“There’s a ton of amazing music that’s not getting heard.”

It’s always important to me to play something other DJs aren’t playing.

One thing that I learned in recent years from working more with other people is this idea that part of a producer’s job is to make people comfortable and confident.

It’s a good feeling to have something to stand for in any part of your life. It’s like personal integrity.

That’s what a DJ is at the end of the day – someone who leads where the music goes. The only thing that’s changed is that in America, people have woken up in the last few years and realized it.

I love disco and we sample it a lot for Duck Sauce. For me, that sound is kind of a new manifestation.

I worked with him for years. I still think Kanye [West] is one of the most important people in music in the last ten years.

When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.

There are things I like, there are things I strongly dislike. In my DJ sets and in my production I just gravitate towards what I like.

That was my challenge then, how to make scratching still fun for someone who didn’t necessarily come to hear that. It was fun to develop that technique. And now in dance music – I’m still a hip-hop guy at heart, but I love dance music.

A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.

I’m not even a trained producer. I just keep following my ear and working on stuff until it sounds the way I like it.

At festivals you kind of have to play the game a bit and you have to play a lot of the big bangers but it’s to me it’s extra gratifying to be able to play the non-bangers and make it work. Because that’s still the craft of the DJ, I think.

I have a radio show on Sirius XM. I put it up as a free download on my Soundcloud and on iTunes. That’s a portal for me once a month, to play songs I know aren’t getting played on that station the rest of the week.

We have to wake up early and make songs everyday. I run my record label. You work at hours where your body isn’t designed to work. But it’s fun.

I’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.

I’ve been doing it since I was prepubescent when I loved to scratch records and play good music. As it happens, you know I sort of fell into the mix. I really feel like I played a role in bringing dance music to America years ago.

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

If you truly pour your heart into what you believe in, even if it makes you vulnerable, amazing things can and will happen.

I do believe in love; it’s wonderful – especially love third time around, it’s even more precious; it’s kind of amazing.

If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.

One of the most amazing things Cricket gave me is friends for life.

Be truthful, and the result is bound to be amazingly interesting.

Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.