Holland is a really small country, but with a very strong club and festival scene. Dance music has been huge in Holland since the late eighties. So there were a lot of opportunities for producers and DJs to release records and play live.
The DJ still has the relationship with the people, I believe. I don't know to call the DJ 'the ambassadors' or what, but we still are connecting the dots, getting the good stuff and passing it on to the people. DJs still have relevance, even with the technology that elevates the DJ beyond being a selector.
I just think a lot of people don't give credit to EDM producers or DJs. People think they're just button pushers and just get on stage and don't really perform.
I go out pretty much every night, and when you spend time in those clubs, watching how the DJs make their mash-ups to heat up the room, you want to create that sound yourself.
When I was growing up, radio DJs were celebrities, not just the people singing the songs.
Philly DJs sort of always won battles and always won awards and stuff like that and were always super sharp.
Instead of the wacky morning show that sounds canned, my team is sitting over there, waiting for me to say something or ask something. And sometimes the reaction is awesome, and sometimes it's terrible. But they're reacting as humans instead of as DJs.
A lot of people felt I was getting work because I was Boy George. My response at the time was that there's a lot of DJs making records, they're not all making good records, but they have the right to do that.
From the age of 14 to about 20, I bombarded record companies and DJs with my demos. I was desperate to get it out there. Most of the time, I got nothing back.
He was an original, an innovator, and his influence will forever live on in our culture. Whether they know it or not, all DJs have been influenced by him. Thank you, DJ AM.
