An insight into the next iTunes?

Absolutepunk, an alternative music news web site, recently posted an interview with Bandcamp founder Ethan Diamond.

Bandcamp is an emerging digital music distribution service that offers several features that iTunes and AmazonMP3 do not, most notably:

- Full track previews for all songs.
- The ability for a consumer to set their own price for music downloads.
- The option to download files in MP3, FLAC, OGG, ACC, or Apple Lossless formats.

I bought my first album from Bandcamp two weeks ago; Benn Jordan's Pale Blue Dot, and the payment experience was seamless through PayPal.

Not many electronic artists have embraced Bandcamp for their digital sales, but it's definitely a service to keep an eye out for in the future.

DJNY #4: Wayde Rafnel

Every local DJ's career story is born from humble beginnings, turning into something that has the potential to become so much more. 

Like many others in New York's emergent scene, Wayde Rafnel is among the wave of homegrown talent bringing fresh ideas and perspectives to electronic dance music.

Wayde has his sights set on an eventful second half of 2010: one which will include revamping the traditional mix podcast format, raising the bar for the quality of demo compilations, and most importantly playing great sets.

While this set of goals may appear lofty, it can be done.  And here's Wayde plans to make it all come together...

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From paradise to the country...and maybe back

Binarysound: You were born in Costa Mesa, California. What age did you move over to Pennsylvania and where are you in that state right now? 

Wayde Rafnel: Right now I live in the Poconos which is in the middle of nowhere. I moved here when I was about 6 or 7-years-old, because my Mom lived here when she was my age and then moved out west before she met my Dad. We then decided to move back here to be closer to family. 

BSound: So you were living in the Poconos before you got into DJing and producing? 

WR: Oh yea, by far. 

BSound: What age were you and where did you become exposed to electronic dance music? 

WR: I started playing guitar when I was 15-years-old and I was really influenced by heavy metal and anything that sounded aggressive. I fell into that and did that for a while, but the first ever trance song I heard was on Grand Theft Auto 3 on one of the in-game radio stations. The song was called "Neo (The One)" by Slyder and I just fell in love with it. I thought to myself: "wow this is amazing...what is this?". I'd say I was about 17 or 18 at this point. 

BSound: Costa Mesa is about an hour away from Los Angeles, one of the biggest clubbing cities in the United States. Although your current location is only two and a half hours away from New York City, how difficult was it to get started as a DJ in a rural area like where you live? 

WR: It was really hard. When I first got into this and started producing, I figured that I needed to DJ while I was making tracks. So I thought I'd try to take my talents to a club around here, but I found out pretty fast that they don't play anything EDM-related.

I then started going to shows in New York and started talking to a couple of the locals who are bigger there, like Brad Miller and Marcello (DJ Eco), and they helped me out a lot. They kind of guided me on the right path and were very supportive of what I was doing.

BSound: So there's no local scene for you to play a show or a house party in Pennsylvania? 

WR: When I first started DJing I tried to do house parties, but even before I went to New York to start playing shows I messaged a bunch of fraternities around here and told them "you should do a house night or a progressive night, and I'll DJ for you if you give me some free drinks or whatever". I just wanted to get my name out there, but all of them were like "we just wanna hear rap".

Reinventing the podcast, the demo compilation, and a DJ's fashion choices?

BSound: When you first set out to make your podcast, Uplift, how did you want to market it differently from the hundreds of other trance podcasts out there? 

WR: I had a podcast before Uplift called At Sunset and it was good, but it failed because my hosting service just [shut down?] and I couldn't recover the old shows. At that time I thought to myself why I wasn't getting the listener base that I wanted and how I could make a podcast better. 

So I decided to start a whole new podcast and give it a better title that would draw people in. That's the whole thing I found out about marketing: it's almost like you have to make a brand for yourself and give people a reason to come. What I'm planning to do more of on the show are updates on local events, artist interviews, and showcasing new talent. Whenever someone comes to me and says they just started DJing and need some help I'll ask them if they have a guest mix and try to incorporate that onto the show.

I'm also doing more quality versus quantity episodes. I used to do one episode a week every Wednesday, but now I do one every two weeks since I'm searching for the perfect track selection rather than just playing the top 20 at the moment. 

BSound: How has the reaction been so far for Uplift? 

WR: It's been way better than the other one and I think some of that has to do with the title, since you know what the show is about right away. I've gotten at least double the traffic on it and it's been received well. I'm pretty excited about it. 

BSound: When talking about uplifting trance online, I often read how people think the genre is too generic and people are no longer innovating with their productions. What's your stance on this sentiment? 

WR: I don't think it's generic. A lot of people say it is, but I think the problem is that a lot of people still want something that sounds similar to what it was five years ago. If you go to any musical genre, you'll find that people always say "oh it isn't the same anymore". It's almost like people are holding onto that memory but aren't willing to create something new. 

But guys like Simon Patterson- to me that's a new sound, like that techy drive with some uplifting elements in the middle. When I first heard his style I was floored. Guys like DJ Eco, Jaytech, Breakfast, Oliver P, Marcus Schossow, and Jorn van Deynhoven are also making unique sounds where you know it's them when you hear it. It's a very wide range of sound in the genre, and I think the people who say it's generic are listening to more of the top 20 stuff and aren't diversifying themselves enough. 

BSound: What upcoming tracks do you have coming out? 

WR: I have a two song EP coming out on Couture, but I'm not sure of the exact release date yet. It's a more tech-trance label and the main track on the EP is called "Struggle", and it's really odd how that track came together. I've written so many tracks and sent them to different labels, but I usually get the response of "oh well it's really good, but whatever". 

The idea behind "Struggle" originated when I watched The Pursuit of Happyness, and that movie was so inspiring to me because producing trance music is what I love to do. I wrote the song and gave it that name because the sound feels like you want something more. I was totally inspired by the fact that I feel like I struggle and I'm never going to get anywhere with a song, but it's weird because now it got signed to a label. It's a really dark track with three parts to it and people who have heard the track already have said that it's interesting. 

The other song is called "Costa Mesa". I've always wanted to write a track with that title but they were never good enough. When I finished the first song on the EP, Couture asked me for another track and I was working on this one and decided to finish it up. It's more of an uplifting track, similar to Sean Tyas' "Melbourne": a song that has pads and piano. 

BSound: How long have you been working on both of these songs? 

WR: "Struggle" came out pretty quick because the ideas really flowed together and I had the basis of the song together within a couple weeks. "Costa Mesa" was a lot faster than that because I felt I was on a deadline and I wanted to have something good so I finished that one in about a week. The total process for "Struggle" took me about a solid month. 

BSound: On your last episode of Uplift, you played a half hour mix of an upcoming demo compilation that you are putting out called "Costa Mesa". What's the story behind this release? 

WR: A lot of people ask me when I'm playing a gig if I have a demo mix, and I feel like every artist in the scene will take a one hour mix and burn it to a CD, write on it on sharpie, and then hand it to people. But the problem is those people are getting a million other CD's like that with sharpie on them. So I felt that I really wanted to make a demo mix that is almost like my own version of A State of Trance or In Search of Sunrise, which contained tracks that I really identify with and something that really showcases what I want to sound like in my feelings. 

But I wanted to do it professionally by getting nice CD labels and artwork. I'm not going to sell it because of course that's illegal, but I'm planning to give it away when I have a gig. It'll be a great demo and it's something people can enjoy and remember more since they have more of a package rather than just a blank-labeled CDR.

The compilation is called "Costa Mesa" because that is where I want to move back to and be, and every single track on there has something to do with that location. About half the tracks on both CD's (it's a two disc thing), are edited or original. On my latest podcast I did a 30 minute preview of the first disc and it's way laid back and definitely like a summer beach mix. Disc two is solid trance but it definitely has its summery sounds and uplifting elements.

Some tracks off of the Costa Mesa compilation are:

Luigi Lusini - Who We Are (Wayde Rafnel Costa Mesa Intro Edit)

Answer 42 - Pink Houses (Wayde Rafnel Dub/Vocal Piano Edit)

Oceania Pres Corndonnier - Squares in Boxes (Suncatcher Remix)

Velvetine - Safe (Wherever You Are) (Rank 1 Remix)

Greg Downey - Global Code (Original Mix)

Oliver P - Philadelphia (Wayde Rafnel Southern California Edit) 

BSound: In most of the photos I've seen of you DJing, you wear plain clothes like a solid black or white T-shirt. How would you describe your fashion choice? I though it looked a lot different than what everyone else wears when they're behind the decks… 

WR: [Laughs] I have 20 white t-shirts and that's pretty much all I wear. It's just my style: jeans and a white t-shirt. I guess it's just how I like to look- something laid back because the button downs and flamboyant shirts are cool and stuff, but it's something that sets me apart and may make me look more approachable. When I think about it I don't like to put a front on or a fake image- if you wear a white t-shirt and jeans I feel people are more accepting of you way more than if you try to look like something you're not. 

BSound: Can you tell us what people can expect from you this Friday with Brad Miller and Mike Saint-Jules at Santos Party House? 

WR: I'm really excited for this show. I'm going to be playing more laid back stuff to give people another taste of what I can do. A lot of people right now know me for playing 140 bpm straight driving trance, but I'm on opening duties and I want to show people that I can play the progressive trance stuff without it sounding the same. I want to show people that you can play summer themed music in a club and people will love it.  

[Image credit: Nickki Figurski, Santiago Maiza]

DJNY #3: Lorant Duzgun

Any musician can compose music to release, but without the backing of a record label who can provide professional assistance and marketing, their chances of commercial success are reduced.

Enter Lorant Duzgun, a New York DJ and producer and founder of the newly-launched Royal Advisor Records, an electro-focused label that is a home for an eclectic variety of sounds from local artists. 

RAR, which kicked off their live show schedule with a recent launch party in Manhattan at Home Sweet Home on 131 Chrystie Street, will be showcasing their talents and new releases at the venue on every last Sunday of the month.

Here's the inside story on the beginnings of RAR- a mix of luck, passion, and friendship leading to bigger things.

Around town…

Binarysound: Can you tell us about your background and how you became interested in electronic dance music?
 

Lorant Duzgun: I started DJing in high school and then I got myself a fake ID and started going to all the big New York City clubs like Twilo and Vinyl.  Shortly after that, I was introduced to Danny Tenaglia by my friend Geoff Gains while I was in the beginning stages of my career so that was obviously inspirational.

Later on I began working for Twisted Records which is a pretty significant label as far as the "tribal" genre of dance music goes.  I first got into music production when I was working for Twisted by doing a remix of "The Hook" by Geoff Gains. After that, DJing took a backseat to production for a while because I wanted to learn music composition and get my head around some of the software out there.

A record label was something I always wanted to do but there needs to be a right time to start something like that. I met SAMN two years ago and we started working on some demos and I from there on in the label became a work in progress. I then started working with Monique-Renee (Sappho's Journey) and given that these are two very talented people, I thought I might as well start putting out the stuff we were working on.

BSound: So that's where the idea for the label come from- trying to find an outlet to release these demos?
 

LD: Yea it was actually about 5-6 years ago that I wanted to launch a record label but I wasn't experienced enough. After meeting SAMN and Sappho's Journey it just seemed like the right timing to get it off the ground.  

BSound: Where did you meet them?
 

LD: SAMN I met through a mutual friend of mine. With Sappho's Journey, we knew each other back at the time when we worked at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Then we lost touch and I ran into her on the street a little over a year ago and I told her "we used to talk about making music so lets finally do it". So then she came over one day to see if we could work on something together and it was an instant musical bond [laughs].

A label is born…

BSound: Where did you come up with the name 'Royal Advisor' for your label?

LD: There are two answers to that. One of them is that it just came to me and the other answer is that I'm a big Queen fan. Freddy Mercury is my idol, but I didn't want name it something like it 'Queen Records'. I just liked the whole concept that Queen had to their stuff like "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races". They were kind of like an indirect inspiration. 

BSound: In today's music industry, record sales seem to be shifting away from physical formats to digital stores like Beatport and iTunes. How did that transition affect you in your experiences of starting up RAR?

LD: It's much easier as far as costs go because you don't have to print vinyl and CD's. The upside is that you save a lot of money by not having to do that. But the downside of it is that many, many others are doing the same thing at the same time. There are a lot of independent labels going up at once, so there's a lot of competition. But in terms of getting a label off the ground it's a lot easier because you only need a web site, distributor, and some talented artists.

BSound: Can you describe the styles of the artists on RAR?

LD: Both of them are very good songwriters. They have their own styles and that's not something that comes by every day. They both have definite but separate visions, like Samn is really into the early R&B nu-jack swing stuff, and he wants to reinvent that genre and bring it into 2010. With his voice especially, it's working out and it makes sense for him to do that and I think he's doing a good job at it. He comes to me with what he wants and shows me his inspirations and we take it from there. 

As far as Sappho's Journey goes, she's very into Depeche Mode and Radiohead and the darker electronic sounds. She also has a very definite vision- she wants each of her EP's or albums to be a concept from beginning to end. And with her EP that recently came out, Venerate, I think we've succeeded in that sense as far a concept from the first song to the last. 

The concept behind the EP is the process of discovering oneself whether it's through love, struggle, or loneliness.  Sappho's Journey found the perfect word for her EP- Venerate, which means to have the utmost respect for something or to adore it a Godly fashion. I think she means to say we owe it to ourselves to feel that way about who we are after all the things we have to put up with in life.

Bsound: On RAR's web site, there's a fourth artist- Forest Families, which looks interesting based on the concept artwork you have posted for them. What's the deal with this artist?

LD: Forest Families is a new artist from New Zealand. We have never met in person and that's one of the good things about the digital age, where you can reach out to people like that. Their tracks are not ready to be released but hopefully by the end of the summer.

BSound: Where do you draw your influences from in your songs?

LD: I think it's kind of a gut feeling. When I sat down to create "Hunter" I wanted to make it be like a roller-coaster ride. It's like 'stuff all you can in there and see where it goes'. As I was finishing it I thought about it and thought 'maybe this has a lot going on in it', but that is what I wanted. 

With my next single, "The History of Love", I wanted that to be very emotional while keeping in sync with a minimal tech-house vibe. It has a lot of strings that come in near the end. It's a very minimal track that's not like "Hunter" at all, in the sense that it builds up and then fades out. 

              [Sappho's Journey performing at RAR's launch party on Feb. 23]

BSound: Are there any upcoming shows or releases that RAR is going to be putting out?

LD: At the end of this month on the 28^th we're back at Home Sweet Home in Manhattan, where we had our launch party. This show is going to be Sappho's Journey Venerate EP release show where she's going to be performing all the songs from that record. 

I'm also going to release my own EP in May- The History of Love,  which contains six original songs including collaborations with famed Nuyorican poet Emanuel Xavier, French pop artist O-Red, and SAMN in addition to my current tracks "Hunter" and "The History of Love".
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Tracks from Royal Advisor Records artists can be purchased at iTunes, Beatport, Traxsource, Junodownload, TrackItDown, and other digital music stores.

[Image credit: Jason Whitehead, Ron Porto]

DJNY #2: DJ Eco

An architect by day, a college student by night, and a DJ by even later night; it's never a dull moment for Marcello Pacheco (aka DJ Eco), a New Jersey native and one of electronic dance music's brightest up-and-coming producers.

His career has been rising to new levels in 2010 with his recent hits "And We Flew Away" and "Staring At The Sea" getting countless plays from some of the top DJ's around the globe.

On April 2 at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC, Eco will play alongside such trance legends as Armin Van Buuren and Rank 1 at his biggest show yet- A State Of Trance 450.

But what's the story behind all of his great tunes and club performances? Here's what he had to say...

In The Studio…

Binarysound: When did you get into the production game and what programs were you using when you first started out? 

DJ Eco: I started when I was about 14 using Fruity Loops and I was doing really, really basic stuff. The influences I had at the time were the local Webster Hall trance CD and some of the rave guys like DJ Micro and DJ Mind-X. I actually would make a good 20 or 25 tracks and put them on a CD and sell them for $5 to kids at my high school. I sold about 20-30 CD's that way.  

BSound: What did those tracks on those CD's sound like compared to your recent work? 

Eco: I was finding my way with different sounds on Fruity Loops and I was trying to emulate as much as possible the kind of early Tiesto stuff I was listening to. It was definitely ten steps down from what I'm capable of now, but I can see some resemblance. I was very interested in putting these intricate melodies together and that was the start and aim of my music.

I also was definitely interested in harder trance and hardstyle. A lot of my earlier productions were really intense- like 145bpm, which was similar to guys like Cosmic Gate, DJ Isaac, etc., early on. So my first stepping stones were with that. 

Bsound: With your current productions, how do you sit down and think 'this is the melody I'm going to write for this song'? 

Eco: I'm actually a lot different than most producers because I'm very busy- I have a job and I also go to school, so I have really little time. A lot of my writing is done on my laptop in a bus or subway going somewhere, so the basic barebones melody writing is done in those places.

So whatever happens or influences me at those moments I put it down to sound then I go back home and refine that later in the studio and put it all together in terms of making a coherent song. It's a little bit of everyday inspiration, and kind of cliché, but I write it them in weird places.  

Bsound: So New York City is an inspiration in your songwriting? 

Eco: Yea. You can hear that some songs are sadder and others are really happy depending on something I see that day, some place I'm at, or something I've overheard in a park. The different places where I put it together influence what comes out as far as putting the melodies on the computer. 

Bsound: Your released your latest production- "Staring At The Sea", under a 'Pacheco' moniker. What's the deal with this new name? 

Eco: It's another name I'm currently developing with Flashover Recordings. It's for releasing material on other labels for legal reasons but I'm also trying to do something different and push the boundaries a little bit more compared to some of my other work. 

You can notice, especially in "Staring At The Sea", that it's really weird, or at least that's some of the feedback I get from people who have heard it. Like people's first reactions to hearing it were "oh what are all these little sounds? I can't keep track of what's going on". I'm really trying with that song and another song called "Dancing Under Streetlights" that's coming out under that moniker to do something different, even though that's my general approach to songwriting. But I'm kind of pushing it further with Flashover since they're a label that, in my opinion, encourages that. 

BSound: I saw that you were producing a remix of "The Saltwater Room" by Owl City. It struck me as kind of odd for someone like you to remix this song. What kind of treatment are you giving this track and how did you get the idea to remix it? 

Eco: Before the success of Owl City's Fireflies album, Universal wasn't really expecting that to be so popular so they said they wanted to do a second wave of promotion with a remix album. I was one of the artists that were asked to be involved with the project, but the album is actually on hold. 

I finished the remix and they liked it a lot but as far as releasing it it's on hold until further notice. As for the style of the song, it's an ambient/chillout track that oddly enough sounds similar to the style of Kaleidoscope by Tiesto. It has really big pads, a lot of chord progression and treatment on the vocals, but overall it's slower than my usual stuff and more loungy.  

Bsound: Any chance that we'll ever see this track or if the album will come out? 

Eco: The album's not really going anywhere- but I might just release it for free, which is something I like to do every once in a while. 

Bsound: On your MySpace there's a banner ad for a mix album by you called "The Sound Of (You)th". Is that something coming out soon? 

Eco: It's something I put up there but I haven't finished yet. I'm always putting out promotional mixes and mix CD's that usually have some theme to them. So "The Sound Of (You)th" is one that I want to do as three or four part CD mix with the theme of it being the sound of my everyday life. For example, one CD would be a lot of the chillout and lounge stuff I listen to, and another would be heavy headliner trance. I want to make the mix transition like that but I haven't been able to finish it all of it yet. It's nothing official- I wouldn't be selling it, but it would be a free download to let people get an idea of what I'm listening to when I'm not producing or DJing- something a bit different from the norm. 

Bsound: What kind of feeling do you get when you hear someone else playing one of your tracks on a radio show or during a live set?

Eco: It's pretty incredible. I've gotten more and more used to it- at first I would go crazy and dance and my friends would go out of control. But now I kind of just stand there and see the audience's reactions and take in the details of people singing along or whistling to the melodies- whatever happens to be going on at that particular moment whether it's a live broadcast or performance.

Bsound: Out of all the songs you've made, which ones are your favorites? 

Eco: "Tonight Is Forever" and "Staring At The Sea". The melody from "Tonight Is Forever" seems to still surprise me even though I've heard it a few hundred times. For "Staring At The Sea", I put a lot of time and effort into the subtleties and the small sounds, and I'm very happy with how they all come together to make a song.

A State Of Trance 450… 

Bsound: What was your reaction when you first heard that you were going to play on April 2? Was this booking something you were expecting or did it just come out of the blue? 

Eco: I found out about it the day before the lineup was announced. The original email I was supposed to get was lost in the spam folder of my inbox so I never read it. Then Armin's manager contacted me and asked me if I could confirm if I was playing, and I said "of course I can confirm". After that I gave all my closest friends a call to tell them the news, as they have been waiting for that opportunity for a while, even longer than I have [laughs]. 

Bsound: What do you plan to do with the one hour timeslot you have at that show? 

Eco: Here in New York I've been doing a lot of opening sets for other guys and it's been an amazing opportunity where I try to explore different sounds. Opening for Marco V recently is one example and opening for Cosmic Gate is another. 

But as I'm on early that night I don't want people to assume that I'm going to play that way. I'm really going to go all out as far as introducing some new songs and picking out my favorite tracks from my favorite producers. I want to create an overall headliner feel for my set rather than the usual thing that the New York crowd is used to- which is me opening up for other guys. I'm trying to come out of my shell and hopefully give people something to talk about.

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Those who want to watch DJ Eco spin, but can't wait for A State Of Trance 450 in April, can catch him at Love on March 12, sponsored by Massive Event. Eco will be joined by locals Harji & Watson, Wayde Rafnel, MadRiverRai, Jay Kinard, Rob Stevens, and Brendan Bartels. 

[Image credit: Tianbek.net and Nightreveler.com]

DJNY #1: Brad Miller

This is the opening installment in a series of interviews and profiles of New York-based DJ's. My first guest is Brad Miller.
 

You may know Brad if you've been out and about in the Big Apple at least once over the past couple years, as he has played many of the top clubs in the city , including Pacha, Love, and Sullivan Room. His podcast, Push The Night, is among the top 25 most popular music shows on iTunes, with his latest episode showcasing his picks for the top 20 tracks of 2009.

Earlier this week I had a chance to talk to Brad about his beginnings as a DJ, his experiences playing in New York, and his thoughts on the industry...

Where it all began… 

Binarysound: Where did you develop an interest in music as a child?

Brad Miller: I was in high school when I really started to get into music. I went to a lot of rock concerts back then- probably almost every weekend, to a place called the Roseland in Portland, Oregon, where I grew up. I just saw a ton of bands there including New Found Glory, Coldplay, and others.

But when I was out there, one weekend there weren't any good bands in town and I remember my buddy telling me "there's this guy BT in town", and I said "who's that?" So we went and saw BT live, and that was pretty much it…

Bsound: So that concert was where you got exposed to electronic dance music?

BM: Yea, definitely. That show was followed up by all the big guys at the time - Crystal Method, Moby, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, etc.

Bsound: Getting the equipment to become a DJ isn't cheap. What were you doing six years ago when you picked up your first set of turntables and how did you get them?

BM: I actually got my first turntables for Christmas, so I have to thank my parents for starting that off and giving me some faith [laughs]. I got two Newmark turntables and a Newmark mixer and then went out and bought my first vinyls at Platinum Records in Portland. I picked up Underworld's Cowgirl/Rez EP and Sasha's Xpander.
 

It's funny because back then [vinyls] were the more expensive part. These days everybody's saying "the equipment is so expensive", but back then, vinyls cost $10-15. You'd spend $100 or something dollars on ten tracks, and that's where the money problem really was. Getting started these days isn't really as hard because you can do a lot of stuff digitally. You only need about three hundred bucks for equipment and you're in business.

But at that time, I worked every stereotypical job- I've been a pizza delivery boy, a Christmas-tree salesman, a lifeguard, a clerk at a record store...

Bsound: How long did you practice in the bedroom before you played your first show?

BM: I spent probably six months in the bedroom trying to learn how to do it. DJing is something you never really ever master- you only get better at it. There's never a certain point where you say "ok I'm done practicing and I'm ready for everything".

I think with any gig no matter whether you're starting out with ten people or a club with a hundred, you still have to step up your game. You've got practice as much along the lines as you do when you're trying to get your first gig.

Bsound: Where did you play your first show and how nervous were you?

BM: I'm always nervous. I'm nervous before I get to the club, when I'm driving to the gig or in the cab, and then minutes before I go on I'm a complete wreck. But when I get actually behind the decks I forget about all that. I don't know how that works exactly, but at some point you have to embrace it and realize that being nervous is a good thing because it means you're stepping up to a new level. Anytime you play a gig out of your comfort zone it means you're moving forward. 

My first gig I played was this college party in somebody's dorm room for about 20 people. It's tough when you play your first gig because you're playing for maybe 10 or 20 people and it's hard to get a room of that size to rock. The people in attendance might be there to dance or just to relax, but unless you play hip-hop or something that everybody is going to love, it's scary to come into a house party and drop underground tech-house [laughs].
 

For that reason I think it can be better to play more commercial stuff at first to get people into it. It's invaluable to play those small rooms to learn how to react to the crowd, because by the time you get to a bigger room, you'll know how to rock it.

Bsound: Can you talk about your experience playing some of the bigger clubs in the Northwest as your career progressed?

BM: I love the scene in Seattle and I really got into it in college. At the time they had a really strong progressive scene, but now it's turned into a more trancier crowd. It's got a real community feel to it- you see a lot of the same people, everybody knows each other, and everyone is pretty friendly over there. A lot of the club owners will go to the afterhours spots and have drinks together.

When I play there, it's always a little bit more of a party as opposed to anywhere else- people  just want to have a great time and listen to stuff they can rock to. And there's some great clubs out there- Last Supper Club usually brings in a lot more of the underground stuff, and Trinity is one of the bigger clubs in the city, but they do electronic stuff as well. They were key to helping me get started- I worked there first as one of the lighting guys then started playing there on the weekends which was a lot of fun.

Coming to New York…

Bsound: So how did you end up in New York City from the Northwest?

BM: If you want to be in the music industry, you pretty much have to move to Los Angeles, London, or New York. When I was graduated college, I wanted to break into it somehow, so I sent out no less than 100 resumes to every nightclub or record label in the world that I could get an address for. The only one I heard back from was Crobar in New York, who offered me an unpaid internship.

So I packed up my bags, threw them in the car, and drove off the next week and came into the city knowing absolutely nobody. I slept on the floor of my friends', roommates', uncles', cousins', brother or something like that [laughs]. I basically watched my bank account get to zero over the next six months, but in life, you've got to make those decisions. You can either play it safe and stay at home or chase after your dreams. It's cliché I know, but why not?

Bsound: How did you get your name out here locally when you first got arrived?

BM: It was a little bit of luck, a little bit knowing the right people, and a lot of hard work. At the time I was working with Crobar and I did get some good slots there from DJ's arriving late to shows and whatnot (so always keep your CD's with you at a nightclub [laughs]). But what really helped kick things off was the help I got from both flawless and Massive Event.  All of us had worked pretty close together at Crobar over the years, and towards the end as they started to branch out they helped get me my first gigs in the city. At the time the gigs were still on more of a here-and-these basis though, and I knew if I wanted to make an impact I would have to work hard to build my own fanbase outside of the club, which is when I started my podcast and email list.

You also have to have a crowd before you can play to get a crowd. It's always this chicken and egg problem. After those first few gigs I was really focusing on trying to build my network so I could come to them again and say "hey look I can bring you a lot of people that really like my sound, give me a shot in the main room". After I convinced them I was ready, flawless gave me an opening slot for BT and Massive gave me an opening spot for Randy Boyer and Breakfast which really set things in motion.

Bsound: Can you talk about some of the upcoming shows you have here?

BM: Right now I've got two shows coming up- one on February 19 with Sultan and Ned Shepard at Quo and one with Cosmic Gate and Richard Durand at Webster Hall on March 20. I'm also working to kick off the Push The Night parties this year as well, so definitely keep an eye out for them.

Bsound: Over the past year, local electronic dance music shows have been popping up at new venues such as the Nokia Theatre and Electric Zoo Festival on Randall's Island. How do you feel about the recent growth of the scene here?

BM: I think it's really exciting - I think we're finally starting to see dance music become much more accepted here in America as it has been in Europe. While I know there are some that are afraid of dance music becoming too big and losing it's underground roots - in the end I think it really benefits all of us. Now more than ever I've seen a lot more of the smaller underground DJs getting the chance to come play in America - some of which I never thought I'd see over here.

Any weekend out here in New York City you can go see a top-level DJ or an underground, left-field sound. You can pretty much can hear anything you want and I think a lot of times people forget that. You just don't get that in a lot of other cities.

Bsound: It seems like there are a million DJ's out there making free mix podcasts each week for listeners to download. What would you say is unique about your podcast, Push The Night, that makes it stand out from countless others?

BM: There are several key differences. One is that I don't crank out mixes every week on purpose. Push The Night is not about the last 10 tracks that came out this week. They come out when they're ready and are meant to be experienced more than once.

Each episode is also something I put a lot of time into personally, because almost every single track on them is a re-edit or has been changed in some way. I change the keys in a lot of the songs, I mash them up, I restructure them- every mix is really a collection of my favorite tracks put in the best possible order I can make. The episodes are meant to be more about the mix as a whole rather than just the songs by themselves. I mix different styles not as a gimmick, but because I like to explore other genres of electronic music. I think Push The Night is one of the very few podcasts you can listen to that explores new and familiar territories in different ways.

It comes down to music in the end, and every day I spend a lot of time looking for new songs. If I make one trance set a year there are probably thousands of trance tracks I listened to just to find 20 of them that I think are worthy. To me, less is more, and I think that's important because people have so many podcasts to pick from. You have A State of Trance each week, Trance Around the World, Dance Department, the Essential Mix- people have way too much to listen to. If you want to stand out these days it needs to come from the quality. 

[Image credit: Brad Miller]