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Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from/how did you get into music?
I grew up in a little beach neighborhood called Leucadia in the city of Encinitas, CA. I was always surfing and skateboarding, typical San Diego boy.
I got into electronic music in the early 2000s and it wasn’t until I got lost at Love Fest in San Francisco during my college years where I found Lee Burridge and it changed my outlook on electronic music forever. That was my taste of really good tech house, and then later that year I stumbled upon Plastikman at Coachella and my world was forever changed. I immediately fell in love with the minimal techno sound.
These two experiences have shaped the sound I’ve reached for in my performances and craft. Through these experiences and learning to DJ I eventually started throwing little bar parties with Mikey Lion and Porky, which led us to meet Lee Reynolds who was throwing similar parties in southern San Diego. We were linked at the hip as soon as we met, started going to desert raves together and we all thought, “We should do our own desert rave and leave the bars.” This is how Desert Hearts was born. It took on a life of its own and grew into the incredible community, labels, and movement that it is now. I’m eternally grateful for my journey and its still evolving :)
How is your sound evolving? What artists and genres do you like to mix at the moment?
I think music is ever evolving and is a reflection of the state not only us as artists are in but the state of the world too. I started my productions with tech house, then moved into melodic house and techno, got more experimental during the pandemic, and now I’m just trying to create things that pull influence from all of these personal eras. Clean Slate Glow is a perfect representation of my evolution in my opinion ~ it pulls from my early hip hop days with the vocal, my psychedelic side with the synth work, my breaks side with the kick pattern, and sprinkles of melodic techno to top it off :)
I mix a really wide range of artists so that’s a bit hard to answer, but I told the story above of my influences and how those early experiences shaped my sound today.
I’ve been branching into other genres in the last few years as well, such as breaks, indie, some more experimental electronica, and more. I think this new release pulls in a lot of those new genres and expresses the wide range of sounds that I love.
How do you feel your music influences or impacts your listeners?
- A lot of people tell me at shows that they listen to my mixes and sets in a way that feel therapeutic in a psychedelic way. I try my best to create a story and journey with my sets. Many people have told me its helped them to come out of hard times. I have countless stories of people taking psychedelics and just listening to my mixes and telling me that they came out the other side with answers and refreshed views on their lives. Music has always touched me in an intimate way and I’m grateful when I hear that my music does this for people as well. Music is the cure :)
What can you tell us about your latest release?
- Ever since the pandemic it feels like many people, especially artists, have had to reset or approach things in a new way. That’s how I entered the studio with this track, I wanted it to be different than anything I had put out, while still feeling like me and fitting my catalog. The title is referring to that feeling and glow someone has when they start something with a ‘clean slate’ and look at it through new eyes.
Has your sound changed much in recent years? What is your musical criteria?
- Of course, I think its ever evolving and I think some of my early answers dive into this. Music is a reflection of the internal and external states of us and the world. As I said above, I started my productions with tech house, then moved into melodic house and techno, got more experimental during the pandemic, and now I’m just trying to create things that pull influence from all of these personal eras.
Do you feel confident now to play a more experimental sound?
- Totally! During the pandemic I was doing live streams with the DH crew and we were DJing for like 16 hours at a time each week hahah It was wild and crazy but it also pushed us to dive deeper into he music we love. It was interesting because without a dance floor you could explore music more freely instead of trying to hold a crowds attention, people would be engaged on the chat instantly and there was this fluid communication between us. Coming out of the pandemic this experience taught me to take more risks and trust that the crowd would be receptive and I’ve seen incredible results.
We all know that the digital revolution has affected sales, but has it affected creativity?
That’s a tough one, in one sense I think creativity is separate from the financial side, but I’m also very aware that it's difficult to make money producing music now than it was in past times. For those of us doing music as our sole career, the financial stresses can be tough and that can negatively affect mood and work flow, which then affects creativity, but I try to use it as fuel. I know making music isn’t a big money maker these days, and I don’t approach making music for money, I do it because I love it, I want people to feel something, and that fuels my creativity more than the sales ever would.
Can you tell us what your future projects are?
Right now I’m buried in work for our 2024 Desert Hearts Festival. Outside of being an artist I’m also the lead director of the entire event. I have my hands in every piece ~ logistics, medical, security, art curation, vendor coordination, stage/lighting/sound… pretty much every piece. We have so much magic planned for this year’s event on July 4th weekend in Flagstaff, Arizona and we’re beyond stoked to be out there in about a month.
When I’m being the director of the fest I kind of have to put studio time aside and focus on that, so about 6 months of the year I fill this roll and the other 6 I’m solely focused on production, but also touring the whole time during both periods of the year. It can be a lot, but I love it so much and I’m so grateful that I have both avenues in my career to activate the many things I love to put my energy into.
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