Theo Parrish | Sound Culture | Desa Dialogues Live EP 009

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome The Connoisseur of fine beads and Sury hypnotizing sounds, the manic Melody Metronome himself! The man who keeps shaking and rattling dance floors in all the right places, Mr. Theo Parish!

How has Bali been to you? Has it been kind to you? You know, how does it resonate with you? You know, during this, you know, uh, visits to Bali, I, I jumped at the chance to come back to Bali again because there were very few places on the planet that I played that you felt that the people that came to hear you, um, were not like you, but very much like you. And I, I go a lot of places in the world. Go to Europe, I go to Japan, I go to the States, all over the place. What I find that's the interesting part that gets translated very easily here is that it is an understood understanding. With, without knowing where this music is coming from, it's felt and known where it comes from. In very few places that I take the music to knows where it's coming from. And so, that, that intrinsic understanding is, uh, it's clear. And, uh, and y'all fishermen are bad as [ __ ] like the most badass fisherman I ever seen in my life. You know, saw this guy come in with my lady. We were walking on the beach last time we were here and a fisherman was coming in. Had to be going about 10 knots. Didn't slow down. Ran right up on a beach, hopped off of it in one fell swoop, dove back in the water to dust himself off, came out. It's like, ah, what? It's gangster. It's gangster.

Well, we do have that expression in Bali. What is it called? It's called "Sing K Ken." Sing K Ken? Yes. Sing Ken, sing. Yeah. Sing Ken means no worries. When you're in Bali, it's always no worries. Yeah. Sing. I mean, that's such a great experience for you. You know, one strong point is the openness of Bali to new ideas, new people, you know, new, new philosophies, and, you know, foreign influences that make us, you know, uh, focus on the betterment of the world. Uh, we share, uh, the same roots. And, you know, could, could you please, you know, enlighten us, you know, how, you know, you know, Bali, you know, as, as which, which we come back to your roots, you know, resonate with you in, in terms of what you have been doing for decades?

What I, what I have seen, what I do understand when I, when I travel these places, um, is that the music that I play and that I've, I've been experiencing, that, that I've experienced since the beginning of it, um, we're talking about the music formerly known as house music. And I say formerly because now, what I was calling this music, we never called house music per se. That was a term that other people used outside to define it. Just like jazz, just like blues, just like break, just like every term that is always put upon from an outsider's view, from people that usually don't participate in directly an emotional or a spiritual sense. We just went to hear those DJs. We didn't call it house music until we heard it. Oh, oh, guess, I guess so. Yeah. House music. And so no one can ever really say, well, where did that music come from? Where was the warehouse? Well, it was because it was house music. It was someone's in someone's basement, or it was the powerhouse. When no one can seem to agree, and that's the point. You know, if you were there, you didn't need to agree left or right on what someone else was calling what it was that you were doing anyway.

So when you go to a place like, say, Germany, and they're playing deep house music, and then you show up, and the, the often expectation is you have to live out their deep house fantasies. And so by you showing up, being yourself, you're bound to give them something that they've never experienced before. But whether or not, whether or not it lives up to their ideas of what they think you should be is a very different thing. What I'm saying is that unlike those scenarios, that was usurped on an energetic level by the way that being conducted, dealing with people with the grace, with the grace that these people carry, is a grace that's recognized with black people are recognized that at home. And that, that same grace, the grace of, oh, carrying a tray in the heat to a bunch of people that are sneering at them and smiling their best smile. There's a grace there. It was a grace. And, um, there's a grace in, in knowing that the music that you saw coming up had no, had no other faces in the crowd, in the management, in the DJ, in the booking agency, in any of the places that you would look, any of the manpower. Put all your reflection, all your people, all of it from the outset. And then to watch it grow, expand, and then now it's, you barely see your own reflection in it. That's a, can be a harrowing thing. And you're going, what happened along the way? And is this a good or a bad thing? And you can't judge it because music moves. And the second you start saying, oh, it's, it's this and that, then you're starting to hurt it a little bit. So you have to look at where you find the bright moments. Does it penetrate these frames that we have, these limited frames? Does it penetrate the frames? You know, and so that's the beauty of certain places like New York. It's a place I, I play called now, nowadays. And if you glimpse sometimes, it has looked like Ernie Barnes painting of Sugar Shack. But I'll wipe you the sway of the bodies, the connection to the music. It's there. It will, it will blow some people's minds. But the same right, you always recognize it when there's not one instant of hesitation between what you're playing and its understanding of who's in front of me. And that's, that's what I, that's what I'm illustrating here.

I mean, we do believe that you're not confined in terms of the generification. Yeah, I, I grew up in, in, in the formative years of the electronic music. We never realized, you know, during the time I was way back down south, you know, in Australia. And, you know, we, we listened to the, the pioneers, Frankie Knuckles, you are, uh, Larry Heard. And then, you know, for us, that was the founding fathers, you know, that, that really, uh, you know, uh, envisioned something beautiful. And then came definitely yourself and, you know, many, uh, you know, names that during the time in the '90s, we could only know just because of the printed label on the vinyl. It's art. Facts. It is true. And then we would be accustomed to the plethora of names, the influx of DJs and producers. It made the, uh, art form itself global. Yeah.

So in that case, you know, as someone that not only has been part of it, but also shaped the art form, you know, how would you, you know, perceive the development of the global electronic music scene and, you know, how would you see, you know, this changing era and how would you feel about it?

Well, it's, it's, it's a continuum. You know, every, every single, every single era produces its own musical take on it. And there's always a new way of presenting music. And more importantly, what, what I, what I see being changed and what I see being, uh, adhered to in cycles is the idea of what, what a presenter, what a DJ is. And that, that doesn't really change. Pity. That doesn't change, um, in each country until, until recently. And we're talking about the last five years, recently, okay? The game was, and as far as I'm still concerned, is the mixer and two turntables. And then one way to play something other than what was available on wax. That's been how it's been the majority of my career. Now, you take that idea and you have the, all the names that come and go because then I would add in names like, uh, Sarah B, uh, Hardy, I will add in, uh, Jesse Saunders, I was add in, um, Ken Kelleher, out, add in, um, all the great New York DJs that we all know of, over and over and over and over and over again. We can say their names forever and ever and ever. But then there's the ones we don't know out of New York, like Troy Parish, the ones like, you know, unknowns, the knowns and unknowns. And the guys that, that don't make careers out of this, but are just as bad and just as deadly as the people that, that do. Um, often better because they were able to keep it pure. They didn't have to make money off of it. They didn't have to kind of use it to pay bills. But the game was always the one of those two of those, maybe one of these. Now, this used to be a real, real, uh, and then it turned into a tape deck, then it turned into a CD player, then it turned into a way to, uh, use digital files. Then it became, and now you get, this is one of the older ones. Now you can just, they got ones that, uh, that search the internet and you can Spotify your set right on the spot. They got those. What's the point? And I'm pretty sure it won't be long before you'll be able to walk into a club and get an AI set out of the [ __ ]. And so, but I don't think we really have to worry about that. But to go back to what you're saying, I'm being meandering again. When you have these different people that can do this thing, you always had someone that wanted to add other elements to it. And often because they never mastered doing this thing. So, so there's certain people you name on the list. Production-wise, so I would contend this. There are producers, there are DJs, they are musicians. And then there are people who can do two or three of them. But I've rarely see, I've rarely seen one person be able to master all three of those things, be as good a DJ as producer and a performer of the music that they're making. I've seen people play games. I've seen people set up computers and sit back and pretend. I've seen people put on mix CDs and step back and play games. I've seen people put other people's music out and put their name on it to get DJ gigs. So a lot of stuff that's happened within the last five, 10 years is kind of usurped the idea of what a real DJ actually is. So a lot of these people don't deserve that name. Now, it's up to every single one of us to decide who that is, 'cause no one makes the rules. That's the issue. That's the beauty in the bird that it's independent. So any, you can make the rules up. Who says what I say makes sense? But I know in terms of when I go back to Chicago, I'm playing with some of the most, in my opinion, skilled DJs in the world, simply because the rigidity and the amount of it, of competition was so high at the time that I started and remained that way to this day. You had to be skilled enough to play snapped music, that means music set to a metronome. You had to be skilled enough to play music that wasn't set to a metronome, all the way into jazz. You had to be able to move from both of them. Vital. Only anybody that knows knows it's much harder to play turntables than it does to play these. Now, everybody knows way more different things to go wrong. Here, I'll explain why each one of these has a motor in it. The motor is not necessarily perfect. We won't do this. Okay. The motor can go wrong. That has a wobble. The pitch has a string on the bottom of it that can go wrong. That's a wobble. Even with direct motor, is that? Yep. Tone arm go bad. That's a wobble. Is your tone arm straight? Has a lean on it? That's a problem. This part of it raises and lowers. Is that straight? Then you got the weight. That's another issue. Then the quality of your wax. Then is it balanced? Is it, does it have a lean like this? Does lean like this? Does it ever lean like this? Is your cartridge straight? So all of those things happen in good conditions. And then that's a soundtrack. Now you got a full room. Now you got sweating bodies. Now you got dust bunnies on your needle. Now, now you might have perfect blends at home, but can you recover from your record skipping in the middle of it, going into the next one, where you got a whole crowd of people standing at you? Yeah, the headphones get real hot. So now, granted, these, these have their own issues too. Everybody put in a chipstick, they burn it at home, but then you get to the party, doesn't work. Why doesn't it work? Or you got the one that's connected to the other one and connected to the other one, but it's reading over here, but it won't read over here. What you going to do? I still contend the records are more as delicate as these are. You'll never get a file not read or not loading signal out of this. And you, you'll never get a place where, where, uh, you'll lose your chipstick. You'll always know where your records are to play. So in my opinion, that lineage of people that can play, a lot of the greats were playing on the most unstable, but in the same, in certain ways, the most certain. You put a record on, that needle's going to read it. Now, if it reads it well, has to do with the maintenance of it, but it's going to read it. And the mastery of those, of those techniques, and the mastery of being able to use a third item to bring in things that you only, as a selector, know about. Treat. So really meat and potatoes and the spice. Yeah. And the ability to, to use what everyone has access to here. Everyone can get those records. They already come out, most times, with the exception of acetates and special presents and things like that, white labels, every once in a while. Those are specialized situations. But the average, the, the average DJ, you can give 300 DJs the same record, they'll come up with different things. That's the beauty of that part. But then when you have these special situations, you got something else. All those people you name, they all have an ability within musicianship, production, and play, um, some, all, but rarely all three. What I've seen the biggest changes, technology, and thus the attitude. So now we have DJs that think that if they've mastered this, they've mastered it. No, they haven't, because it's too little tricks on here. The quantize button, are you skipping the sync button? Yeah, that [ __ ] and and and and and when you, with the new ones, I call them the Teslas, with the Teslas, with the Teslas, you can waveform read. So now if you match the waveform to the other waveform, you're not listening anymore to mix, you're now visually mixing. That's [ __ ] too. So I would contend, I want to get back to having mixing contests. Start making people use turntables and see who can hold blends the longest without the quantize. But you using little techniques like this to slow it down and speed it up and all those little things, and not just the pitch. Those were signs. And then can you repair a tire on it on the fly? Can you fix a tire? What's fixing a tire? Do you got the balls to fix that [ __ ] while it's broken? Can you get that [ __ ] in there while you're playing? All those unknown skills that come along with just experience. Um, that, and not to, not to scare any young jocks, that you will learn your blends are perfect now, but you're in perfect environments. Can you do it when somebody at home is hurting? Can you, can you play? Can you make that decision between that gig that you will book to play and then some tragic happens in your life? Do you do it or not? You know, that one that's paying you a lot of money, but you know it's a [ __ ] gig. And that, that never stops. That never stops. Where you know, man, I need this money. I don't want to, I don't want to wear a tux and do the wedding, but damn, I need to get this money because this is what I do because I'm a professional because I don't have enough, I don't have enough arrogance to think that that life that's going to stop because of my, my perceived standards of who I think I am. You know, it's, it's a, you can't be afraid to get down and dirty with the art. Um, but you can't, you can't be afraid to, to, uh, take the arrows to preserve it. Truly.

I, I respect you, your, your angle about the, the mastery of the technology itself. Yeah. But, uh, what I was, you know, uh, referring to is the school of thoughts. Because you can try, you can deny, uh, but you are one of that is, you know, excelling and pushing the school of thought of electronic music, the genre itself. But every single one of the, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm illustrating in that is, is the, the technique represents a school of thought. Yes. This is a school of thought. Definitely. And, and of the people you name going forward, the, all those people, all those names, all those names, all those names. We've gotten to a point where the school of thought has gotten dissipated because there's nothing to believe in like it used to be. This was solid. You could believe in it because of its limitations. And now we're getting to a place where we, we're having so many limitations that nobody gives a [ __ ]. And it's hard to find where new talent lies when there isn't enough limitation and, and, and dedication to practice. Pure practice, but limited practice. What is it that is interesting to you? Hone it. Not enough hours. Make more hours. More hours. More hours. More skill. What's that one temple you haven't mastered? What's those two temples you haven't mastered together? Or you can mix two of them? How about three? You know, things like that. And I, I would say that they all, they all represent different schools of thought. And once you get to that part of it, you can then start to have different ideas of, oh, somebody's sitting up and pretending to be a DJ and pointing at the sky and having a light show and [ __ ] like that. That's not what this is. That's not this. If the name of the game is keep the crowd moving and talk to them through it, then I, we doing is talking about tempo and texture is differences because you can, you can go anywhere from a Frankie Knuckles to a to a to a, oh, to a DJ 100,000 or or or or a Stingray. And the tempos are flying everywhere, but the idea might be still the same thing. The ethics. Music that works within these confines. Yeah. You could reapply and put it behind a commercial football game. Sure. But that's not, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about where the, where the creativity goes and where, where it stems from. So you could say, I would say without doubt, the two cities these two things came from in Chicago and Detroit. Period. Techno came from Detroit. Let's be clear. House music came from Chicago. Let's be clear. Now, when that changed was when the marketing of that music started to shift. And we're still in decade. Now we're talking about mid-80s. Yes. Now we could even say '85. What was happening in America was the end and tail end of segregation. Romics, the beginning of crack. So you, you can also add this in. Let's get to the producers. Detroit, Juan Atkins, the producer, main producer of techno. In Chicago, Larry Heard, the main producer of house music. Electro, the main producer being Egyptian Lover on the West Coast. That was a bridge to hip hop. Hip hop had its own main producers. So what we're talking about is the black community having an, a whole revolution happening around about '85, coincidentally when Reagan, I believe, was in office. So if you're looking at the distance between where music shifts and where it becomes these different languages with these different cities that then create these different cyclical movements over and over and over and over again. So Larry Heard spawns Glenn Underground. Glenn Underground brings out the guidance stuff. Guidance stuff brings out, and so on. So isn't, it starts going. Detroit is different. And then people moving around in between here. A lot of times, those New York, Chicago guys go out to New York. That germinates out there. When they were more interested, they were more interested in freestyle, which has some crossover points with cuts called like Hard Times. Hard Times is a cut called Hard Times. It's a boogie record. Was really big, big in Chicago, really big in Detroit, and huge in New York. And so it's these, these cross-pollinations of black culture that creates these cycles that keep coming and keep coming and keep coming and keep coming and create many lanes and many lanes and many lanes and many lanes. That's why I'm saying it's almost impossible to track. But you, but it's, but you know it when you see it. You know when someone's dedicated themselves to it. And now we're past the roots of it. And those are the, those are the pathways that they're back from. Now we're, we're, we're out here. We're all the way in Dubai with it. We're all the way in, in, in Alaska with it. We're, we're all over the world with it. Right? But you can recognize when someone has, has studied and understood the ethic of a thing. I need to dance. I need to get something off of myself. I need to create. So let me dedicate myself to it so that I can be anything from performing to to DJing it, to making it. So in that case, you know, please enlighten us, you know, as, as, as someone that has, you know, pushed boundaries, uh, shaped the, you know, not only the school of thought of the scene, but your own, you, you are your own signature with it. So what is the part that is still preserved? And then what have, you know, definitely you, in this case, transformed? And with the rise of the, the scene itself being global, what has been lost?

Oh, a bit of a, bit of the brother and sisterhood has been lost. That's it. And I mean, human brother and sisters. You know, there's a lot less care of one another. When we go into these spaces to enjoy the music itself, I find that there's a lot more people that are coming for reasons outside of, of, um, of musicality, which is fine. You need pieces of that. Like I found it like, okay, the bigger the space, you're going to need. I call them, I call them the cornballs. Okay. We need the cornballs. Not everybody in the room can be a music head. We need some cornballs. We need some high and some shiny shirts. We need them. We need somebody buy, buy bottle service, disco. We need that [ __ ] because it keeps the lights on in the [ __ ] club. Okay. Don't diss them because they showed up and they're standing in the corner and doing a goofy dance. It's okay. Let them do their dance. Just nudge him over to the corner and tell them not to put the flash, the camera in my [ __ ] face. Just go over that corner. They, but they can be there too. There's nothing wrong with that. It's, you know, and this is what we need to do. That, the, the one who comes with him, the really drunk girl, help her when she gets drunk in the bathroom. Don't let those other [ __ ] take her home to the car because she don't know no better. Like that's what I'm talking about. The, the heart in the dance. Because we'll diss those folks, but like, we'll be mad if the promoter is closed next week or the place is closed and that beautiful system that they had ain't open because, you know, need that. Because we're not coming in there like that. We're not spending. We are, we already on the list. We already on the list. We're getting in. So we're not going to, we have to, we have to care a little bit about people that maybe aren't that [ __ ] cool and hope that they get a chance to get converted. Because maybe, maybe you play that tune and they all of a sudden they're going crazy. Maybe your so-called DJ friends are too busy standing over in the corner like, "I didn't like the way you mixed that in." You know, maybe they're too busy doing that [ __ ] to really like have a good [ __ ] time. How many DJs you know that actually cut a rug like, [ __ ] dance till they cut? I mean, I, I don't know about you guys, but in Detroit, most DJs are way too cool to be dancing in your set. If you, if they, if they really like, they really respect you. Yep. Then they're not going to dance to you. Yeah. Understood. It's kind of [ __ ] up, right? It's just [ __ ] up. But it's, they don't know. But it's the person that doesn't know you. It's the person that, that has never heard your track before. It's that goofy [ __ ] over there. "I love this song!" You know, like he's going to go buy your record. He's going to say, "That guy's [ __ ] cool." And he'll bring next time he comes back, he's got all his friends with him. And they're like, "Why are we here?" But he keeps coming back. And next thing you know, next thing you know, the [ __ ] opens a club or some [ __ ]. You know, or, or he, you never know. Like you don't know. And so, like that, the human part is what we need to do more of. Or there's that one kid who's just always a little too wild, just keeps getting [ __ ] up every time he comes. And that's because he has a dark thing happening at home. Get him some water. Get her some water. Get her out the bath. Get them out the bath. They ain't got to take everybody in the bathroom. Get them some water. Take, go really look. I get you another drink, Jen. And it, you know, it ain't his water. No, that's the old trick. Jen and T looks just like water. Get a line. Give the [ __ ] some sobriety because we need people to survive the night out as well, right? And, okay, we got the, got the man, woman, and everything else thing going on at the club. Everybody's trying to [ __ ] each other. That's fine. Okay. But if you are part of the production, if you're part of the, the, the music, you have to decide if you're going to exercise that part of your life publicly because you're public facing. So you have to act equitably. Don't be fighting with your significant other at the place where everyone else is trying to. Nobody wants to see that [ __ ]. Nobody wants to see your private part on the dance floor either. Just don't. Me personally, I don't like to see people take their [ __ ] shirt off. TJ, that's not for me. But if that's what you want to do, that's fine. But let's remember, if this is about music and expression and dancing, all the thing that goes on between you and your loved one is is personal. Now you're making it an ego show. There's sex clubs for that. Go do that. There are people here trying to do musical things. And so it's, it's a responsibility. Now, granted, you're going, some people are coming there doing whatever the [ __ ] they want to do, and that's what they're going to do because we're all adults, right? But let's not forget, if we're at a show, we got, we're all ages. No, we're not all [ __ ] adults. So remember that too. It's, remember whether you're playing a show that is for kids, that is for adults, and making sure that everyone's safe because you want safety. After the day, want safety. Want everybody to experience it, get home, get the best out of it. And that's the only way to ensure that [ __ ] is to take it that seriously. Sound. Stop going to places with shitty sound. That's simple. Shut them down. Just don't go. Tell that person who's performing that, "Hey man, I love it, but I'm not going there." Why? Because it, because it, because I need my ears to work tomorrow. I need the sound to sound right. I need you to sound good or bad so I can know not to come check you out. But let's be a little bit more respectful of those things. So these, these things are shifting. The care, the cleanliness of the venue too. Make sure they sweep and mop. That that's a real simple thing. But a lot of places, they'll, they'll turn, they'll have, they'll take your money and they'll put a thing in the place, but they won't clean it up. Make sure it's like, make sure it's right for everybody being there. Um, it's those human things that I see changing more than anything else. On the, on the other side of it, on the production, yes, and the performance side of what I see changing. Uh, I can't blame it all on technology because this was the, this was the most technologically advanced thing at one point. I'm just stuck in a certain time where between these two places, it's the laziness of the selector. It's the laziness of the performer. How much practice are you going to put forth into your gift, so-called, or your talent, or your hobby? It's also your job to decide whether it's one of those things. If it is a hobby for you, stop lying and pretending it's some gift. You know, when a gifted [ __ ] walks in a room, get out their way. They need to do it. They may not make it if they don't do it. If you're playing with something that someone takes seriously, humble yourself, get out their [ __ ] way. And if they're younger than you, you got no right to stand in their [ __ ] way. Help them. They'll never forget it. They'll never forget. But they will forget you if you got it, got in their way because they will blow past you. And they'll remember when your hobbyist ass was standing in front of that gift. And that's, that's something that's self-evident. You see it. And everyone has to realize something that, not everyone is going to be catching everything at the same time. All the opportunities are going to change. The people you see going up, you see going down. And there's always ups and downs, no matter how talented, no matter how gifted you are, there's that part. For all the gifted or the people who think they're gifted, it's a brutal thing to be told that your gift isn't [ __ ], that it doesn't work because, and all because people didn't show up that night. Do you have the strength of character to perform and deal with the ego thing that comes along with it? Because let's be clear about that as well. DJs' hands are hands down, in selectors' hands down, are the most egotistical [ __ ] relating to music out here. Let's be clear about this. Why? I get to play this song, then this one, then this one, then that one, then that one, then that one, and maybe that one, then that one. And you can choose whatever part you want to play. Then the pitch and the EQ. If I decide to start doing all that [ __ ], it is the most egotistic relationship to music compared to, like say, a musician who's in a band. Because now you got some people who actually have to communicate with other people, know their instrument, and know the crowd and communicate with the crowd all at the same time, and still be in key and in pocket. [ __ ] out of here. You get to put a record, article [ __ ], out of here. So understand these different things. And if you're in the studio, you're in the studio, controlled environment. I'mma expect excellence out of your [ __ ] record. Don't give me a boring record. And don't give each other boring records. You had a controlled environment. Do something. No one has ever done. No, do something you've never done before. You don't have to worry about anybody left or right. You make sure whatever you, your level best, do better than that. Every time. Every time. Every [ __ ] time. Because there isn't a lot of time. Um, those, I would say that that kind of, uh, the preparation I see is lacking. Preparation is lacking. How much time did you spend before your set working on your set? Did you just go to track source and download somebody else's playlist and then show up and play their playlist in front of me in a different order? No, you didn't. But did you go and listen to every damn song? Did you listen to three other songs in case that song doesn't work? So whatever hour set you was going to play, you listened for at least six hours. Y'did you do that? I'm talking about first note of the record till last note of the record before you showed up. Is there that kind of dedication? If there isn't, just know there's probably somebody going to bust your ass who is just know somebody, somebody. Oh, you didn't practice your baseline. There's somebody in the crowd like, "I'm going to get the job." Because next time I'm out, I'll go bust their ass because I've been practicing. It's that obsession. And, um, that's what I find. You can't engineer obsession. Can't engineer it. It's, it's either something you feel is, is worth your time to do or not. And it becomes self-evident. So those are the things I, I feel missed.

Well, you know, in terms of your commitment, or in this case, your obsession, you know, we, we know your, your obsession to the vinyl record. Yeah. And so, yeah, true. Uh, and it seems that, you know, uh, you allow, you know, the vinyl to become a medium for you, you know, not only to play, but also to weave and tell stories. Yes. Yes. And I'm intrigued by the idea of, first of all, definitely the practicing, you know, and your commitment. You know, I mean, Theo even brought his, I mean, brought his, you know, his beloved mixer. Do you have a name for the mixer? Let's just call it a nice. A friend of mine made it for me. I would not dare to touch it tonight. And, uh, but the idea of vinyl as a medium for you to practice listening. Yes. Tell us more about that, you know, I mean, uh, is there, you know, lesser-known stories that we don't know about your relationship with, you know, the vinyl itself?

Well, yeah, but no. I'm not telling. No. I mean, it's, you, you have to listen almost more than you play to really, um, let me back up a little. When you, when you're playing, um, when you have an act or a, a want or a record collection that you feel you need to express or you love to play wax, um, one of the requirements is listening time. You need moments to absorb things that you've bought, that you've found, that you traded, that someone sent you. You just need more listening time. Um, for a couple of reasons. Integrity of the record itself, to make sure it tracks well and that there's no skips and scratches and things. Also too, if you're production-minded, to go through it and let it, let it set in the subconscious of your mind. Put it on, go do something. Unconscious listening is just as good as conscious listening. Repetition. If you don't know it, listen to it 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 100 times, 1400 times, as many times as you can before you have to present it. So that you know, um, what that song does, what the song is and is not. And if it's not for you, put it in rotation, give it to a friend, put it online, sell it, take it back to the store. That's the beauty of wax is that it, it recirculates because there's no such thing as a bad record. It's just bad to you. Now, what there is such thing as a [ __ ] up record, meaning that it is broken in some way. So you can identify if something's wrong with it. So with the quality of the wax itself, maybe it's warped, maybe it's got a skip or something [ __ ] like that. But the listening time is a very important one. Um, I'd say the ratio, um, is up to you. But personally, um, I try to engineer as much listening as I can. I also breathe with my listening. If I know I'm playing a lot of places in succession, I don't listen in between most times. If someone gives me a new record while I'm on the road, I'm not listening to that. I'm after at the crib. No way. Um, unless I feel super inspired at that moment. Like that's the weird part. I can be mid-set, somebody give me a song right there, I might be like, if I, if I'm in a place where I really haven't thought of anything to say at that moment, I might grab it and put it on right there. I might, I might. But it all depends. I have to trust the person that's giving me the record, though. Like if I haven't, if I don't know you, then I might not do that. But if I know you, I'm, I'm curious. But that, that's also risk. You have to be ready for risk. Um, but listening, listening is a big one. Um, and I'll tell you a story about listening. Um, there was a point where I was buying like every time I would go out to play a city, I would spend time going to the record stores and buy stuff, right? So it got to the point where by the time I was hitting the plane and go back home, um, and I wasn't making it up very much at the time, um, my, my records, my cost of records and getting them home was more than what I was making at the game. So it was like, okay, this is, this is getting out of hand, right? And so I get home, and then be whole section of my shelf was growing of records that I bought, but I didn't know what they sounded like. And I wasn't finding time to practice it. And I didn't even know I had certain records that I got. So it was getting to a point where I was going out buying the same records that I had at home but hadn't listened to because I loved them. So it was this redundant process of not really having the time to sit the [ __ ] down and listen. Listen to that [ __ ]. Listen, listen to the music you have. Go shopping at home in your collection. Yeah. If you, if you don't have the money, turn those records over. Most times you're listening to one song on one cut. Turn it over. Maybe you haven't grown into the rest of the songs. Now, if we're talking about digital files, that's a whole another sport. Now, we've got an infinite amount of things that you can find. I would say to make it more poignant, talk to your friends that make things. If you don't make things yourself, select from those things. Hold those down. Everyone can grab those things that everybody can grab. Okay, great. We all know we can play the hits. What is specific about you specifically? What is good about your corner of the world, the people you know, and the things that, that you know that they're doing are interesting, revolutionary, and may not get a voice? Because that's another challenge of the selector is to expose the public to things they've never heard or understood before. And to challenge the people that they know creatively to do better. Hey man, I would play that, or I did play it, and you got to work on that baseline. We're scared to do that outside of work. Oh, you're a hater. No, your record's shitty, but I'm trying to help you because I was going to play it, and I did try to, but your baseline is too loud. Can you turn it down? Well, that's just how my [ __ ] is. [Music] Okay, like these are the things that people do. And these are the people, people react. That's another thing I say is different within these times is the egos of the creative, of the individually spirited group. You know, 'cause we're not all, not too many labels to sign people right now. So a lot of people are independent. But there's an ego attached to the dependence that they can't stand critique. Yeah, that we can't take being told that our stuff isn't amazing, that we're not all special snowflakes. Some of us aren't. Gasp. You know, and it's, and it's okay. 'Cause if I were to think that everything I did was dope, then that would be a high mistake. No, no. You know how many, okay, my ratio was 12 to 4. For every four songs you hear that I might have guts to put out there, there are 12 terrible things that you'll never hear from me. I might test them at a party to see if they work a little bit, but I haven't gained the confidence at that point to know that without a doubt those things are dope. So your ratio of output really means something. That, okay, that's dope. I've heard it this way and that way. But I mean, out of the four, and you will, you be, you know, mindful to play one for us? Sure. One, you mean right now? For sure. You want to hear a terrible one? Y'all want to hear a [ __ ] one of my [ __ ] up songs? No, you got to hear one of the good ones. Yeah. Play one of my bad ones. Nah, I'll play one. I'll play you guys one that I, that I didn't have the confidence to put out. And, um, yeah, I, I, I'll do that. I still don't have the confidence to put it out. No, I'm not putting, no, I'm not playing. I'm not, no [ __ ] that I'm not. [Laughter] Playing all right now. This is, um, yeah, hold on a second. All right. This is nutty. For the longest time, um, for the longest time, I liked the beginning of this track. Right? And, and, and because of where I was emotionally, I thought, "I really need to put this out at the time." Then I had a whole moment where I was like, "You know what? This is, this is not it at all." And then by chance, I was at a party and I accidentally played it, and the room liked it. And so now I like it. And so, uh, this is, this is what that is. Yeah. Oh, it's long as [ __ ], by the way. It's ridiculous. We got 18 minutes and 43 seconds. You said, "All right, mixing races fast. I don't do these kind of songs. I'll be bored." Put a foot in dialogue of all, but I'm missing the point, right? [Music] [Music] Hey, where are like there? Where's the foot? This, where's the foot, man? All right. [Music] [Music] Groove. [Music] One little El the whole GE. [Music] ET. But like that was one of the so-called. [Music] Throwaways. Thank you. Yeah, but that's, you know, you go through those little ego things and they start telling what you are and aren't, what you can and can't do, and what's good and what isn't. And, you know, I, I, I played at a party on accident and people liked it and I was like, you know, maybe it's pretty good. So like, you know, no matter how many, no matter how many songs you do, you know, you still know everyone's subject to the same thing. You're still subject to self-doubt. It doesn't, it doesn't prevent you from going through that just because you've done it a bunch of times, you know, just because you, if you're still caring about it, you know what I mean? You know, definitely. You, you know that the crowd, the audience is expecting something based on on their own personal experiences and, you know, just by listening, the, you know, you know, the, the tune itself, the track itself. You know, it seems that you also have a tension between your scientific mind, because we do know that you have a degree in Fine Arts, you have the methodologies, but, you know, how would you connect that? You know, how would you implement your emotion?

School's [ __ ] no, wait, wait, wait, wait. True. No school's [ __ ]. Like I'll tell you why. Okay, I'll tell you why, man. No, no. There's no institute can tell you how to be creative. All it can do is go, "Okay, here's a skill set." You can use a skill set if you decide to freak.

out and use that skill set a different way. Now you've become creative, but school can't do it. Now, granted, school is a great way to make sure you don't die. Okay, like, you could die around not going to school 'cause your parents might kill you, your family might kill you, and then you might kill yourself on the streets being homeless. So you don't want to do that. So whatever, I'm I'm a big proponent of school, um, just to hide from life when you're young. Um, but not much more than that. Once you're done hiding from life and you're young, find what it is you're interested in and switch your courses to that. And then once you switch your courses to that, do something else that you're going to eat until you get excellent at that. 'Cause whatever you pick, no matter what it is, if you got it in school, somebody else is picking is better than you. So now you're back at your talent. Find your way in between your talent and your skill. So school is a complicated thing. It's not the solve all. What it is is a salve, and it's expensive. It's expensive most times. So we have to be careful with calling people scientific because they went to school, okay? We can argue about that. I, I just saved my life getting out of like, really, I got a I got a scholarship and I got the out of South Side of Chicago. That's what I did. Now, getting out of there, I was able to finagle and learn some and become something. And so becoming something had nothing to do with school. That just had to do with me having to go there to learn. Learn the most important thing is that if there's anything to learn in school is this: how to manage your time. When you wake up every day, that the world ain't going to wait for your monkey ass to do whatever it is you think you want to do. Get up and do that [ __ ]. Other people got [ __ ] to do, then be [ __ ] around with you. So get up and go to get it. Be who it is you that you're supposed to be to do that and get back to where you need to be. Get there, get it done, get back. It's about efficiency and really just a relationship with time, what than anything. Just train.

I mean, which comes to my my the second part actually about the question is that how would you go about in, let's say, quantifying or quantizing, you know, your emotions, love, pain, dreams, hope, nightmares into your art? Well, it's that's what it's for. That's what expression is for. Expression is for your the way that you deal with your emotional overlook. I mean, I wouldn't suggest that you put too many of those things out, though. Would you carry enough that the audience would get it or not get it? In terms, no, it doesn't matter if they get it or doesn't. What matters is whether or not you got it off your chest. Like if we're talking about real emotional turmoil, if you're talking about pain, if you're talking about sadness, the negative ones. Happiness is easy to give to other people. Your dark violence, like when you feel violence, do I want to give that to someone? No, I don't. I don't really want to give violence to people. But if I can express violence in a moment, recorded, and then shrouded from people that it is violence, that's that's nice. But you might start a fight more. Or then you might, you might not. You might be able to shroud it. 'Cause all right, everybody know Bad Brains, right? I got that PMA. That does not sound like what he, they're saying at all. That's some, he's he's snapping. That sounds like pure frustration. Turn Sonics, but he's saying, "I got that PMA. I've got that positive mental attitude." Now, recently, there's a song I recently did called PMA, and it's it's a recent. This is something having to do with that. I'll play that later for sure. That is an expression of that. But that's an expression of something else. So yes, you can, and you should put those things in it. But you can't, you can't let people determine the end of that that emotional circuit, or you'll be in trouble. Um, that burns artists out when they go, "What? They didn't get me." Well, that's your fault for thinking that people that don't know you care about you. 'Cause that's what you're asking someone that you don't know to do when you make a song and they don't get it. And you're, there's an expectation there. Like it's a, there's a responsibility you have to have as a creative being to know that your audience is not your mama and your daddy or your therapist. You know, like that's, it's not their responsibility to complete your life. You have to be grown enough to know that. Or or childish enough to know that not everyone's going to hear your tears. Not everyone's going to, even if they could feel your pain, want to. 'Cause guess what? They got their own. So maybe you want to find something that's a third party. Maybe it ain't necessarily your song, but maybe it's someone else's song that's not the audience's and not yours, that gives you that distance, that objectivity to be able to say, "Here you go. Now you're an administer. Now you have medicine. Now that's what a selector is. That's what that is." Now, it's that's that fine line between, you know, making your own [ __ ] and playing it for people when you're DJing or playing other people's stuff. 'Cause sometimes if your stuff is laden with those things, you know, it becomes difficult. Like, like that one song on Blaze Day called "Wishing You Were Here." Oh my God, whenever I play that, I think about my lost ones. Oh, it rips me up. Those are the ones I play for myself. And and I play in moments where I know that like other people there, we've lost someone. Those are the moments like, "Yeah, we going, we going to go like, we going to give each other a hug in that room real quick." That's what those songs are for. But like, but to, to answer your question again, like, no, it's irresponsible to say, you know, "Here you go, don't you hug me." It's not how it works. At least I don't think those words could be wrong.

So I do believe that, you know, uh, among the members of the audience, yeah, not only that they brought their prize records, yeah, you know, their cherished books, you know, concerning your ideologies, your ideals, your philosophy, but I do believe that a number of, you know, the audience have, you know, something to say to you, to voice something, to ask you something. So we're going to make use of the, you know, time, you know, to open up, you know, one or two uh comments, uh, questions directly to you. Hello, uh, first, hi, how you doing? Firstly, I just like to sincerely like thank you for everything that you do, which you do so consistently. Um, besides from your music, also like the wisdom that you generously shared. Oh, sorry, one of that wisdom that still retains like a monumental impact for me personally is the interview that you did with, I think, Electronic Beats TV from 12 years ago. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, which I first discovered through Kid Funk's song "Two Sides." Uh, yeah, that's how I really like, "Well, who is this and what is this interview?" And then I watched the whole interview. And I remember you said, um, something along the lines of, um, "Everybody tend to forget about the records themselves and worry about the mixing, and that's more about the ego." And then you said, um, about the selection part is that you refine the selection process through listening, and then you present it to other people, right? But however, like, some sometimes the reality is, um, in certain places, the people who are willing to genuinely have that understanding and have that learning is the minority. Oh, yeah. Right. And when being a selector is your main profession, uh, the dilemma is, how do you balance honoring your mindset, your ideologies with, you know, meeting your needs for sub for sust? So that's, that's a great question. It's a great question. It's a great question. Another later to that question is basically, um, do you always have that ideology or mindset from the first day you decide to be a selector? And again, how do you balance honoring your mindset with keeping your needs met? And like, you still take shitty gigs? Well, you got to take shitty gigs. Um, there's, there's the gigs that feed you monetarily, and then there's the ones that feed you spiritually. Then there's the ones where, you know, you'll be, um, understood fully as how you, how you show up. Then the ones where you're just, you're, um, you're performing function, you know? At the time that I did that, um, I was blessed to not have had to make a lot of those compromises at that point of that of that Beats of that Patza interview. And, and what I've learned is what's nudged me back into getting more into the practice and the mastery is that the more skilled you are, even though it is an ego thing or can be seen as that, but the more skilled you are at putting these music pieces of music together, the more opportunities that you will have to play and be paid to play. And so the more opportunities that you have, it does this thing. You start to be able to know when to bring all of you, some of you, part of you, and none of you. And whether we like it or not, sometimes we got to do those none of you gigs where you showing up and you like, "Oh, but when you do those things, that's when you have to be hyper businesslike. And you present a contract, you present your rider, you present everything how you imagine it to be." Because at that point, you're going to the dentist. So sometimes we got to go to the dentist. This is what I will do. This is what I want to do. This, this is what I'm here for. This is what I'm not. Um, I need bit bop, bip, and bop. Thank you. Transaction. That means you're completely professional. You're not telling your friends about you. Hope no money friend show up, you know? But, but those, those are real. Those are real. Those those can save your life, you know, save your life. So what it is, really, is just repetition. Eat it, eat it, just eat it, just eat it, and do it. You, yeah, sometimes you got to eat into it, you know, 'cause it, it's the person you are inside doesn't change when you're baguer with with the non-negotiable responsibilities that life throws in front of you. Those are non-negotiable. You still have to be yourself, and you're still yourself after you do those [ __ ] gigs. You haven't, your regulars are not going to unplay themselves and not mix them, you know, be unmixable for you anymore after that. You know, it's just that you just have to know what, what you're bringing. And to solve that, sometimes is by more records, more of a range. And so the things that you may not necessarily play at the gigs that you love to play, maybe those ones you play over there, different sets for different moments and stuff. Yeah. But how far you would let it go, you know, until it eats you up? Well, it depends how much about getting paid. I mean, do I got to wear a hat? You know, I don't know. It, it really, it really comes down to your own levels of of what, what it is that you, that you, uh, that you find is in within your character and and what you find is is and also how non-negotiable are those responsibilities. 'Cause I mean, if you got some non-negotiables, they going to put you out. I was, I was me though. Yeah. But now you're me on the street? Or maybe you got kids, and how you going to tell your kids, "Daddy was an idealist"? No, that's no. Daddy was an [ __ ] to his kids because he was too childish to not compromise. So there's, there's those things too where you have to, you have to look at that. And then it's a case by case basis. It's case by case basis. Like, you know, when you, we know when you went too far, you know, and often it's too late. That's the sad part. Like, you, "Okay, I'll never do that again for that price." No, I mean, that's what it is. That's what it is.

I mean, in terms of the rise of, you know, this, you know, platform of the internet, where, you know, a comment could be a come, a dialogue, you know, you, and then it was completely different as what you said before that, you know, when somebody appreciates you, your peers would dance for you, you know? But now it seems that everybody has the say to, you know, to not only command but scull you in terms of what their understanding of you and your art. How would you respond to that? Because I think, you know, I follow your friends, tolerate you, your fans appreciate you. You have to find that distance of of where it is and where it isn't. Familiarity breeds breeds a what's that? Exactly. Contempt. So if you, if you're always around the people that you know, and they know that you do that thing, and they, they eye roll, no matter how good it is that you do your thing, they're still tired of you. You can't expect them to always want to hear your [ __ ] song. They hear your new mix because you're, you're with them all the time. That doesn't mean they're going to support you. It just means that it might be that much harder to make money off them. And the, and the occupy their time with your art. That maybe your art needs a venue. That maybe you need to push it towards people that don't know you at all. Maybe we, we get so scared of pushing our art towards people we don't know. We keep beating our friends and family in the head with this [ __ ]. All right, man, will you please go make it somewhere? Push this somewhere else. Put there's another person out there that hasn't heard it. Grow the guts to get it to them. That, that one more person in the room that don't know it, and get it to them. Because now you, now you pushed your thing that much farther. That you've thrown your boomerang farther.

So is that part of the philosophy or so the cation process of your reveal label, some signature, and not only in terms of, you know, how would you open your doors to rising talents, uh, you know, new forms of, uh, sounds, uh, but also to, you know, push forward your idea? Well, it's, it's a, it's a thing. You can always tell where the obsessed live. You can tell where someone would otherwise do that if it weren't for right. And so along, long life, when you're younger, you have less responsibilities. You can always be more absolute about what it is that you do because there's nothing or no one else depending on on you. When you start to grow and go through life, sometimes, sometimes we're, we're, we're blessed and not blessed at the same time to be very young with high responsibilities. That that makes very, very serious people. You may find that later in life, they break free and break wild. And why are they doing it? They're too grown to act that way. That's because they were a child. They were a serf. They had to be a grownup as a child. And so when you apply that same theory to people with creativity and shopping music or something like that, it's very easy to me to see if someone is has the obsession needed to keep doing it or whether or not they're just the salesman. And then whether or not they're an obsessed person pretending to be a salesman in that moment, 'cause they, these songs, you know, I, it's experience has taught me that these different places to be with your with your relationship with the creativity. So it's, it's, it's easy for me to recognize. Um, like I said, I'm a, I'm a father too. And, um, what I've learned along the way, philosophy with my label, I believe essentially the same things I did with the addition that now there's an asterisk. That no matter what philosophical thing I put on the side of my records, I can't compromise the health and the development of my kids because of of a philosophical stance I had when I had none. So once you, once you have people that you don't necessarily have to have kids, you can be taking care of people that can, cannot be. You're taking care of people that can't take care of themselves. And so that can be your parents, that can be your brothers, that can be your friends. When someone is depending upon you, you've, you've given up the right to be a selfish [ __ ]. It's that simple. And if you, if you can stand to be a selfish [ __ ] and say, "[ __ ] them," then you really shouldn't be making art. You're, you're really not. You're missing the point of the humanity. And now, now if you can find a way to be creative and do those things, and it isn't necessarily kid, but it's, it's that again, that sharing part. That essentially creativity is about that transfer point, that inner understanding, and then now empathy. So first is empathy and understanding of self, bravery to express, bravery to acknowledge it, bravery to refine it. What once we have the refining point, now we're sharing. If you can make it through all that process and at the same time care about yourself and other people, you, that's that sounds like someone. That sounds like that. Yeah, I want to meet that person. I want to, I want to, I want to hear what they got. What else do they got to say? Let's give them a voice. Let's, let's, let's put them on a record. Let's see what they, what are they doing? How much are they caring? Um, those things excite. Um, I'm, I get lucky sometimes to come across people like that, you know. I'm lucky to have a lot of people like that in my life, right? That wasn't always the case, but now it's the case. Like I can look around in the people that I know and know that I'm dealing with some real people. And, and that's, that's one of the places that you have to look at as a creative individual, no matter what your field is, and saying, "Okay, am I just promoting a bunch of [ __ ]? Like, is, are we dealing, or am I an [ __ ]? Am I just an [ __ ]? You know, am I just a mean-spirited, you know, shitty dude wants to just do what he wants to do, what she wants to do, and that's it?" And every shitty, mean-spirited [ __ ] has never been self-aware enough to know that. You know, everyone I've met has never, never been, never had the self-awareness to understand that they're just that, they're that [ __ ] toxic. So again, we need coddies, we need critique sessions, we need, we need to be able to tell each other, "Hey, that work, that didn't," or "Hey, you're being a dick about this one thing," or not. And these, that comes down to having good people around you. 'Cause as creative individuals, there's something else. I'll play the devil's advocate. No matter how much you have dedication toward the people around you, it doesn't mean they're going to give you the time to work on your craft. So you're going to have to manage your [ __ ] time ridiculously. You're going to have to be brutal about it. Brutal. Be brutal to your kids, and be brutal to your parents, be brutal to the people you care about. Say, "Look, I love you and I care about you, you know, but damn it, don't call me before [ __ ] five unless it's an emergency. Don't bother me after 10 unless it's a [ __ ] emergency." Because if I don't do this one thing from here to here, I'm not going to be able to give you the rest of the things that I know you need for me, that I know you won't survive without. Because we forget that as creative people, we don't do that thing, we're useless. I've never seen more of an excuse for self-bludgeoning and escapism and self-medication than creative individuals who don't get a chance to do. I mean, see it all the time. See it all the time. Coping method. City. Hopefully, the coping method is the expression. That's that's that's on a good day. That's on a good day.

[Applause] It's an honor, um, being able to speak to you directly because it's been, you've been, uh, big inspiration for my music also. But, um, uh, still remember like the first time I watch you, um, live set. It was in 2015, I think. It was in, um, in Brooklyn, uh, Analog Soul made the event. It was you and Analog Soul. And the fact that you played, um, all vinyl set for 8 to 10 hours, vinyl only. My question is like, I always wonder, how did you prep? Like, in terms of like, organized, and like, did you bring all the crates to to the event, um, at this on the spot, and then you just pick, um, and play the record on spot, or you prepare it the day before? Yeah, how did you go about like, 'cause that, 'cause the selections just like stable, and like, when I watch this, it's crazy. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, when I pick any, uh, when I, when I know I have a set up, um, one of the things I try to figure out from whoever's bringing me or whoever's asking me to come play is how long the set is. Um, I try to find out at least almost, I don't know, a month, two months, sometimes three months before. Um, I might start picking out records, uh, depending on the settler, and also depending on my work week. I got a lot of, lot of different things. I got a lot of hats to wear. So I'm trying to, what I try to engineer is is close to the time as it is for me to go play. I try to pick up until it's time, damn near time for me to go out the door, right? It's changed a little bit recently, um, but typically that's how I try to do it. So it might take me, let's say I got an 8-hour set, it might take me anywhere from, I don't know, 16 to 24 hours of continuous listening, sometimes, to get my set worked out before I bring. So I'm distilling, um, for every selection I make on the spot, 8-hour sets, I'm playing. I'm, I'm listening to listen 24 hours to 36 hours, 30 hours worth of songs before I get out there. And I may listen all the way through them, or some of them, but I'm bouncing through them. Boys, the ones that I haven't heard for a while, definitely, definitely going back, going back again, listening to it again. And so once I got them all picked out, then I got to get them in the boxes. So then I'm making, uh, the hard selections. Okay, so what, what, what's the, I call it the resonance check. So now I'm resonance checking everything. And so, okay, okay, that's got the resonance. Yeah, yeah. So then when I get to the set, um, I'm distilling it on the spot. So it's, I'm literally one feet the next, the feast, the next, the fees, the next, the fees, the next, the feast, the next, the fees, the next. And then I might have different bright moments and go, "Okay, when do I get to get to that thing and that thing?" 'Cause then, then I, I might call those my little jump ramps, or when I pop a wheelie or something, 'cause I know might be that special thing I play that, that hope's going to work. Because I like to, I like to scare myself. I like to do something that, that, that I, I don't think I could pull off, or something I think will [ __ ] fail. Like, I, I like the idea of doing something that could fail. Because why the [ __ ] not? What are we doing this for if we're not going to, you know, do some [ __ ] that no one's ever heard of before? Or something that there's too much boredom, there's too much safety. And, and I think that that's my, I'll go back to this, that's my biggest issue with being a, a quote unquote [ __ ] DJ is that never before has it gotten this damn easy just to press the Quantize button and let it run. So where your guts? And not necessarily y'all's guts, mine. That's what I ask myself all the time. I get scared. Okay, we, me just play 120 all night long and down, then just, it. Let me just play the known cuts that I know, I know, and they ones I know work. Now, wasting everybody's time, you know, that's, that's not my thing. So like, um, like I said, about for every 8-hour set, three times that amount, I'm listening to at home before, and right up, usually right up to the moment it's time to hit out the door. Then right on the spot, I'm distilling it right there. Thank you so much. Yeah, share it.

Yo, firstly, shout out no quanti, right? Yes. No, but yeah, I just wanted to touch on Factor's question, amazing question. I really love that where, um, she talked about gigs where you kind of give less and less of yourself, and the balance of those gigs, you know, if it's like, I think obviously living in out here is like, it's such a tourist-driven place, and it's like a lot of the parties we play, we feel maybe that we don't get to give ourselves to the audience, or they don't want to receive. And it's like, you know, you said about like, some of them, you just have to go in, and that's it, it is what it is. But like, I guess like, I'd like to know your input on, or like, your thoughts on if there are no parties where you feel like you can give yourself, give your full self, obviously, you have to create it yourself, right? So like, have you had any times where it's like, you know, you need to just like, build it yourself? Absolutely. It happens more often than not. Um, you try your best to set things up so that where you're being invited, you're appreciated and not tolerated, you know? But that ain't always the case. And so the, the moments that you have there, that's where variety comes in. Because I'm, I'm of the opinion, you can crack just about any crowd. You just got to, did you bring the right [ __ ] records to do it? Did you bring the right damn songs to crack their ass? So that they, they, because the, the goal is to get them all moving and to keep them moving. We, we can't do that thing where we go, "Oh, they're corny." So no, we can't do that. They're humans. They don't [ __ ] know. So we got to give them something. How do you crack their head with something? So it could be tempo, texture, um, it could be instrumental, vocal, non-vocal. It could be moved. Have we brought enough of a variety? And in that, in that maybe 10 to 12 song variety of things that that might work, could work, definitely would in your mind, right? Before you get to the spot. From there, have a, have a descending gear, like a 10-speed bike. So if you got like five to 10 songs that you know are just going to God doggone work, because they're just work. Don't be afraid to play those so-called corny songs, but find things that are not corny to work with those corny songs, so that you fool these corny [ __ ] into getting there with it. And now you're dragging them along. You might get them for 10, 15 records before they realize that they are in the hands of a master. You might get, you might can get them. And that's, that's had to happen for time. That's that's how you end up with like the craziest things happen like that. You end up playing, like, I don't know, you end up playing Ryan Trene at a wedding. You're like, "How the hell did this work?" You know, they cha-cha sliding the altar states, and you're what? Like that. It could happen, you know? It can happen. You can't give up on people you don't know, and you can't judge your party before you get there either. That's another one.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Hey, uh, good evening. Good evening, man. Thank you again so much, bro, for, uh, for being here. No worries. Uh, this is a much more casual question than previous ones. Yeah, sure. I mean, um, just speaking, not just like, like as a DJ, or but just as a fan of like, overall the music scene and being on the dancer and everything. Yeah. Uh, you know, I'm the type who would go out of my way to catch artists that I love, yeah, or that I'm curious about. I guess I'm just wondering, um, for you, as a selector of your caliber and, you know, your OG status in such a way. Oh, no. I mean, how do you go about like seeking inspiration for yourself? Like, um, do you go catch shows? Do you, man, Instagram, baby. Real. Instagram, man. Reels rock, man. People hit you with the stupidest [ __ ] you ever heard in your life, and then you repeat it to other people. It's, it's great. That's honestly, like, how I go about stuff too. No, man, find some stupid [ __ ] and then let it get in your brain and then go read a [ __ ] book, you know what I mean? Like, like, no, man, I love Instagram Reels because it it shows me that I'm, I'm, I'm just as average as everybody else, right? Because we can get into a real bag, we think we're somebody, and all that [ __ ]. And so when you realize you're just as susceptible to the to the program of your ego and the algorithms and things like that, it can bring you back to something else. Put the [ __ ] phone down. Go read a book. There's plenty of inspiration everywhere. Hear a song you never heard before. Go see a sunset. Go look at some birds. Talk to your mama. There's inspiration everywhere. And like the easiest way to get inspired or even be entertained is these little devices. So every once in a while, there's some people say some cool [ __ ] on there. But just realize that's a computer [ __ ] with your mind. Like, put that [ __ ] down. Get out the house. Go for a walk. Talk on the phone. Interaction. Interact. Interact with with people, places, things on this planet. And if not, information, real information, go to a [ __ ] library. Go to a bookstore. Pick up some [ __ ] somebody said, not on the [ __ ] phone, you know? Get a, just find somebody smarter than you and ask them what the [ __ ] is going on, you know? Like, there's no, there's no, um, it has to be circular to your life. 'Cause it, it doesn't matter coming from Theo said, "Go do this." No, it, it has to be somebody special to you or somebody who who has an impact in your circle like that that's poignant. And you say, "Ask, ask somebody who you think wouldn't read, what have you read? What, what, what would you suggest I do?" Or somebody that you can't stand, you know, tell them to go read something, you know? Like, you find a lot of inspiration coming and going like correct goofy [ __ ] you know, in your life. Correct them. You know, an [ __ ] tell them not to be one. Just, you know, your sister smoking, stop smoking, you know, crumple up a cigarette, let her smack you, you know, [ __ ] like that. I guess I'm also just curious like to know if, uh, you know, if Theo, who Theo Parish, would go out of his way to catch for a show? Oh, you mean like that? You mean directly? All right, I'm playing with you. No, okay. No, I, I would, um, I would go check. I would go check. It's kind of, it's kind of nepotism. I would go see Spectre. Spectre's [ __ ] dope. He's my favorite DJ. Oh, yes, he is. Just what it is. He's dope. He has guts. He, he's guts and he's extra clean. Like he's probably, he's, he's so clean, he's guts. So he's just an all-around good dude. Um, in terms of, uh, in terms of a DJ, I go check him out. Instagram rocks. It's the best. Thank you. Thank you. Rely on the algorithms.

H, uh, music become like powerful tools. Yes. Uh, do you believe music become still become, uh, tools for humanity? For humanity? Yes, absolutely. It has to. It has to. Yeah. Yes.

[Applause] You said just by now, uh, about, you know, finding inspirations, reading. And I know that we know that you're an aid writer, you know, you, you already published, uh, the book, you know, and I read that, uh, you made, you know, for me, you know, at least a really powerful and intriguing statement. So, uh, the wrote that, uh, you know, on one hand, you wrote that, "No sound is wrong, no sound is too elusive to escape arrangement." One signature, right? Yeah. Absolutely. But before that, you also wrote that, "This comes in line what Hest just mentioned, and even more powerful that when music and dancing are policed, we know that it is indeed powerful." So this idea seems to speak to both the, not only the boundless creativity, uh, that comes with the music, but its capacity to challenge and also threaten establishments. That's right. That's right. So in that case, you know, how do you see this, you know, interrelated concepts, you know, complement and I mean, can be something that we keep on holding and trust? Well, we have to trust it. If we, if we're trusting in humans, and we're trusting in the human condition, and we're trusting in that expression, we can also trust that there's always going to be systems to try to compress people. So in the same places that you need that to drive outward, and you need to to communicate with someone, right? There's always going to be systematic ideas of controlling people that are going to run current. So it's, it's stasis that won't do that unless that is doing that. So as long as we're reflecting on off of each other constantly, right? There's always going to be tension on top of that, trying to capitalize on that, right? That's how all the isms are built. That's how governments are built. That's how all these things are built. These things are built that way because it's overdone. This will always be able to balance itself when we get into different nations with different geographies and different languages and different economies and different types of people. Now we're talking about power and balances. Now we're talking about not everybody believing or knowing the same thing. Now, belief, belief is very different than knowing. Knowing is personal. It's personal. It's upfront. You don't have to believe in something that you already know. It's evident. It touches you already. When you deal with belief, it's a scary thing because then belief means that it can be manipulated by things outside the one and the two. The one and the two know each other already. The belief is the one that says you're suspending the knowing. Now, there's nothing wrong with belief, but I would say that it's better to know than it is to believe. So if you say, "I believe in God," yeah, but do you know God? Do you know music? Do you believe in music? Do you know love? Do you believe in love? So there's always going to be systematic things on top of that to try to govern things that are that basic and that that energetic. Is is water and the elements? I mean, these things, this is this is the constant tension of of of of the modern world. The the thing that governs us most, it's not going to come from other men. It's going to come from our pocket. Self-govern. Self-check. You want freedom? Throw this away. But we need it, right? It's a [ __ ]. It's a [ __ ]. Yeah.

But we do come in a situation that now that we expand our caring, we expand our, you know, uh, trials and tribulations. The others, you've been, you know, in, uh, in this situation, uh, when you know it is embedded in us to fight oppression, you know, to show our cultural identity. And how far can we push music as a, not only as a cultural movement, but as a social movement that matters for the world? Right. Bad is for the world right now is what the issue is. 'Cause it's, it's, it's not necessarily easy, but those things that you said can become, that becomes an extension of something else. That ex, that becomes an extension of your humanity. What you said up until the point of that the world. 'Cause now again, we're asking people outside the conversation with different geography, different this, different that, different perceptions, different ways of looking at your ideals and your connections, in sometimes a predatory way. And so maybe, maybe if even if they could see it as important, it's not to their advantage to do so. So that's, that's where we run into a bit of an issue. And that's where we run into that difference between believing and knowing. Because once you know, if you're in knowing, then it becomes a strength that doesn't necessarily, that can then, that can elude control. It can elude those things. But if you say, "I believe," I got my flag. Flags can be burned. But if you put the flag, oh, your kids got it. The generations got it. Everybody's moving in unison with it. But that's the, that's the difficulty. Because most, most, most people love symbols. And a flag is a symbol. What is a, what is a, what does a flag represent when you think of it? What does a flag mean? The colors mean XYZ, yes. Who holds it means XYZ. But it's that is really what that is built on. So we run into complicated things. We have to, that's the beauty of me being here too, and the beauty of you being anywhere, is to confront or to challenge. And maybe a challenge ain't challenge, a hug. Challenge is a hug to keep what it is that you have, but then somehow go other places with it and keep it intact. Doesn't mean it's not going to be easy or the easiest, but it can be done. And that, that it changes minds. It changes minds. And those are the, those are the revolutionary acts. Revolutionary acts are very localized these days.

I do believe that we don't necessarily have to be, you know, uh, conversing. Oh, no. You know, in in a way that, uh, I, I, I like the, the, the, the idea that, you know, when a talk allows us to challenge ourselves. Oh, of course. And thank you for that. And, you know, we do still have plenty of time, you know, to mingle, to know you personally. And I would like to dedicate the time remaining time to allow for, you know, uh, you to play one or more two songs. And then with that, we're going to conclude the night. Uh, because I do believe that, uh, a number of the audience want to speak directly to you, to show again, to to get the token of appreciation, you know, of, you know, being such a dedicated devotee, not, not necessarily to you, but to what you present in your arts. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to, you know, once again thank you all of you for your patience, for your passion, you know, for being here. And then, you know, with that, uh, definitely we want to, you know, convey our sincere gratitude to you. In Bali, we would say "Matur suksma." We render our hearts to you in entirety. And, yeah, and, uh, I would love, you know, we would love to, you know, continue this with, with the music. And we wish you well. And for all of us, once again, a round of applause for everyone. As Theo mentioned before, keep the love, keep the peace, understanding, and caring. Oh, man. Thank you, man. Thank you very much. Thank you guys so much for having me here. And, and like, you know, this conversation, this atmosphere, you guys energy, personalities, and questions, man. It was a do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Playing another jam. All right, we'll play a jam. All right. Um, this is, uh, kind of crazy. This is something I made just for a, uh, for playing. Um, you might recognize it's like an acapella that goes over a beat track that I did. And I changed the beat track just for an acapella. This is for, this is a lesson I learned. You asked about a compromise, right? I recently did a party with a legend in my hometown, and he told me before I got there that there wasn't going to be any turntables. Yeah. And I was heartbroken. But I, I, I loaded up, I ripped up a bunch of chipsticks, and I went over there, and the chipsticks didn't work, and it was embarrassing. And I, I vow to never do that again. This is one of the special things I made to play with this, this amazing person. And here it is. I didn't get [Music] this. Oh, oh.