House Shoes Offers His Rules For DJs

Eric Coleman

See also: House Shoes: Seminal Producer Talks New Album, J Dilla Beef

Hang the DJ. Or don't. When Morrissey wrote the hook to "Panic," the definition of a DJ was straightforward. A DJ mixed vinyl on a Technics turntable for audiences whose access to music was limited to the radio, MTV, the record store and what they heard while out clubbing.

But the needle has skipped. With the advent of Serato, sequencing program Ableton Live and the ease of obtaining digital music, even Paris Hilton can pretend to be a DJ.
Collections that once took crate-diggers decades to assemble now can be obtained in a few weeks on BitTorrent. The ascent of EDM allows "button-pushing" DJs to entertain festival-sized crowds by merely pressing play. Technique and selection often are overlooked in favor of pyrotechnic light shows and ferocious fist pumps. Recent Rolling Stone comments from rodent-masked vaudevillian Deadmau5 lampooned the button-pushing brigade and raised the curtain on the legerdemain. A subsequent article from former turntablist champ-turned-dance producer A-Trak on Huffington Post reminded DJs of the importance of varying their setlists.

With the craft experiencing a mild spiritual crisis (amidst a renaissance), I asked House Shoes, the Detroit-raised, L.A.-based DJ, his thoughts on the matter. Never shy to voice his opinion, House Shoes spent much of the last decade as the most renowned spinner at hip-hop haven St. Andrews, where he became close with J Dilla, Eminem and Proof. Since moving here six years ago, he's spun at such popular L.A. parties as The Do-Over and Low End Theory.

"If you're a DJ and you're doing that press-play shit, you're wack. If you came from the cloth, it's your responsibility to keep it going. You have to represent the foundation," says the man born Michael Buchanan from his Koreatown apartment. He's surrounded by vinyl and wearing a T-shirt that says "Buy Records." "I'm not saying you have to beat-juggle all night, but ... you can't just be up there lip-synching."

House Shoes is a DJ's DJ. He's impeccable in his fundamentals (selection, mixing, knowledge) and his biography gives him unimpeachable authority. A producer too, his new cold-steel solid album Let It Go is studded with cameos from rappers returning the homage.

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The Airliner

2419 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA

Category: Music

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