SPIN IT! : Q&A part 2: DJ Dus

We heard of DJ DUS from a friend of a friend of a bunch of friends, which made us be so eager to see him play live so when we actually got to check him out at SXSW '09 at Creekside we were so happy that he did not only meet our expectations but went beyond and blew our minds. Blending Hip hop with Cumbia and making it appealing to any crowd! The Kinetic Crew asked him some questions and here are his answers.

K: Why DJ Dus?

D: My name is dusty and i've never been one for fancy stage names.. even tho now i wish i could add a T to the end.. i unno 

K: Have you always used that as your alias?

D: yup, since i was born. 

K: Your hood:

D: downtown corpitos texas 

K: Projects worked on:

D: Did a remix for los kumbia kings back in the day, produced paula deanda's album for arista records and sold like 400,000 records, did some stuff for dj kane's albums, produced and wrote for LA CONQUISTA an all girl band from monterrey, and now im doing my own label AMERICANO and am working with hip hop and alternative latin groups from TEXAS 

K: What kinda music do we jam to when you’re spinning?

D: electro cumbia and club hip hop.. crunk i guess 

K: How old where you when you started spinning?

D: 12 

K: Are you on a record label?

D: AMERICANO. 

K: What do you use when you dj (Serato, Diital dj, Ableton, Tracktor, etc.)?

D: serato itch and ableton 7 

K: Why do you use that?

D: cus i can add beats to the songs im playing live on ableton and skratch and mix with serato all at the same time 

K: Where can we see you spin?

D: with the peligrosa crew in austin texas. or at a neighborhood bar in corpus christi! 

K: Where can we catch you next?

D: ill be up for peligrosa in august 

K: Name of a must have track on your set:

D: enemigo publico #1 

K: Who’s coming up with crazy power jams right now?

D: thats easy: toy selectah, dj orion, and dj panik 

K: Partner you’d love to work with:

D: toy selectah! 

K: How has producing music evolved since you first began doing it?

D: i used to make beats strictly on my mpc2000, i would have to sample the records into the mpc, chop them up and then play them to the tempo on the mpc, bounce those tracks to a recorder, then layer it, then go to a big studio and record the artist, go to another studio to mix and master.. now i can do it all in my laptop. 

K: What has been your biggest challenge as a dj/producer so far?

D: not being shy about my music and actually playing it out instead of just making it for my ipod.

K: Favorite dj experience of all times so far?

D: mmm sxsw was cool but i didnt get any good time slots really... pachanga fest in austin was fun as hell, i did that set like a band would, i even stopped the set a few times and talked to the crowd, it was fun. cinco de mayo here in corpus was freaking nuts 

K: Worst request ever:

D: lady gaga "telephone"

K: Most cliché track played by djs right now? 

D: "my chick bad" by ludacris, freakin banger! haha i love it tho

K: What’s the advice you would give young upcoming dj producers who are barely steping into the music business?

D: drop as much music as u can, dont hold back ur bangers cus noone will ever hear them. I had the best unsigned band ever and we never showed anyone our stuff, and then we disbanded and noone ever will (el sancho)

K: Where do we get your music?

D: djdus.bandcamp.com 

K: Anything you’d like to add?

D: support anything local.  

Catch DJ Dus at Club Deville 900 Red River st. Austin, TX $3 21+

For more on Dus check out:
www.djdus.com
http://www.myspace.com/dustyoliveira
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-DUS/106184423128
http://twitter.com/djdus

SXSW 2010 RECAP

BY  Z

Hello Houston! we finally catch up on our sleep! These two weeks have been crazy, SXSW rocked our socks out, WMC can only get better and better plus lots of shows in the HTX and Austin. We are finally now writing it all down or should we say typing, as we sip on much needed coffee.

Wednesday day #1

Online magazine Remezcla and BMI came together for this year’s SXSW and hopefully many other projects in the Latin Alternative scene, their showcase took place at “Mi casa cantina” the party got the grove on with songs like “Chicle”  from Los Angeles based band, La Santa Cecilia opening the show followed by Maneja Beto representing Austin.

One of the bands we were really looking forward to see live was Palenke Soultribe, based in LA with Colombian roots and flavor brought together Electronic music with Afro-Colombian rhythms burning down the house with “Popular Music” and “The Color of your dreams” at one point Itagui from Miami-based mash-up masters “Locos por Juana” joined them to perform.

Vicente Gayo was also one of the bands we were dying to check out and didn’t disappoint us whatsoever!!  These kids from Mexico put on a hell of a show with songs like “No Move” and “Rec, Play and Stop” followed by Volovan and  Maluca Mala who made a cover from Mexican singer Gloria Trevi who drove the crowd nuts!

   

 Vicente Gayo  photo by: Mario Contreras

Sounds of Spain never disappoint us, it took place at Entourage this year, we made a list of shows we wanted to see with no doubt and Los Planetas were on it, ever since their song “Mi hermana pequena”  we haven’t stop tracking them down, of course we got pictures taken and all.  Huecco performed in Houston with Maldita Vecindad the day before and we still had to go check them out, they’re just awesome!! Amaral and Nudozurdo made the crowd sing along their song and they gave out Paella, a Spanish dish and red Spanish wine which was pretty cool in case you were hungry!

   Nudozurdo  photo by: Mario Contreras

                                                            
















 

Los Planetas photo by: Juan Rivas

                                                                                  
Next stop was Iron Gate, goods friends from Kinetic were spinning where all the real party was going down.

We checked out great djs such as Sonora, Chief Boima, Lazer Sword, Poirier, Geko Jones, which wasn’t playing that night but stop to say hi, Pagame Uproot Andy from Que Bajo was spinning when we got there, we could hear  “Brooklyn Cumbia” blasting on the speakers as we were walking down the street towards the venue!! Other djs we weren’t familiar with but loved their mad skills were Ghosts on tape, Jahdan Blakkamoore. They also had great music in the inside of the venue with Lemonade, delorean, Orion and Dj Dus in charge of the party, they took turns and their sets were unbelievable. 

Maluca putting it down at Iron Gate photo by: Lucia Ayala