad Cat, how you doing today? How you doing guys? You all right?

What’s up? What’s up? One two, one two.

How you doing? I’m doing great. Loud and clear, loud and clear on the one two check there.

Hey Mad Cat, where are you coming in from today? Where are you located?

[mAdcAt]
I’m looking at South of England. I’m in located in Poole. And where at?

It’s pretty much, it’s pretty much almost in London because London is big as hell.

[Darran]
Gotcha. No worries. I always like to let our guests know when we’re talking with somebody from halfway around the world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[mAdcAt]
I love it over there.

[Darran]
Gotta make it to London on my bucket list to do to add that stamp to my pass.

[mAdcAt]
Don’t go to London. It smells like piss. Go to the South.

You know what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no chill, no, no fuzz with my brothers in London. But you know what I mean?

Like, they know what I mean. It’s, it’s, you take like two hours to make a mile. So no.

[Darran]
Two hours to make a mile. Awesome. Well, you know, I know this is your first video interview.

Am I correct? Yes, it is indeed. Yeah.

Awesome. So we’re going to get to know you a little bit. Let our DJ sessions viewers get to know you as well.

First and foremost, Mad Cat, I know you got that awesome, I don’t want to call it a gang sign. We’ll get to that in a minute. But what’s the story behind your artist name?

[mAdcAt]
Well, there’s a lot of story. So basically, I’m neurodiverse, meaning that I have a few issues in terms of, you know, mental issues like Tourette syndrome, and I have accumulated some PTSD because of things that I had when I was a child. I got dyslexia.

It’s a lot of stuff, believe me, and ADHD. So all together, it comes up with this weird guy that you guys see here. If I don’t swear today, it’s because I’m fully highly medicated.

Yeah, but Mad Cat comes like, I can’t be, people keep saying that I can’t be anyone just because the way I am. And basically, the mask is to prove them that I am the way I am. I don’t need to show my face.

I just need to prove you guys that I have, I have like a concept I have, you know, I have a thing. And I know there’s a lot of people out there that’s like me, and I’m pretty sure they’re going to do it because we are individuals. We are unique.

We don’t need anyone to tell the hell what we were. So it’s pretty much like that.

[Darran]
And your music style, there’s a quite a large range there. Yes, it is. In terms of your music style.

Here we got house, tech house, progressive house, electro house, big room, dubstep, and trap.

[mAdcAt]
And there’s, there’s funk house that I created.

[Darran]
I don’t know how to say it. I don’t want to say peahog house, but it’s funk house.

[mAdcAt]
Funk house. This is like a process. Yeah, this is a process of searching, right?

So a lot of producers, I don’t, I don’t recriminate them or whatsoever. They just, you know, deliver the thing that they are inspired by other artists. I’m not inspired for any artists.

I’m inspired for my experience of life and what I learned and what I live. But I want to create like a sound that pretty much identify with that. So huge baseline with a lot of urban, a lot of trashy, you know, raw stuff that comes from, you know, from, I wouldn’t say the ghettos, but yeah, we can put the ghettos if you want.

Because obviously the neighborhoods are not easy if they’re low middle class. So, but it is that. I tried to reach a concept that brings the Brazilian funk, which I love the baseline of that.

It’s very, it’s like, it’s very raw. It’s a very raw thing, you know, the Brazilian funk. And then you put the lateral baseline mixed with that and you create something unique.

And you can do so many things with that. It’s like a Brazilian bass, but on steroids, basically.

[Darran]
Okay. Brazilian bass on steroids. How can I do it more into Brazilian bass?

[mAdcAt]
Yeah. I love Brazil, man. I love everything that comes from Brazil.

It’s so good, bro. It’s so good. It’s like you learn, you learn the life.

It’s like you’re living their life. Do you know what I mean? Through the music.

[Darran]
Rio de Janeiro is probably one of the other places I want to get on my bucket list as well. I mean, of course there’s a million other cities in that area. Well, not a million, but you know, a lot.

I just would love to get down there sometime. Especially, I mean, I’ve heard that the festival can be quite amazing. Yeah.

Yes, yes. I’ve heard that too.

[mAdcAt]
It’s my bucket list too, to go there eventually. Because obviously we’ve been very diverse. Neurodiverse, sorry.

People, I have problems talking, so I’m dyslexic. So if I eat words, I do apologize. So here’s the thing.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the cities like you that I would like to go. But also I would like to play in other cities. The thing is I need to put my puzzle in one piece.

But as soon as I get, I put the puzzle in one piece, I will straight go there. Well, I’ll straight go there as long as they hire me.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, it’s kind of like I said, a goal of mine to travel out and get out more. I started doing that over the last few years. Getting over to Amsterdam, getting over to Berlin.

Definitely want to, like I said, just want to visit London. But I think I’m going to start going east a little bit more. No, go south.

Go south and I’ll pay you lunch. That sounds great. I love it.

I’m a foodie at heart. So you mentioned this a little bit earlier in your identity and your creative mission. The story behind Mad Cat is, you know, you’re kind of, you have this anonymity to you.

And you’re living with the Tourette’s, ADHD, dyslexia, and myelotism. How does this help or shape your creative process and your public identity?

[mAdcAt]
I think it makes me unique, isn’t it? So it makes me unique and without, you know, without being overreacting or be more than what I am. But I think it’s unique.

I support individuality among people. You should love yourself more before you love the other ones. Because you only can practice good if you’re good to yourself.

I know it’s hard and I’ve been there. Depressions and everything, it’s something that you need to, you know, it’s very hard. But that’s interesting to your question.

Yeah, it’s something that I can’t explain in words. How come this can go to my music? But believe me, if you listen to my music and you, every each of the music is like a part of my life.

Even the collabs are a part of my life. If you go there and you see my bio, if you, you know, exchange it one or two chats with me. You’ll see that the thing is there, the rawness is there.

And the man is there, you know, the experience is there. And, you know, I feel very proud with the music that I’ve made. I’m making music for quite long, but this is the music that I really want to do.

And I feel very proud of that, you know what I mean? And it’s, I think it’s amazing.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, I kind of can relate to that in the sense of kind of creating something out of nothing. And going with the flow and never knowing what’s going to happen next. Or what you’re going to be doing.

You know, and kind of just, you know, starting something from scratch. When you’ve never, when you have no model to model it after.

[mAdcAt]
Well, there’s something there to pick. Unfortunately, what I’m going to say, it sounds so awful. But the way the world is today, we have so many ingredients to create something.

At least I have. Sometimes I wish, do you know what I mean? I wish the things were not that way.

But, I know, at least I’m doing something for the good. I hope it’s the good. But what I think it’s the good, you know?

But yeah, there’s so many things you can do. It’s like from the scratch, there’s always something. There’s always, at least for me, there’s always something that I remember.

And I said, you know what, I’m going to write about this.

[Darran]
You know, and one of your kind of mantras, or one of your, what’s the word I’m looking for? Your, oh gosh, I’m looking for a specific word here. Mantra is not the right word I’m looking for, but I think you’ll go with what I’m about to go with here.

Is that you kind of reject the polished, pure, image-safe images of the industry. And instead, you lead a little bit more with some, like you said, some raw honesty and vulnerability and, you know, putting it out there and not being afraid. Is that, do you want to?

[mAdcAt]
I don’t want to be just another one, do you know what I mean? People cannot listen to my music. I don’t care.

I don’t care if people don’t listen to my music. But I prefer to be someone different and unique than be just another one that is licking, you know, the big one’s balls. And I’m not like that.

Actually, one of the things that I’m telling you straight away, by my own experiences, do not trust someone that is bigger than you. That person, there are two ways. Take advantage and take advantage.

That’s pretty much what happens. So I know by experience that that is a fact. But I want to say, me, I prefer to have one stream, but be different, that have a million streams.

And this is being honest, a million streams that just be another one. I don’t feel complete because I don’t need this. I don’t need this to have a life.

Do you know what I mean? I can continue to print my T-shirts, to have my fashion clothing store, to have my company that, you know, distribute music. I don’t need to make music.

I make music because I love to, because it’s me. I don’t need, you know, you need to. And for everyone that is seeing this, you need to be raw.

You need to be yourself. That’s what makes you different.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, I hear that a lot when people, from people that say, you know, I’m a producer and they’ll, you know, a lot of newbies will go out there and go, what’s hot on Beatport right now? And they’ll make something that they think is hot and trending on Beatport. By the time they get it produced, mastered, put it out there, the genre is over, you know.

It’s on to what people are looking for. So it’s more just produce what you love, produce what you want to put out there, and, you know.

[mAdcAt]
You can’t influence by something you love.

[Darran]
Don’t try to meet the masses and do what the masses want. Exactly, exactly.

[mAdcAt]
You can’t be influenced by something, all right. It’s like, I used to say that the Bible is not to be, I’m not Catholic. I’m just, you know, I am what I am.

But for example, the Bible. People read the Bible and follow the Bible straight. No, you need to interpretate the Bible and influence and live your life slightly influenced by the Bible, if you want.

You don’t need to be like a complete obsessed person that is hypnotized by a book that you don’t know who wrote. But you have all the right, all the right to follow it, but by influence. All right, I’m influenced with this.

I’m going to do this. It’s just, it’s like music. You can produce your music with some influences.

You can join one, two, three. It’s like creating the Powerpuff Girls, man. It’s like you join this, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and poof, there you go.

You got something beautiful.

[Darran]
Exactly. And that’s, you know, where it comes from. And it goes back to a famous philosopher that I know who I really love, Alan Watts.

And, you know, he talks about, you know, there’s this short kind of monologue that he does. He does a lot of short monologues out there, by the way. What he says is, you know, in this monologue, he kind of says, you know, go out.

If you like doing something, I think, I’ll paraphrase this here. He asks his students that are about to graduate out of his class, what do you like doing? What do you want to be?

And the student, he says, usually comes back and says, well, I want to be a writer. I want to be a poet. But there’s no money in that.

And he says, you know what? You’re going after this degree. In a nutshell, you’re going after this thing in life that you’re really not going to be happy doing.

Why don’t you go pursue what you want to be happy doing? Because eventually in life, what you’ll find is you’ll start to surround yourself with other people that are doing that to make them happy. And he says, no matter what you go out there and do, you’re going to find other people out there that do it and do it the way you like to do it as well.

You know, you don’t have to necessarily fit into a mold and be unhappy in life. You can find your mold. Even if that realm is- You can find the balance.

Like people, rather than trying to appease the masses and be unhappy, find who you like and find people you like doing what you like to do. And you’re going to find and gravitate towards others around the world. Because you can’t be the only one.

If I went out and said, I like stained glass windows, I’m going to find the stained glass window fan. You know? Or if I like cows, you know, I’m going to find the cow people.

[mAdcAt]
I just throw stuff around. Exactly. Exactly.

I know you’re POV, man, and I dig with that. I’m 100% of that. For me, I’m always like an off term.

Unfortunately, we live in a capitalized world that has these damn rules that we need to fucking follow. And that’s so stupid because we should be free to follow the hell we want. However, what I tell to people is, alright, you need to- Unfortunately, you need money to live.

I need money to live. I need money to grow up the thing, grow up the business and everything. But you can always have something like a Novi.

You can always have something that, you know, you can be unhappy during the day, but you can be happy overnight, you know? And this is the way I think. I dig on you 100%, but unfortunately, this is really bad.

It doesn’t matter if it’s communist, fascist, capitalism. It’s all the same shit. You’re not allowed to be what you want 100% unless you have someone or yourself to, you know, give the- I forgot the word- the basis for that.

The support, financial support and everything. But do not quit. Use it as a hobby.

Who knows?

[Darran]
It could work. Well, you know, I think that definitely goes along with your mission statement and your message. Sorry, technical issue.

My bad. My bad. I’m terrible.

That definitely goes with the mission statement of- I think this is probably one of your core mission statements, if I’m gathering everything correctly, is that you want the message of, be proud of being weird.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah, be proud of being weird. Be proud of being yourself. Oh, someone doesn’t like me.

Fuck him. Tell him to eat shit. Tell him to take his head out of his ass and start to face reality.

You know, when I say be proud of being weird and be proud of being individual, it’s like this. One thing that I don’t understand- This is really stupid what I’m going to say if you listen to it, but this is what’s happening. Why there are homophobic people?

Why? Why the life of other people that like other men or, you know, men with men, women with women, why does it affect their lives? In what?

In what aspect? Why they can’t adopt children that have been, you know, abused? Why they can’t marry?

Why they can’t have their own life? Why they can’t, you know, go to the church? Why?

Why does it affect you? Is it because your sexuality is fragile? Do you know what I mean?

So this is the- Proud of being yourself. Because who doesn’t like you? Fuck them.

Just tell them to go to hell. You know, go, you know, take seven laps on the roundabout. Shit like that.

Do you understand my point of view right here? Yeah. I don’t understand why people get so angry.

Oh, he’s Muslim. Don’t look at him. Just follow your path.

Yeah. Oh, they’re kissing each other. They’re two men kissing each other.

Don’t look at him. Go get a girl or man or go to church. I don’t know.

Just go. Live your life. There’s room for everyone.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly. You know? And that definitely, that kind of do-be-yourself attitude falls into your underground rebellion and cosplay culture.

[mAdcAt]
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

[Darran]
You have a very hard niche in that cosplay world. I’m familiar a little bit with it.

[mAdcAt]
No, but the thing is, cosplay, you have a lot of, you know, cosplay is like for me, what I think is cosplay. It’s like a refugee for those people that I not understand in the society. And they create this, you know, they use these characters from anime, essentially, to become someone, to feel like, you know, it’s so amazing to go with cosplay and MCM.

It’s so amazing to go to a convention. You see so many good people, so many amazing people, and different cultures. You see tolerance, which you don’t see outside.

You see people understanding each other. Oh, I love your outfit. Can we take a picture?

That is so amazing, man. And it pisses me off because as soon as you leave the pavilion, bro, the world is shit. I just want to go back inside, you know?

And I feel free inside. It’s not because, I can’t tell you, I’m natural, but I’m a natural with some conscience, with some sensibility. The only thing that doesn’t make me like another man is because I don’t like digs.

That’s the only thing. Honestly, I think digs are ugly. But the other thing, bro, I don’t really care.

You should go, everyone should go to cosplay, to Comic Con.

[Darran]
Well, you know, everyone has a fan. I remember the movie Total Recall, the first one with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he goes in to sit down, and the salesman, it kind of goes along with what you’re saying here.

You just said everyone should try cosplay. In the movie Total Recall, the original one, he sits down with a salesman, and I’ve seen this movie a number of times.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah, Total Recall with Schwarzenegger. That’s 1990-something.

[Darran]
Something in the 90s, yeah.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah, I saw that movie.

[Darran]
And the salesman says to him, he says, hey, we got this new thing with Total Recall. You just don’t go on a vacation. You can take a trip away from yourself.

He says, why go to Mars as yourself, as a construction worker? Why not go to Mars as a media tycoon, a famous athlete, a rock star? And he goes, secret agent.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger goes, secret agent. I want that one. So he’s cosplaying in this big…

[mAdcAt]
That is a way of cosplaying.

[Darran]
It’s just basically a cosplay. You’re going into your character. I’ve been to a number of gaming conventions over my life, a number of cosplays.

[mAdcAt]
But you can be whatever you want. You can be whatever you want without not being yourself. You can still be yourself.

Your nature can be there, but you can be whatever you want. Again, there’s room for everyone. There’s room for tolerance.

There’s room for education.

[Darran]
A lot of people can benefit from getting their inner character, inner self out. Their fantasy. I’ve always wanted to dress up and look like Princess Leia or a Jedi.

I love a good skirt. I love anime characters.

[mAdcAt]
Bro, I love a good skirt. I do love a good skirt. I’m serious.

Leather or something like that. I do love a good skirt. I have no issues with that.

Sometimes when I perform Make My Life on TikTok, once in a while I use a skirt. If you don’t like it, just change it. There’s room for everyone.

It’s pretty much that.

[Darran]
Bring it back into a little bit more electronic… Oh, by the way, one of our resident DJs, Alien Invasion, he does a lot of cosplay events as well. He’s awesome.

Check him out. All the stuff is on our website.

[mAdcAt]
I started to check. The thing is I got so busy in the last few days. I really want to check everything about you guys.

I already knew you guys. That’s why I got so excited with the interview. This is going to be the step one for my next page.

I need to check everything. The thing is, ADHD sometimes I forget.

[Darran]
Bringing back two DJs and nightclub and events and things like that, the electronic music industry, do you feel that people should look at the DJs like they’re rock stars? That’s what’s happened over time that I’ve seen after being in the industry for 35 years. Or would it be more fun if DJs just became backward, more slightly anonymous and part of the bigger event as opposed to the forefront of the event?

[mAdcAt]
What you’re saying is more marginal. Something more marginal. Yes and no.

What happened here, this is my point of view. This is what I see according to my experience. I think the DJs, the big DJs, they abuse the trust of their fans.

They become more than they were supposed to be. I remember when I saw Steve Aoki begging for gigs, Suzy Shouse Mafia playing on downtown in Stockholm stuff like that. And now they were like I’m sorry, who the fuck are you?

Really? I got I’m not proud of that, but I got so many beef with some people that pretty much it’s because of that. I understand that we should be more back to the marginalized.

But back in the days, there was no respect, actually. And if it was a half term, a half way on this, like a balance, there would be respect for both sides from each way. But there you go.

One thing that I’m so afraid of is eventually, if I get bigger than this, I become an asshole. If I become an asshole, you just tell me.

[Darran]
I will let you know. Thank you very much.

[mAdcAt]
I appreciate that.

[Darran]
Now, you know, everyone that I’ve met in the industry, I won’t get too much into the politics of certain things, but I’ve met a lot of people in the industry. And the ones that really are successful, the ones that I’ve seen, the ones that I’ve talked to that are largely successful, they’re very humble, they’re very kind, they’re very polite. You know, the ego could have gone to their head a long time ago.

I see the ones that are ego driven like that, they’ll start to push people away. You might have been able to get away with that before social media, but nowadays you have to be very careful because you can be canceled or put out there on blast. Absolutely.

[mAdcAt]
I agree with that. I totally agree with that. But don’t forget one thing, and this is the base of my message, who I have to blame for them to be the way they are, it’s the PR agencies.

It’s the background. I’m not saying that they’re supposed to be like that. It’s like, you know, it’s like Neymar.

All his friends, they’re like, you know, kissing his ass all the time just because, oh, you’re the best. It’s the same thing. And you will see that as long as they are not with them, everything’s fine.

Everything is absolutely fine. So I understand that.

[Darran]
Yeah. Speaking about the success of the big DJ becoming a big name and not becoming an asshole, how would you define success as a DJ producer? Would that be a Beatport top 10 hit sold out tour?

What are your thoughts on this?

[mAdcAt]
Well, that depends what you reach. If you have to pay bills, like I do. But I don’t depend on this.

But it helps. Obviously, like, but I need to have the courage to do it, obviously. It’s like a tour and so on and like that.

But in my case, I need to have the courage, as I said, I need to set up the puzzle and, you know, starting accepting invitations. But for me, as an artist that I am, the kind of artist that I am, it’s like baby steps. Today, I think reaching the amount of people that I’m reaching every month, for me, it’s a win-win.

It’s like a goal. It’s a success. Next month, let’s see how it’s going or next quarter.

One thing that I learned with this business is you shouldn’t take more steps than you should, you know, that you should take, basically. And I try to make things very, very slowly. The only thing I don’t slow down is on releases.

I release a song every two weeks. I’m going to make a break now because obviously I’m tired. But I’ve got two releases.

And this one that came out, Simon Talks, it comes from I forgot his name, the rapper, I forgot his name. I took a sample from there and I decided to make a song. For me, the response from that song was so amazing.

I got like 5,000 streams in less than a week from EO. Super. That’s super.

If you ask me for the DJs, well, that depends on each person. But I believe the DJs, the more commercial, the ones that depend completely on this, I think it’s like a top 10 billboard, you know, exactly what you said. But for me, it’s like baby steps.

Today, I can tell you, for me, my achievement was Simon Says reached 5,000 streams in less than a week. For me, it was absolutely amazing.

[Darran]
That’s a good goal though. Setting benchmarks and goals like that, I often do business consulting for people. Setting realistic benchmark goals I think is something key that a lot of people have to understand, especially in the entertainment industry.

Nobody just flips on their switch, starts a live streaming channel, makes a song, gets it out there, promotes it. And with the accessibility now, back in the days, it wasn’t easy to really set up a music studio in your living room. 25 years ago, you kind of had to be a computer person.

You literally had to get a computer, you had to build a computer app, you had to get the software, find all that fun stuff. Same with DJing. It was a vinyl world.

CDJs were just coming out at that point. I remember when CDJs started hitting the market.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah, the DMK1s. It was a tablet, wasn’t it? It was like a tablet.

Yeah.

[Darran]
I knew a guy who had two wheels.

[mAdcAt]
Like a tablet, and you had two wheels and you had the sounds. I saw something like that. I can’t reveal my age, but I know something like that.

[Darran]
Without revealing your age or who you are, if Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you pick as the main actor?

[mAdcAt]
Oh, fuck. Jim Carrey.

[Darran]
Jim Carrey?

[mAdcAt]
Okay. Right on. I would say Tom Hanks, but it has to be the young Tom Hanks.

[Darran]
The younger Tom Hanks, yeah.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah, because my favorite movie is Forrest Gump. I watch that movie all the time. But Jim Carrey is like one of the most intellectual, you know, well, academically well-formed.

You know, well, intellectually he’s a good man. He’s good intellectually, and you know what he says, and he understands his speech. Because most of the people, they talk.

They don’t understand what they’re saying, but they just talk. They throw shit over the air, and anyone just, you know, get it. So, Tom Hanks and young Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey.

Definitely Jim Carrey.

[Darran]
You know, talking, talking, it kind of segues into my next kind of next group of questions I want to go with you with here, is you know, talking, speaking, public speaking, activism in the music industry. You know, you’re an advocate for a number of different causes out there. You know, DSP visibility, we’ll talk a little bit about that.

Playlisting as well. And you mentioned in your show notes, even the behavior of music rights organizations like PRS. Let’s start with DSP visibility.

For our audience members who don’t know what DSP visibility is, what is that?

[mAdcAt]
Well, let me tell you like this. I’m not sure how many thousands of songs that are being released daily on Spotify, but yeah. There’s a lot.

But your song is like a little rock in the sand. So you need to outsmart and you need to be outstanding from there. I’m not.

A lot of people are not. But they’re just one or two guys that are. And we need to be honest.

It’s this thing. In French we call argent. We call argent money.

Yeah. We call argent. Well, we know the French.

But you need, in terms of visibility, you need to be careful with a lot of things. One thing that I do recommend, do not buy streams. Please.

Do not buy streams. Do not go to those Asian websites, whatever they are. Do not buy streams, especially on Spotify.

Spotify will destroy your career without any remorse. Spotify, listen, Spotify doesn’t pay your royalties if you do everything right. Imagine if you don’t do anything all wrong.

They will destroy your career. They will block you. And you need to recreate everything.

And all your effort, all your money, just, you know. Do you want to be visible on DSPs? The best way is patience.

DSPs download service provider, I take it? No, no, no. DSP, sorry, I forgot that.

I talk too much. DSP is digital sorry, I need to go.

[Darran]
Digital streaming?

[mAdcAt]
Digital streaming platform. Platform. Sorry, look at that.

Such a shame. I should know this. I should know this.

I’m so sorry. I do apologize. Yeah, but if you want to be visible on those platforms, and I’m talking about streaming, forget about selling music.

Music doesn’t sell anymore. That’s it. Unless the DJs want to buy it for their own performance because there are countries that have those gigs controlled.

You need to have your music authorized. You need to have the receipts. So like Portugal and Spain, I guess, basically the cops go there and they fine you if you don’t have all the paperwork for your stuff.

Forget about selling music. You need to go on streaming platforms. Tidal, Spotify, Spotify essentially.

Apple Music, especially if you’re on the American market. Pandora, if you’re on the American market. And, you know, there’s a few other platforms in China that also helps the process.

But if you want to promote yourself, you want to get streams, do not buy those streams. Buying streams is the biggest mistake. Spotify will catch because of the location, the amount, and how quick they go.

They will flag immediately your song will be taken down and you’ll not be able to use Spotify again as an artist. That’s pretty clear. I recommend use Meta, Facebook Meta.

Best way, you pay a little bit more, you wait a little bit longer, but you need to be patient. Music is not an easy game. Music is a shitty game.

Believe me. But it’s a good shitty game. Because you can’t be yourself, show your message, and show the world who you are.

[Darran]
Yeah. Again, you know, there is no shortcuts for cheating the system. They say it will come back and bite you in the ass later on.

Literally, literally. Unfortunately, the industry, and this is what I’ve heard from a number of, I don’t want to call them veterans because they’re still out there, but unfortunately, you know, a lot of older school DJs who are kind of anti-social platforms, unfortunately aren’t getting booked because they’re being booked by people that have 100,000, 200,000 followers on Instagram and engagement and all that stuff and they’re posting stuff and doing stuff and doing stuff and it’s like, and the promoters are looking and going, oh, this person has 200,000 Instagram people, you’ve got 10,000.

I need to sell tickets for a show. Who’s going to bring more to that?

[mAdcAt]
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s not a correct way to see things, isn’t it? You should get the person, you know, there’s a huge responsibility for those that hire artists.

You should hire, alright, the popularity, well done, it’s a good thing, but you need to have a small percentage for the talent, the real talent, the raw talent is over there. It’s not that hard to hire those kids that really need to, you know, chase their dreams, give them a chance, like from locals, those festivals, hire, you know, just book some of your local kids, like the two or three just to complete the lineup. That helps.

That helps, but unfortunately, money talks and, you know, unfortunately it is.

[Darran]
Exactly, you know, and it’s just, you know, here’s a take on this, this might be a little bit of, it’ll lead into my next question, but the one thing I’m seeing is this trend when the bigger artists are playing these massive festivals, and I understand why it happens, but they’re not teaching these sets to these massive festivals, and they’re not wearing headsets. So how are you mixing without It’s pre-recorded, it’s pre-recorded.

[mAdcAt]
I know, I know. It’s pre-recorded, it’s disrespectful, it’s so disrespectful.

[Darran]
I think it goes back to like you were saying earlier, you know, it’s just they’re disrespecting their fans.

[mAdcAt]
It’s not the disrespecting, it’s not just the fans, it’s everything, like the class, the other DJs, those ghost DJs that produce, you know, those producers that produce the songs for them, those ghost DJs that have done the pre-recorded mix, it’s disrespectful in all places. Look, I’m not a big DJ. I’m not a very talented DJ.

I do my thing, I learn, it’s because I’m lazy. I am literally and assume myself as a lazy fucker. But when I go live, at least when I try to go live, when I do something like DJing, I DJ.

Do I use technology? Yes. Do I use pre-recorded DJ sets?

No, that’s bullshit.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly, and that’s you know, it’s so funny you mentioned pre-recorded sets. I was working with somebody 20 years ago and I won’t say what company I was working for, but let’s just say it’s a very well world-known company. One of the top names in the world.

Rhymes with Snapple. And, you know, I was talking with him, I said, look, he was a DJ, and I said look, if, and this came out of a show, a concert I saw with a really well-known band, and the DJ behind the stage, he looked like he was DJing, but for the show to go as well as he wanted to go planned, he had an iPod connected into his board, and he queued up a track and played the song from the iPod with a lot of the background stuff that they couldn’t duplicate on stage because the stage wasn’t big enough, you know, the different instruments, and he hit play on the iPod and let it play. I saw that happen, I came back to work the next day, and I went to the guy, the employee I was working with, and I said, hey, how do you know if I’m up in the booth and nobody can see what I’m doing at all, and I know you can’t feel the crowd or make adjustments for the crowd, but if you made a badass mix, and you just hit the play button, how would anyone know that you just didn’t hit the play button?

And you’re just up there rocking it out, making it look like you’re doing your thing. If you’re not on video, still camera isn’t going to capture you not doing anything. You can make it still look like you’re doing something.

You can even put in two CDs and just have track one, track two, track three, and nobody knows your track listings, and you can just have it play on a CD, or not a CD, but an iPod, and go, that’s my mix, that’s what I’m playing out tonight. And who would know? And he goes, I would know, I would know, I would be able to tell, I would be able to tell.

I’m like, no you wouldn’t. No, you wouldn’t. These major shows where people can’t really be checked, I mean, because again, the lighting, the music, the sounds, and all that fun stuff, and it’s like, wait a second, I paid hundreds of dollars to come see a phenomenal light show, I mean, I will not knock any of the bigger shows, Tomorrowland, or Electric Daisy, EDC, or any of these big, big light shows, I get it, but I’m sitting there looking, and then you’re so far removed away from them.

I like my more intimate vibe. Closer, 50, 100 feet away, maybe you’re seeing the artist.

[mAdcAt]
You like a club, you like a clubbing environment.

[Darran]
Yeah, a clubbing environment. You know. It’s kind of like, oh, and then the whole dynamic also shifted with the crowd, where everyone’s now in the crowd and they’re doing this.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah. It’s evolution, I’m sure.

[Darran]
It’s kind of like, wait a second here, you know, that just kind of takes away from the overall aesthetic of the event, the mood of the event, and people are recording this, and the worst thing is the cultural…

[mAdcAt]
You got ice on your back, man. What? You got ice on your back, I can hear the sirens.

[Darran]
Not today, not today. That’s a fire engine. Oh, okay.

Sorry, continue. You know, I’m surprised there isn’t more of a cultural backlash of these people that are trying to record these moments and realizing your audio’s going to look like, it’s going to sound like shit, your video’s going to look like shit. You’re going to share this, and does anyone really want to sit there and watch what you have?

I understand. I understand the fact that you… You’re trying to translate.

It’s just interesting in the newer culture of what’s happened there. I’m not trying to be the old guy in the room.

[mAdcAt]
No, no, no, no, not at all, not at all. It’s a very sensible point. I understand, again, you should have a balanced thing on that.

I believe people should go for a gig to enjoy those artists. First of all, let’s go to the pre-recorded part. I cheat, but you need to learn how to cheat.

I cheat a bit. You know what I do? But I cheat from the beginning.

All my tracks are 128. I don’t touch the pitch. I got a few tracks, two or three tracks at 126, 127, because I forgot to change the pitch when I was producing it.

But if you want to cheat, be smart, basically. I’m not smart, but I think it’s logic. I don’t need to use it.

It’s my stuff. It’s my signature. I don’t feel that I need to, just because I need to put 130 in the other one, 126, I don’t need to do that.

The second thing about the cell phones, you’re absolutely right. If there’s something more depressing, it’s when you see anyone with a damn phone from the start till the end, and not enjoying, just because I don’t want to keep this memory. And then you have those influencers.

They do that. They basically influence people to do that. But at the same time, people forget that those influencers usually have someone that dirty jobs for them.

What I believe is people should have a balance. You want to take a memory to your life? Cool, but enjoy the moment, man.

Because what’s in here is priceless, man. It’s priceless. You can’t just keep the bad things.

You need to keep good things as well.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly. I was reading an article about an artist group that did a show, and they said this one song they performed where the crowd just released this amount of energy, and they’ve always seen this happen, that it just wasn’t there because everyone was just in their phones, trying to record that moment of that song. See, I told you, Disco Cat.

[mAdcAt]
Oh, there’s a cat!

[Darran]
That’s a cat. It’s my turn now. Hello, what’s your name?

Doja, Doja the Cat.

[mAdcAt]
Doja the Cat, he’s a boy.

[Darran]
They didn’t know who Doja Cat was when they named him.

[mAdcAt]
Oh, I got it. That was the cat that inspired Mad Cat was Charlotte.

[Darran]
Yeah, he’s only about a year old and awesome, but he’s like, attention on me. He just goes right here.

[mAdcAt]
Mine doesn’t like people. She doesn’t like me either.

[Darran]
Awesome. We talked about some of the issues in the scene and some of the advocacy and everything that you do. Is there anything else that you’d like to focus on?

I know mental health and community is one of your big agendas as well. You mentioned the role of fashion and music and expressing mental health struggles and building safe, inclusive spaces for people, especially neurodivergent individuals in marginalized communities. What steps do you take to do that in your local community?

Any advice or any websites that people can go to to find out information on how to include that into their existing infrastructure that they’re producing?

[mAdcAt]
What I do is a funny thing. I take the mask off. No one knows me.

I go over there to the court. I have a court near home. It’s near home and near the studio as well.

I play with the kids basketball. I learn a lot. I learn about this guy.

You should check as well. The community here is it’s the kids here are just there’s a lot of, we call them the rudiments. They’re always fucking around.

It’s so heartbreaking when you see a 14-year-old kid stealing stuff and motorbikes and shit. You can be a rebel, but you can’t be a dick. That’s what I think.

One of the things that I do, I just get involved. Funny thing. This is a funny thing.

I’m more well-known outside the UK than in the UK. Especially locally. If you ask about Mad Cat here, who the fuck is that?

[Darran]
It’s very interesting on how I’ve seen that happen with a number of artists. I’m not big in my hometown, but I’m big other places. Do you think that’s successful PR on your behalf or successful social networking or social outreach?

[mAdcAt]
I don’t know. I don’t know. Oh my God, the ice.

Sorry. I do a lot of how can I say this? It’s like the promotion, but it’s like a business promotion because I need to promote my business, but I need to promote myself.

I think it’s the destiny that didn’t want me to be known here. But when I go to a cosplay, for example, if I go to a cosplay in London, if I take my mask, this year I didn’t take my mask because I was forbidden. I couldn’t walk.

I was pretty much forbidden to take my mask otherwise I couldn’t walk. But the community know me. It’s different.

People know me in that specific little niche, but outside there, perhaps in other countries. I know Brazil, I have a few fans. States, I have a few fans.

I speak with people. I discovered a rapper recently in Pennsylvania. That guy is raw, raw.

It’s like a raw diamond. Random Dennis. You need to hear that.

He’s a fantastic rapper. I produced a song with him and all his album. Yeah.

It’s destiny, man. We can’t control what people like or not.

[Darran]
I accept it. No, it is. It’s always interesting to be in that right place at the right time.

I happen to be out driving our mobile studio the other day around our city, Seattle, and an online kind of personality guy, local of town, took a picture, took a video of us and said, what is this thing? It’s so cool. It was less than 35 seconds, maybe 40 seconds long.

[mAdcAt]
I know you guys from here in the UK. A lot of people here, I know they know you. Yeah.

[Darran]
Basically, he had never seen it before. We’ve been doing this for almost 15 years in Seattle. So far, it’s probably got about 60,000.

From last Friday to today, it’s got about 60,000 views between TikTok and Instagram on this little segment. I’m just like, all right. This is cool.

We’re doing something right. Yeah. At a big convention here in town, a very famous gamer took a video, a 30-second video of our truck driving around a major convention here in Seattle.

Within two hours, it had 17,000 views. It was crazy. We’re doing something good.

People like what we do. Final couple of questions before we let you go here. When you’re not entertaining others, what do you do to entertain yourself?

I masturbate. No.

[mAdcAt]
Yeah. I’m sorry. Do you know that I have a problem?

Sorry, man. This was completely out of the script. This is out of the script.

I’m sorry. Okay. Sell drugs as well.

No, that’s a lie. I have a difficult to calm down, to cool down, to relax. I’ve been overweight for a few times because of conditions.

The PTSD that I have is very complicated to go over. It causes me a lot of stress and everything. Recently, me and my partner, we decided to take action on ourselves.

I decided to go to the gym, play basketball again. I am getting rid of a few pounds. I’m still fat, but you need to be strong.

I’m very low profile. I’m very low key, unless I’m driving. That’s different because driving in the UK is not an easy task.

I don’t do that much. I design my clothes when I have some time. Find some good music, play some games, watch some soccer.

You guys call it soccer. We call it football. It’s football.

It’s football. I’m a very low profile. I don’t drink anymore.

I’m on a very huge diet. I’m very focused on producing music. I have so much to pick up from there.

There’s a lot of ingredients to cook.

[Darran]
I know what it’s like being multitasking and having a break from the life of this. People think I just pick up the camera, get on the camera, and start talking with you. There’s a lot of stuff I do in the background.

[mAdcAt]
People don’t know how hard it is for me to be here.

[Darran]
It’s so hard for me. You do. It’s great, man.

I’m loving talking to you because I know we’re going to be talking to you in the future. We have some other stuff. I got to get a hold of…

Is it Nick? Is Nick your manager? Yes.

Nick, I’ll be talking with him and talking with your team. We’re definitely going to see a lot more of you on the DJ Sessions, Mad Cat. Looking forward to that.

[mAdcAt]
I hope so. I got you, man. I got your back.

[Darran]
Thank you.

[mAdcAt]
I appreciate that.

[Darran]
Where can people find out more information about you and what you’re up to?

[mAdcAt]
If you want to find a little bit about me, if you’re interested for a person that doesn’t have a social life, and it’s always about screaming and what’s going on, if you want to look for me, you go to wearemadcat.com. It’s my website. Obviously, there you go.

Wearemadcat on Instagram. On Instagram, you got absolutely everything. On Instagram is where I detonate everything, when I call everything by their names.

If I will go there, just give me a… I’m going to beg now. Can I beg?

Can I beg? Please. I’m going to beg.

Please give me a chance. Give me a chance. Please.

Please. Awesome.

[Darran]
Well, like I said, we’re going to see a lot more of you on the DJ Sessions. Looking forward to some of those collaborations we have on the back end of what we’re talking about.

[mAdcAt]
We’re going to talk about that tomorrow, I think. I hope so. I really enjoyed this.

I’m very nervous, anxious and everything. You know what? Those prescribed drugs, they work.

[Darran]
They definitely can. Hopefully, they ward off the ice. I hope they aren’t coming for me, because there’s a lot of action going on.

[mAdcAt]
No, I think they’re coming for me, because I said so many… Man, I’m going on next Twitter, whatever that name is.

[Darran]
It’s not the worst street corner I used to live on. For another time. Anyways, I got to get going here.

Thanks again, Mad Cat, for coming on the show again. Like I said, we’re going to definitely be talking with you here in the near future and working with you and doing some stuff.

[mAdcAt]
Thank you so much for having me, Bo. You’re welcome. There you go.

[Darran]
There’s Mad Cat. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Find us out there on all the socials.

You can get that on our website, thedjsessions.com. Check out our store. We’ve got merch in there.

You have to donate to a good cause of keeping us on the air, keeping us alive. I guess it’s not on the air. It’s keeping us on the web.

Find out about all our events, our exclusive interviews. We have over 2600 episodes, 700 news stories published a month. We just launched our new music section, where you can find tracks and albums from up-and-coming producers.

Some notable names will be placed there. We just launched that last week. We also have our virtuality nightclub and VR chat you can check out as well.

All that and more at thedjsessions.com. Go there. Tell a friend.

Follow. Tons of stuff coming out from us at the DJ Sessions. Remember, that’s Mad Cat.

You can find him everywhere online at WeAreMadCat. Just type it in. WeAreMadCat.

Give him the support. Give him the love. Be all good.

And I’m Darren. Coming to you from the virtual studios over there, Mad Cat’s in London. I’m in Seattle, where the DJ Sessions presents the virtual sessions.

And remember, on the DJ Sessions, the music never stops.