By Sean Flinn | October 19, 2001
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| Dave Aude puts the needle on the record. |
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Moonshine Records
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Los Angeles-based DJ / Producer Dave Aude is one of those guys whose name you might not recognize right off the bat, but whose touch you've definitely felt. As a DJ, he's quickly stepping his way up the party marquees, rocking decks at massives around the world and locking in residencies at Rubber - both in Orange County and in Vegas - and at St. Louis's Velvet. He's also managed to kick out a few high-profile mix CDs for the rapidly growing electronic dance music label Moonshine, which was founded by Aude's former partner in musical crime, Steve Levy. At one point, the two were laying down tracks as the influential underground group Lunatic Fringe, which made the transition into their current roles - Levy as music mogul, and Aude as Moonshine's in-house producer - smooth as silk.
And it's in this new role - as producer - that Aude has really made his mark. Or, rather, many marks. As the guy behind the boards at Moonshine, he's lent his production skills to several up 'n' comers who, after benefiting from his input, cranked out monstrous debuts and career-kickstarting mix CDs. His efforts have been well rewarded: tracks he's worked on have scored 4 #1s on the Billboard club charts, and broke the top 10 another 20 times. Self-proclaimed "Superstar DJ" Keoki most recently benefited from Aude's magic touch on his latest artist record, Jealousy, which, for a few weeks at least, did sales comparable to the most recent Fatboy Slim disc.
Aude hasn't set aside his stylus entirely, however - not even remotely. He's just released a new mix CD, Nocturnal Wonderland, which is tied (in name, and in Aude's perennial presence) to the annual party, held this year at Lake Havasu, Arizona. And while the event made headlines this year primarily due to a drug-related death, we're fairly certain Aude himself dropped a performance that was more noteworthy than the latest bit of media narco-nonsense. He's also staying busy with other projects, notably, producing an original track for the hit Sony Playstation 2 game, Grand Turismo, and digging into a few other video-game related projects as well.
Sean Flinn: Tell us about your career as a DJ - according to your bio, you've been at this since 1991, when you and Steve Levy (founder of Moonshine Records, and a legendary club DJ in his on right) hooked up to form Lunatic Fringe. But what drew you into the world of dance music - did you, prior to Lunatic Fringe, ever envision yourself becoming a DJ, or dance music producer? Or was it more of a sudden epiphany?
Dave Aude: I never really knew when I was younger that DJ's could make a career out of playing records at clubs/parties. I've been making noise/music since I was 13, so I don't think making music came from an epiphany. Making techno/club/whatever-you-wanna call it came from hearing the incredible "underground" sounds in the early '90s.
You've had quite a bit of formal musical training - did you ever think it would steer you in the direction you've gone or were you planning to do something else with it? How does that training come to bear when you're working as a DJ spinning records as opposed to working as a producer or writer?
That "training" is just the foundation that taught me the basics of making music and thinking of it in a different way than just listening. That "formal" training just gives me a little more knowledge than other people. But at the end of the day the only thing that matters is your ears. When I'm spinning, it's all about the music and the vibe - there's no training involved, just experience.
You're essentially the de facto in-house producer for Moonshine, correct? How did that arrangement arise? What are the biggest challenges and rewards of working for that particular label, i.e., what do you think the legacy of your work there will be, ultimately?
I just started making music and Moonshine kept putting it out. The biggest challenges are working with new people. It's fun and challenging because there're new ideas with new people, but that's also hard because sometimes it takes time to get to know artists / DJs and figure out what they want. Moonshine is great for me -- they make it easy to just concentrate on making music. As far as a legacy goes, I really think I'm just getting started so we'll just have to see what happens.
Do you have a preference between DJing and producing? What are the best and worst aspects of either job - what brings you back to the decks over and over again, and what makes you glad to be behind the mixing desk?
I'm a Libra so I like a good balance between the two. It's the same thing in both situations that brings me back: a good song / record. Sometimes I won't hear anything inspiring for a long time so I'll have to go and listen to some older stuff, but sooner or later something comes around that gets me aroused.
You've focused your sets primarily on progressive trance and hard-edged
4-to-the-floor beat driven tunes as opposed to, say, some of the more obviously house or breakbeat-inflected styles out there - what drew you to the particular style of music you spin? And, on a more focused level, what qualities does an individual track usually have to possess to make it from the record bin into your set list?
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The only major quality each record in my box must possess is a big fucking kick drum.
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Actually, I kinda have to disagree with you. I play good records. That's it. No stupid titles or specific genres, just good solid music for dancing. That said, I do play a bit of breakbeat, house, trance, hard house, techno, and progressive whatever the hell that is. If a track gets the crowd going, I'm playing it. I play stuff that Tall Paul, Donald Glaude, Charles Feelgood, DJ Dan. Micro, Keoki and Carl Cox play - across the board. The only major quality each record in my box must possess is a big fucking kick drum.
How do you put your sets together - are they planned out well in advance of a set? Do you put together a basic framework and adjust the set to the energy of the crowd? Are you taking the audience on a journey, or is it the other way around?
Some guys really put a lot of thought into sets beforehand. Christopher Lawrence "rehearses" his sets kinda like a band goes into rehearsal. DJ Beej has a graph that shows the different BPMs / pitch of a song so he can match everything up nice. I just throw my records in a box and hop on the plane. I show up and take it from there - every crowd is different. Every city is different. I play different at clubs than I do parties. Journey shmurney. Thats like a Sasha / Digweed kind of thing -- journey. If I'm doing my job right, not only are people going on a journey, but they're gonna have fun, lose a few pounds, and make a few friends on the dance floor!
Tell me about your most recent mix CD, Nocturnal Wonderland. How did
You end up serving as the, for lack of a better word, "voice" of the festival as it's represented on CD? How did you approach the project - did you want to bring out what your live set at the show might be, or were you trying to give people more a general sense of what the festival is like?
Nocturnal is such a diverse party that there's really no way to actually document the idea / vibe / music on a CD. There are so many different styles of music at the party. I programmed a wide variety of music to show a "little" diversity but it's hard to really get too eclectic on a 74 minute CD, so I just tried to give some good energy to it and a little emotion. All in all I think the final result is pretty good.
You also recently mixed a track for the soundtrack to Gran Turismo 3. How did this come about? How did you go about assembling the track (was it any different than putting something together for a regular CD, for example? Was it comparable to film score work?)
There's no "soundtrack", but I did write a song for the game. I just wrote a song with the video game in mind. Something that you could speed around a racetrack to. I didn't want to sound typical of every game out there so I just wrote a party type track and made sure not to use the 303.
Was this your first inclusion on a video game soundtrack? Are you a gamer at all? If so, what games / platforms are you into these days?
I got 'em all. I'm writing songs for Activision's super streetcar racer and I'm getting ready to write music for Sony's new jet-ski game.
This summer has seen the cancellation of three major parties - Creamfields, Mekka and JuJuBeats - one due to flagging ticket sales, the other two because of disorganization on the part of the promoters. Have you noticed flagging interest in general in live shows recently? Even after years of event production and promotion here in the states, does it seem to you that these massives are always threatening to collapse under their own weight, or do you think this was just a symptom of a flagging economy?
I think that there're a lot of reasons, and I could go on forever. I think some DJs charge too much. I think some DJ agents charge too much. I think that every European DJ is following the messiah Oakenfold out here to the Promised Land. I think that everybody and their mother has a CD out or coming out soon. I think that the police are cracking down because they don't understand. I think there are too many people working against each other rather than with each other.
I go to different cities every weekend and all I see are millions of flyers with billions of DJs. There are too many DJs. There are 10 3-500 person parties when there should be 1 big one. There are also a lot of immature, irresponsible people throwing parties. On a final note, why did I have to play a party in the middle of the desert that should have been in L.A.? We need to figure these things out before things get worse.
On a similar, more "in the news" vein, a lot of hay is being made, by both law enforcement and the mainstream media, about the relationship between drug use and the culture surrounding dance music. This came to a head recently with the closure of Twilo in New York City and the indictment of James "Disco Donnie" Estinopal and Robert and Brian Brunet on charges of violating Louisiana's "Crackhouse" laws. In your decade-long experience in the dance music scene, have you ever had any encounters with law enforcement, for good or for ill, that affected you as either a performer or an audience member? What 's your general take on these events and the coverage they've received so far?
It's just too bad that the media has to focus on negative things. I've been doing this for a long time an I've never had any problems, run-ins or whatever because I just stick to DJing. There are always people in every situation that participate in drugs in some aspect but I think that drug use is gonna happen whether there's a party or not. I don't have all the answers but I do know that when promoters put on a good party and make their staff aware of what's going on, there shouldn't be problems. Don't let the media get you down - these are the same people that were dropping acid 25 years ago at Woodstock.
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