State In The Real caught up with Penn State’s very own DJ F.L.Y. After he killed it at one of his most recent shows at Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, we had to get an interview with him.
SITR: Tell us something about yourself, where you’re from, how old you are, what type of music you’re into and what you like to mix?
What’s good, haha is that still professional to start with a “what’s good?” oh well! I’m Dj F.L.Y. I’m from Long island NY and I’m 18 years old (a youngin in this big bad industry but I like to think I can hold my own!) and I love to make people dance. I do that by basically making sure my sets are always high energy and upbeat and create a party atmosphere. I jam a lot stuff into my sets like electro with big build ups, and bigger drops As well as some Dutch, progressive house And a bunch of other stuff I can’t even begin to know what genre it is. Basically anything with a high energy, and of course some top 40 remixes thrown in here and there. My preferred genre is electro. It just makes me want to groove.
SITR: What was your inspiration to start DJing and mixing music? If you were inspired by someone in specific tell me who and why. And how long have you been doing it for?
I’ve been djing for about a year and a half and what got me into it was teen clubs. That was my first exposure to the club scene and even electronic music. I was a little emo kid in middle school who used to curse anything that. Wasn’t created with a guitar haha. After going teen clubbing all the time and listening to the music I kind of got a sense of how people reacted to certain songs and how certain djs could move a crowd and some couldn’t. What really did it for me was when you’d see a cute girl and want to dance with her but the atmosphere in the club just wasn’t there. That’s what made me say, “hey I think I can do better! I think I can Create the energy In the room that will get people dancing.” and about a year and a half later here I am, getting interviewed for making people dance haha, I’d say not a bad start!
SITR: What do you want people to think or know when they hear your music? What can we expect when we listen to your mixes?
What I want people to get out of my sets or take from them is basically a feeling. Let me explain. Dj F.L.Y. Stands for “Feel Like You’re…” my name embodies my philosophy of music in general and my philosophy of djing. Every song creates a feeling inside the listener. For example a wiz song makes you feel like kicking it and chilling where as party rock anthem makes you want to get up and fist pump. Without the emotion behind the music, its just noise. What makes this even more interesting is, despite how certain songs can be party songs or chill songs or what ever, that each song brings out a specific, unique, cherished emotion within a listener that is only theirs. It’s so specific to a person and their tastes and interests that no two people react the same. It’s this simple fact that makes music to me so complicated yet so beautiful. As a Dj I’m giving the daunting task of being the link between the people and the music. It’s my job to take all these different emotional reactions, different personalities, and ease them into one consolidated emotion. That emotion can change through out a set, like Leaning people towards grinding or jumping and fist pumping, but what I feel it truly is at the end of the day is just to have fun, let go and want to party. I like to interact with the crowd, I like to get into it and jump around, go nuts. When people see the me going all out, they react to it. They see the passion I have for what I do and how much fun I’m having awkwardly jumping after the drop, and they soon follow suit. To sum it up it’s that the whole live Dj experience is all about the interaction between crowd and Dj. It’s the feeling that the dj transcends through his music that is what hits the audience in their souls and engages them; creating a truly great performance. People like to feel important and involved. I feel the way I view my sets allows each person to feel like they’re contributing; after all their energy just adds to the atmosphere. Adds to everyone having a great time!
SITR: Tell us about what kind of work you have done so far or things that you have accomplished.
Right now I feel I’ve gotten pretty far for the amount of time I’ve been doing this. I’ve done teen clubs, clubs, frats, and have had a lot fun doing it. One of my biggest accomplishments I think is just the fact that so many kids at psu know who I am, and come out to the places I spin. And what means more to me is that I get a lot of positive feed back from my live sets As well as my mixes I post on sound cloud.
SITR: What are some of your plans for the future, near future and later on in life?
My plan for the future as of now is to just keep at it and try to make it to the top. I’m trying to get established locally at psu and the NY area and then branch out from there. I’m in the process of trying to spin at Pacha NYC, That’s my first goal for now. I’m terms of the long term I want to start producing and make some sick tracks. And then try to go on tour. Play at ezoo, dayglow, ultra etc. Definitely play I’m Vegas; I hear they go hard there. #world domination I call it haha
Dj F.L.Y.- Drop Bombs by Dj F.L.Y. NY
Sound cloud
http://soundcloud.com/dj-f-l-y-aka-l3xb3rl-nd
http://www.facebook.com/DJF.L.Y.NY
Interview by Erik Morales