"I saw A New Hope in 1977 at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood when I was four years old and remember watching the opening scene with the endless Star Destroyer moving across the screen," Macfadden recalls. "It was bigger than life. A New Hope was the perfect story and the direction was superb. A lot of the film was music and images, like a classical music video, with so much time going by without any dialogue. No other episode in the saga had this quality. Someone once told me that Sir Alec Guinness had 88 lines in the film which is the divine number in India. If that's true that must mean something, right?"
Of course, with Luke being his first name, some might say his fandom was destined at birth. "Being a sandy blonde kid named Luke sure limited my options for role-playing," Macfadden laughs. "But for Halloween I was usually Darth Vader. It was the most appealing to me because of the helmet. I got an original Don Post back in the day."
In addition to collecting, Macfadden says he takes so much pride in being a Star Wars fan that he named his beloved dog after a famous Wookiee. "My dog is the same color and has the same markings as Chewie," Macfadden laughs. "He also sounds like Chewie when he 'talks.'"
Macfadden can be found spinning records as one of the hottest turntablists in the music industry. Performing under the name of Cut Chemist, he began his music career with the Los Angeles-based rap group Unity Committee, and debuted on their 1993 vinyl release Unified Rebelution. Unity Committee later merged with Rebels of Rhythm to form Jurassic 5. Cut Chemist also pushes his own musical boundaries by often contributing to side projects and remixes with DJ Shadow, Liquid Liquid, Less Than Jake, and Ozomatli. In 1997, Cut Chemist recorded his album debut, Live at Future Primitive Sound Session with Shortkut of Invisibl Skratch Piklz. During the years after that release, Cut Chemist could be spotted touring the club circuit not only with Jurassic 5, but also with fellow turntablists DJ Shadow and Kid Koala. Currently, fans can check out his latest work on his new album The Audience's Listening.
Sampling Star Wars sounds and music isn't the only way Macfadden pays tribute to the saga -- he also like to share the spotlight with his favorite droid. Fans attending one of his recent shows in Los Angeles got a brief glimpse of an R2-D2 standee on stage as he played with DJ Shadow and DJ Nu-Mark. "R2-D2 would make a great DJ because he can probably program beats on his chest and communicate with other scratch DJs with his beeping dialect," Macfadden smiles.
Though the film saga has come full circle with Revenge of the Sith, Macfadden says the popularity of the characters and story of Star Wars will always endure the test of time. "I think it's the perfect fairy tale for our generation -- the conflict of good vs. evil within oneself," he explains. "It's a story that's been told forever but the way George Lucas tells it leaves an impression that will probably last forever. For me the enduring quality is the imagery which creates a balance of textures -- space technology and organic landscape. It suggests the future and the past. And it's saturated pop culture because most of today's directors and producers grew up in this same Star Wars generation. These people were highly influenced and in some cases, probably chose their profession because of this film."
"I'm proud to be a Star Wars fan because it gives me the license to fantasize in my work and to create my own world and live in it for a while," Macfadden continues. "It will always be cool to me. It was never a trend to me in the first place, so it will never die."
To find out more about Cut Chemist, listen to online tracks and watch video clips, visit his official site here. Also check out more of his videos and music tracks on his official Cut Chemist MySpace profile.
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