How did you get started?
-My music career began in 1994. I was booking shows in high school and got involved in the rave circuit when I went to college. I started DJ'ing shortly after that in 1995 and started playing out in 1996. Since then I've been doing shows, the record label and a bunch of other stuff.
You're associated with various genres. What did you start with?
-Back then, I had originally started out with house and breaks, breaks were extremely popular in New England. In the mid-90s, Icey was a huge thing and DJ Dan were primarily breaks with just a little bit of house. There were a lot of other DJs in Connecticut and Boston playing breaks at the time.
Who were your influences?
-It was mostly the local circuit. When I was buying stuff… so many of the records I would buy were one-hit wonders. A lot of the stuff Icey put out on Zone; all of the artists on Zone at the time were big influences with the local break guys. Like many DJs at the time, I was a collector of almost everything that came out on Moonshine. I became friends with the Caffeine guys back then and a lot of their stuff was breaks, acid breaks or progressive trance. A lot of stuff on the Smile label had a lot of break influence to it.
Can you narrow your style down to a few genres, or would you consider yourself very versatile?
-My music style now is really dependent on the kind of event I'm playing. Because I've been performing for so long, I often enjoy the variety of the different types of shows I play. I easily get bored; I like diversity and the evolution of the culture in al forms. A lot of artists find their niche by not necessarily having one. I find myself to be a cultivator of a lot of types of sounds because I dig for stuff I consider to be evolving. I consider myself to be a pretty passionate musician, whether it's a tech house set or an opening support set for Above & Beyond or Fedde Le Grand or one of those types of shows where you have to play something that would be more appropriate for the global house crowd or the Steez Promo events where I'm playing electro house bangers, moombahton or trap, or whether I'm doing a smaller event where I can't necessarily play huge room tracks but can still stay true to your different styles. I'm fortunate to be able to play a variety of shows and I'm not nailed down to anything really. My energy reflects you; it appropriately reflects the type of show and energy that's desired for the night.
Being from the New England area all along, how would you say the electronic music scene has changed from when you started to now?
-Obviously back then it was just all the underground rave circuit. When I started, there wasn't really email and there wasn't social media. Everything was word-of-mouth and print material. That evolved as everything slowly became more popular and began to go more mainstream and new flow over the years. There would be events with several thousand people at them, then things would die off again and a lot of promoters would struggle. I don't know what the final turning point was, but there was a lot more potential for success on a wide variety of levels and the networks got much more expansive. At the same time, there was a lot more segregation and a lot more compartmentalized events because the crowd was no longer blended. There are so many different opportunities now that people can really pick and choose rather than just be subjective to one kind of option. If you're trying to find what you want, you can definitely find it. The crowd is split up though, and I think that's one of the biggest changes. Everything used to be unified; I'm not very sure how to label it. It's separated almost like microcosms. The ragers are always separate from the ravers. The house heads are almost hardly ever blended with the big bass music fans. Of course there's always going to be a crossover, but it used to be one event on the same night with everybody.
Would you say anything has remained the same over the years?
-People are always complaining about [music] changing, but I still see thousands of people all the time who are just as passionate about music now as I was when I was first starting to go out before getting involved in the business side of things. It's music, it's culture, it's wild, it's evolving. The music might [change] but the experience of connection to a community and culture of music is always going to exist on some level. That's the foundation of all of this. I think that's always going to be a staple within the culture.
What inspired you to start Columns Of Knowledge?
-Columns Of Knowledge is an acronym, it was something I was scribbling on a textbook cover in high school and it was the company I started doing band work under. I started going to my first couple of really big parties with DJs and not six-piece bands where the bass partner shows up late or some other kind of drama. I'd rather have a more simple situation to work with. I wanted to bring what I was experiencing at dirty Brooklyn warehouse raves with Frankie Bones headlining. At that time, the biggest things in New England were Primary parties. I wanted to take all of that and bring that kind of energy to Connecticut. The acronym stands for "continuous oddity languishing under meaningful neurotic symptoms often found knowing nothing or with little else doing good everywhere."
What is a third thing, unrelated to music skills, that a DJ/producer needs?
-From my experience dealing and communicating with artists on every level - whether it's on my own label, Satellite EDM, or Steez Promo - I can almost sense a lot of things about some of these people where I feel like they're either getting it or they're missing the boat. I feel like some of the most successful artists are the ones who can bridge the gap between all areas. Someone wants to be successful musically should have some awareness of the business side of things. They should have an approachability about them so they can engage with their fans, the people who enjoy what they're doing. Being savvy and aware of trends not only in music and being in touch with yourself as a musician is a paramount for everything. Social media is equally important, especially to get your art to your audience; people aren't randomly going to show up to discover you… that really doesn't just happen. You need to project yourself. There's tons of talent I come across every week and I've never seen any of their stuff advertised; there are tons of great musicians and producers who don't have anybody pushing them and you'll never see them on a flyer. If you have talent, you network properly and your music's good enough, one of those doors you knock on is going to open, and when it does, you need to be ready for it and step through with the game that's going to do you service. You need to be consistent with it; one of the things artists lack is consistency. People think because they've made three hit songs or got something on a particular label, they can then just sit back. That's not the way it works, as I've seen numerous headliners over the past couple of years come through and haven't put anything out in a while. You need to continually stay involved and put out new material for your fans.
What's your role with Steez Promo?
-My relationship with Evan [Weinstein] began in 2000, which was when we first had a connection. About a year ago, last December, he wanted a new manager for his New England market. They do talent buys and book tours and specific acts through different agencies. They pick up a tour and put it in seven different cities for quality events up and down the Northeast. I kind of acted as a consultant for a variety of different talent buyers even though I don't throw my own events full-time anymore. My title now is the regional manager for New England and upstate New York, which started with events in Hartford and Worcester and rapidly evolved to do events in Wallingford. Now we have events in Providence, Boston, Revere, and Worcester, and are branching out to Albany as well. Basically my role is building networks, working with artists and promoters in the regions we're doing events, managing street teams, coordinating things with venues, sometimes working with tour managers. I'm participating in events that remind me of why I first started all of this: the excitement, the energy and huge crowds coming out for music. They're not all-night raves, but people are coming out specifically for the music and it's refreshing. It's a great team to be a part of and I feel like it's a great opportunity to contribute my experience to the direction it's going in.
Is there something you haven't done yet that you hope to do in your music career?
-Honestly, I need to produce more. My biggest thing this year is my record label - it's getting a lot of support and attention which is great - and being able to be on the road more. It's cliche, but that comes with getting the tracks out there, getting more hype behind your name with the music people recognize. It's kind of essential to being an artist and not just another DJ.
What do you have coming up?
-Steez Promo has quite a calendar coming together for the next several months. We're hosting the first Mega New England in Massachusetts on February 23 at the Wonderland Ballroom - where we just hosted Doctor P - with a lineup including Cookie Monsta, FuntCase, ETC! ETC!, Liquid Stranger, Mayhem, The Killabits, CRNKN, and more. I'm also playing this with a bunch of locals: Mike Skillz, Soappy, Mike Savant, Voltran. It's going to be absolutely ridiculous. We also have a Modestep show coming up at Royale Boston on March 31 and Dirtyphonics also at Royale on May 8. We're doing the Excision dates in Albany on March 12 and Connecticut on March 13. For the record label, we have a lot of new releases coming out; I'm signing a bunch of new things to be released between February and April. Martin Dhamen from the Netherlands just gave us another progressive house smasher called "Talking Trash." I'm working on developing stronger alliances with all the labels and artists; it's very much a grassroots endeavor because when [Satellite] was a brick-and-mortar [record] store on Mass Ave. in Boston, everybody knew it. While it sort of originated in New York, the Boston branch was like the hub for a lot of things. It closed down years ago, but Satellite relaunched as a digital download store. Although we don't have as much stuff as iTunes or Beatport its out, we still have thousands of releases per week. To be involved on the ground level of one of the premiere independent electronic music download stores in the country is pretty exciting. There's going to be a lot more coming up with that project throughout the year. I feel very fortunate to be in the position I am, being able to contribute to the culture by being a performer, producer and promoter, working with some of the best talent in the world and being part of something that brings the music to the people.