DJ Vice interviewed Monday, January 24, 2011, while at home in Los Angeles

How’s it going, man, it’s Vice.

What’s up, Vice?

Sorry about that man. Just got home from a flight and it was a little bit delayed.

That’s alright. Where are you today?

I’m back in L.A. L.A.’s home for me. I was just in Vegas last night working. Back home to relax for two nights.

You do that pretty often? Commute back and forth between the two places?

Yeah, every weekend. I’ve been going to Vegas for over six years now. As of now I work Saturday and Sunday nights. Saturday at Tao and Sunday at Lavo

And one Monday a month, I do the Marquee, it’s a new nightclub inside the Cosmopolitan. It’s like a 45-minute flight so it’s not that bad.

Let’s start off at the beginning. I’m sure you’ve answered this question a million times, but fill me in. You started this at a very young age. What initially drew you to the turntables as a youngster?

I started doing it ’92. I was at a wedding and I saw a wedding DJ playing and controlling the crowd with music and I was already a fan of music at a very young age. I was listening to hip-hop real young, like shit, 10 years old, I was listening to hip-hop a lot. When I saw someone control a crowd with music I was like ‘Whoa, that’s crazy.’ It just hit me. I always say it’s the same as when someone saw Jordan play ball for the first time at a young age. See him dunk or see his signature move. That attracts a kid to say ‘I wanna be a basketball player.’ I saw that and a family friend, luckily within that same year, we went to his house and he had turntables so I got to experience it hands-on at a young age.

It’s interesting with the Jordan analogy. When I see you working those turntables, you refer to your laptop and your gear and all of that. It seems like you get into a zone like someone who’s playing a sport. Talk about the process you go through as far as tuning everything else out.

It’s crazy ‘cause it hasn’t changed one bit. Some people are like ‘Don’t you get bored of it?’ Basically it’s the same vibe every night, you kind of hop different places. I’m like ‘No, the day I get bored of it is the day I’m gonna quit.’ It’s so crazy to me, the feeling that I get from controlling people’s emotions and seeing people that are kind of like the person sitting on the side of the room and not really dancing and twenty minutes later with your set elevating, you see that person standing on top of the table dancing. It’s really the high I get off of the crowd and the feeling they give back to me, it just keeps pushing me to keep doing it. That’s why I zone in and keep going for it. I’m always, at the end of the night the security guys are like ‘C’mon, dude, cut it. Stop. Let’s go.’ I wanna keep going.

What’s the biggest distraction you’ve ever had in a gig?

Biggest distraction? That’s a good one. Damn, I’ve never been asked that question. I’m not gonna say, probably everyone would think ‘Ah, it’s the girls.’ To me, it’s crazy, in my life I’ve been surrounded by girls dancing. I think the biggest distraction is seeing someone that’s not really moving. That’s not vibing. I’m not gonna lie, I’ll see someone in the crowd and they’ll give me a thumbs down and I’ll be like ‘What? Like, are you crazy? A thousand other people are raging and you’re giving me a thumbs down?’ Instead of me getting upset, I’m more like ‘Alright, let me get you into this. Let me figure out a way to get you into this.’ I might get off track for a moment, but for instance, this one girl threw a note one time. I was in Milwaukee and this one girl threw a note at the DJ and she was like ‘Really? That’s all you’re gonna give us?’ I was like ‘What?’ Everyone’s partying except for this girl, so I called her up to this DJ booth and I’m like, yo, the natural reaction is like ‘fuck you, just get out of here.’ I was like ‘You know what? Come up to the DJ booth.’ I was like ‘Stand up here for five minutes. Don’t do anything. Just watch.’ She stood there and watched and after the five minutes, she was like ‘Alright, I’m gonna go dance.’ Those kinds of moments, are a distraction and throw me off. I kind of do a little reverse role on them and figure out a way to suck them back into the party. There’s no way around it, there’s gonna be a song that’s gonna  hit you and make you wanna move. If it’s not the song that’s playing and you have to wait two minutes, those two minutes are gonna go by like that and you’re on. You’re gonna have to jump into the party.

There’s definitely a lot of psychology involved in DJing as far as being able to capture collectively what the group wants to hear and when they want to hear it. How do you get to a point where you just know what to play and when to play it to get everyone up and jumping?

Uh, part of it was me not just growing up in night clubs but growing up DJing every type of event you can think of. I DJ’d weddings at an early age. House parties. Senior citizens parties. I’ve always been trained to play to the crowd and adjust my set to what everybody wants. I’m an open format DJ so there’s no restraint to what I play. I’m not just playing house music, I’m not just playing hip-hop. I’m playing what I like. A little bit of everything. I’m a house head, I’m a reggae head, I’m a hip-hop head, I’m a rock head. I like everything. It kind of goes for everyone. Everyone kind of has a little bit of favorite songs from every genre. That’s what really helps me out.

How do you sit down and come up with a good mix and incorporate new tunes? Do you have a ritual where you’re at home and you grab some CDs that you haven’t used before and just start mixing something up?

It’s funny because someone recently asked me ‘What’s your hobby? What do you do?’ I’m like, that’s a great question because I don’t really have a hobby. My hobby is sitting down and doing that. Listening to music and searching blogs and finding unknown music that if I can sneak it into my mix, I can get to play it. That’s really my ritual. Like, right now, when I get home I automatically open my laptop and I jump on some blogs and try and find some new tunes for the week and see what’s out there. Maybe it’s not necessarily a record that no one’s heard. Maybe everyone’s heard it and I’ll try to find an acopella to it so I can incorporate it and change it up with another beat. It’s really always finding a unique way to play a record that everyone knows.

You are a dominant DJ in so many large market areas. What keeps you motivated when you’ve reached the top of your game in the biggest cities in the country?

Automatically now, it’s me working in the studio a lot more and striving to go to all of these markets I already play in the top night clubs in and play my own music. That’s what I’ve been doing within the last six months is really fine tuning my own sound and I’m about to be releasing my own original production. Like you said, a lot of people are like ‘What do you do? You’re already playing in one of the best clubs in Vegas, one of the best clubs in Miami, one of the best clubs in New York? What’s next?’ Automatically you can get bored of it. I wanna go to those markets and make the people move on the dance floor to my own music. That’s the next goal. There’s always another goal with DJing. There’s always something. Even the biggest producers were DJs. Jermaine Dupree, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, the list goes on. All of them DJ’d at some point.

This is the era of the DJ right now with guys like yourself and DJ AM before he passed, really making a mark outside of the club as far as people knowing who you are. Even Daft Punk right now. They’re not really DJs, they’ve gone beyond that and they’re on the radar right now because of the ‘Tron’ soundtrack. Talk about your original music right now and is that rejuvenating you as an artist?

Like you said, the whole DJing culture has really elevated. Just last week I was sitting in a Corona meeting trying to figure out what sound they could put to the commercial and get it right whereas before some 30/40-year-old-plus guy would be sitting behind the desk saying ‘I think this is a good song for the commercial, here you go.’ Now, they’re reaching out to the DJs ‘cause we’re the ones that are defining the sounds with this whole social media era with music being so readily available. We’re the ones that really get to … we’re the music directors basically. Where radio stations had music directors and program directors, that’s us now. That’s us in night clubs and the simple fact that someone being in the night club and shazaming the song we just played and going off and telling everybody ‘That was my favorite song of the night.’ We really are touching thousands and thousands of people every week. It’s really cool ‘cause, like you said, the electronic music is really big right now with Deadmou5 and Daft Punk and all that. It only keeps benefiting the DJ culture ‘cause they’re all looked at as DJs.

What’s your take on celebrity DJs ‘cause they toss their hats in the ring and call themselves DJs where they might not have honed the craft yet? Do you feel like that kind of dilutes what you’ve built all these years?

(laughs) I always try to think of the positive. I’m gonna say that there’s a negative side to it. People think ‘I’m somewhat of a celebrity, let me think of another way to get some money in my pocket. I’ll pick up a turntable and start DJing.’ I’ve seen celebrity DJs where they’re not actually DJing, they’re playing a CD. Those kind of DJs, when you see that, it’s a disgrace, it’s a joke. It’s another way to get a paycheck. On the other hand, there’s tons of celebrity DJs that I know who will hit me up and say ‘Yo, let’s get a practice session. Can we trade some music online this week?’ It goes back and forth. I appreciate it. I love it ‘cause they’re making the culture even bigger and bigger. It’s showing the mainstream that it’s out there. It helps us to move the culture and get us bigger avenues to expose ourselves with the Corona thing or whether it be a T-Mobile commercial or a Blackberry commercial. It helps out the culture and gets the word out there. Please, celebrity DJs, practice (laughs).

I saw the video with Ronny Seikaly and it looked like you guys were having a lot of fun together.

Dude, he’s a DJ. That was so cool. I had met him before we even DJ’d and I saw him DJ and he was clean. He was a DJ. I didn’t even look at him as a basketball player. I was like ‘you’re a real DJ.’ He said ‘Yeah, I’ve been doing this a long time, I just never could go out and DJ. Now that it’s more popular and people accept me, I can go out and DJ.’ Damn, but he’s tall, right?

He’s super tall.

You’ve got the whole Pauly D thing and most DJs just hold their tongues and don’t talk shit ‘cause you don’t want have rivals and bad blood. Going back to what I was saying about celebrities, and I don’t wanna single out Pauly D, but is it an insult to have a guy like that listed as a contemporary on the same level?

I totally know where you’re coming from in saying this. I’ve never hung with Pauly D so I can never speak on people where I’ve never seen their passion for it because people could look at him like ‘He’s a clown. He’s on that cheesy show that millions of people watch.’ He goes out and DJs and makes tons of money. Who knows, though, the days he’s not out doing that, he might be at home practicing five, six hours and really working on his craft. I really think that there is a good amount of DJs out there in the celebrity world that are practicing like they could do this as a profession. It’s the same way that back in the day kids would pick up the guitar and say ‘I wanna play guitar.’ Everyone’s picking up turntables now and trying to learn it. I just hope they’re doing it for the right reasons. I don’t wanna sound like the old school DJ, like ‘Gotta keep it real and get vinyl.’ Times change and we move with the times and celebrity DJs come around and hopefully they honor the craft the way it’s supposed to be honored.

Talk about that equipment. Obviously you don’t have a big pile of records. You evolved as a musician to different types of equipment. Tell me what you use now.

DJ AM was the one who jumped on Serato before me. He was telling me ‘Dude, you gotta get on this. Forget carrying all our records. We’ve done it too long.’ At first I was hesitant to switch. I was like ‘I don’t wanna be on a laptop. That’s not real. We’ve got all our records. We’ve spent so many years collecting this.’ You know, I thought another analogy. Like when e-mails came out, people were like ‘I don’t wanna write an e-mail, I’ll still mail it and send it.’ You’ve gotta move with the times. I switched over to my laptop and I’m on Serato. I still have my records. I’m in my studio looking at them all. I still have tons of records everywhere. But, in the times of traveling and having access to my whole music library on the fly. It’s the only way to go. That’s the best way to do it. Now that I’m doing it, my back’s happier and I’m happier with lighter traveling.

Do you have issues with the computer crashing when you don’t want it to crash?

I think it’s getting a lot more solid. One big plus for me is I use the mike when I’m in the club. The last time it did crash, I turned it into a whole intro to the show. Like ‘Alright, you guys aren’t partying hard enough yet. Hold on.’ At the same time I’m restarting my computer and booting it back up. It was funny because someone was like ‘Are you serious? You just rebooted your computer and loaded up the song and got it ready and talked to the crowd the whole time?’ I was like ‘You’ve gotta be able to go with whatever happens to you and go with it.’

I was at a film premiere recently and the guy’s showing it on a projector with a laptop using Premiere Pro and it crashes twice and both times he’s gotta reboot his computer and it takes like 20 minutes and that’s the negative to evolving with the times. You can’t  help but think, 30 years ago, you had a reel and you just flipped on the projector. You can still have problems though.

Even with this crashing, I always try to have at least a CD player on the side with a backup CD. I don’t even carry an extra laptop. I guess it could go bad, but I keep my finger’s crossed.

When you’re in a mix and you look out and see masses of bodies in the palm of your hand, is this what you envisioned for yourself when you started back in the day?

No. I started at 12, 13 years old so I didn’t know what I was doing really. I kind of went along with the times. I remember working … of course, everyone starts off DJing for free and then I’d get 60 bucks just to buy new records for the night and then it would be, ‘Now, I’m getting 100 bucks just to buy more records for the night.’ It just came along. Now, it’s cool because when I get up to DJ now, I always go on at the peak time. The crowd’s already there, they’re ready to go. I’m spoiled in the sense now, I don’t even have to build the night. I just get to get on right when it’s ready to go and take it at a hundred percent and go from there.

How do you stay on point night in and night out ‘cause there’s gotta be some nights where you’re like ‘I don’t wanna do this,’ but you can’t do that.

Yeah. It’s crazy ‘cause sometimes I go to work and I’m drained and I’m not into it and right when I get into it, it takes me a few minutes to kick into gear. I’m just like ‘I’m in the zone.’ I wanna keep playing. I wanna keep DJing. It is hard ‘cause you know you gotta get up again and go to the next city and it’s nonstop. It’s a tour that never ends ‘cause there’s always gonna be a party. It really is me realizing that it could be a lot worse. I’ve never had a job in my life. This is what I started as a kid and I’ve never stopped. I’ve never worked at a retail store. I just keep all those thoughts in my head and know that I got a good thing going.

You seem like a laid back, easy going guy. Does that help in this field ‘cause I imagine this could be a very stressful gig if you were a high strung individual.

Oh yeah, dude. For sure. I always tell my friends ‘You have to have a lot of patience.’ For instance, this past weekend I was DJing at Sundance and the stage became the party. Everyone was on stage next to me bumping me and pushing me around. There’s celebrities up there so you can’t really tell them to get out of the way. I’ve just learned to work with my environment so I started loving it. I started looking around thinking ‘How many other DJs would love this with people bumping into them?’ I just have that patience within and deal with it the way anyone else would deal with a high stressful job. Just turn it into a positive.

Not everybody gets to do something they absolutely, unequivocally love. Talk about being able to do something that you crave. That doesn’t happen that often.

No it doesn’t. It’s crazy ‘cause I don’t understand doing something other than what I love ‘cause I’ve never had a job. I’ve never worked at a department store of delivered pizzas. I don’t know anything else. It’s really a one in a million thing for me. I don’t know anything else to compare it to. I’m always happy to go out and DJ. This week I’m home for two days. I play in Hollywood and New York again and then Washington, D.C. I always look forward to going to cities ‘cause every time I’m there, it’s a new thing.

I’ve heard you say the party never ends. When do you find time to chill or does that make you uncomfortable?

Monday’s and Tuesday’s I’m usually back in L.A. and my chill time is me relaxing and I also like getting in the studio. That’s my away zone. It’s like being an artist saying ‘Let me just paint my own picture.’ When I’m DJing, of course, I’m painting a picture that everyone else wants to hear. I like that too but I want to paint a picture that everyone’s gonna like. When I’m in my studio I can zone out and make any type of music that I wanna make. So it still revolves around music. It’s not like I get away and I go ski or snowboard. I don’t know what the average person does. They ride a bike or something. I don’t do any of that.

I chase my kids around.

I have a 12-year-old son too so that keeps me occupied. I go to his basketball games when I’m home.

How old are you?

I’m 32.

I’m 35 so we’re around the same age group but you have a 12-year-old but my oldest is only four so I’m still in that young stage.

I’m way ahead of you. I’m a few years younger than you but I started early (laughs). Kept me balanced though so it’s a good thing.

Are you doing any producing projects?

Yeah. I’m still remixing and putting out my own bootlegs. I wanna come out with my original production and use the hookups I have through being around a lot of artists and night life and stuff like that and come up with my original single. I’m hoping by the end of March I’ll have my own single out. That’s the set thing. I don’t have the exact date but it’s the end of March we’re looking at. I don’t wanna give away too much (laughs).

Vice, I appreciate you giving me a call.

Yeah. If anything comes up you can feel free to email me.

Cool, man.

Thank you, man.

Thanks, Vice.

Take care.