Why Are So Many International DJs Moving to Los Angeles?

Todd Oren

Guy Gerber

Los Angeles has recently experienced a heavy influx of international dance music producers, DJs, and label chiefs.

Brits like Michael Cook and Mark Lewis were throwing raves in the Southland in the late '80s and early '90s, while French dance royalty Daft Punk arrived at some point in the late '90s. Recently, Anthony Gonzalez (M83) became another Frenchman-in-L.A., making electronic bedroom pop. Meanwhile, more British jocks like Harvey, DJ Garth, Jesse Rose, and Damian Lazarus have gotten in the action as well.

Other dance acts and producers like Plastic Plates, Andrei Osyka (Droog), and Filip Nikolic (Poolside) hail from Australia, the Ukraine, and the Netherlands Denmark respectively, though they all seem to be local fixtures at this point.

What gives? Why now? I spoke with a few of these nouveaux Angelenos to try to figure out if the allure has to do with anything other than climate.

I first met with Tomas Barfod, one of several Danish producers who has decided to spend several months out of his year in L.A. He's the drummer-producer for live act WhoMadeWho. He came largely to collaborate with hip-hop MCs (which are hard to come by in Europe) and pop vocalists, and is currently working on productions for Young L and Clyde Carson, as well as a collaboration with Chrome Canyon.

"When I first came to L.A. in 2008," Barfod explains, "a lot of people from Europe didn't necessarily love L.A., but I feel like that's changing. They're not used to the structure of the city and all the driving. I actually like driving, so it's interesting to drive around the strange parts of town and listen to music. We got a lot of help from good friends who had been here for a while and knew where the good stuff was, so we didn't have to wade through too much of the obvious stuff."

Andy J. Scott

Tomas Barfod

Like Barfod, Israeli-born Guy Gerber has also been working on hip-hop production in the U.S. -- specifically, he's sitting on a full length for Diddy. He also produces deep house and runs a label, Supplement Facts.

"Europeans see everything that is happening in the U.S. at the moment, and that most of it is centered around L.A., so it makes it more interesting than it has been for some time. The chance to leave Europe in the winter and come to sunny L.A. is very appealing. As a producer there are many opportunities to work outside the dance music space, and interesting people from beyond the DJ world in film, art, etc, which I think pushes you creatively."

While he recently claimed that the club scene in L.A. "sucks", the city provides other aesthetic pleasures and inspiration, he says. Besides the obvious perks ("great food", "beautiful girls"), Gerber finds L.A. captures "the blend of darkness and glamour, it's beautiful and cinematic, yet gritty and dirty. For how I make music, that is really appealing."

Gerber was more than likely inspired by colleague Damian Lazarus, one of international dance music's most well-rounded vets, who moved here four years ago. He's done everything from criticism to running his Crosstown Rebels imprint to throwing parties at Burning Man and Machu Pichu, and generally pushing what he calls "underground dance music."