Building the scene, going out and doing shows and connecting with the fans, cultivating the fanbase in all these cities. I’m very glad that it’s happening.
A-TRAKBuilding the scene, going out and doing shows and connecting with the fans, cultivating the fanbase in all these cities. I’m very glad that it’s happening.
A-TRAKI think one of the biggest things that’s changed in terms of the rapport with the crowd is that now crowds come to hear our songs. We’re getting closer and closer to an artist performance.
A-TRAKWhen I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.
A-TRAKI’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
A-TRAKI’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
A-TRAKMy ears are open to all sorts of stuff. I appreciate some of the big electro house guys.I love their music but I also like a lot of the stuff coming out of the U.K. Future garage stuff. A lot of stuff like that.
A-TRAKAt 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.
A-TRAKI 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.
A-TRAKI think whether dance music had exploded in America, I still would’ve been a DJ a long time. This is my first love.
A-TRAKThat’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.
A-TRAKI was a bit of an outsider in the hip-hop world because I was a scratch kid and people weren’t necessarily trying to hear that all the time.
A-TRAKA few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
A-TRAKI love disco and we sample it a lot for Duck Sauce. For me, that sound is kind of a new manifestation.
A-TRAKThere’s a lot of producers that are much more technical or gear-skilled than I am. But I have a pure idea of what I like and where I want to go and I follow that.
A-TRAKThere 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.
A-TRAKThat 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.
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