DJ Z-Trip in 2011 >> has been setting it off all over the world, hitting the decks from here to there, Australia to Japan, back and forth, etc. He lives in LA these days with residencies in several other cities but the desert homegrown Z-Trip will always call Phoenix his homebase. I recently got to catch up with him in his return to Tempe and talk about how fun this year has been before he brings in 2012 at the NYE party at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Steve Aoki rocked the massive party last year and this time the city is going to get an even sicker DJ to bring in the new year. Always a pleasure to speak with Z, here's some of what we bullshat about [stay tuned for pics/vid from the NYE party in SF].
MARC: What goes into your sets? How do you choose what this crowd is going to hear versus another?
Z-TRIP: It depends. I have different directions that I can go but it really depends on the vibe I’m getting from the crowd. If I play something and I think they’re going to like it and they might not then I’ll keep trying until I find the sweet spot. Or if I know it’s a town that I can go really deep into one style I’ll go there. If it’s a town that likes something a little bit more I’ll go that direction. But I also try to customize my sets a little bit to each town, make it a little bit more specific with themes to make it a little more interesting for me and also and to show them that I’m not just up there playing the same set that I played the night before.
MARC: What do you miss most about being a regular out here in the desert scene?
Z-TRIP: There’s way more opportunity out here than in places like LA, New York, whatever. The scene is still bubbling and finding itself and always reformatting and refiguring itself out. People come and go and you have your core people as well but there’s still an opportunity for people to really rise up and be the king or queen of whatever it is out here. It was also a bit frustrating because we didn’t always have the vehicles to do the things that we wanted to do so we had to make it up ourselves and get really creative. In LA and now that I’ve gotten over that hump, it’s easier for me to do what I want to do but I miss having the weekly out here that all the locals would come out to. It was very organic, very real and there was opportunity to conquer the world. People coming up here know that. You know that if you live here. In LA not so much. New York, not so much.
MARC: The last time we spoke, we talked about vinyl versus digital. Have your views on what vinyl is to the scene changed over the years?
Z-TRIP: Yeah because the technology has changed. Digital media is running the world and it’s easier to perform in that regard. But I’m always up for a challenge and I like the challenge that vinyl presented because when you threw that record on you only had so many ways to manipulate it. Now you can take a song, chop it, re-edit, slow it down, speed it up, pitch shift it. You can do so much to it that the possibilities are almost endless which is great but it’s also made the challenge go away. To me it’s made DJ-ing with digital format so easy that anyone can do it so it’s made it a little bit lazier. When you watch a DJ go up there and play digitally some people just get away with murder because it’s easy to do now. I miss the little bit of that that even playing field where if you didn’t own that record, you couldn’t play it. If you heard somebody play that record you couldn’t Shazam it, then download it and have it the next day - you had to go out and find the record. It made DJ-ing a bit more interesting, a bit more fun. Being inspired by other DJ’s and the hunt for the right record, there was an art to that, sort of like a chase or a treasure hunt. But it’s also really cool, it’s a double edged sword any way you look at it. If I hear something that somebody plays I can shazam it and now I got the song that was going to be in my head. Being able to roll around with my laptop able to play anything that’s in my collection is awesome but I do miss that leveled ground and the work that would have to go into really pushing the boundaries. Eventually it will get to that point again. People will find new ways to flip it and freak it. With digital there are people who really work that format, I like to think that I do as well, and keep it interesting. But there’s plenty of people who just hit play.
MARC: So are you still using vinyl anymore in your sets?
Z-TRIP: I use Serato so the 2 records aren't vinyl but I haven’t gone 100% digital where I’m doing nothing with anything and just touching a couple of buttons. I still like to scratch. I like the ability to fuck up a mix here and there. I like a crowd to be able to hear that. If a mix goes off and comes back on there’s a journey and a ride that happens. A lot of DJ’s who just start out digitally might not have ever saw or heard or remember guys spinning vinyl. Listening to old house DJ’s spin records versus house DJ’s now spinning digital tracks is a little bit of a different thing. I miss that but at the same time I don’t miss it so much that I’m like ‘FUCK DIGITAL’. I’m all about it.
MARC: I'm starting to produce now and I’m having so much fun with Ableton, Pro Tools and Reason. As a producer, what do you think are the best tools out there?
Z-TRIP: I think Ableton is amazing. I think Native Instruments has a lot of good stuff. I’ve always been a Pro Tools guy because I know it. For DJ-ing I think Serato is good. Traktor is good. There’s so many different kinds. Logic is a really good program. It really depends on preference. It used to be like Coke or Pepsi, now there’s a million different colas that you can choose from. Same rules apply to working with music in the digital world.
MARC: I've been taking an electronic music class, experimenting with the programs, going onto YouTube and finding demos. What's the best way to master the tools?
Z-TRIP: That’s the best way to do it. You maybe want some proper training but also find out what makes it work for you. I look at DJ-ing like how all the Jedi’s had different lightsabers and different techniques. One guy had a round one, another guy had a double lightsaber. It’s all just different kinds. They’re all lightsabers but I DJ different than that person DJ’s and this guy uses gear differently than that guy. The diversity in it makes it really interesting. If everyone is on the same platform doing the same thing, no new boundaries are really going to get broken. Your style and your technique could be doing something totally backwards from someone else’s but you’re flipping it and making it work. If you can find a way to make it work for you, that’s very unique and it’s going to make you stand out. I think it’s important to go down those roads and try new shit out.
MARC: We love you because you’re one of the best DJ’s in the world and you're from Phoenix. Anything you want to tell the people of out here?
Z-TRIP: I’m just honored and stoked to have taken it this far and it really wouldn’t have happened without the push from everyone out here. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported when I was just getting started because that was the push that got me to where I am now. It’s great to be back home.
zB
