When did you start DJ'ing and what inspired you to keep at it?
I started DJing probably late summer 2008. I had been living in California from January '05 until July '07, working in a studio on various rock + hip hop records, as well as soundtracks. I also was consulting for a company that developed a hardware VST plugin 'player'... so to be cliche, music was (and is) truly my life. While I had always been pretty split between rock, hip hop and electronic music, I *never* learned to spin records (and still haven't). After a year of doing *nothing*, I started to relearn Ableton Live, around the time version 7 was coming out. I had been playing around with it since version 1 but alot of it never clicked. I had seen some of the things that some of the "glitch hop" guys at the time were doing with Live and an M-Audio Trigger Finger and decided I should put my spin on that, so I started putting together my Live setup and tried it out at a few house parties here and there, and wanted to eventually play out but didn't really know how to get my feet wet. Around that same time I heard of 'dubstep' and realized while it's not exactly what I was trying to do, they'd probably be the closest scene to align with, so I stumbled into the spot that the internet told me sold dubstep records: the (sadly) now defunct LAB in Allston. It was there that everything would change for me: I found flyers there for Bassic, Operation Underground, Elements, etc... so I started going out alot, by myself, to meet people. I saw a bunch of great DJs around town in my adventures to find my place, but two guys in particular struck me: Dabu of Bassic, and Professorpious (then of SMGU).
While all that was going down, I was also touring and playing keyboards for Cyanotic (an industrial metal band with dnb, glitch + digital hardcore influences who are obsessed with Public Enemy and Terminator 2). We were touring with guys we grew up as fans of, Acumen Nation. Two of the Acumen guys moonlight as a dj/production crew, DJ? Acucrack. We had a night off in Boston while on tour, so I tried to get a gig booked for them, mainly because I wanted to see them play; I hit Greg at Enormous Room up, and the night we were in town happened to the one night that month he didn't have booked, so he gave us the date. So, we get to Boston, and Acucrack flakes on the gig. I had already asked Dabu and Professorpious to play and didn't want to cancel the gig, so I figured I'd play a few tunes in the beginning of the night and then let those guys do what they do best... they decided I should headline. No pressure, right? Anyways, Greg asked us back to fill in a date a couple of weeks later, and on that night offered us the residency which was the first Tuesday of the month starting in January 2009, then moved to the first Wednesday, and then every other Wednesday. We had alot of great times at Enormous but felt like people weren't really going to "get" what we were doing on the sound system at the time, so we picked up a Wednesday at Good Life and started Lost In Bass and dropped one of the Enormous nights. We're only a handful of gigs in, but we're already bringing the most exciting 'future bass' producers: LuckyMe's Mike Slott out of Glasgow, NastyNasty from SF, Boston's own Adam Ridge (who does a crazy live set on 2 drum machines + 1 CDJ). The desire to see more glitch hop, skweee, lazer bass, future blap or whatever dumb name it's going by this week is what drives me. I like alot of electronic music but find most of the established genres bore me pretty quickly, so I'm going to keep representing new sounds regardless of tempo. Fortunately after being at it for a bit, people seem to be getting it now and being excited about these sounds.
How was the mix put together?
The mix is actually a live set of mine from opening for Mochipet at Bassic back in September. It was performed and recorded into Ableton Live; I saved the session and went back and printed it, although I did delete some of my live effects as they were a little heavy handed. Other than that it's not edited. A few of the tracks run a bit long when somebody decided to spill a drink next to my gear and I was more concerned with damage control (literally) than playing tunes for a few minutes. Hopefully I get a pass on that!
What are some tracks or albums that you've been really into lately? Any artists or DJs to keep an eye out for (either locally or national/international)?
A few producers whose stuff I've been beating to death are Robot Koch, Slugabed, Loops Haunt + Opiuo. Aside from that, LOOK OUT FOR BOSTON. Seriously, the next couple of years will see Boston's producers getting some recognition. I actually have my first release coming, it's a remix of Vinyl Blight's (Vermin St) "Blackstone". A couple of other Vermin St artists are represented alongside my remix and one from Mochipet. Vermin Street has ALOT of incredible stuff coming up from both Boston producers and guys from the Bay Area, etc. Stickem (of Lost In Bass), who is America's Godfather of Skweee is celebrating the release of a 7" with a Beem remix. The gentlemen of Boston drum and bass, The Statesmen have forthcoming heaters to follow up their "State Of The Nation" EP on Point 9 Audio. Coralcola has something special in the works that's pretty exciting. Also of note is Ali Berger, who's not even 19 yet but is generating a buzz just off of a couple of parties and an appearance on our Glitch.Fm radio show with his mix of his great selections + his own original tunes. Finally, BBP (BlueBoy Productions) are my favorite live act in Boston. Alex Russo handles production + Chris Naranien on drums - I've never seen a performance from those guys where they haven't whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy. DJs I really like what they do around town (that I haven't already mentioned) include Encanti (Vermin St), Codiac (Yes&No), Vice-T (Dubwise) and the FUCKING MIGHTY Dev/Null (Cock Rock Disco / Thunderdome).
Favorite thing about Boston?
My favorite thing about Boston is that there's still so much potential. There's so much more interest in Bass music than there was a year ago, I just hope the different corners of the scene can keep coming together and we can throw more great parties with great producers without having to drive to New York!
Least favorite thing about Boston?
My least favorite part of Boston is that there's still a lack of venues with good sound and very few 19+ venues. I like to bring in exciting producers from out of town, and it's fucking expensive! The under 21+ set seems a little more in tune with my crew does these days, and we don't have much access to them, thus it makes it difficult to throw cool events without completely losing your ass. Also the fact that public transportation shuts down before the bars is A FUCKING DISGRACE and is totally IRRESPONSIBLE POLICY. But hey, it's Massachusetts politics, I expect no less...
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