Music Tells My Story w/ Luke Alexander & Purari 🎹

On this episode of the Grow My DJ Business Podcast, Cream, Luke Alexander, & Purari Discuss:

• Building personal relationships is crucial in the DJ scene.
• The electronic music scene has evolved significantly post-COVID.
• Creating a dedicated fanbase is essential for music releases.
• Selling tickets is essential for a DJ's success.
• Don't chase trends; focus on your unique sound.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Luke Alexander
• 1:34 Building Relationships in the DJ Scene
• 4:47 Navigating the Post-COVID Music Landscape
• 10:33 The Rise of Luke Alexander in Miami
• 14:50 Cultivating a Dedicated Fanbase
• 21:01 The Importance of Consistency and Risk-Taking
• 26:05 Managing Your Own Career
• 28:10 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
• 28:56 The Journey of a DJ: Patience and Planning
• 31:22 Setting Goals: The Path to Success
• 33:55 The Importance of Music and Content
• 36:21 Building Your Brand: The Role of Promotion
• 40:08 Finding Balance: DJing and Music Production
• 44:24 The Art of Reading the Room
• 52:42 Professionalism and Versatility in DJing
• 53:00 The Importance of Preparation in DJing
• 59:23 Navigating the New York Nightlife Scene
• 1:06:00 The Evolution of New York's Dance Music Culture
• 1:11:57 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Transcript

0:41

All right, what's up guys? Welcome to the 173rd episode of the Grow My DJ Business Podcast. My name is Kareem. My name is Perari. We have a very special guest today. We have DJ, producer, host, creator of the Azure Day Party. We got Luke Alexander in the building. What's up, bro? you guys doing? What's going on? Pleasure to be here. I'm glad we can make this happen, we've been talking about it for a little while, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. It's awesome to be here. our, our recent 2024 like wrap up show and we shouted you out as like somebody who's really been killing it. And you had a really incredible. Yeah, man. You had an incredible 2024. Not just with the shows, but with music. like congrats, man. We see, we see all the hard work for sure. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thanks so much. So like, you're Liv, you play at Liv, you play at Dare, you play at Trio, you play Marquis, pretty much every big spot on the East Coast. And this year you went international. So what are, what do you think attributed to that? Like what got you there? So a lot of it is personal relationships that you build with people. So when you've been doing it for a while, you go out to these clubs and you meet a ton of people from all over the place. You know, I have a manager from Amsterdam as well. And, know, you really start to build some personal relationships and they're like, we want to bring you to our city and show you our city. So that's a huge part of it. But also when you play such, you know, well-known venues and you get the content of it, it really speaks for itself and people would love to just bring that type of energy. to their venue and, I found a really nice place in, Barcelona with Choco. I love playing that room and, you know, in Italy space is amazing. so it's been really cool to travel the world and, you know, see places. I always, I always told myself, no vacations. I'm not going on vacation. I'm only going to vacation in the cities that I play in. So that, that was like my strict rule. So, you know, if I want to go to Tokyo, I better get booked. yeah, two dope places to go play and vacation in Florence and Barcelona, two of my favorite cities in the world. yeah. And you know, I've done stuff in Dublin, Ireland, and Amsterdam is my one of my favorite cities. you know, there's just fantastic places to play and like the electronic music scene in Europe is so so vibrant. It's so incredible. And, know, the States is here, too. There's a huge scene here in the States. And, you know, it's really it's taken off over the last. four or five years. mean, it's been, it goes in waves for me, right? And being out in the scene, I've noticed that right before COVID, like the years prior to COVID, hip hop was really big. You know, you had a huge push in hip hop during those years, 2016, 2017. And at that same time, Trap EDM and Dubstep were kind of in their peak, you know, recent peak. And then after COVID, man, it just like flipped to house music. And I've always been an EDM DJ. And, you know, starting off, Mikey knows we used to do teen parties together way, way back in the day. yeah. So, you know, I started off as an EDM guy and I dropped out of college a weekend. I was like, I'm not going to go to college. I'm going to become a DJ. And I realized that it's not easy to make money as an EDM act. It's not. So I got forced into playing some of these open format rooms, you know, opening up for open format DJs and headlining these open format rooms. But I always leaned EDM, you know, it was always like, I'll play the open format records, but it's going to be an edit, you know? And, that works really well in the bottle club VIP scene. you know, in soft ticket venues and stuff like that. but then, you know, leaving COVID, I was like, all right, I'm going to phase that stuff out and just. really focus and hammer in on the EDM side of my passion that has always been, I've been doing this since I was 14. I've always been into Big Room, Progressive House, then Tech House and indie dance now. just leaving COVID, there was just such a boom for it. Well, COVID was a big thing for you too, right, Luke? So from what I remember is when we were still running in the same circles, I remember specifically actually seeing you, I think it was at Life in Color. We were backstage in New Jersey. We do, and you got to send me that picture. tried, yeah, I can't find it anywhere, but you know, it's funny because I remember you on the grind doing that stuff as well too, as I was kind of on my grind. So. you know, I actually got invited out to that Life in Color from TJR who was playing one of my remixes on the stage. And I remember just coming out of the studio, being really like depressed. I couldn't make anything. And then he invited me out to that Life in Color. And I remember running to you backstage doing the same exact thing I was doing. Cause you just talked about relationships and you know, kind of how they fostered over the years. But you were there at, you know, I think you're maybe a little bit younger than me, but you were there fostering those relationships. And then I think when COVID hit, I think we were all, it's safe to say that we were all kind of at a weird point in our careers. And for me, I kind of just said, I don't want to go DJ. I'm going to stick with production and just hone my skills in the studio. But I remember with you, you kind of, I don't know if, was that when you moved to Miami or you just went down there? Because I saw you DJing a shit ton down in Miami and you were crushing it down there. mean, this is like, I would put you in the same category as like three guys who I just saw crushing it during COVID because Miami and Florida was the only place that was open, right? So it was like John Summit, Gordo, and then Luke. And those were the three guys. No. I booked them. That was, that was because of me. okay, so we'll get to that in a little bit, I'm sure. But isn't that crazy how, you know, all of those things kind of connect the dots? And I just remember like sitting at home on my couch, you know, I hadn't DJed in a year, but I started my production academy and everything. And I just remember seeing like clips of John Summit, like killing it. And then clips of Luke, just like killing it, you know, like at Live and all these places like that were open. And I'm like sitting on my couch drinking whiskey, like how the hell is this guy DJing right now? So that's what my memory of it is. It's a funny story. You nailed it. It's a funny story. I COVID happened and I was going through a breakup month one of COVID. COVID I was living in a studio apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the modern. If anybody knows what that is. The studio apartments are tiny. It was like, you know, shoe box and crazy expensive, couldn't afford it. Wasn't making money. going through a breakup, was me, ex-girlfriend and a dog. I was like, this is hell. So, you know, after that happened, I was like, okay, I gotta like start doing things. I can't just wait this out. So I started doing speak easy parties in New York during COVID and you know, I would go play these shows. We would rent out like a fucking ferry boat and we'd go sail out to Rikers Island from the East river. go all the way up to Rikers Island and throw a rave on a ferry. And then we took this warehouse in Queens and that's when everything went downhill. A week before we did this warehouse party, was Halloween 2020. We did this warehouse party and a week before there's a huge letter that comes from the sheriff's office. And they're like, we know what you're doing. We have your Instagram. We've been following your socials. We're coming after you. And I was like, all right, foolproof plan. I'm going to hire a food truck. The food truck is going to be two blocks away. You're going to We're gonna send the address out to all the ticket holders to go to the food truck. You have to order a specific thing on the food truck and then we'll give you the real address, which is like another mile away. And then you walk to the, you know, no Uber's nothing. You have to walk to that venue. Full proof. Party's going great. You know, things are jumping and I have the clip for this too. The second I play my intro, the room lights up with flashlights. There's like a hundred cops in there. They're like freaking the fuck out. They look at me, Sergeant, white shirt. puts his hand on my shoulder and goes, I feel bad for you. You just rented them the gear. Get out of here. So I was like sick. Took the CDJs, got in the car, drove way, way, way, way, way. And all of a sudden there's like news articles coming out about me. And they're like, NYU student got kicked out because of Luke Alexander's party. Sheriff's office shuts down party in Ridgewood, New York, which was like Queens Brooklyn border. You know, there was all this stuff coming out and I was like, this is hell. Like I can't do this. And I got wind that Florida, you know, was doing house parties and stuff. So the guy I'm just gonna go to Florida, you know, um, my buddy had a house here, beautiful mansion. And I was like, yo, can I stay at the house? And he's like, sure, whatever. You can stay there. And, um, I cold called a bunch of venues and I was like, yo, you guys are open for dinner. Like, let me do a party, you let me do a dinner party. Let me do something. And I ended up taking over this room called La Vie. And I made myself the resident DJ and a lot of people are gonna talk shit and be like, how dare you make yourself the own resident? I'm a DJ. I'm not an event guy. I, you know, I'm going to make myself the resident. So I started playing this club and I'd play every Friday, Saturday for like the entire winter of 2020 into 2021, like January, February. And then, you know, as people started to like loosen up with the COVID regulations and everything. And I realized like the cops in Miami, they don't, nobody cares about masks. Like things are kind of loosening up. So I'm like, all right, let's push it a little bit farther. Let's start bringing in artists. So I worked with this talent buyer, Jace Cohen. And I was like, here are my favorite DJs. Book me my favorite DJs. And this guy was like, perfect. I got no work right now. The whole industry is shut down. He was doing drive-in shows and booking a lot of these artists. And I connected with him. And we started bringing these guys down. I mean, was like, Gordo was still carnage. And like his first, I think his first official Gordo show was my show at M3 studios that I opened up for. I was opening up for all these guys. I saw John summit tweeted. He's like, you're an asshole. If you let yourself open up for the artists you book, but it's COVID. So fuck you. I'm going to do it anyways. so I, I booked Gordo. I booked John summit. mean, the deal that we got for John summit was like, dude, it's like close to what I get paid. you know, now, and it was like for three shows everybody just wanted to work yeah yeah yeah sorry what was that? No, I just said like it was a great opportunity to sort of take advantage of the market, right? There's not a lot of gigs out there. So you can bring in some bigger names at a cheaper rate and start this really cool party. And people are dying to DJ right? Right. And, yeah, everybody was dying to get in there and, know, it was really a great party. You know, was 3,500 people a night. The COVID people were freaking out at me, but I was like, I'm in Florida. Leave me alone. Like, I'm not going to New York. Don't worry. And, you know, it was 3,500 people, like Dom Presky, John Summit, Gordo, ton of big DJs. And I mean, we did one night. It was the craziest thing. It was an outdoor venue. and it was a forgot the name of the place. It's basically a parking lot. And there was at least two or three thousand people in the street and inside was me playing cash cash. It was me and cash cash back to back tech house cash cash is playing a tech house set. And then it was she was son and Gordo all on one line up and it was like a little mini festival lineup in this like, you know. knock off COVID era party that was totally illegal. But it was such an interesting time, but it was such an opportunity for me to get content, put myself in front of a ton of people and right exiting out of that. I was getting hit up from clubs all over the place. Gruntman started hitting me up, people in Texas, Boston. They were like, hey, we were there or we saw what you were doing. We love it. We want you to bring it here. We believe in you. We believe in the project. And it just took off. And, You know, once that happened, once I hit the ground running right out of COVID, I just kept, you know, adding more and more venues to the roster. And I signed with a great manager who does Paulie D and James Kennedy stuff. and they just like took it to the next level. And, you know, then came the music releases and, you know, I've had some success with that. So that's pretty cool. A couple of records in the millions. So that's, know, really, really dope coming from being just a DJ to, now. a producer as well and releasing my music. was always weird about releasing music because I didn't want to fail. You know, I didn't want to look like an asshole and get no plays. And now I realize I just don't give a shit anymore. Just put it out. But yeah, it was a really cool time. think that like playing the shows also and creating like this kind of cult fan base, like Luke Alexander cult fan base probably helped even more so with the releases too? Because, you know, I work with a ton of artists and they're always, you know, asking me, think one of the biggest questions a lot of my artists were asking me this year during our goal calls was, you know, how are you getting all these Spotify plays? How are you doing it? I had one student that was, you know, going on a rant that was saying, is music pay to play? Right? Like, are you paying for these streams? But I think it's just about that you cultivated this certain thing. You became this household name. And when they thought of that, like, that's the name, like, you know, they're going to search on Spotify and they're going to listen to your releases and they're going to start this like, you started almost like this cult following. And it's not maybe, you know, the, John summit masses of hundreds and thousands of people. have like this core, maybe three, four, five, maybe 10,000 people that love you and die hard for you and ride for you and buy tickets and they're the ones streaming your musics, you know, hundred times, 200 times all the time. So you think you think that helped with your music releases as well by playing these parties? mean it went from it went from fucking the phone signs to say play bad bunny to play my own music which was the coolest thing in the world you know what I mean like people were holding up signs that were like my own originals and I'm like I don't even know that you knew that you know and it's like kind of a second that you know it hits you and go holy shit like people actually are into what I'm doing here and you know It's really cool because of social media now, people reach out and they like, they'll tag you, they'll message you, be like, your song means a lot. Your set meant a lot to me. You know, I have a few people that are like, hey, I'm going through a lot of deep dark stuff and you you pull me out of it in the set that you play and you know, the moments that we're at your shows, it makes my life feel, you know, like everything's all right. And I think that that's the most beautiful thing. you know, yes, a hundred percent. It is really cool to see how because of... you know, the following that I've built to watch it translate to streaming and everything. It's awesome. It's really cool. think like what you cultivated during COVID, I like did something similar where I took, I stepped away from gigs and I focused in the studio. And now I've built something here in my studio where, you know, I am again, getting hit up by some of these people, like some of the biggest artists, but like for studio work now, which is awesome. Right? So I think from what you did by taking a risk, kind of just like throwing your own parties, doing your own thing and said, fuck everything else. I'm going to do it this way. it's paid off. And I think a lot of DJs in our industry, they look at COVID as this big bad thing. my gig stopped. this happened. But you know, when you take a look at kind of what you've done, that's probably the biggest blessing that's probably happened in your career, because it kind of helped everybody. COVID minus the deaths, sign me up, sign me up, shut down the industry again. I'm going to take it over 10 times harder. Cause now like I was 21, you know, I'm 27. So I have her old, was 23, 22, something like that, you know. it put everybody on an equal playing field, you know, and you were able to create something and do something while everyone was kind of sitting back, you were able to do something that's, you know, I guess just, it keeps going. I mean, we could talk about it later with the Azura party, but it's just keep growing, growing, growing. Like this train that you built is just gonna keep moving. So I think that's awesome. And I commend you for, you know, taking a risk and doing that. Cause a lot of guys, you know, I feel like a lot of DJs that Kareem and I talked to, A big thing that they don't want to do is they feel complacent and they feel comfortable where they are and they don't want to take that risk, you know? So hopefully, you know, people listening can use this as an example to do that. The other thing... Go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, if you think about that time, a lot of people just sort of, like, hung out, got drunk, didn't really do anything. All three of us here worked our asses off during COVID, and I think we're all in a much better place now than we were. And you could go look at... You know, I bring up Rick all the time, but, like, Rick didn't stop through COVID, you know? all the DJs and artists who found ways to create content, you know, do something that pushed the industry forward. We started this podcast during during COVID, you know, like, those people are seeing success now because they didn't take that as a time off. It's like, shit, I got to like double down on what I'm working on. Maybe it's something different. But I have to spend this time to make sure the second that shit opens up, like I'm hitting the ground running and Again, the three of us did that. And I think all the people, not all, but a lot of the people that are seeing success right now did that. You want me to be completely honest with you is, I could have gone harder and you guys listening might be like, what? Like you did so much, but I could have, I could have done more. I realized even playing field, John summit and I were the same fee at that point. We were the same exact price. Right. But what John did was he leveraged the music that he was making and the fact that tick tock just came out and he started cranking content while me being the asshole that I was, I was like, I'm not fucking doing TikTok. Like I'm not doing that. I'm not going to make content. That's not for me, you know? And I still feel that way. Don't get me wrong. Like I still like hate it, but I'm looking at a lot of people that, you know, I came up at the same bubble that a lot of these new, you know, influencer DJs, for example, not to name any, but like there's big influencers were in Miami and there's big DJs that came out of Miami, but they did the content thing. And that's a big regret for me, honestly. And I have multiple regrets from that era that I wish I had done differently. came out during COVID, I was doing only tech house. I was not doing any anything else, just only tech house. The second the clubs opened up, I was like, open format, maybe, you know, like edits again. And then I kind of got like, I loved the I loved everything that I did. I'm grateful for it. But I wish that I just sunk my I pushed my fears aside. I had sunk my heels in the sand and I was like, I'm going to stick with the tech house. I'm going to stick with the underground. I'm going to stick with this sound. It's blowing up. This is what I want to be doing. This is what I should be doing. But I got nervous and I got stuck in my old ways and I went back to doing, you know, EDM still, but commercial EDM. And, uh, and now this year it's kind of unwinding that and just really nailing down my sound and, uh, you know, doing that. Like being true to myself as an artist and not just playing records that, you know, I feel like I have to play. And obviously I'm still going to play those records that I feel like I have to play, but I do want to, you know, get a little bit into the, the underground more with, you know, what I'm passionate about. I was waiting for you, Mikey, to take this, because I know this is something that you talk about all the time with your students, but I think one of the biggest hurdles and fears that open format DJs have to overcome is that three to six month period where if you commit to doing a certain genre or changing up, going all in on techno or tech house or whatever the genre is, you might take one step back, but it's to take 10 steps forward. But that's... to sound like a, you know, a deadbeat horse over here because I, I, I preach this all the time and, no one just seems to like, you know, take the advice. And I think it just goes back to the, the, the comfortability of DJing four or five nights a week in an open format market. You're making money, you're getting girl, you're drinking for free. Like everyone's comfortable with that. But you know, I'll go back on that thread when I tweeted about this and some guy came back to me on threads. He goes, I did this for 10 years and then 10 years went by and now look, I'm 41 years old and I'm still doing the same thing. And that hasn't advanced my career. And now I'm just starting to make music and I have my first release and things are looking up. So, you know, you have to take those three, four, maybe a year off. just recommended a student to take a year off just to just say, focus yourself in the studio, make the music, and then you could come out guns blazing and That student that I told that to, another New York guy, just had a track signed to Revealed after one year, which is amazing. He did six, I think, really consistent releases all through 2024. And his first release, it was a track he was just going to put out himself because he was killing it. And he's like, you know what? Let me just send it to Revealed. Let me see what happens. And sure enough, they came back with a contract and says, we want to sign you. But that's because of all of the work he did in that one year. So again, if you're listening to this and you really want to go all in, You know, just take that time off to prepare yourself. Go have a vision. If you want to play tech house, prepare your tech house records, play your rooms with those tech house records. Don't conform to the other stuff because I feel like when you start to conform to that, then you lose sight of what you want to do. And you know, James Hype said it the best. He quoted that quote from Eminem. think if you stand for everything or if you, if you don't stand for nothing, then you fall for everything. Right. So I'll say that till I die, stand for something and show yourself, you know, I totally agree. you know, just a little bit of a history, EDM history, dance music history. Cascade was pushing 30 when he released his first record. You know, it's never too late. It's never too late. Never. verse is 40 something, I think. TJR, that night when I was with you at Life in Color, TJR was telling me, he's like, I didn't have my first break until I was 42 years old with Funky Vodka and Pitbull, Don't Stop the Party. He goes, that was my first break and that was 42 years old. He goes, I was doing this for 25 years already. So you never know when your time comes, but if you're consistent at one thing, and I think Quincy Jones said it, he said, artistry is just... basically delivering a consistent product over and over again without giving up. So if you're just giving that consistent product over and over again, eventually someone's going to like it and spread the word and more people are going to like it. But it's all about timing the content you put out, the consistency of it. And I think that's where people fall, including myself, is just consistency because we all have busy lives and we all do different things. at Adam Port and me and the Kind Music guys. They've been doing this forever. You know? Forever. from 2010, like minimal like house music, like it's crazy, like even rampa too. again, you're taking guys that have been doing this for 15, 20 years and they're just seeing the success or the blow up now. So, you know, it takes a long time. was one of the biggest records in the world, you know, and it's been it's 2025 you're saying records from 2010 that you have, which means that there's probably five to seven years prior to that of just in the studio grinding in order to get that record here in the States where you're downloading it, you know, and I feel like there is a lot of pressure that young artists have, including myself, where it's like, fuck, dude, my timer is running out. I got to get it in like. I was fucking, you know, out partying every night in my early 20s, 2021, 22. And like at 23, I was like, what am I doing with my life? want to, you know, zero in and get my life together and do something with this music. So it really is never too late. Like I remember looking at Garyx, you know, he's a few years older than me, think, or a year or two older than me. I remember being like 16 and I'm like, this guy's 17 or 18. Like if I'm not there by 17 or 18, like I'm screwed. You know what I mean? I love where I am in my career and I can't wait to continue to advance it through music and content and you know, really building the brand of it. But there's never like, there's no timer. Like you said, Barry chapter and verse is in his forties and the guy just nailed it, you know? There's no timer. delivering that consistent product and not giving up because a lot of guys will give up after, you know, three, four, five years. I see it all the time, coaching artists. That guy's just, you know, I can't do it. I can't keep up. It's not for me. And that's fine. But the guys that stay through it, like people ask me all the time, how do you stay so relevant? How do you still have a career? How do you make money doing music? I just say, I never quit. I never gave up. Right? So there could have been times where I could have went to medical school and I could have did this and I could have did that. I just said, fuck it. This is what I want to do and I'm not going to stop. And I just kept working at it. So, you know, we commend you for doing that and sticking with, you know, and I remember it especially just seeing you grinding back when we were teens, being backstage, making the connections and all that. Yeah, it's been a long grind and people ask you for a lot of advice and I love giving advice. I love it. Even if it ages myself, I love it. People come to me, they're like, I'm looking for a manager. like, you don't need a manager. You don't need a manager. Get back in the studio. Go grind, go sell tickets. You don't need a manager. like me and cream every day. Like you don't need a manager. You could handle these things by yourself. You need a manager when you can't handle the things you can't manage anymore. That's what a manager does is they manage the things. right? You need a manager when a manager is knocking your door. Don't go looking for a manager. And you don't need one. Unless you have major record releases or an aggressive touring schedule, you don't need a manager as an opening DJ. you're going to get to the point where you do need one if you stick with it long enough. But if you're getting paid opening DJ, gigs or you're you know just starting to make money in the industry you definitely don't need a manager it takes a little bit of time to get the counting down and you know doing your invoices and everything but you know when you're a DJ yeah when you're a DJ you got to wear 10 hats you know you got to be a graphic artist you got to be an accountant you got to you know be a manager marketer you have to do everything manager email. used to pretend that, you know, in the time period where I left my old manager from Miami to where I am now with my new management at 4AM, I basically had a fake email, this guy, John Noonan. And if you emailed management at pararydj.com, it would be this guy, John, talking to you, but it was me. It was just me managing my own things. So I didn't have to be the bad guy negotiating my fees or whatever, because it looks weird if I was the bad guy doing it. So I just... pretended that I was, you know, John Noonan and he was my manager. So never existed, but. That's so funny. I always think that when I see the emails in people's bio and they're like management at local DJ.com and I'm like, throw a fake name, bro. professional, you know, but yeah. I always, think in talking to a lot of younger DJs and just like you said, like everybody's journey's a little different and you just have to have patience no matter where you are in your career. You could be brand new or you could be at any spot along the journey of becoming a hard giant ticket seller if that's what the goal is, right? Be patient, stay true who you are and just the work in. have a plan though. I do think that a big part of being a DJ is looking at your five year, 10 year, this year plan and kind of set goals and milestones that you're like, okay, I'm gonna get this for me. It was international touring. I wanna play internationally. I want a record release. I want to be supported by these DJs. I wanna play this venue. And when you set out on a specific goal and you have your eyes on it, it's a lot easier than you're just like, I want to become a big DJ. You know, it's like, okay, well, what does that, what do you define as a big DJ? What do you define as making it? And for me, like people ask me, like, they'll, they'll tell me, wow. You know, you're living your dream. doing so well. And for me, I'm like, I'm not there yet. You know, I'm not done. have a very long way to go. And, for me, the, the one thing that I say, was my milestone goal is to play Ultra. was like, want to play and not like an opening slot on the side stage. mean, like I want headline peak time Ultra music festival. Cause my dad brought me to Ultra when I was like 12 or 13, when it was all ages back then. And I stood on the rail like this, watching these DJs with my dad, like right next to me. And there's going to be people that watch this that I met so many friends that day too, that were all around my age, you know, 12 to 15. And they're going to watch this. I remember that. And not only are those people still involved in my life, which is absolutely incredible, they're still going, oh, I'm so proud of you. for me, I was like, this is what I want to do. That was the moment that made me decide that I wanted to even get into this full-time professionally as a young kid. I started doing house parties after that and doing teen nights and stuff. But I set my eyes on a goal, and I'm not going to say that I made it until I'm at that point. Yeah, definitely. gotta manifest it Yeah, let's let's talk about like it. What is the big goal? Like let's manifest it right now. Let's talk about it. What's the big goal? Is it is it hard ticket sales? mean, ultra main stage. That's I mean, that's a big one, right? That's something to work towards. man, it's for me, I really I love the bottle club scene, so I definitely want a major Vegas residency. That's a huge goal of mine is to land like a big, you know, Vegas contract and then just be on like the main stages of all these huge festivals. That's like really the goal. You guys know with the festivals I'm talking about, EDC and all the Insomniac stuff. And that was really my goal is just to play the main stages it's not people out there are gonna really want you know to be part of the resistance stage at ultra they really want to be on like a specific niche I want to be the biggest in the underground you know I want to stay underground and that's cool and I love that for me my heart was always an EDM and commercial and you know commercial tech house stuff so my goals are the commercial goals Vegas residency main stage headlines Hard ticket arena tours like that's that is my goal and you know it's taken a lot of beating into me that it's like there's only two ways to get to this and both of these things have to be hand in hand and that's music and content and it used to just be music and not content but now it's music and content content a little bit more than the other but you know that's why 2025 is going to be towards the end of 2024 I started shifting gears and going like all right I've DJ'd, I've hoarded myself out, I've played, you know, hundred and something shows, over a hundred shows a year, I've played in, you know, so many cities, so many different countries, like, but I want to start doing things as Luke Alexander that will stay forever, that I could leave a legacy behind where, you know, people could go, if they're feeling sad, they listen to my music, they're feeling happy, they listen to my music. And that's really when you become a hard ticket act is when you, you know, music connects with the fans and the content connects with the fans. that's, that's my 2024, 2025, excuse me, goal is just to nail down the, uh, the content and the music and having them compliment one another as well with the brand and the touring and the story that the sets tell. Cause I'm a firm believer in the set telling a story, not just like playing banger records. Yeah. I like, I like the storyline, you know, and a lot of people that are, you know, fans and they just attend the shows or go to the clubs. They realize that, a lot of DJs, we tell a story. We tell a story. come out with records and maybe I'll go into a nostalgic era. I always still play the nostalgic era. Excuse me, nostalgic records from that era, the golden days of EDM. Because that's where I fell in love with it. And that's part of my story is those records and hip hop edits. My dad was a hip hop producer. That's part of my story. So I tell a story through my set. And that's the beauty of the art for me. You some people tell their stories through singles or through albums. And for me, you know, I do that as well. But for me, it's mainly my DJ sets is when I tell my story. And now I got to just complement it with originals and an album and, you know, content, which I hate. and the shows are just a product of the music. The content and the music help you connect to the fans, and then the shows are just a product of that. So I think a lot of people get it twisted where they have to play shows, and then they have to go to make the music. I think you have to have the music, you have to have the content, and then the product of that stuff, let's hit it. I see you doing this all the time on threads and he's like don't worry about playing shows get out and stay in the studio and you'll get the shows bullshit play the shows sell those tickets you got to sell those tickets if like, I like to say it's like an itch, right? Go out, itch, do it. But like, the problem is, is that a lot of people, especially my students, are so focused on going out and playing. And there's a quote that I heard very young in my career where, you know, they said, you're only as big as the shows you play, right? Where if you make music, you can touch people all over the world. So, I personally think there's a fine balance of it because I can't talk because I do go play shows, you know, here and there. But at the same time, that's because I was a DJ all my entire life. And then I started making music. If I could have reversed it, I would have honed my skills in the studio now in order to get me the shows. So I think especially today, it's definitely going to be a little bit harder because you're a booker and we'll talk about, you know, a little bit of this. what are you looking for when you get a new DJ that kind of wants to play maybe in a Zorday party or a Luke Alexander party. What are you looking at, like aspect wise from a new DJ? Are you looking at their music and their Spotify streams? Are you looking at the social media? What are you looking at? So for me, Okay, so I don't get involved with the bookings of any of these things. I suggest people like, you you, you guys, two examples right here. I'd be like, these are my homies, put them on. But you know, I have this guy, Jagger and Mike who do the bookings and J.S. who's the talent buyer. You know, these guys do all the bookings for me, but what we look for, what I tell them to look for. let me give a little bit of background if you guys don't mind. I started Azure Day Party by accident. I, I had a show in the Hamptons. landed at 10 a.m. I had time. was like, hey, let's do a pop-up party for free. Crash it out. You know, I called up this hotel that I knew the manager of and I was like, hey, can I like use your rooftop to throw a party? Like a couple hundred people. They're like, sure, why not? Everybody started asking because content came out of it and they saw me playing against the skyline and the sunset and everybody. It was a day party. It was a pool party, but it became what it was. Became a sunset, you know, thing. But, They all started asking me like when's the next one and I'm like there wasn't gonna be an excellent but I guess we'll it next week on Sunday same time and then they're like okay when's the one after that I'm like alright I guess this is the thing now so I branded it and this is my one piece of advice to local DJs are just DJs even if you're touring and you know compared to me I suggested this to you know a lot of my DJ friends if you are if you're worth hard tickets in a market start your own party go for it it's money one. And two, you got, you have something that nobody could tell you what to do. You don't have the manager coming up saying, yo, big bottle spender play pop smoke. You don't have any of that. It's your house and people are going to go see you and go to your sound and listen to what you play. To answer your question, Mikey, what do I look for? I look for that. They are aligned with my sound. I look for that they could sell tickets and that this isn't just a, Hey, I'm just going to do it to get some pussy and that's it. I, but a big thing is that you got to sell tickets because. Club promoters are not great. They're not. They're not going to bring people as well as a DJ is going to bring people. And I think that it's the most important thing as a DJ or a club owner is that you need to be a promoter as well. And that's just the reality of it. If I own, yeah. used to sell tickets a ton to open up for Afrojack, Zed. it was worse. Yeah. tickets in advance! Yeah, $1,500! man. get a handful of posh a ticket stacked and they'd be like all right sell these and Then you know this was during the time of I wanted to open for Afrojack when I was 19 I told some promoter. Hey, I'll open up for you He's like how many tickets can you sell? I said I can sell you a hundred tickets. He's eyes open like this He goes no you can't I said okay, so I got those a hundred posh a tickets I went out I was hitting up all my friends selling them taking five dollar rips around Long Island selling them. Yeah. state in the snow. This is in December. This is like the week between Christmas and New Year. So that was a big week, if you can remember back, they used to call it big week. And I'm selling tickets, taking rips, doing deals, maybe taking no rips just to give them a discount. And you know, I came back maybe two or three days later and I was like, yeah, I need 50 more tickets. He's like, you sold all 100 tickets? And I was like, yeah, I need 50 more. He's like, what? Like he could, his jaw dropped, but. That was a skill I utilized just because I knew if I wanted to talk to Afrojack, if I wanted to get that mutual connection or whatever, this is what I had to do. And I went out and I fucking grind it. But again, if I could reverse the time, I wish I was in the studio making music so I had better music to give him instead of just me saying, I just DJ'd with Afrojack. You know what I'm saying? So. it's a balance, I think nowadays I think that it's extremely important to get out there and DJ as well as make music. There's seven days in a week. I'm not saying DJ seven days a week. I'm saying DJ at least one day a week, two days a week. You have to get out there and play the other days. You have, but that's what I was saying. How much content can you get in the studio like this, filming yourself and like, you know, and it's not even a studio like I have, or you're sitting in right now. It's people's bedrooms. I'm going on TikTok and I see, you know, like a messed up bed and like empty water bottles everywhere. And I'm like, this is your bedroom, man. And they're like, putting out content. you know, I think the look is very important too. And I always say it's like an itch. Go out, scratch the itch, DJ, but make sure you're DJing the right parties in the right rooms too. Like don't be DJing Latin night. If you want to be a tech house guy, try and DJ even if it's once a month, the best tech house party or house party in your city or your state. I make a suggestion to young DJs out there? If you're in a position where you need the money from DJing, you need the income from DJing, have your brand let's call it bay eight that's the name of the studio that I'm in right now Bay eight is my artist brand and then there's Luke who's the club DJ open format DJ but Bay eight is never on those flyers go make your money as Luke save your artist project for what it is and there are so many DJs that are doing it there there's a really big one that I'm friends with you know you guys would all know him mash bit Okay, I've heard of him, yeah. He used to have a side project that was just his name that he would just like He would go play bars and clubs because it's money You know what I mean? And there's tons of other DJs that have done this before in New York out of New York all over the world I dude I have huge friends right that they weren't they're now huge DJs But they weren't back in the day and they would go with no flyer and go play at a bar for four hours Or a club and open up for somebody and then get the 10 second clip that they needed of them playing their original and then post that on their Bay 8 artist project. And it looks like that's a Bay 8 show. And it's not talking about the fact that you just played open format or Latin night, but you got the 10 second clip that you needed of your brand new record, you know, and. for years in Hoboken where I would play this spot, Black Bear. love it. I mean, it's a great sports bar, food, whatever. But I was playing there because I was living like you in Weehawken. I needed to make money so I could be in the studio all week. And I would go there, but I never posted the flyer. And no one ever said anything to me, but I never posted that Ferrari was going to be at Black Bear Hoboken. And I played there four or five nights a week for four hour sets. But I never would have done that. And I would have never even posted a clip from there just because it didn't look good for what. was doing, which was big room EDM music. You need to be very careful of your brand and you need to be very careful of the rooms that you align yourself with, the artists you align yourself with. I am a big, big, big anti influencer DJ guy. I don't like influencer DJs. I don't like the fact that they think that it's an easy way to make money, that they don't really know the art form. They're going up there, they're standing there stiff as a board and they're like, some guy told me to play this next record here. So then I played that, you know, and then they like shittily transition it. I don't think that unless you are an influencer and you're trying to align yourself with influencers, that's not a good look if you want to be the biggest tech house DJ in the world. If you want to be a melodic techno DJ, that's not a good look, right? I yell at my artist all the time. I had a student the other day that like posted and you know, he's killing it with his artist stuff and his productions. And this past summer, he posted a video of him with a restaurant and there was like four people sitting there and he was DJing. He's like, playing here, boba. And I said, dude, what are you doing? And he said, the promoter is gonna get, or the owner is gonna get mad at me if I don't post. I said, then make another Instagram called blank blank blank and post it there. I go, you are. doing yourself a disservice by doing this. And you know, he stopped ever since then, but that's great advice. So if anybody out there is young, listening, like, and you still wanna do maybe an open format stuff to make money, but you're trying to do this artist thing, well just make another Instagram and just promote it there and tell your friends to follow you on that one. I mean, it's just as simple as that. I think that's great advice. the open format background that all three of us have, allows us to be better performers than most when we go try to do the artist thing, right? Like, and that's why I think it's important to play shows, because you have to learn, you have to learn that. You can't just show up and put out all this music. Yeah, you can't just put out music and then show up to a show, like you said, and stand there stiff as a board like You need to be able to read the room and maybe you're not playing open format, but you're learning how to dip and dive and navigate the different groups in the room and seeing how they people react to your music and what's working and what's not. And like, if you don't have that, your career ends there because you're not then then you're not a good performer and your set was whack and you don't get booked anymore, you know. posted a thread a few weeks ago. Mikey, think you saw it. I think we interact quite often on threads. Threads is good. But I walked into a room and granted it was a Sanicon party, you know, whatever. It was not a good look, but it was a money grab. And I'm guilty of doing money grabs too. It happens to everybody. I played a Sanicon party and Fuck, I wish I didn't say it a SantaCon party. Can we edit that out? Whatever. I just don't want the promoter to feel like shit, but he's a good friend of mine, whatever. But I played a SantaCon party and the kid before me, I walked up there, the master's red, the trims are red, the knobs are all to the right, the fucking board is fucked, dude. I walk up there and I'm like, my God, this is a nightmare. And he doesn't know how to transition. He doesn't know what he's doing. He didn't really know his way around, you know, CDJs. And that is going to hurt you. It's going to hurt you. You need to be able to learn your way around CDJs. Pirate Studios did not exist when the three of us were coming up. Pirate Studios is a thing now. You could go rent, I think it's like 15 or 50 bucks or something, something in that range for an hour of CDJ time. I had to work my ass off. slave around opening up for local open format DJs to buy my pair of CDJs and my mixer. You guys don't have to do that now. You can just go to Pirate Studios or rent your friends. And now there's the ex-DJs. It's a sixth of the price of a CDJ rig. You need to learn your gear. You need to learn how to read a room. And you need to learn how to perform. I mean, there's three things that you have to do as a DJ. Unless you're like Swedish House Mafia, where people are going to go nuts and you have your whole set. Tude up with visuals and lighting and that's here. The reason I bring them up is because they're like getting shit on right now because somebody took a video of their show control, which is like the software the VJs use that show their tracks and they just have like one track playing. Even though I don't think that's the case, I think that's just the SMPTE, you know, cue for the visuals and stuff. I think that's why it's playing. I don't think that they're pre-recording it, but or Anima was also getting shit on. But unless you're an act like that. If you go step into a nightclub, like when I go play marquee, I could have the Luke Alexander set in my mind, but there might be a table of athletes that want to hear this hip hop record. And there might be huge spenders that want to hear, you know, this Afro house record or a tech house record. And though I might not be able to read their mind and find out what exactly what there is, you need to be able to test the waters and kind of be like, all right, let me throw this in there. How, and you could put your own spin on it. But you need to be able to, like, you need to be able to be a critic. Look at the room. Right. You gotta look. I think what you're trying to get at is like the new DJs, like you said, the influencers are so focused that they're so concentrated at looking at the setup and EQing and they're just not comfortable and they're not comfortable enough to pick their head up and just look at what's going on in the room, you know? So that's a great point. And I think that's, again, an open format skill that I think will reign over everything. I don't think mixing, you know... matching BPMs, all that stuff. don't think it even is a skill anymore because the CDJs read it to the point zero zero BPM. But the biggest thing that I still take with me is that I could read a room. Do you remember walking into these rooms and like... CDJ 9,000s or 1,000s or whatever the fuck they were and like... Dude, the waveform was like this. I remember actually in the old ones, I don't remember which model was but like the screen was... It's either green or red and it's just like black and red, black and red or black and green. And there's just a little bar, it's like a loading bar and that was your record. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. all time favorite CDJ, the 800s. He used to play in ABS mode on those things. Dude yeah fucking those things with a rotary mixer like up dude like like the CDJs are here or the CDJs are up and the mixers here like the most fucked to shit setup mixer. I, well, I used to book DJs at a club and there was a rotary mixer and you know, I had DJs come in and just train wreck like, I can't get Serato to connect. I can't play on this mixer. And I'm like, dude, it's an EQ and one giant knob. Like how hard is it? But the rotary mixer will scare any 2020 and after DJ ever. That should be the touch Fuck yeah, dude. yeah one. Pioneer just made a new one. Like that's like brand new. Me and Gary are talking about it. Like it's got like this amazing sound card in it. Like it's, it's, you know, I think that if you want to, if you want to have Xor tryouts, you should put them in front of a rotary mixer and if they can play on it, they're good. Excuse me, where's the waveform? what when I was like a baby, baby DJ like and playing Jersey shows and like we all all the young Jersey DJs want to get into like Jersey Shore stuff and DJs or whatever. And the first time I got booked to play there, it's a rotary mixer. And it's the first time I've ever used the rotary mixer. And I'm like, shit, this is like one of the most important shows I've played so far as a young DJ. And I got to figure out how to play on a rotary mixer with no crossfader. And it was just like, scariest moment ever, I'd say. It's terrifying, I mean, has been times, just, I was, maybe a year or two ago, I walked into a room, I've been through it, I passed the test already, just because I passed the driving test doesn't mean I want to take the driving test every time I get into a car, you know what I mean? Like, I passed that test, so I don't need some asshole telling me, well that's just because you can't do it, but I walked up there and there were CDJ 2000s, not Nexus, and I looked at them, and I looked at the guy, and I was like, and I don't use headphones when I mix, like it's just, I use Texas headphones, I blare the booth, my hearing's fucked, like, I might be yelling right now, I don't even know. But I walk in there, CDG-2000s, non-Nexus, which means no waveform, tiny thing on the bottom, and no cue points, because you have to, like, hold the memory button down, and, like, you have to, load in the cue points, there's a whole pain in the ass. I look at the dude, I'm like, I'm not fucking playing on these. Like, I'm sorry, I'm not playing on He's like, all right, I have new ones in the back. I'm like, really? Like you put out these old beat up 2000s when you have like 3000s in the back? Give me those, you know? And luckily they- that like you do to make the promoter happy, right? So I just had a show in Auburn a week and a half ago, but the last time I had played this club, Loud Luxury was playing at the sister club in the same, the same owner, same town, like down the street. And they needed all four CDJs. So the promoter asked me, can you play on Technique 1200s and an S9 mixer and play with the phase? Now I've never played with the phase. I haven't played on turntables in years, but I did it. to make the promoter happy, you know? And they didn't get the Ferrari, they got the Toyota Camry, right? Because like, yeah, it was fun, but you know how much work I had to do just to like work the wheels, like the wheels of steel, like they used to say back in the day, like that's what they did. It was like going back to a Razor Flip phone. And I was like, this is so annoying, but I did it to keep the relationship happy and to keep them in good graces. And I think that they really appreciated that as well, because I don't think a lot of guys would be able to come in and be able to do that. And that just shows professionalism, experience, and that's what gets you other bookings. I love that. You shouldn't settle for that though. I understand the circumstances. Go settle for that. a tech rider, there's everything, but I do it when I can, just to do it. You know what I'm saying? So not that I settled. There was no other choice unless I had to take my CDJs on the airplane, and I'm not doing that. you know, I think that we should make a point to all these guys listening that like triple check what the gear is at night, like triple quadruple text. Even if you play the 10 times, hey, it's three thousand tonight. Yeah. Hey, how many three thousands? What mixer am I on? Because if you walk into a room and you get surprised, you're fucked. You know what I mean? You're like, God, like, I don't know how to use an Allen and Heath mixer. I mean, that's like I love that mixer personally, but like Or V10, I remember my first time- I'll give you a fuck up story. I opened up for Oliver Haldins. Oliver Haldins at the time was on Denon. The I put my USB in and I was like... I-I can't use these. I-I- This is like reading... Yeah, I mean it was like reading Chinese and like the records weren't loading properly. I don't know if it reads record box or whatever the fuck it was but it wasn't working for me. because I deal with that a lot when I open for laid back Luke, because he was on Denon for a while too. And what the promoters actually did was they put two Denons on the outside, two Pioneers on the inside, or sorry, opposite, two Denons on the inside, Pioneers on the outside, and they had to swap a third Denon. was just an RCA switch, but I had to play on the Denon mixer and I've never played on it. But fortunately, you know, I think that all of them work the same. The Q button is the Q button. The effect is the effect. So you get used to it. on these players that's that's important, you know But I had the same thing happen. I walked in there Open air was playing on them and he was like how'd like he looked like he just went through worries like Fuck dude, like thank god you're here. Like thank god get on right now and I'm like, I can't use it I tried, you know, I play like a couple things I like butchered a transition I was like I like waved this out guys. I give me the house CD J's back like I know they're here. Give me them. Give me them and like Yeah. know, they take the ones on the outside away and then they put the, uh, you know, and they swap it and it's the whole thing. um, it's really important to know what you're getting into before you show up to the club that night. And you should also know like, you know, is there a big client tonight? Should I play something specific for them? Like, cause there's a lot of times in Miami and you know, a lot of these bottle club markets where they'll be like, we're doing a parade. Like the guy just spent $30,000, $40,000 and he really wants to hear, you know, P.A.M.P. and I'm like, okay, no problem because you know, I have a huge folder of hip hop that I never touch for situations like that. You know what I mean? I don't have P.A.M.P. but I have Candy Shop. Does that work? you can always like, you just have to be prepared for absolutely anything. a professional because like, I'm sure you do the same thing when I walk up to a club or, you know, maybe an hour or two before the club, I text the promoter, hey, what records work in this state? Or, hey, how many tables did you sell? Like, just so I know, and I even keep... Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, that's exactly what I did before my show the other day. I texted, you know, the resident DJ and I said, hey, are there any big records that work? He sent me two or three. I didn't know what the hell they were, but I was prepared. And there was this one like... not juke it, it was called something. I'd never even heard of it, but I played it and that's the phone request I was getting was play this, play this. So when I was able to dip that back down, I did it. But here's another good tip for anyone that's listening and I don't know if you do this as well, but in my little headphone bag, I keep a RCA to iPhone cable just in case. So if I have a record that a bottle service client wants to hear, I just plug it into an empty channel on the mixer and I'll play it right off Spotify. I'll go out. play it off Spotify and then hopefully just mix back into it because sometimes you need to do it to keep those people happy. get so many open format brownie points from this all the fucking open format venues are gonna be calling you up like I need to book you in the iPhone RCA I've been through every hiccup in anything you can think of over these last 15 years So you know that's just something that I do now just to keep myself prepared and it makes you a professional it makes you want to get booked again because you Satisfy the needs of the club You know, it's also important to note along the lines of the professionalism shit's gonna go wrong The music's gonna cut out. I just opened up for Stevie. Okay. I'm in the middle of my set I'm jamming. I'm like got the hand up and all of a sudden pop everything dark, right and I like first off don't make a scene act comp cool collected, right? You don't want to be like whoa. Whoa. Whoa, like what the fuck? You know what I mean? Like sit back Take a deep breath Maybe take your hands away so the crowd knows that you didn't just fuck it up, you know? Try to figure out the problem. you can't figure out the problem, the sound guy knows the venue like the back of his hand. Try to sort the problem out. And then when you get back, don't just hit play from the fucking beginning of a record. The music's already stopped. Find it, reset, restart everything. Find an intro, find a big record, find a break, and start and go from there and do it again. You you can't just like, during the inauguration. What's her name? Carrie Underwood, right? Is that who sang? The music started, the music stopped, and she stood there for like a minute, right? And there was no music and they were trying to get the backing track up and she ripped it a cappella. That's a great performer. That's how you hold a crowd. And now you know what? That's going go down in history that she sang, you know, whatever the name of that song was, something American. That's to go down in history that she sang that a cappella. And that was a lesson for all performers across all genres. Shit is going to go wrong. how you deal with shit going wrong is what you're gonna be judged against, you know? And it's not gonna be, yeah, he played bangers all night. It's like, that's a huge part of it, obviously, but this went wrong and he was so professional in dealing with it that I wanna work with this guy again. He didn't panic, he didn't curse me out. professionalism, I think. But I think I want to change gears a little bit and I want to talk about something big. yeah, go ahead. left. think it just to put a cherry on top of what we just talking about. Like you're you're making these mess ups or hiccups a moment that everyone's going to remember. And like in your sets, think about how can I create a moment that everyone's going to remember even if there isn't a mess up. When you get these opportunities, the music shuts off the light shut off the fire alarm goes off there's an opportunity to create a moment that everyone's going to remember and everyone's going to remember that you were the DJ at that time. So how can you create moments in your sets? Just think about that. Go ahead, Mike. Where do want to go? I just want to talk about, again, just want to kind of shift gears and talk about something big that's happening this weekend is I was driving. went to a fundraiser in New York City on last Friday night at City Winery. And on the way home, we happened to drive by Marquis, New York City. And on the billboard, I saw this weekend in bright big lights, Luke Alexander. So I want to talk about Marquis show. I want to talk about New York City. in the nightlife industry there. What's working right now that you see? Where do you see New York going? Because for me personally, I haven't played in New York in quite some time, I want to say. Maybe it's been a couple of years now, but let's talk about New York. Let's talk about the show and what you're excited for this upcoming. it Friday night? Saturday night? Saturday night. And talk to me a little bit about New York. New York. New York is my home, my special place. I started playing Pasha Teen Nights. I was opening up for Thomas Gold way back. Those are great times. That place is fun. I miss that club. When you're growing up in New York, there's a few venues that you just want to play at. Marquis, New York is a pillar and then, you know, obviously Madison Square Garden, the arenas and all that. But, you know, it's, it's one of the most incredible feelings to see your name on that marquee on 10th Avenue that says your name. And like, when you walk into the venue and you see the line and everybody's there for you, you know, and like, they know you, it's, such an incredible feeling to be back in New York and at marquee. Dude, there's like no words for it, you know, like I had the same thing happen in other cities, but it just doesn't feel the same It's not the same impact, you know being in your hometown and Yeah Yeah, it's really special you come home for those shows. Like, there's just a little extra excitement. I'm definitely blessed enough to play the top venues in New York and headline at them, you know, which is a lot of DJs play these rooms, but the headline at them is really, really special. know, I've been doing really big headlines in New York for a while now. I mean, Halloween, we did 2,500 people across two nights each. So 5k people we did, um, New Year's Eve and other like 2,500 people. And then obviously every time I do Azure is like a thousand people a night, but every time I'm at marquee or nebula. The shows are doing really well. And there's just so much love. know, I have this big intro record and when I play the intro and I just like look at all the phones come out and like you kind of snap into this voter like, holy shit, like it's go time, baby. Like, let's go. And I'm pretty like calm and chill. Like I'm like, yeah, whatever. But like when you are in your hometown playing a headline, it's the most special feeling in the world. It's like energy to a whole other level. know, New York, though, New York's an important market. It's a very important market and you know, there's a lot of trends and right now Afro house is really big, but I think the important thing with New York and noting is that it's constantly going in trends. You know, it's going to be tech house and then it's Afro house and then it's techno and then it's tech house again. And then it's back to progressive house. Then it's melodic techno and it's constantly going to be, you know, dynamic and changing. and I think that an important thing about doing, you know, noting is that you can't sit there and chase the trends because you're going to run around and circle like a dog chasing your tail. You're never going to get it. Because by the time it's trending, there was a year of hard work done by somebody else. By the time your record comes out, the trend's over. I mean, I think that goes back to just doing doing the stuff that you want to do and you have your party and you're throwing your party and the people that like what you like and like the experience you're creating are going to come hang out, right? And those are your fans and those are the people that are going to come back. And I think that's more important instead of chasing the trends is just going all in on what you're into, you know, because when you're doing what you love or what you like, people are going to feel that and that energy is going to attract people. 100 % Mikey you look like you're you're not satisfied with the answer. So Why don't you? I'm just enjoying the conversation. No, just, I'm just, you know, I see New York as, again, like I don't have a lot of, you know, special connections with New York, other than the fact that that's like my city. you know, my wife's from Arizona, and whenever her in-laws come in, they always go, we want to go to New York, we want to go to New York. And I'm always like, you want to go to that city? You know, like, like, we got to go to New York, you know, because I don't know. He's like the tunnel. it's like the Jersey in me. But you know, I do have a special relationship when it comes to dance music in New York. And I've seen New York take a bunch of, you know, big hits, but also seen it strive. So when I first started DJing, you know, like that was just kind of the end of the sound factory era with Jonathan Peters and like, you know, this huge big market that I seen a cut. Yeah, he had a that was Boris. That was Boris get wet, you know, and then I seen New York kind of rise up with Pasha and Eddie Dean and Rob Fernandez. And then we've also seen, you know, the nightlife industry take a hit with New York when unfortunately, Rob passed away, RPM kind of just like went away, Governor's Island went away. And then we had Izu and then that took a big punch in the gut. So for me, it's like, I always want to see New York and we talk about EDC New York, even though it was in Jersey, but we had EDC New York and that's not here anymore. it's well, it was MetLife. It was MetLife and then it was Citi Field and then it kind of just like went to crap after that. But I remember the first one at MetLife was amazing and that really like changed my landscape on like going to festivals, at least here in New York. And you know, I've seen it take punches in the gut over the last couple of years. So I'm just kind of wondering what is working right now and where do you see it going? Like where do you see New York going in the next five, 10 years now that we've seen these punches? I think that what you just said was such a comment, beautiful in dark way, there's not many people that saw this. There's only a handful of people that were around for current times. COVID, pre-COVID, 2010 to 2013, the Bottle Club boom, Pasha going down, Webster Hall, Girls and Boys, or whatever the fuck it was. I think it was called Girls and Boys. yeah. Dude, we saw it all. mean, we have been in these streets. I've seen everything. And that's why people like, I watched transplants come to New York and I don't want to call them transplants because that sounds like such a negative connotation. But, you know, I've seen people that come from California, Ohio, Arizona, whatever they moved to New York and they're like, eyes are so bright and they're like, my God, nightlife in New York is fantastic. That's the best scene. They missed that part of New York time and that's what shaped us. Like there was a time in New York where you would go to meet packing district. You had catch VIP room, high, low, the Raven up and down, Highline ballroom, Gilded Lily. I mean, you had 10 clubs in a five block radius, PhD. that was the best. Yeah, that was the best. mine was like, Pier 94 era, Governor's Island, like, for me, because I didn't come from that hip-hop background. I was always dance music, so I remember going to see, like, I was with Mack at the time, Avicii, and Bingo Players, Bass Jackers, Mack J, same show, and I was like, that was my first show was able to get backstage again, like, at, and, like, that changed it for me. Like, and we talk about Azor, how, you know, awesome it is to play against that sunset. But then there was like the Governor's Island sunset too, where nothing beat that. That was, that w- to the people listening, Governor's Island, you have to take a ferry to get there. And somehow, I think it was RPM that had the deal there, or whoever it was, they were able to put thousands, they were able to convince thousands of people to get on a fucking ferry. Go take a ferry to Governor's Island, there's only a ferry to get there, go stand underneath this tent in a sandy-ass lot on the East River, and have Avicii and the biggest EDM acts in the world, and- I don't think that could be done again. I don't think you can convince somebody to get on a fucking ferry to go see, at the time of VT, you had three records. just thinking about like those things like of New York City nightlife and where it is now because you know that was such an experience to get on a ferry and like go on the ferry across the river to this show like I think that that's something that's you know kind of lacking now that if they brought that back I feel like that would be such an experience for some people because it is an experience just taking the ferry and going over the river and walking to that sandy lot. Yeah like that was such a cool So, you know, that was just me reminiscing about like looking into the space of the sky, of the corner of my studio. that, you know, it is shifting back to that in a sense, and I think that people are getting a little bit sick of nightclubs. Do I think I hear this comment? Clubs are dead. Club culture is dead. Come to this coffee rave at 10 o'clock in the morning. Like, no, that's not fucking cool. That's a trend bullshit. Let me post on my TikTok that I'm at a fucking coffee shop and there's, you know, a DJ playing. I don't think clubs are dead. I don't think clubs are going anywhere. As long as people wanna fuck, clubs are gonna be around. all, though. There's a space for both of those. right a hundred percent but i i just like they knock the club scene like clubs are dead come to this coffee shop clubs are dead come to this bagel place but. are what made you. Clubs are the bread and butter. they turn around the shit on clubs and you know it's people that haven't made it in the club seen that shit on the clubs Those are the people that it's like a jealousy thing like I didn't make it as a club DJ So fuck the clubs come watch me as they at a coffee shopper I couldn't get a night at club successful, so I'm gonna go do and I'm not trying to shit on anybody You know I do a day party. I get it. You know, but um, I Think that there's a really cool thing coming back and that is the pop-up shows is a weekly coffee shop rave the answer no, but Under the K bridge that might be the answer, you know, like that's that's a sick sick thing. And I think in general people just want more unique venues. Like how many times could you go to the same nightclub over and over and over again? And it really is the same rotation of DJs. It's just the same DJs and DJs are expensive. So you're not going to get unless you're a seven thousand person venue like the mirage, you're not getting the top of the line. Tier A acts and I feel like in this scene right now, people don't really give a shit about anything that's not a tier A act. unfortunately, unless you're in the underground, you know, as it's tough to really, it's tough to stand out and it's tough to compete both with your production. Cause you, you, as an artist, as a young artist, you're focused on competing and it's such a cancer, but you're competing with like releases that have 10 writers, the best vocalists, the best engineers on this record. And you're sitting there in fruity loops or in Ableton's Excuse me Ableton is a great tool by the way you guys should use yeah Ableton logic and you're sitting there on your computer and you're like How the fuck am I gonna get a record that sounds like shiver? But there was multiple writers on shiver and there's ten, you know people I don't know on shivers specifically, but there's ten people on these records I mean you should really click show credits on your favorite record and see how many people Sicko Mode Drake, go to the credits on that. And I'll just let you just, I'll leave it at that. If you have Spotify, go to Sicko Mode and look at how many writers are on that song. I think there's 60 writers on that song, at least. Producers, writers, engineers, whoever are credited on that. But you're absolutely right. And everybody gets help. you know, you're comparing yourself to people in the business like myself, who I'm helping professional top-named DJs write the records, because they just don't have the time to do so. And it's not... with him and I'm like, yo, did you hear this record? He's like, yeah, I made it. I'm like, what? Yeah. but I think it's a good, place to wrap up. What do you say, Kareem? Yeah, think it's good. think Luke, if you have anything, any takeaways, any final thoughts, we'll link to all your socials and music and stuff in the show notes and in the mailer. Yeah, man. So I guess my takeaway is to be, don't give up on your dreams, work your ass off. know, everything's possible. You just got to go in it with a sharp mind and don't pay attention to all the negativity that's going to float around you. Don't get consumed in the partying too much and, you know, take care of your brand. You know, at the end of the day, you're a product and you need to be able to sell yourself to not only promoters or labels, but Also to the fans and you got to show a story. can't just be, you know, just a DJ. You got to be a person and you got to be human and you got to connect with people on a deeper level. And that's when you start to, to connect. 2025 is going to be a pivotal year for me. And, I'm excited for you guys to hear the releases and follow along on all the new shows and all the, content that's going to be coming out with it. And, you know, I'm really excited for this year and whole teams excited and. I'm really, really, really pumped to show you guys everything that I've been working on and continue to work on. So I appreciate you guys having me. It's been a blast. Great conversation. I absolutely love talking about this stuff. know, anytime you guys want me on, me a call. I'm always down. We could have gone for like another hour for sure. mashup and edit podcast, because you did a podcast once when you were just going crazy on that stuff, and I think we could have a really nice field day with that, but maybe we'll get Luke. Yeah, we gotta, maybe, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Please, no more Backstreet Boys verse I could be the one. We'll get on to, we gotta save that for another, yeah. long rant right there No, we should do that we should do that that's a good idea we should do a listening session gentlemen, it's been a pleasure listening. Luke, thank you so much for being on the show. This was awesome. We'll talk to you guys next week. Thank you guys. Peace. you guys. Boom.