In the EDM world, it used to take years to make a name for yourself. With the genre's rising popularity, it's recently gotten a hell of a lot easier to get recognized as a celebrity -- whether you actually deserve the credibility or not.
DJ Scotty Boy has put in the time and real effort to make a name for himself by working with some of the biggest names in the industry: Kaskade, Deadmau5, Benny Benassi. After returning from Australia, he's packing up again to head to Winter Music Conference. We caught up with him before his appearance at Vibe Music Week in Fort Lauderdale.
See Also:
The 40-year-old LA native has been keeping busy lately. Aside from his regular residency at Marquee in Vegas, DJ Scotty Boy has been traveling the world. After five weeks trekking all-over Australia -- Sydney, Perth, and his favorite city, Melbourne -- he's getting ready to hit up South Florida. He's playing a few shows for WMC, Vibe, and is even throwing in a short trip to Key West for some Spring Break parties.
Just like every industry insider coming to town, DJ Scotty Boy is excited to play at WMC. With the large DJ crowds he can depart from the more commercial West Coast sounds he's used to playing in Vegas and LA. He wants to focus on a more tech and funky house sound with electro mash-ups. "If I can play for a more industry crowd," he said, "I'm not playing Avicii or Swedish House Mafia. In Vegas and out East that's what they want to hear. Miami is more geared for DJs."
Currently, he's trying to stray away from the really big sounds of EDM. He's working on picking up on the tech and deep house he was hearing while in Australia. To him, the whole EDM scene has gone so hard, he thinks people are looking for something softer. He uses dubstep as an example. "Girls like house music, because you can dance to it. Guys like dubstep: like, dudes, in shirts, that drink beer (laughs). Anytime we have a dubstep night booked in Vegas, it's all dudes on the dance floor."
As a long-time DJ, Scotty Boy is trying reconcile a lot of the changes that have taken place in the industry. He thinks it's great that DJs have taken on celebrity status and have achieved so much mainstream recognition, but he worries that it's negatively impacting the music. He's seen a lot of kids come up through the ranks that haven't worked as hard to achieve fame: More like a popularity contest than a recognition of artistic talent. Scotty Boy frequently see it in Vegas with some of the big names -- it's more about the buzz than the music.
He sees a lot of artists caving into pressures to sound the same. "It's rare when someone comes along with a different sound," he said,"Take Nervo, he started with bug funky house sound, starting working with Afrojack, and now he has an Afrojack style. He started out with one thing and changed his style."
On the flip side, there are some newer artists that Scotty Boy is excited about. TJR toured with him in Australia and Scotty Boy is loving his sound. While the two have been friends for a while now, Scotty Boy is happy to have seen him blow up with three number ones on Beatport.
He's also eagerly anticipating Deadmau5's new work. According to Scotty Boy, "He comes out with a hundred songs at once. Last time I heard him play it was a funky house sound, He always changes."
As for himself, Scotty Boy has no plans at the moment. His main goal for 2013 is to keep up with productivity and tracks. And eat some Cuban food while in Miami. He plans to hit up South Beach's Puerto Sagua.. Not a bad plan.
Follow @CountyGrind