What influences you?
Everything around me, everything I see. In the morning when I wake up and look out the window, anything could influence me. Since day one, I enjoy life and I’m a positive person. I like to observe a lot. I like to see what people are wearing; I like to see why they’re wearing it. This impacts my music because I love to play with moods. I pick up on a mood or scenery and I’m still thinking about it the next day. It’s like a movie. All my music is made like a movie and I’m the director.
Most overrated?
Anything that has a big hype. When the hype touches something, then it gets to be boring, annoying, overrated, too much for me. Too much hype creates a monster.
Most underrated?
My crew, my DJ crew right now, Serán Bendecidos. They are young talents. Some of them have been cruising through the industry for five years and have yet to be discovered. Anything in the underground that is still not out. Music, photography, whatever it is, they’re pretty underrated because they’re still in the underground. It’s the flipside of the coin of being overrated. I always say: “you’re always hot until the moment you get the hype. Then you’re not hot anymore; then you turn from underrated to overrated, right away” (laughter). You can never come back from being overrated. Don’t believe the hype, as Chuck D said. You either stay underground and underrated, but one day they’ll catch you.
What are you most excited about, right now?
It’s all about my Serán Bendecidos tour. Nothing else, it’s all about it. I do this Serán Bendecidos t-shirt line, it’s a limited thing, it’s always sold out. You never had this in the electronic music scene before where people go crazy for merch. I was trying to find a way to bring my music closer to people. Fashion and music are always deeply tied together. Electronic music always loses itself, too much, in the music and ignores the fashion. So we’re dropping new shirts because no one is doing this in the electronic music world.
What’s next for you?
I’ve been working secretly on something for the last five years. It’s been cooking in my head for a long time. In the last few months, everything is becoming more and more serious. I don’t know if it’s going to happen soon, but something is coming. It’s the next thing, beyond music and merch. There’s also a project with a Detroit artist that’s coming out this year, it’ll be very intimate, very housey.
Bonus Question: Was that 5?
No. I don’t know. Did you ask five?
