DJ Q&A: Jesse Perez
We have Jesse Perez back at Halcyon October 19th! Jesse we love the hip hop remixes you’ve been releasing. So fresh and so uniquely you! Tell us about your hip hop roots and what inspires you to make a track.
Thank you! Like most people my age I grew up on 90s music, particularly Hip Hop. For the 10 first years of my DJ career I was only really known for being a Hip Hop DJ, I rarely got the opportunity to play House or Electronic music in a club setting. I knew that I always wanted to do both but it wasn’t till around 2010 that I found my sound and was able to make music that not only was Hip Hop rooted but also displayed a prominent Miami Bass style. Everything from that era still inspires me today when creating music.
You’ve been a regular at Dirtybird Campout and the Bay Area loves Dirtybird! Talk about campout and I’ll fill in the question.
Campout is an amazing festival, for those that haven’t been I would highly recommend it if you enjoy the outdoors. It’s great to see how many people come together for this event, my flight alone from miami to San Francisco was filled with DB camp goers.
What are some highlights of campout for you? Tell us your favorite campout tale. What makes campout so special?
I enjoyed the ping pong matches, shout out to the guy that brought his own paddle from home and went full on Forest Gump on me. That was the only match I lost! After, I went over to the birdhouse stage for my set. The crowd was awesome to play to and I loved how the cheerleaders & Dirtybird’s mascot would go around the stage and interact with the crowd, best hype men/women & bird in the game! My favorite moment was when I was hanging backstage later that night and I glanced up to the sky and saw what I thought was a UFO at the time. I was going crazy taking videos on my phone and trying to get others to look at it, when one of the staff members walked up to me and said it was just the Space X rocket that had just been launched. Same thing happened to me at Elrow NYC recently, there was this red flying object hovering back and fourth over the crowd, I start filming it, all excited, thinking I’m getting something not from this planet on video and some guy walks up to tell me it was just a drone taking pictures for the event! I’m not looking up to the sky anymore or drinking tequila!
You’ve recently played another one of our favorite events, ELROW! What was it like playing elrow in NYC? (What makes elrow so special?
I’ve had the chance to play several Elrow events including Barcelona and Miami, but I have to say that Elrow NYC has been my favorite! I think what sets Elrow apart from other big party brands is that their party goers bring a lot of energy. It’s a unique experience with all the actors and confetti.
And as if it wasn’t obvious you are totally on fire, you also debuted at Amnesia Ibiza this summer for DO NOT SLEEP! We love the DNS crew and we love ibiza! Tell us about your favorite ibiza moments.
I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite Ibiza moment but I’ll share an interesting moment from a day I was at Carl Cox’s villa for a BBQ DJ Sneak was doing there. My phone had died so someone helped me out and had my phone charged off of Carl’s laptop. I was fairly new to the iPhone back then and didn’t know about the picture import screen that pops up on the laptop when you connect a phone to it. I left my phone charging for about a half hour, when I returned back the import photos pop up window was out and there was a bunch of inappropriate pictures of myself displaying! Everyone that was at his villa probably got a glance. The messed up part was that no one said anything, which probably meant that no one was impressed, so that stung twice as hard…
We are so thrilled you’ve landed in SF again and can’t wait to experience a bit of all those great summer gigs in your SF show!
It’s an honor to be back, I love the room’s vibe, the staff, and most importantly the city of SF. I’ll be pre-gaming at fisherman’s wharf for some clam chowder
