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With more than 15 years of experience in the DJ booth, Virginia native DJ Enferno can get a party rocking almost anywhere in the world. However, he recently explained that his formal classical and jazz piano training helps him take an academic approach to what works and what doesn't behind the wheels of steel.
"I look at being able to program a full night's worth of music as being able to play note after note, chord after chord, the best music that you can to control the flow of the night and make the best experience possible for the listener," he recently told Metromix Jersey Shore.
The DJ for Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour, DJ Enferno will be back on the road with Madge for a summer European tour that kicks off July 4 at the 02 in London. But, before he sets off with the Material Girl, he will be bringing his revolutionary Live Remix Project to Mixx at the Borgata in Atlantic City on Saturday (May 13).
We recently talked with DJ Enferno about his innovative new project, life on the road with Madonna and more.
You draw from a lot of different genres, everything down to Pink Floyd, Rage Against the Machine, that kind of thing. What were you into growing up, musically?
The funny thing is I was into lots of different types of music. I got into rock a little bit more at first because I was basically was listening to whatever my sister listened to. I have an older sister ... we're very close and I was kind of listening to what she was listening to. And then I started getting into what was on the radio, so I started listening to a lot of what I guess was pop hip-hop at the time. This is back in the early ‘90s, I started in '91, so basically I was listening to a lot of what was on the radio.
And then, as I got older I just started expanding more and listening to other forms of music, even music that I had missed in the ‘90s. Like, I didn't listen to a lot of Pink Floyd when I was younger, when I was 16, or even Rage Against the Machine, that stuff probably came a little bit later in my career, but I'm always trying to listen to different types of music, whether it be electronic, rock. ... Just relaxing I like to have some Stevie Wonder or Earth, Wind and Fire or even Michael Jackson or even some Madonna, a lot of the stuff that I grew up with in the '80s strikes a chord with me, I like to listen to it just in my free time. I actually make a point to listen to a lot of different types of music.
Can you tell me a bit about the Live Remix Project that you'll be bringing to Mixx in Atlantic City this month?
The Live Remix Project, it started off as just a concept of basically taking the idea of performing as a DJ. What I wanted to do as a DJ is I wanted to really perform. A lot of people say they get up there and they perform, and I like to think even with two turntables I get up there and perform, but when I say perform I really mean perform the song, like create music and produce music live on stage as opposed to playing music, going from record to record; it's a different concept, it's more performance-based.
The whole idea was, "OK, well, let me take my turntable skills, let me take the musical knowledge that I have and let me take my geeky, nerdy aptitude to sit down and learn technology and figure things out and kind of put all those together to make the technology allow me to perform music in a way that really hasn't been done in the way that I'm doing it." So, that's basically what I'm doing with the Live Remix Project, and the simplified way to put it is I'm creating music onstage with turntables and keyboards and using technology to make it all work together.
Actually, what you're going to see at Mixx is actually the next step, which is kind of cool and I'm really excited about it. It started off with DJing, two turntables, rocking parties and stuff like that and really controlling the night in a club environment. Then, I moved onto the Live Remix Project, which is basically all performance-based. It's basically stand there and watch, dance if you want to, but it's really about watching the show.
What I'm doing at Mixx is the first time that I'm going to be doing sort of a hybrid set of both club mixing and my Live Remix Project. So, imagine being able to perform certain songs on stage live as if I'm a band but then also move between the different parts of my DJ rig to control the night and make the night flow also like a club DJ. So, you'll see me flowing in and out of both straight two-turntable blends, just making the crowd move, in and out of actual Live Remix performances on stage, so you're actually going to see something new if you see it on the 13th, which is kind of cool.
And the after that show, you're going to be heading back on the road with Madonna for the European leg of her tour. How did you get linked up with her in the first place?
In the first place it was the Live Remix Project that got me noticed by the music director for her show. I was doing that type of performance in Orlando, which is where he lives. His name is Kevin Antunes, and he just happened to be there and check out the show and that's kind of how it got started. I didn't know he was there, I didn't know who he was, I didn't even know Madonna was going to go on tour when I got the phone call.
But it's crazy, because the next morning I got a call from the music director and a text message saying "I saw your show last night (and) I'm interesting in talking to you about the tour, about the Madonna tour," and you can imagine my shock and excitement.
Basically, the Live Remix Project is the reason; because that's the type of gig I was doing at the time. And apparently, from what Kevin told me, he was told by Madonna to look out for cutting edge turntablists, they wanted to look out for them for the show, and I think that they had a couple of people already in mind that they were looking at, but she told Kevin to keep an eye out and that's exactly what he did.
What do you think would surprise people out there about life on the road with Madonna? What's life on that tour like?
What would surprise people? It might surprise people to find out that we don't hang out; it's a very professional relationship, as far as her, myself and the rest of the band. There isn't too much going out and hanging out after work hours. She's great during rehearsals, but it's not like we're all grabbing beers afterward and it's not like "Truth or Dare," the documentary. It's funny, because I saw that last night, it just happened to be on T.V., and I was like, "Wow, that's a lot different."
I guess it's different now with her and her life, but she's cool. I mean, we don't necessarily hang out in that respect, but she's just, I don't know if it would surprise people to find out about this, but she's just a real person, she's just like everyone else, she just happens to have an extremely hard work ethic and is very good at what she does, but that's no surprise.
Through that tour, you've been playing for arena-size crowds throughout the world. Do you ever sit back and think, "Where do I go from here?"
Yeah. And it's funny, you say arenas, but we actually hit stadiums. Imagine that. Our first show was a 50,000-person stadium, it went up to as many as 75,000. So, you can imagine being on stage for the first time in front of that many people. Getting to perform for that many people, I was thinking that before I even got on the tour.
I look at everything kind of like an opportunity, like "Well what can I do with this?" and what's great is right now I'm living it, doors have opened. ... I went on my own (solo DJ) tour a little bit earlier this year, I played 40 different cities in the last few months before even going back on this tour, so a lot of doors have opened up for me. ... Now I'm working more on the production end as well as the DJing end and kind of branching out as a producer as well, which kind of builds on the Live Remix thing, because the Live Remix Project is basically music production, it's just on stage.
And right now, actually, I was fortunate enough to be nominated for America's Best DJ, which is a yearly poll (through DJ Times), they do it based on fan votes, but they nominated the top 100 DJs in the world and right now in the polls I'm actually in the top 10. They don't tell me what number I am, but they just say I'm in the top 10, which is actually really, really cool, so hopefully that will work out even a little bit better by the time the vote's done.
