Scenestar

ARTICLE BY JAMIE SKOWRON
PHOTOS BY VERONICA MUNOZ

Just before the Rock Boxx Tour infiltrated the evening air at the Palladium in Hollywood, I was able to ask the mash-up pioneer DJ Z-Trip about his thoughts on the current musical palette and his vast spectrum of musical contributions.

SS: The line-up for this tour is pretty remarkable. How did it materialize? Do you have a personal relationship with the other artists or has this tour made it personal?
Z-Trip: I know or have performed with all of the artists on this show. To me, sonically, it’s exactly what I’d like to see in a show; it has all the elements, party rock and some heavy shit. I mean De La, any show with them works.

SS: Since you’re playing L.A. tonight, what are your thoughts
on the hometown talent Nosaj Thing?
Z-Trip: Yea it’s funny. When I met him, he was working at a Guitar Center that was around the way, and nobody really knew what he was really
doing. He was like, “Hey man. I mess around with beats, too.” And I
said, “That’s dope. That’s cool.” And then I bumped into him at a show in
Pasadena and was like, “Oh, that’s the guy from Guitar Center.” That
was when he was just getting his feet we, and it’s great to see him now. I totally back it 100%.

SS: In your career, have you ever had a particular idea
of which direction you wanted your sound to be headed? Or does the
direction define your sound?
Z-Trip: It’s kinda both. When I sit down to work on a project, I’ll go in on that particular sound for that project, and I’ll make sure that I zero in
on that. And the next project, a completely different sound than the
other, I’ll zero in on that, but I ultimately like to be as wide-open as
possible, because it allows me to cover more ground; it allows me to
also experience and absorb more music. I fashion a lot of what I do
and how I started after people like Rick Rubin or Quincy Jones. Rick
Rubin is a good example. He did all the early hip-hop shit; then turned around and did all the rock shit; then did some blues bands; and
ended up doing Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Mars Volta
Red Hot Chili Peppers; and that to me is kind of it. I love all kinds of
music, so I don’t lump myself into just one thing. When I perform, it’s
always about “rocking a party,” but what I listen to at home or what I
might make a project out of or when I make a remix or whatever, it’s
wide-open.

SS: With the many different generations of “mash-ups,” from
the late-’50s War of the Worlds sample then infesting the sound
engineers and producers of the ’60s and ’70s, even on the Beatles’
White Album (Revolution 9) to the many facets of the DJing scene and even more recently on Glee, what are your influences? Or do you consider it simply a technique in an arsenal of musicianship?
Z-Trip: I’m just glad that people have gotten a bit more open-minded to all kinds of music. There was a time where, when I first started Djing, if you listened to anything outside of hip-hop, then people in hip-hop would
question you. They would say, “Ah man. He listened to house also?!
I don’t know about that dude.” Or “He listens to rock?!” I always had an issue with that because I listen to everything, but I’m glad that we eventually got out of that. There was a minute there where you would DJ at a rave or something back in the day and there would be the “Techno Room,” the “Drum and Bass Room,” and the “House Room,” and everything was all separate. I never really got that. I never really subscribed to that, so the fact that people are incorporating different styles of all kinds into their everyday life with things like Glee or commercials, where people are just absorbing it all and putting it in, I think is a good thing. And I’m happy to have helped sort-of carve my niche in that. I’m happy that I could contribute to that.

SS: A lot of people and especially the mass media are into
genres. People love to have their classifications, and I think that it’s
great to have someone to pull them out of it.
Z-Trip: It’s like food or art or anything, if you are into all kinds of things… Say you just really like cereal, would you just eat cereal all day long? No, you wouldn’t. You would try different kinds of food, different styles—Indian food, Mexican food, whatever. That’s the same way with music. My diet musically is wide-open, and I’m glad other people’s musical diets are
wide-open. It makes it easier to play, experiment, and have fun with a
crowd that way.

SS: Reading crowds and feeding off their energy is one aspect
of a live performance, depending on the genre. Do you have any techniques in reading audience feedback?
Z-Trip: Yes and no. I think any DJ worth their weight has stuff that they know will work and has that bag to pull tricks from to make it work.
There are some people who will go up there and just play stuff that
only works. And that’s okay, but I like to sometimes throw curve
balls in the mix to make people scratch their head from time to time
and go, “ Hmm, what is this? This is unexpected; this is different.” I see them processing it like, “What is going on here?” And it’s that moment between the big things that everyone gets down, too. I like to sandwich interesting things in between those moments, because then you have ups and downs. You walk away feeling like you got an experience, you’ve traveled, you went
all over the place instead of just going in one straight line. To me, that
makes for a more interesting show, where you definitely have your
peaks and you have your valleys, too. And it’s important to have both.
It’s like a sin wave; it has got to be up and down instead of just a flat line.

SS: Yes, a healthy balance between tension and resolution.
Z-Trip: You need that. It makes for a more interesting show, instead of just turning it up to 11 and keeping it there for an hour and a half. After awhile, you just walk away numb.

SS: Any genre barriers that are being bended are most of the
time not necessarily accepted or appreciated at first glance.
Z-Trip: Yeah, dude. That’s half of my whole career, and that’s on one
side. I love that. I enjoy that because it’s important to push boundaries,
whether they work or they don’t, it’s important to try it. You
end up finding new things out about yourself and about your sound, and
the crowd also ends up finding new things that they might be into.

SS: To me, this whole concept is conveyed through an artist’s
music. All of that stuff comes straight out.
Z-Trip: Yeah, it’s important to do though.

SS: And for people who are unfamiliar with your style or even DJing in general, how much of a performance aspect is there? Some DJs come to a set with a production planned and no deviation, and others have a
totally hands-on approach toward their performance. Where do you fall in
the balance of these two extremes?
Z-Trip: I think it’s important to put on a show if you are performing and for people to see and connect with you in that regard. It’s not like they
just want to come sit and listen to music. They want to see something
happen. I always try to do a lot of work. I bring a drum machine along. I
try to lay heavy scratches on things and show people that I’m actually
physically doing something up there. That to me is the part of the
performance because I’m still very much in one aspect a very traditional,
real DJ with what I do. There are skills that are involved with doing what I
do, but at the same time, I bring video production and bring guests out and
try to turn it into more of an experience and a show than just going to
hear somebody play records or twist knobs.

SS: That’s a huge part of the LA scene. “Play pushers.”
Z-Trip: It’s a huge part of the electronic scene period, with technology being expanded upon and people having new ways to do new things. It has also made it easier to do those things, therefore a lot of people will just go on stage and push a few buttons and throw their hands in the air. Sometimes the crowd is none-the-wiser, but I know that the crowd that has come to see me through the years, they know what to expect. They know that I’m up there doing something. If I were to be up there just twisting some knobs, they would call me on that shit. I always still try to push those boundaries to be up there risking something, because it is a performance. The adrenaline has got to be pumping, and I’ve got to be walking a tightrope versus just going up there hitting play, knowing “this is going from point A to B to C, then I’m gonna talk here, and then I’m out.” There’s no heart or soul to that. My crowd gets that I think they connect to it versus other crowds that are maybe going to other shows for other reasons. My crowd comes because they appreciate the music and what I do, but the skills are definitely are a part of that.

SS: How much of your set is pre-planned and how much is
improvised?
Z-Trip: Everybody has pre-planned stuff; you need that—that’s your set. You also need the ability to improvise or to bob and weave if something isn’t working. You zig, and if something is totally working, you zag more that way. You have to have that; I come from that world.

SS: Which do you find yourself
gravitating toward more as a listener and as a performer: Old Skool or New Skool?
Z-Trip: It depends on the day, on the mood. One foot in both and equally the same amount.

SS: How has both the commercial and critical feedback of DJ
Hero impacted your musical path?
Z-Trip: I don’t know if it has really affected me in any way negatively. I think most people were into it. I was into it, and for me, it was probably more of a positive thing because it got me into other people’s worlds. People got exposed to me. And not just me—the other DJs involved in the game as well. I think it opened up more doors for people interested in what we do and DJing in general. Again, it’s a video game, so it’s not totally real, but the fact that there is another outlet for somebody to plug into and this is something they are interested in. I was really happy to get involved with that and be a part of that—and to be a character in a video game for doing what I do, it was very validating and humbling.

SS: What are your most active roles in the musical spectrum,
whether it be production or live shows?
Z-Trip: It’s 50/50. I always do shows, and I love doing shows, but I’ve been doing more production as of late, working on a new record and other projects. I’m doing some stuff with Dan the Automator. I just did a remix for a project that he produced for the Kasabian record. It had LL Cool J on the track.
Julianna (Z-Trip’s publicist): It’s coming out worldwide, except in the U.S., on Sept. 11.
Z-Trip: So that’s one of the things I’ve been doing recently. I like to remix stuff. I like to produce stuff. [Dan] and I are also working on a whole other project. And then I’m linking up with LL Cool J and doing shows with him. It has been good. The production stuff is always something I love to do. The performance is always something I love to do, but the production is probably where I’m going to keep heading because it’s much better to stay home and work on stuff. I’ve toured so much, and I love it, but it’s kinda nice to be home for longer than four days in a row.

SS: Which avenue of your musical endeavors gives you the greatest payoff as an artist, whether it be an immediate or lasting sense of accomplishment?
Z-Trip: I think it’s just having longevity in this game, being able to make a career out of it, trying to keep reinventing myself, trying to find different things that excite me sonically, and checking new things out. To be able to wake up each morning and say, “This is what I do and this is what I’m into.” Also to be able to work with all these different people, a lot of whom I grew up listening to—De La Soul, LL Cool J, Chuck D. These are people whom I grew up absorbing, and to actually be able to work with them and collaborate, those are the kinds of things that wake me up in the morning and [make me] feel truly blessed and humbled to be able to do this. That’s probably my greatest sense of accomplishment.

SS: Are there any artists of any genre that you feel need
exposure and respect?
Z-Trip: That’s tough. I’d have to flip through my library. The last one whom I really got behind 100% was Frank Ocean. He gave me a shout-out, which was amazing and I’m happy he did because it was totally out of nowhere, and that’s how I got turned on to it. Someone was like, “Yo man, you got name checked in this song.” And I think the mix tape had only been out for a couple of days, and I heard it and was blown away. This guy’s awesome. I told all my friends and Tweeted about it, saying this guy’s great. And now seeing him blowing up and making noise on the new Kanye West album, the new Jay-Z record—I love it. Check him out. His Nostalgia mix tape is awesome; that dude came out of nowhere, and I love that. There’s always a million MCs and underground dudes whom I’m always checking out. Nosaj Thing is a good example of someone who is up-and-coming whom I really dig. As soon as you leave, I know I’m gonna think of like fucking 80 dudes I could’ve just plugged. [Laughs] The amount of music that comes to me from blogs or from friends or whatever makes it tough because there’s so much coming at so many different times. At this point, it’s not about artists, it’s about genre. I’m always checking dustup, moombahton, electronic, rock, blues, crunk, southern stuff. I try and just keep an eye or ear out for the people who are making noise in those genres. Not just the dudes everyone knows, but the ones not a lot of people know and to always promote and back them and what they do. As a DJ, it puts me in a position to do that and pump that stuff out.

SS: It creates a musical lineage. You’ve done that to them so they can do it to someone else.
Z-Trip: Yeah, totally. It’s each one, teach one—I’m all about that.