On Friday night, international mogul, Grammy-nominated producer and world-renowned DJ Diplo came to St. Louis as part of AXE's One Night Only tour. The tour headed to undisclosed venues in select cities, with information and free tickets only announced via AXE on both Facebook and Twitter. In addition to Diplo, the One Night Only tour featured openers Chiddy Bang and Lunice.
We were lucky enough to catch up with Diplo prior to Friday's show to talk about Axe, Van Morrison, and the current state of Mad Decent.
Josh Levi: So this is the last date on the AXE: One Night Only tour? How has the reception been?
Diplo: It's the last date then we do two more shows next week. It's been cool. These places we don't play very often. We come here like once every two or three years and the venues are small. It's amazing to play with Lunice and Chiddy and those kids, who have been my friends for a while and we can bring them to a new audience.
Do you think the "scavenger hunt" method is working out?
Yeah. Axe...whatever they're doing is working. It's been crazy with people hitting me up for tickets and things like that. So yeah, doing pretty good.
In an earlier interview you've done, you touch on "playing the game" to reach people through hooking up with companies like Red Bull and Diesel. Do you feel like that's kind of the next move - hooking up with Axe?
I don't know. Is it?
I know you've caught some flak for it...and do you know the comedian Neil Hamburger?
Yeah, yeah. He was supposed to be on tour with us but he didn't make it.
He's kind of shouted out at you on Twitter? Do you think it's just another part of putting your reach out there?
As long as I can talk to Neil Hamburger that's all I care about. As long as he knows who I am - that's all that matters.
Steve Aoki once said that Skrillex single-handedly changed the way dubstep is received. How do you feel about taking that similar role in the curatorial approach to baile and lesser know sub-genres like that?
I don't know. I don't think I have any impact on the scene like Skrillex has. I play all kinds of music and I'm just glad people like it.
Do you still consider yourself a DJ first and then a producer?
I don't know. I just finished a record right now in the hotel room. They're both the same thing - when I make a record, I'm playing it the night I made it to see if it sounds good - you know?
You're putting out records by artists like Bwana and Blaqstarr and different stuff like that. Do you have a feeling about what the next, big trend in electronic dance music might be?
Hopefully it'll be silence.
You're also pretty heavy on social media, the Internet and Twitter. How important is that to the game and staying active?
It's important to be on the Internet. How else am I gonna watch porno, you know? I don't want to go buy it at a shop or whatever.
