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-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.
More A-Trak Quotes
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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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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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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.
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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.
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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 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 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.
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Right now it feels like we’re playing a role, like me and a couple of my friends, in where popular culture is going. That’s a very rare thing in a person’s life to be able to be a part of that. It’s a responsibility I take seriously.
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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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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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A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
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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.
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When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.
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I’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
A-TRAK