DJ Wayne G :: Spinnin’ Right ’Round
DJ Wayne G has played pretty much every major venue around the world and has remixed music for every major diva around. Current remixes that have hit the Billboard Dance Charts were for Carly Rae Jepsen ("Tonight I'm Getting Over You") and Katy Perry ("Wide Awake"), but he has literally done everyone; Cher, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion,
the Backstreet Boys, Deborah Cox, Whitney Houston, Darren Hayes, Erasure, Kelis, Olive, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Somerville, Andy Bell and Belinda Carlisle, and we haven't even scratched the surface.
It doesn't look like he's slowing down one bit: Last year alone he hit Sydney Mardi Gras, White Party Palm Springs, San Francisco Pride, Destination in Beijing, Vancouver Pride, Angel in Shanghai, Fire Island, Southern Decadence and San Diego Zoo Party, amongst many others.
He's had several firsts as well in the last few years. In 2013 he was asked to be the DJ at The Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, the first Gay DJ to play the prestigious party. He also mixed two hot tracks for the year's hot Broadway Musical, "Kinky Boots" featuring Billy Porter. Not a bad year, but I have to say, I'm exhausted just trying to comprehend his schedule.
The newly arrived San Diego resident took a minute to talk about, well, pretty much everything:
So you started in London in the mid-1990s, correct?
The '70s, more like (laughs).
Give me a break. That's more my era.
(Laughs) I started DJ'ing in '95 and I landed the residency at Heaven in London.
Which is still open, right?
Yeah, but it's changed hands. A club called G-A-Y now owns it, which was a separate club in of itself. I don't think they call it Heaven anymore, which I think is a terrible shame. Heaven had been there since 1979. Its capacity was, I think, 2,500. It was the largest gay club in the world. They got into some kind of financial trouble and they sold to G-A-Y. So I vowed not to go back in there.
So many of those long-standing clubs are disappearing. It's kind of sad to me to see them go. It seems like the dance world is going through a major transition.
Yeah, it is, for sure. It's a weird time because they can't seem to make it. The scene is going back to smaller clubs, especially in the U.K. Here in America, I'm not quite sure where it's heading.
I don't want to say that it's dying, but even in L.A., it seems like it's more about events, even in cities where you wouldn't think that it would.
In San Francisco, too, it really is about events; they have one every week. But really, there is only one that gets busy; it's a club called Beatbox, which only has a 300-person capacity. Anything over that, and it's like tumbleweeds blowing around. They really don't have the pull anymore to fill those (larger) spaces.
They're so stupid these days; they struggle by doing competing parties. You've got all these egos battling events on holiday weekends; putting parties up against each other; splitting the crowd and then they're both so f*cked. It's really just so silly.
Though it's interesting when you consider all the large festivals, like EDF (Electric Daisy Festival) and the like, they are so incredibly popular.
Have you heard much about 1Life? It's being run by Ray and Dante Events - the same two guys who run Momentum and Primetime at Circus in Los Angeles. They're doing an event, July 4 weekend called 1Life. They've got quite a nice mix of all of the big gay circuit DJs and then quite a few of the straight ones. And they're doing a huge, two day, all-day outdoor festival, from Friday, July 4 through Sunday, July 6, all day and all night in San Bernardino.
Sounds amazing, I'll have to check that out!
They're calling it,"America's First Gay Massive Music Festival." It's funny they're calling it that, and not just "The Big Gay Music Festival." (Laughs) It will be interesting to see how it works out, because they're trying to change the dynamics of how the circuit parties are looked at. Things like, why don't we have our own festival, why don't we have our own EDM Festival? The closest thing we have to it really is White Party Palm Springs.
And that's so hugely successful.
He's [Jeffrey Sanker] been very clever in the way that he's re-branded that event, away from the circuit party, into more of a dance/music festival. I just did the Sunday set for the fireworks last month -- it was a full 10-minute medley; sort of a 25 year tribute to Palm Springs and the White Party. I put a bit of Frankie Knuckles in there, sort of a tribute to him. It was great, it was the biggest fireworks display Sanker has ever put on.
If you had to name a favorite venue, what would it be?
That is always a tough one to answer; there are so many amazing places. I do love Australia, though - that is my favorite - always has been and always will be. It's like my second home; there is something magical about it. Especially around Mardi Gras. I think I've done that main hall about seven times now. It's a phenomenal party, the venue, the people; it's just so amazing.
I've never been, but I have heard stories from friends who have been.
There are five huge halls, and the last time I was there, I had Kylie Minogue on stage with me. It was unbelievable; they are so great at what they do. Those Australian's know how to throw a f*cking party, they sure do!
I've always wondered how you classify electronica, and the different genres for dance music. Do you have a primer on what the differences are between them?
You know, I actually find it very confusing myself. (Laughs) Everything at the moment seems to be stuck under an EDM [electronic dance music] umbrella. I personally think all music in some form is house music, with different sort of sub-genres off of there. But the EDM stuff now is so noisy and so loud; I don't even know what it's called anymore.
Noisy and loud, huh? That is hysterical, coming from a DJ!
I know, it's funny, I recently spent the day listening to music, trying to find new stuff on Beatport (the site that DJs use for sounds) and I'm, like, "This is not house." There was all this really weird kind of EDM-sounding sort of scratchy, loud synth stuff. It wasn't house music at all.
I try not to categorize music too much, because I listen to such a wide spectrum of sounds that I hate to pigeonhole myself into one style. I could listen to a dubstep song and hear something great in it, and then listen to another dubstep piece and think,"What the hell is that?" That just sounds like somebody's tossing pots and pans around.
That's so funny. That always signaled the end of the evening for me, when they'd bring out the "pots and pans" music!
Time to go home, aye? (Laughs) I never was a part of that; I'm pretty notoriously well known as a more vocal-based DJ.
That's one of the reasons I think you're so popular, because of that vocal base.
I've slowly been changing my style up over the last year, but I'm still really vocal. I'm certainly not as "poppy" as some DJs are, or even as much as I used to be myself for that matter. But I'm still very vocal, sort of a "hands in the air" kind of guy. I won't play music that's even remotely dark. It's just not my style, and there are other DJs that do it much better than I can.
I honestly believe that your personality comes out through your music when you DJ. I can walk into a room and hear a certain style of music and immediately tell who is playing - you get to know them because you get this vibe straightaway. I think that's great, people have very distinctive sounds and everyone has different tastes, so it works out.
I suppose it's like playing any type of music: You have to change it, otherwise it becomes boring.
That's it. I jokingly said last year, when I'd start to do pop mixes again on a big scale, things like Carly Rae Jepsen, Katy Perry etcetera, I joked that the sound reminded me of my Heaven days back in the mid-'90s, and that I was so old that the sound has become fashionable again (laughs)! It's come full circle and is back... F**king hell, I am so old!
It's funny (or not), I was at an event recently and they played Kim English's "Unspeakable Joy" and I thought, Oh, God, I can't go out anymore, they're recycling music from my early days. It's a bad sign when you realize that what you are listening to is considered "old school." (Laughs)
(Laughing) It's funny you should mention that, I'm actually reworking that song. I decided to do another version of it because of the fireworks set at the White Party. I'm not playing it there, but I thought it was time - especially for the Zoo Party coming up.
Hang on a second... did you know about the Zoo party, or did I just drop a bomb that I wasn't supposed to? We haven't released that information yet... Lord. When does the magazine come out?
We come out on Friday, May 2.
That's fine, whew!
Well at any rate, I can't wait to see you in May and July!
Check out DJ Wayne G this month over Long Beach Pride Weekend at Poseidon on the Queen Mary, Saturday, May 17. He will also be spinning for San Diego's famed Zoo Party on Sunday, July 20. For more information on other dates and his many upcoming projects check out djwayneg.com
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