NYU Nightlife

XNXLND

A few months ago, I swung by Anchor Bar to say hello to @DJFreshDirect. It’s always awkward when you’re talking to DJs while their DJing, because they’re working and can’t really give you their attention. Well, Dylan could. While DJing, he gave me his headphones and let me listen to a track he was working on with @SilverMedallion, “Hey Cinderella.” While this wasn’t as memorable as the time he left me in the DJ booth at tenjune to stand in the middle of the dance floor and listen to his remix of Zedd’s Spectrum, I still felt cool for being able to listen to something before everyone else. 

Now, the full project, dubbed “XANAXLAND” has been released. I have never tried xanax, but this EP kind of makes me want to. 

Oren’s trademark raspy voice tells stories of sex, drugs, and nightlife, while Dylan continues to produce quality. Any DJ who isn’t paying attention to what FD puts out is frankly, fucking up. 

Between the new music and random pictures of hot half naked women, their blog isn’t a bad look either. 

I could go on about how current the lyrics are and how dope the production is, but I won’t. Just do yourself a favor, steal a few bars from your mom’s medicine cabinet and Download XANAXLAND here. 

Fall Break Abroad 2012: An Anonymous Account

Interview with @TheChainsmokers Part I: Alex Pall

Where were you born?

New York City, Mount Sinai

I have had some pretty shitty jobs growing up. My first job was at a pet store, then I worked as a landscaper, then in the warehouse of a auto party supplier, then as a caddy, so I have a real respect for manual labor. After that I interned for a number of Galleries. Otherwise I spent most my childhood doing what any kid does, discovering woman and porn, being destructive and I practically lived outdoors. Also, thought I could maybe
make the NBA, shattered dreams.

Growing up I was a hip hop head. After the Raffi tapes didn’t cut it I bought Space Jam soundtrack which was awesome but the first CD I ever bought with my own money was Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle”… Actually have an embarrassing story about calling my sister the N word cause I had no idea what it meant I just heard Snoop using it a lot, my mom heard me and kicked me ass. But ya lots of Wu tang and I’d say I’m more Tupac than Biggie.

What school did you attend and what was your major?

I transferred from American University in DC Freshman year to New York University’s, Gallatin School. Everyone who went to NYU knows Gallatin is what’s up.

Well as those who attended Gallatin know, its called a concentration. I focused on the commoditization of art over the course of history. So I took a lot of art history and business courses and mixed in some languages and sociology courses.

What year did you graduate?

2007

When did deejaying become a full-time job?

When we started getting paid well, sometimes we Dj 6-8 times a week sometimes its 2 or 3. I still work at the gallery that hired me out of college, Metro Pictures, I have actually worked there full time for 4 years while Djing nearly every night. It has been brutal at times but I love the structure it gives me and art is another passion of mine. Just recently I went part time at the gallery the to devote more attention to music.

Were you ever a promoter?

Yes I regrettably was, and I considered lying and saying no cause promoters have the worst wrap, but I did it for free booze, to get into the good spots and meet girls and that¹s exactly what happened. My best mates, Zach Iser (who’s now a big wig ICM talent agent) and my friend of 19 years Evan Spesier started The Dunmore Group. We worked for ourselves and actually had some really good momentum with it, until we decided it was a good idea to issue company credit cards to ourselves. At that point things went south
when instead of getting paid at the end of the week I was paying the company back for massive credit card bills I ran up. For some reason I felt like I wasn¹t responsible for the card, but boy was I wrong. Anway, eventually we all grew out of it as college winded down cause mass texting is not a good look, but I used the skills I ascertained, the people I met and the parties I threw as leverage to really get into the scene as THE CHAINSMOKERS. I can assure you when we were hired first it wasn¹t cause we played good music it
was cause we brought a party.

Why/When did you start deejaying and what was your first DJ name? Where did
you play?

I started Djing when I was around 14. My mom got me Pioneer CDJ 100s and my
friends and I would mess around all day on them making mix tapes for ourselves. I think I went by DJ React back then, but by went by I mean only I knew that. I started playing sweet 16’s, bar mitzvah’s and silly parties and events for the people in my town. Once I dj’d a party for adults that only wanted disco. I clearly was not born in the disco era nor did I know much about it at 14 years old. That night someone came up to and goes, “This
is the worst disco I have ever heard! They would never play this at Studio 54!!” To which I replied, “Dude, I am 14 years old” while simultaneously watching Micahel Crighton grab ass on the dance floor. So there was a lot of this, my mom dropping me off with my equipment and picking me up after, but the money I was making quickly paid for itself, so my mom got on board and we hustled Westchester. Then I went to boarding school and brought my equipment with me. Within the first day there my Dorm Parent, Ill call him
Mr. Clean, came up yelled at me for playing my music too loud cause we were rocking out in my room and stole my power chord and that was that for Djing at school but I still did all the school dances.

How did you meet each other? How were @TheChainsmokers born? 

I answer this question to much. We met drinking out at Marquee, and a Chromeo concert. Rhett¹s ex hated me and they had just broken up so we used her as a point of discussion and a bottle of vodka and the rest is history. The Chainsmokers were born out of thinking the nightlife scene needed an injection of fun and better music. It seemed stale we thought we could do it better so we have it a shot. We decided our debut together would be at a party we created called the Mustaschio Baschio Twister Party. We had 2000 staches given out and covered the whole club with twister mats. Dj names are cheesy, we were learning how to play together, we smoked a lot, The Chainsmokers seemed cool enough, we had no intention of it sticking, and now here we are.

Any funny memories/illegal activities you care to share?

• The time we walked out of **** on Labor Day weekend when we were supposed to DJ, we said it was cause we shit ourselves, well it wasn¹t that, it was cause they were being dicks so we left.
• Also, once in LA we were supposed to DJ **** ##, we got there and it seemed lame and we got a call from our manager that *********’s closing party needed a DJ cause JusSke got sick. So we just walked out and went to ********* instead cause it seemed like it would be better, which it 10000% was. That night ended up being one of the best nights ever. Some rich guy literally must have blown an 8 ball off our records while Djing for a packed room, but that wasn’t the fun part. 
• I once smuggled drugs into ****** for ****** ***** ******** which we were playing, who smuggles drugs into ******? so dumb 
• Oh and once we Dj’d *** on mushrooms, well the last 15 minutes of our set. Our friends are truly assholes for dosing us that night luckily we were basically done.
• I got hit by a car also on the way to DJ at *** once, I still went to the gig cause I needed the money and was rushing off Adrenalin, but when Rhett realized I was bleeding everywhere, I went home.

What’s up next?

PRODUCTION and lots of it! We want to make original music for the world and that’s what we are doing, but as Rhett famously said, we are such judgmental pricks, that we have got to make hot shit cause we talk to much shit to make bad music. Playing other peoples music is cool, but that¹s a dead end road eventually.

Favorite restaurant?

At the moment Rubirosa edges out Café Gitane for me. Their Vodka pie is on a whole nother level.

Now Playing?

Viceroy is a pal of ours his disco remixes are amazing. Also really enjoying the new Flight Facilities Track, With You and any deep house by Tensnake or Karmon. I love big room progressive but when you’re chilling out, it doesn’t exactly put
you at ease.

Parliaments, if they went out of business I would quit.

Interview with Max Harrington-Knopf

On Anonymous Tweeting

As most of you already know, twitter has become over-saturated with ‘anonymous’ nightlife accounts. It used to really piss me off. I saw it as if there was a party that only the right people knew about, that suddenly leaked, and now had to deal the bridge and tunnel crowd. I felt I should be the “doorman,” and not let them in on the conversation. Then I realized I was being an elitist prick and was tired of following 20 people. I remembered why I started @NYUNightlife; My mom began following my personal twitter and caught me in a “where were you last night?” lie. I remembered the freedom I felt being able to say whatever I wanted, and the fun I had early on when no one knew who I was. 

I get it. You work for a company and don’t want them to know what you’re doing after hours. If you’re just starting out, I wish you luck. Just do us all a favor and don’t retweet everyone and suck dick to get more followers. Find a voice, try not to tweet too personally, and contribute. I stole #NightlifeBirthday and perhaps overused the #tweetofthenight thing, but I also made stickers, homeless signs*, and now I’m interviewing people. I’ll save the @KirillWasntHere story for another time, but the point is you have to bring more to the table than a fork and knife.

Anonymously Yours,

En Wayu

*NYNightlife gave me the Operation Homeless idea

Interview with DJ Theory

First off congratulations on graduating this year… Let’s just start with the basics…Where are you from?

I grew up in Connecticut, about an hour or so outside of the city. 

Which artists influenced you growing up?

I heard a lot of jazz from my dad, miles davis, john coltrane, chet baker. I use to listen to that kind of stuff in car rides with him. I grew up listening to hip hop, puffy had just assumed the alias p. diddy, rockafella was running shit with freeway, memphis bleek, young gunz, mariah carey was crushing it, I remember watching glitter and thinking, “I should be a DJ and date her, huh.” I feel like there was a lot of sample based hip hop coming out at the time. I used to buy CDs and read the liner notes to see where the samples came from. I grew up in an interesting generation, vinyl was gone but not forgotten, CDs ruled the digital world, the mp3 became relevant around the time I turned 13/14. I was able to get my hands on a lot of music; I still have a some mp3’s I downloaded on napster with DJ Clue shout outs all over them.

What school at NYU did you go to? What did you study?

I went to Gallatin. God bless that program, seriously. Let me just repeat that one more time, Gallatin is fucking sensational. I was able to focus on music, and took courses that actually mattered to me. I’m actually the secret bastard child of the Clive Davis School of Recorded Music. I don’t even think they know that. I took 64 credits there. Literally, half of my degree was there. I think that should make me a minor? I’m not sure; I probably just didnt fill out some paperwork to get a minor or something. I made friends with the person who registered kids from different programs in Clive Davis classes. Brought her brownies and shit. Asked her how her day was going and BOOM I was in whatever class I wanted. I went to lectures by Swizz Beatz I wasn’t supposed to; I found that if you usually just show up somewhere and are eager and attentive, NYU will probably accept you. Anyways, I wanna learn how to engineer or how to master a record… okay so take “The Art of Mastering” at 2 PM, and an engineering course with (insert music industry legend here). I looked around at what I was doing with my life and career, and built my degree around that. Took a real estate course to learn more about how commercial real estate works in the city so in case I ever wanted to open a spot, maybe I didn’t need a realtor. Gallatin isn’t a trade school though so I need a concentration in something some what academic. My senior year came around and all I had done was take music courses and DJ’ed and I was like well fuck, lets pull something together. So I made a concentration in the psychology of a performer; a concentration that addressed everything from stage fright to the ethics of nightclubs. Does the short cut to bigger better gigs do you a favor or a disservice, whatever the short cut may be? It was sort of a critique of nightlife too, and the DJs role in it. DJs see a lot of shit. You’re almost an employee of a club. Are you more an employee or an artist?? Should you commodify your labor and not maintain your artistic vision? (I wish cashin’ out had come out 2 years ago, all I would have to say is: DO U CASH OUT OR NO?). Ultimately I combined what I did in my professional life and what I did in the classroom to form a kick ass degree. I cannot repeat this enough: if you’ve already figured out what it is you wanna do or who you want to be, TRANSFER TO GALLATIN and fuckin do it. LIfe is too short for requirements. 

Did you dorm?

I never dormed. I actually transferred from Sarah Lawrence my sophomore year. I found a great apartment on Mercer St with a pool on the roof and asked kids what the fuck a dorm was. 

Freshman year memories?

None pertaining to NYU, sadly. My freshman year I was at Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville, which is 30 minutes outside the city in westchester. I use to take the metro north into the city at 8:45 PM to go DJ, but the last train out was at 1:53 so I’d have to catch the 5:25 AM one to get back to my dorm room in Bronxville. I also use to lug my own mixer around, so I would fall asleep in grand central clutching my backpack and mixer like they were my first born child.

Funny stories?

I DJ’ed at [name redacted, a nightclub] and they gave me a free bottle. Standard practice. I had a few sips out of it, and popped the cork back in it (it was Patron Silver) and stashed it in my backpack, almost like a little snack for later. DJ the night, go home, pass out. Woke up at 11:30 AM, my class started half an hour ago, had an oh fuck moment, grabbed my stuff and sprinted to class. Walked into the lecture hall in the stern building, the big one and found a seat at the back. I sling my backpack off my shoulder and half way to the ground I realize its my DJ bag. OH fuck, the patron is in the outside pocket. My bag hits the ground and the patron bottle EJECTS like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle. This thing starts rolling down the stairs of the massive lecture hall. Clink clink clink, I swear to god, it got louder with each stair. About half way down, the actually top of the bottle comes out, and patron starts guzzling out everywhere. The bottle comes to rest at the feet of the professor (who actually didn’t speak english very well, I’m not sure how he was teaching a course on economics..) Talk about fucking awkward.

Also, I’ve taken out my laptop in class (having not shut down Serato the night before), opened my computer, and “RACK CITY BITCH, RACK RACK CITY, UGHH RACK CITY BITCH RACK RACK CITY, 10 10 20 ON YO TITTIES BITCH” starts blaring from my laptop speakers amidst a discussion on political justice and social welfare.

Why and when did you start Deejaying? First gigs?

I started when I was thirteen, I’ll spare you with the typical-parents-records-learned-in-my-bedroom story (haha, but I did do that). My first gig was at the now defunct One Little West 12th for 150 bucks I think, maybe even free. I worked for an awful awful douche-of-a-promoter who will remain unnamed. This guy told me NOT to play “any of that cheesy old 80’s shit” on the NIGHT michael jackson died. Horrible. But it was a good way to be introduced to nightlife, at the bottom with a long way to go. There’s a series of certain spots that everyone on the come-up plays at first; Su Casa (gone), 205 (also gone), Antik, La Zarza.. I did all of those, it was fun and shit pay, but I loved it. I was so green and so excited just to DJ.

Tell me about being signed to 4am.

I met Jonny very early on, and hes been like an older brother to me, much like everyone else. 4AM is great. It’s a gathering of industry heavy weights that vouch for you. It’s a brand. If you’re on 4AM you don’t suck. In fact, you’re fucking awesome.

You travel monthly now… between ATL & LA, what’s “that life” like?

I love traveling. I actually enjoy flying. I’m sure this will change in 100k + miles. A group of my close friends moved to LA or live there, so going to spin out there is great, I have a whole crew of close friends I get to see and stay with. Traveling and DJing is definitely a chore though, you miss out on things like Sunday’ing (cleaning your whole apt and watching HBO) because you’re flying home. But the juice is worth squeeze if you ask me.

You recently put up tv wall mounting tutorials on instagram along with picture of quite an impressive production studio, what kind of music are you making?

Ha! Yeah. Whenever I don’t know how to do something, I like to figure it out myself. People rely on others too much to do stuff for them; mount a tv, deliver food, etc. I’m a TV mounting expert after doing it 10+ times haha. I built my studio from scratch. Not a Mac pro, keyboard, headphones and torrented fruit loops, I mean a real studio. Analogue gear, good monitors, acoustically treated the room. I do a lot of engineering, I’m working on a full mix/master of this artist’s album this summer. I work a lot with my production sidekick/friend/partner DJ Fresh Direct too.

Favorite restaurant(s)?

Hmm… Different restaurants for different things. Late night eats: Bubby’s, Waverly diner on 6th and L’express. Blue Ribbon is up there of course. I eat meals at weird times, so late night eats are what came to mind first

#NowPlaying? spectrum by zedd, great track

Nightlife needs [fill in blank] bigger clubs. More clubs. Not lounges. Not quaint rooms. Large nightclubs. 

NYU taught me [fill in blank] how to make the system work for me, not work for the system.

This one time, I was deejaying and [fill in blank] told lindsay lohan to go fuck herself by accident. We ended up chilling after someone told me who she was. 

As a graduate, what’s next?

Music. And life.