Long considered one of the UK’s top turntablists, DJ Yoda’s latest project sees him team up with a collection of the country’s finest emerging artists. His first live band, Breakfast of Champions debuted at Manchester venue Band on the Wall on September 19 and tore it up. Yoda answers some questions below about how the collaboration came about.

Who are Breakfast of Champions, and how did you come to work together?
Breakfast of Champions is a band I have put together, helped by Brighter Sound in Manchester. We put a call out to emerging musicians, had an incredible response, and I sifted through all the entries to create my idea of a perfect band. The audio-visual side is also very important to me, so I also chose a team of animators. I brought to the table three MCs – Sparkz and Truthos Mufasa from Manchester’s Mouse Outfit, and Rex Domino from  down South.

Why did you choose to work with emerging artists?
The last two artist albums I released, I made a kind of hit list of every vocalist I wanted to work with – from artists I grew up listening to, like Biz Markie and Boy George, to people who are really smashing it at the moment like Action Bronson. I felt like I’d been there and done that, and for my next project I wanted to work with really talented artists that haven’t seen that level of success yet.

How did you select the artists?
I had submissions that included SoundCloud and YouTube examples of work, as well as answers to interview questions. By combining all that information, I got a pretty accurate idea of who would click well into the kind of thing I wanted to.

There’s a lot of you! How did the writing process work?
We were under a lot of pressure – we had a week to come up with a show! But the selection of people involved turned out to be perfect – everyone was on the level, hard-working and creative, and we did it!

Your debut show was awesome, how did the band feel about it?
It was a really special night – to get to perform to a sold-out crowd after all that hard work, and to feel great about the songs we had written. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.

Future plans for BoC?
We are finishing up recording of the album Breakfast of Champions, so that will be ready soon. And our next show is at the Jazz Cafe in London in November.

What else do you have on the boil currently?
I’m about to start my BBC 6Music radio show, and alongside finishing up Breakfast of Champions recording I have another two mixes to work on this week alone! Busy!

A recorded version of Breakfast of Champions is still in the works. Here’s a taste of Yoda’s work while you wait.

Breakfast of Champions play London’s Jazz Cafe on November 8. Visit www.djyoda.co.uk for more.

Sarah Illingworth is a freelance journalist and Editor at Impolitikal. Read more by Sarah. Find her on Twitter.