Interview: Karkasaurus (DJ Kark of Beat:Cancer and DJ PeeWee of Cosmic)
If you've attended a Gothic music event that is even vaguely electronic then there's no doubt you would have seen Mark (DJ Kark) announcing bands, charity collecting for Beat:Cancer festival which he runs in often very entertaining ways, or spinning at the DJ decks (Once even alongside Memmaker!) Then there's Peter (DJ PeeWee) who is one half of what makes up Cosmic hard dance, again often found at many a music event filling the DJ set between bands. Both of these wonderful guys have been a real integral part of keeping alternative music and fun nights out alive. So when the two of them decided to join forces, even the titanic impact of a meteor couldn't keep these two down!
Q. So just what on Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous period Earth is Karkasaurus and how did it come about? Did the idea start when you were dressed as a nurse leading a T-rex around at Infest Kark?
[Peewee] If you give Mark a Chance to dress a nurse, he will take it!! That ‘stunt’ was actually to help promote Beat:Cancer and Infest’s own Charity.
[Kark] And the dinosaur first came about at one of Petrol Bastards many Last Ever Gigs with Beat:Cancer in 2017 - Ben’s face presented with a dinosaur bearing a “F*ck Off” cake was priceless!
[Peewee] Karkasaurus actually predates that - our first gig together was headlining at Khronology in Bristol back in January 2018.
Before that we had been DJing at the same gigs often taking over from each other. I practically lived around Kark and his better half’s house for the end of 2017 when we were playing most weekends. It just seemed natural that we went B2B, it meant between us we could co-promote and bring new even crazier ideas to the table.
It’s also more challenging up on stage. We honestly don’t know what the other is about to play and we feel this unplanned and unpredictable nature of our sets can be felt on the dancefloor. We live near enough 3 hours away from each other - so we don’t really get many ‘practice sessions’.
Combining our two DJ names wasn’t really going to work (KarkWee has an awful ring to it). So Kark kept his and I donated my love of dinosaurs instead. The costumes followed straight after and have been there since our first gig.
Q. Last I saw you both play Cosmic at Slimelight, you had your Dino onesies on and our good friend Ryan donning the inflatable T-rex in the crowd. Can we expect a larger herd of dino’s at each show, should we be worried, should we take precautions??
[Peewee] Ryan has been brilliant. Every show we’ve played in the last year he has been at and terrorised the local club goers. The best thing is we never once asked him to - he just started doing it and we love him for it.
Our next show is at Infest 2019 (The UKs largest Goth festival) and we have been given the task of closing the festival in the main room. Chris and the team at Infest have been great - all our ideas have been approved in advance and they are giving us four decks to mix on instead of the normal two for an extra amount of creativity on stage.
Should you be worried? Nah, our fans haven’t eaten anyone yet*
*correct at the time of print
[Kark] Mainly correct.. I have seen some bite marks… But just to be safe I’d advise camouflage: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em in your finest dino-themed regalia!
(Elektro Vox- It's true, Ryan has been known to bite..)
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