Ahead of DJ Pedestrian’s new EP release entitled “Give Me Some MO”, I caught up with him as he was at the airport, via Facetime.
管理者
Where are you flying to?
PEDESTRIAN
I’m flying to Virginia right now. Uh, I’m gonna help another musician finish an album. I’ll be there for a week in the studio. It’s been a bit of a stressful day getting everything together, but we made it.
管理者
Awesome, I don’t know any musicians from Virginia.
PEDESTRIAN
Pharrell, Missy Elliot, [etc]
管理者
Great.
PEDESTRIAN
There’s a really great underground scene there, too.
管理者
Pharrell doesn’t produce footwork, though.
PEDESTRIAN
No he doesn’t. But there’s a musician named K-dawg that produces out of Virginia. And there’s Obliv, a hip-hop guy. A lot of good musicians out there. I don’t know what they’re putting in the water.
管理者
Neither do I. I’m excited to hear what you guys come up with. Who are you collaborating with?
PEDESTRIAN
An artist by the name of The Florist. We’ve been friends for a long time.
管理者
Cool.
PEDESTRIAN
And last year we did some stuff with Boldy James. He’s a big underground rapper. I had a track featured on the record and it had some success.
管理者
Man, I love footwork. But you know what I love even more than footwork, is catchy titles. And your track PYP, has the catchiest title of all.
PEDESTRIAN
Why do you say that?
管理者
Oh, it’s just like intriguing, like the shape of the letters and then when you find out what it means, it’s like, oh, damn, like, like women and men will love that. You know what I mean?
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was uh, it was a last minute decision, you know, we were going to call it pop your pussy, but then like over text and communicating with people in the music video just to shorthand it. We were calling it PYP.
管理者
Where do you find that most of your revenue comes from? […] we’re both musicians. What do you find is the greatest source of income?
PEDESTRIAN
DJing gigs. I have a steady DJ job here in LA.
管理者
Cool
PEDESTRIAN
It pays well, man. I just DJ at a bar, but occasionally I get one-off gigs for events. And those pay a little bit more.
管理者
Do you go by the same name as a DJ?
PEDESTRIAN
Yes. [And] I throw all my socials up on the on the booth. It’s almost like a job at this point. It’s nice because like, I don’t typically play my music when I’m DJing at this at this bar.
管理者
Yep.
PEDESTRIAN
The demographic, is sort of expecting, hits, or or something that’s a bit more palatable. Cos you know, footwork and juke, it’s a bit more of a niche genre, and it takes a certain like aesthetic, a certain listener, to appreciate it. Occasionally, I’ll slip some stuff in. But, you know, I keep it, I keep it pretty palatable for the most part.
管理者
What’s in the water? What’s in the juke?
PEDESTRIAN
Exactly.
管理者
What equipment do you bring with you on travels across the country?
PEDESTRIAN
On this trip, I just brought my laptop and my hard drive.
管理者
Okay.
PEDESTRIAN
But, I was tempted to bring my guitar, because I’m gonna be helping my friend write some guitar music.
管理者
There was nothing like the keytar at Armin Only 2008 during the song “Never Say Never” by Jacqueline Godaert.
PEDESTRIAN
Awesome.
管理者
I saw Tame Impala here in Auckland, pretty sure they had electric drum kit.
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah, that’s that’s that’s incredible. I mean, like, one of the bands I play in, we use… a drum pad, like a Roland.
管理者
Yeah
PEDESTRIAN
I love hearing like genres kind of like using instruments in that format.
管理者
Mm-hmm.
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah, like I’ve thought about using guitar in some of the tracks that I that I make, but I just really haven’t found a way to incorporate it.
管理者
I have something against guitar, which is very unusual […].
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah, man, my 1st instrument was the bass guitar, and, uh, I played it, you know, from like age of 10 to like 17, and then I put it down. I put it down for a while to focus on electronic music. I would […] samplers. I got really into the MPC.
管理者
How do you make time to socialise as a very close to a full-time musician? Um, do you do mainly through gigs, collaborations, [or something else]?
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah. Mainly through, mainly through gigs and like my musician, like the shows that I play, you know,
管理者
Have you ever done back-to-back or shared the decks with another artist?
PEDESTRIAN
Yeah, I’ve done that before. So I DJed a lot at this rock climbing gym that they’re like cliqued up with a clothing brand. They’re actually like a cultural brand here in LA called Brain Dead.
Yeah, they do like Red Bull events or whatnot. But for this event, it was a collaboration with this Korean climbing brand. Then I I did a back-to-back set with Kushka. And she’s cool. We had a lot of fun together playing songs, and it was a good event.
管理者
Oh, wicked, yeah.
PEDESTRIAN
I played in a cave once in uh, in San Francisco. That was pretty cool, out in, uh, but I used to live there. And, uh, there’s, uh, I think it’s called Sutro Bats, but there’s a cave down there. I played in the cave.
Yeah, in 2014. I did a boiler room set under a different name. But what was cool about that was that I, it was like actually a boiling room. It was like a basement of my friend’s apartment.
管理者
Understood.
PEDESTRIAN
But it like it replicated a boiler room, which was like kind of thick. Like, I don’t think they’ve ever done anything like that.
管理者
yeah, no doubt, yeah.
PEDESTRIAN
But this was like when Boiler Room was, was like really DIY before they sold it to […]
管理者
You know, I’ve often, I’ve often suspected that there is a, sort of, uh, musical dimension that few are privy to and I, our readers might know more about it than I do, you know, as a DJ.
Have you got any tips for young DJs who, you know, might have just moved from somewhere like Virginia or, uh, someplace like that to a big city, uh, like Los Angeles or Tokyo? Have you got any advice or any, uh, observations, as somebody who has done this yourself?
PEDESTRIAN
No. Yeah, that’s a great question. […] Just like play what you want to play, persistence will lead to prevalence. Just like, believe, believe in yourself, believe in yourself, and if you keep doing that long enough, it’s going to take you places never imagined.
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