Interview – Breaking Beats and Breaking Boundaries: Kid Kenobi

The man who arguably did more than anyone to cement Australia’s place on the international breaks map, Jesse Desenberg has watched electronic music evolve through multiple cycles, and the latest breakbeat resurgence feels both familiar and refreshingly new.

This perspective makes Kid Kenobi such a fascinating figure in electronic music’s perpetual evolution. Few artists can claim to have witnessed and actively shaped multiple waves of dance culture. From navigating Sydney’s post-rave underground to becoming the first DJ to have a Ministry of Sound compilation series bearing his name, Desenberg has consistently positioned himself where tradition meets innovation.

The accolades tell part of the story: Australia’s favourite DJ for three consecutive years, over 80 remixes spanning underground heroes to chart-toppers, an ARIA nomination for “The Bump.” But numbers can’t capture the cultural weight of those legendary Clubbers Guide compilations, or how his sets have transformed from curation to creation.

Against this backdrop comes his most personal project yet: an album capturing the raw energy of performances where most tracks are his own productions. It’s a bold statement from an artist who built his reputation as a masterful curator, now asserting his creative voice. Most intriguingly, this traditional album approach sits alongside his exploration of AI-generated visuals, a contradiction perfectly embodying an artist who’s spent two decades bridging dance music’s past and future. In an industry obsessed with the next breakthrough, Kid Kenobi has built longevity by understanding that genuine innovation often stems from respecting what came before.

I got to have a chat recently with Jesse aka Kid Kenobi and the shape of things to come.

Looking back at your journey from those early Sydney club days in 1996, what were the specific moments that shifted you from being another face in the crowd to becoming the breakbeat ambassador for an entire continent?

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact moment. I think there was just this overall fast and steady climb that was super exciting at the time. That said, I think the first pivotal moment was when I decided that breakbeat was ‘my sound’. In the very beginning my friends and I were playing a mash of hip hop and old rave and drum and bass, but it was around 1997 and 1998 I was like, ‘yeah this breakbeat tempo is my thing!’. I think I was lucky as I was a little ahead of the curve on that one as far as the Sydney scene goes.

I think it was around the same time dance music was moving away from being focused on house and rave to embracing a lot of the new sounds coming through. Consequently, a lot of the older DJ’s were looking to the young guys to bring these sounds into their events. Sugar Ray and Phil Smart were a good example of this and got DJs like myself and Ajax to play their Tweekin’ nights at Club 77 and the back rooms of their bigger Love and Sabotage events at The Metro. It was also around the same time that quite a few regular nights began popping up such as Beat-Fix at Sublime (Pitt street) and nights at The Globe. Being a resident at these nights enabled me to build quite a passionate following. It was from there that Ministry asked me to mix their first ‘Clubbers Guide to Breaks’ CD. Mixing that first compilation in 2002 was probably the biggest turning point for me in terms of my career and profile. 

The 2002 Clubbers Guide to Breaks with MC Shureshock remains iconic today. Beyond the obvious legal clearances and studio work, what was the creative chemistry between you and Shureshock that made those compilations capture lightning in a bottle?

I think we had a great connection as friends in the first place and bonded on a lot of levels both musically and as people. I think we were also a bit of Yin and Yang and balanced each other perfectly. The trick with the CDs was to try and capture what we did live on a disc. The first one in 2002 was a big mistake though. We recorded a live set and then I tried to edit the four-hour jam into the one 60-minute compilation. Never made that mistake again! Ha ha. 

Being named Australia’s favourite DJ for three consecutive years during breaks’ “big business” era must have carried immense pressure. How did you balance commercial expectations with your artistic integrity during that golden period?

It was quite stressful as I never felt like I could take my foot off the pedal and have an off day or experiment too much as there was so much expectation to deliver. At that point in time dance music culture was very DJ focused so success was all centred around how well you played at a gig. Everything rode on that.

Funny, I remember Ajax talking about something similar when he became Australia’s #1 DJ in 2006. The stress was so much he used to sweat all the time which is why he ended up calling his label Sweat It Out! That said it was a lot easier in the beginning as I was just doing my thing. It was a little harder as the music changed and moved away from breaks and I had to balance delivering, playing my sound, and trying to ‘stay relevant’. 

With over 80 remixes under your belt, you’ve essentially become a sonic translator between genres. What’s your philosophy when approaching a mainstream pop track versus an underground gem, do you impose your breakbeat DNA or let the original guide you?

For a while there – when I was still new to producing – I would sort of go where the music took me. These days I am far more conscious of having a ‘sound’. Or rather, I’ve really discovered my sound, so I prefer to put my mark on anything I do and breakbeats are certainly key to that. 

As the first DJ to have a Ministry of Sound series named after you, you witnessed the twilight of the mix CD era. Do you believe streaming culture has fundamentally altered how audiences engage with curated musical journeys, or simply changed the delivery method?

Yeah, I think it’s been altered for sure. I think the concept of the linear narrative has been altered across the board culturally. The internet has imposed what I have heard being called “non-linear, interactive, and fragmented narratives” which affects everything including how we listen to albums and mixtapes. I’m grateful a lot of my audience is older, so I feel my linear journeys are still appreciated. I don’t think I will ever stop presenting work this way. I still believe in telling a story and the old rave ideology of taking people on ‘a journey’. 

Today’s breakbeat renaissance seems driven by producers who discovered the genre through YouTube archives and old compilations. How does their digital-native approach differ from the vinyl-centric culture that shaped your generation’s understanding of breaks?

I think it’s fundamental to the shift in generations. I think being vinyl centric was one of the things that defined our culture back in the day. Being vinyl focused required a lot of work from DJs in order to both seek out and learn to perform the music, so it weeded out a lot of DJs who weren’t very good or in it for the right reasons.

The fact the music was on vinyl (only) meant clubs were also incredibly important cultural hubs as that was the only place you could hear those records and that music. This was even more relevant in the old ‘dub plate’ culture which made certain tunes even more rare back in the day. I don’t think it changes the overall passion producers and DJ’s have for the breakbeat sound, but I think the switch from vinyl culture has, simply due to the shift in technology, changed how important clubs were back in the day as centres for new and breaking music. 

Your sets now comprise 80% original productions, a radical shift from traditional DJ curation. Has this move towards being a live electronic act rather than a selector changed how crowds respond to your performances?

Thankfully not ha ha. If anything, it has brought me closer to them as I feel I am truly representing me and my own sound. One of the main reasons I play so much of my own music though is that I couldn’t find music that felt like ‘me’. That said, about half of what I play are my reworks of other people’s tunes – both new and old – so it still has the feel of a DJ set, just done with my own spin on it!

With Spanish breakbeat events drawing 12,000 people and Jamie xx headlining festivals with breaks-influenced sets, where does Australia sit in this global renaissance? Are we leading, following, or carving our own path?

That’ a tough one. Like a lot of the Australian dance music scene has really suffered. Unfortunately, in the case of breakbeat it’s virtually to the point of non-existence. That said the events that do happen are amazing, though a lot of them tend to be a little more retrospective instead of focused on pushing the very latest sound in breakbeat like they do in Spain. 

Walk us through your current studio setup, beyond the obvious DAW and monitors, what’s the one piece of kit that’s essential to achieving that signature Kid Kenobi sound that cuts through festival sound systems?

You’d be surprised! I’m not much of a tech focused kind of producer. I think there are some producers that love the technology but for me that has always been secondary to the artistic side of making music. Not saying that’s right, that’s just me. So essentially my set up is quite basic compared to a lot of producers and I use a lot of the native Logic plug ins. That said I am currently loving Serum for my bass sounds and Nexus is always super handy for ‘ready to go’ sounds. ABL2 is my go-to for that authentic 303 acid sound also which I love. I’ve also been experimenting with AI for vocals and for generating ideas. At the same time, I have also learnt that no matter how many plug ins or synths you have, the old saying rings true: you can’t polish a turd.

The key to any good tune is starting with the right parts. If the sounds or samples aren’t right to start with no amount of polishing with studio gear will make it sound as good as it would had you started with the right sounds, just like cooking with out-of-date ingredients won’t make for a tasty meal no matter how good your kitchen appliances are. 

When you’re starting a new original versus tackling a remix brief, how does your creative process differ? Do you have specific rituals or methodologies that signal to your brain it’s time to switch between these two very different creative modes?

When it comes to doing my reworks, I tend to only choose tunes that I think I can bring something to. If I think the tune is already a banger, I may tend to steer clear of it. However sometimes I hear a tune and go, ‘man I love this tune and would play it out, if only…’ then I see an opening where I can bring something to it and improve it. They are my favourite ones to do. That said sometimes a rework may simply require turning a house tune into a breaks tune. But that’s the least fun to do creatively.

I may turn down an official remix if I feel I can’t make it work in my style or would end up making something I wouldn’t play. Also, when it comes to originals it’s a bit harder as you have to decide what the key ingredients of the tune are whereas with remixes and reworks, they core work has already been done for you. So, originals take a lot more thinking, working, and refining overall. 

This album represents a decade-plus of live set evolution where 80% of your material is original. How did you approach curating these tracks, was it about capturing specific emotional peaks from your performances or creating a cohesive listening experience?

Funnily enough my recent works have all been written with my sets in mind, so they organically tended to work as a cohesive listening experience. I’ve become very pragmatic when writing music in the last few years and simply write with my DJ sets in mind. I went through a period of writing funky breaks for example because I needed that for the early parts of my sets and I couldn’t find any I liked. More recently I’ve been writing more peak time tunes as that part of my set needed a freshening up.

I currently need a new intro tune with a lot of hype! So that’s up next. My side project Sekond Skin is on a deeper, more emotive breaks tip so that has become my ‘end of set music’. It’s all very pragmatic. 

Given breakbeat’s collaborative remix culture, are there plans for other producers to reinterpret tracks from this album? If you could handpick anyone to remix your work, who would challenge your original vision in the most interesting ways?

Yep, there are a couple of breaks guys who are currently working on some remixes! One is a legend of the UK breakbeat scene, and one is at the forefront of the Spanish breaks scene so I’m very honoured by that. It would be cool to get some newer guys to have a crack at my stuff also. I really dug BVNQUET’s EP recently and some of C100 from Sydney’s stuff. 

Sydney’s electronic music community has weathered lockout laws, venue closures, and a pandemic. Has this adversity actually strengthened the underground’s resolve, or has it fundamentally changed what it means to be part of the Australian dance music scene?

I think it’s changed a lot. I think that succession of blows really destroyed the Sydney scene and it’s never fully recovered to the thriving state that it was in as far as regular club nights go. Coupled with that is the general movement away from clubs worldwide. I read that 500 clubs have closed in Britain in 5 years. That’s insane. There are lots of reasons for that and I’m not sure if that trend will ever be reversed as clubs and DJ’s serve different roles now than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

I’ll be honest I’m not as in touch with the underground scene as I once was and tend to move in my own circles, but I think there will always be those seeking to push boundaries and do things that aren’t being done.

For someone with your industry perspective, which emerging Australian producers working in breakbeat, jungle, or bass-heavy genres should we be watching? What qualities separate the next generation from bedroom producers who never make the leap to global recognition?

I’d be keeping an eye on Kenny Beeper, Chris Munky, and C100! 

This album feels like a statement of artistic maturity, moving from curator to creator. What narrative arc were you hoping to capture, and how does it reflect where Kid Kenobi stands as an artist in 2025?

To be honest this feels like a very natural evolution for me as an artist. Ironically, I’ve always felt most at home being a creator as opposed to a curator. The current album – and what I’m doing in the studio as Kid Kenobi in general – is in many ways an ode (for lack of a better word) to my history and who I am as an artist rather than an attempt to fit myself into ay current scene or sound.

In many ways it’s about maintaining the essence of who I am and what I’ve always done and presenting it in new and unique ways, be that via fresh reworks of old tunes, the use of familiar samples in contemporary productions, or the creation of AI video clips for my music. I tend to save my musical experimentation for my side project Sekond Skin. 

After two decades in electronic music, what drives your creative process now? For aspiring producers looking at your career trajectory, what’s the key to building longevity whilst staying creatively restless in such a rapidly evolving industry?

That’s a great question. Part of what I can offer practically is probably irrelevant now as I came through at a totally different time, so the rules have changed. I’m lucky in a way that a lot of my fans base is older, so they still get where I come from. Having said that, I think a universal truth that will always stand the test of time comes from the cliché: ‘be yourself, everyone else is taken’.

I think we live in a time where people think fitting in and following trends is the key to success. The irony is, it’s the opposite. Success will come from being brave enough to be your unique self. It’s difference not similarity that will separate you from the pack. So, long story short, find yourself and come from that place, not the other way around. Let trends be an influence, a colour in your palette, not the definition of who you are. Side note it will be three decades next year! Wild! 

The Album Not Album – Originals x Reworks – Available here

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