In case you’re not neurotically obsessed with the local blogosphere, Basscamp is one of DC’s many up-and-coming DJs who lives and breathes electro, spinning everything from the most symphonic trance to the crunchiest dubstep (all jokes aside, I’m pretty sure electro IS his drug of choice). After an avalanche of new electrostep music was sent my way thanks to the ‘book, I dug a bit deeper and checked out some of his self-produced tracks, including a floor shattering self-produced Adele smashup that I re-posted here back in June. With friends demanding more Basscamp left and right, I figured that it was worth reaching across the still slightly awkward digital divide of social media.
Rolling In The Noize by DJBASSCAMP
Like any good journalist with zero background in journalism, I did a little bit of Facebook stalking on the man they call Zach Gorman, and after checking out his pictures from this year’s Ultra music festival, he seemed like he’d be a pretty cool dude to talk some shop with (or at least not hack me to pieces in a back alley in Adams Morgan).
By choosing a $2 domestic happy hour for our interview, I figured that the always disappointingly quench-thirsting Coors Lite could get the conversation flowing, and despite some pretty heinous service, we had a pretty good time debating the party potential of Applebees, the awesomeness of Lake Minnetonka (now I know 3 people from Minnesota!!!), and whether or not I should start liking Moombahton….
B: So Zach, what’s the inspiration behind Basscamp?
Z: So the moniker is inspired by a feeling I aspire to convey both in my production and in my performance. I've been an avid wilderness fan my entire life, which has taken me on countless adventures around the world, the most recent being a three week attempt of Aconcagua in Argentina during my Junior year of college. These adventures are always packed with a variety of emotion, but by far the most profound is the feeling of standing at the "base camp" in the shadow of a mountain. It's sublime and immensely humbling. I have felt very similarly about electronic music. These experiences have been some of the most important of my life and I want to share them with other people.
B: I hear that (note to self, cue up Basscamp’s Aconcagua mix tomorrow morning when I need to force myself out on a run), so what was it like growing up in Minnesota, do you still rock out to Purple Rain?
Z: Haha not really, I’ve never been much of a Prince fan. Growing up in the bastard cousin of the Midwest wasn’t that bad though, especially once we discovered the whole club scene.
B: No way, I wouldn’t exactly associate the Twin Cities with wildly awesome music…
Z: After getting tired of the whole high school party scene, a bunch of my friends and I saw Tiesto when we were 18, and that’s when I became obsessed with electro music. I had no idea about it beforehand, and thanks to Limewire, I spent the next few months listening exclusively to Tiesto trance mini-mixes.
B: Limewire, now that is a blast from the past. You went to Tufts, right?
Z: Yeah, not exactly the biggest party scene, but we had a pretty good time. I found a group of friends that were all into electro music, which led to our first adventure to the Ultra Festival during my sophomore year in 2008. Nothing can properly explain the feeling of standing amidst a crowd of tens of thousands of people all united by the same femur-rattling sound, and I was just blown away. After returning to South Beach during my senior year, I started mixing at a couple of house parties in May 2010 and people were just exploding to this whole electro genre that they’d never heard before!
B: So the first gig went pretty well I take it?
Z: In a lot of ways I was using DJing as a vehicle to expose people to the music [that] I was obsessed with, but I knew that there was a lot more to it than that. There needs to be some kind of substance beyond the music, so when I moved here, I wanted to take things to the next level.
B: As an even later bloomer to the local scene, I can empathize with the difficulty of booking gigs in a town that’s surprisingly full of talented DJs, what were your first few shows like?
Z: My first local gig wasn’t even in DC! Last September, I started out at PJ Schadoos, this overblown Applebees in Fairfax, and I could only convince the owner to cover my travel expenses. By the winter, I had booked a regular Friday night gig at Alero on U Street, which ended up being a lot more fun. At first I was like ah f*ck, there are like people still eating at midnight, but the people over at Alero are really cool and gave me free-range to play whatever I wanted.
B: Admittedly I never made it out to Alero, but I’m really stoked about this new Jimmy Valentines gig on H Street. You going all hipster on us now?
Z: H Street is a really exciting neighborhood, and I couldn’t be more content with Jimmy V’s. With 5-hour sets, it really gives me the opportunity to push the genres and get into the Moombahton…
B: Ah, I was making bets in my head over how long it would take us to breach the whole Moombah thing. Because of Moombahton’s homegrown roots, I’m inclined to support the movement, but honestly I don’t get it…
Z: So Dave Nada (Mooombahton’s founding father) is like a god to me – the first time I heard his slowing of the Afrojack ‘Moombah’ remix to 108 BPMs, my head exploded. The thing about Moombah is that it is so inherently electro, but people often get weirded out by the fact that they’re supposed to get their grind on to this stuff, which in fact they totally can, because its real sexy. The genre’s local roots make Dave Nada homecoming concerts so memorable because everyone whose there has a genuine appreciation for the music. What’s so cool about DC is that everybody is friends, so there are a lot of opportunities to collaborate with similarly minded DJs.
Dave Nada - Moombahton by T&ARecords
B: Ok I’m sold, hold on a sec, let me just download a few tracks on my Soundcloud app. As a blogger, I’m always amazed by the Internet’s ability to connect strangers to new music – from the performer’s perspective, how do you utilize social media?
Z: Well Twitter has blown up recently, and I think it’s so awesome that you have the ability to communicate directly with musicians. I actually had a funny little conversation with Laidback Luke the other day, and there’s no way I would have been able to do that without Twitter. I’ve got my website, Soundcloud, Facebook, etc., but most importantly, all my music is free to download. There was never a part of me that thought I should charge for music, because that’s just not what electronica is about.
Bubonic Hips by DJBASSCAMP
Click here to download DJ Basscamp's Summer Promo Mix....you'll like it
You can find DJ Basscamp online at www.djbasscamp.com and make sure to let him know what you think of his music on Facebook and Twitter.
0 comments:
Post a Comment