From New Orleans to San Francisco, Native Intelligence is best known for producing and DJ’ing steady basslines, but he’s not afraid to rock out now and then. Check out this excerpt from his recent interview at SF Station:
SFS: I saw your blast for Butter which incorporates a rock music DJ set. Do you usually put that into your DJ sets?
NI: Hardly ever.
SFS: So it’s two separate deals?
NI: When I was at Sugar I was DJing three nights a week and on Fridays seven hours. It was crazy but luckily I had all my music on me at once. I could play house for four hours and hit a wall and then just throw on some Journey. So once I started doing that and mixing for so long, I started mixing hip hop into Def Leppard and just really going for it. The other night I played for three hours, didn’t do beat matching, just played big rock songs, and played two hours of drum n bass which felt completely natural. And it’s fun to do it. But I’m playing the End Up on the 16th, and I’ve been cultivating to have the best breaks set. It’s very focused because I have respect for when you’re dancing, you need to have a set going on.
SFS: Then what do you like to play the most?
NI: I would say probably house because there’s so many genres in house, and I really enjoy minimal stuff. I love deep house when it has the right vocals, but I’m not into vocals that are too off the wall or repeat too much. I think it’s important to have a beat but also to craft a song around it.
Read the full interview at SF Station to get the rest of the story:
www.sfstation.com/native-intelligence-a16801
PS: I’ve never seen him play any Def Leppard, but I know his set at The Endup on May 16 kept the dancefloor in a total state of Hysteria. Watch RockItScienceSF.com for more chances to catch Native Intelligence, or check the Native Intelligence profile at Symbiosis Artists for bookings.
