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.
A-TRAKI’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.
More A-Trak Quotes
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The essential component of being a DJ is setting the mood; it’s playing to the context. So that if you’re not able to adapt from one context to another, then you’re not a DJ.
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It’s a good feeling to have something to stand for in any part of your life. It’s like personal integrity.
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It’s always important to me to play something other DJs aren’t playing.
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I’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I love disco and we sample it a lot for Duck Sauce. For me, that sound is kind of a new manifestation.
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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.
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My 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.
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I 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.
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There’s a ton of amazing music that’s not getting heard.
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I think whether dance music had exploded in America, I still would’ve been a DJ a long time. This is my first love.
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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.
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I’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
A-TRAK