Tiesto- I Am A Rockstar
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William Conn from Las Vegas nightclub The Joint at Hard Rock praised Tiesto for being ‘our classic rock growing up’, in the official trailer for Tiesto’s new In The Booth series, this week declaring “He is your Led Zeppelin. He is your Bon Jovi. He is your U2.”
Speaking to the New York Times the same week, the Dutch trance-pop icon coincidentally agreed.
“DJs are the new rock stars,” he decreed, “We’ve been saying it for years, but now you can really see it.” http://nyti.ms/AnyYS8
Christopher Lawrence’s Australian Error (Interview)
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Picking up numerous ‘Best American DJ’ awards in the middle of the last decade, Christopher Lawrence sparked surprise when he moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2008, just as America’s electronic music scene finally started taking off.
Returning last year, he admitted missing Melbourne’s coffee (‘probably the best in the world- the coffee in California is horrible’) though was otherwise happy to be back. One year on, he remains similarly grateful.
“Moving to Australia was an epic ‘Fail’. It was a bad career move as I was living fourteen hours away from my biggest market,” he admits.
“Touring was a disaster when I was based in Melbourne. I was never home and that really messed with my family. Moving back to Los Angeles was the best thing I ever did.”
As well as continually touring the world spinning his preferred flavour of progressive pumping trance, he’s also continuing to develop his label Pharmacy Music, through which he’s just launched a new compilation series.
Marketed with the catchphrase ‘You’ll never be embarrassed to admit that you like our trance’, the series offers ‘solid pumping trance designed for the dance floor’, though as the catchphrase indicates, not just any dance floor.
“We don’t care about superstar DJs and we don’t make cheesy music videos,” its accompany press release insists, “but we will rock you so hard that your teeth will chatter.”
Chatting to Skufff today, Christopher admits he’s far from impressed with the majority of his superstar DJ peers.
“The pop-dance scene is a pretty sad state of affairs and the worst part is that most of the DJs are pandering to the lowest common denominator,” he complains.
“All the genres have merged into one sound. You can go to any club or festival, close your eyes and you can’t tell the difference from one DJ to the next. They all sound the same and play the same tracks.”
“The lines have been blurred between he genres and everyone is playing the same trance-electro-dubstep-house sound,” he continues.
“It has made it difficult in some respects because people no longer go out to be blown away on the dance floor by music they have never heard before.
Instead, they want to hear all their favorite songs and if the DJ doesn’t play the hits they feel disappointed.”
Chris’ assessment of the blandness of America’s pop-dance favourites matches the even blunter views of British tech-house DJ Steve Lawler who, chatting to the Miami New Times this week, is equally frank (and reportedly ‘disgusted’).
“This electro-pop-dance that all the R&B artists are jumping on is the worst music I have ever heard in my whole life — cheap, no soul, no meaning,” Lawler snorts. “[It's] only made to make money.” (http://bit.ly/vRByzv )
Judge Jules Leaves Radio 1 to Become a Lawyer
Radio 1 announced this week that Judge Jules, Gilles Peterson, Kissy Sell Out, Fabio & Grooverider will be leaving the hugely powerful British station in April, to be replaced by drum & bass/ hip hop dubstep stars Skream & Benga, Charlie Sloth. Toddla T and Friction.
While Gilles Peterson said he’s looking to switch to sister BBC channels, Jules announced he’s becoming an entertainment lawyer, in addition to maintaining his globe-trotting DJing career.
“On the quiet, I’ve been re-training and re-qualifying as a lawyer over a five year period, so the run-up and the planning for this has been going on for ages,” Jules told Skrufff. “I always knew it was my long-term alternative career.”
He also stressed he has no plans to scale back his DJing activities, instead merging the two new roles to compliment each other.
“I’m not going to be working for any old firm- it’ll be for (arguably) the number music and entertainment firm in the UK, Sheridans,” he explained. “I don’t start for a year, and will continue DJing once I do so, with their blessing.”
“Being less tied-down to the UK will also allow much more travelling than I’ve done before, and I’ll continue to focus on my weekly syndicated radio show, ‘The global warm up’, which goes out on many stations across the globe,” Jules added.
Announcing the changes Ben Cooper, Controller of Radio 1, paid tribute to the departing DJs’ hard work and commitment to music’.
‘‘It’s important that Radio 1 continues to develop new talent and the station keeps evolving for our young listeners,” he added, “These changes to our evening schedule will strengthen the range and depth of the specialist music offering on the network.’’
Radio 1 veteran presenter Pete Tong remains at the station, holding on to his Friday night 9-11pm slot.
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff
DJ Travel Tales: Jody Wisternoff (Way Out West) (interview)
“I try to avoid drinking too much vodka during DJ trips, but I rarely succeed.”
Teaming up with fellow Bristollian Nick Warren to form progressive house pioneers Way Out West in 1994, then teenage prodigy Jody Wisternoff rapidly established himself as one of the first crossover stars of dance music, both via Way Out West’s commercial success and his own thriving DJing career. 17 years later, he’s happily married and a Dad of two, though as he’s the first to admit, he’s not quite settled down.
“Recently in Poland, I arrived at the airport the morning after the show and realised I was wearing the promoter’s trousers. I still have no idea how this happened.”
My Big Break: Muzarco: Us Versus the World (interview)
Specialising in producing deliciously crunchy, progressive flavoured tech-house, Muzarco is one of the most exciting producers to have emerged from Israel in recent years, releasing a string of guaranteed floor fillers on equally exciting Israeli label Punch.
Chatting to Skrufff this week about his musical journey he’s keen to pay tribute to the hotly tipped Tel Avid indie . . .
