The KonVO Ep. 6 - Miami Music Week Recap & Prepping For Votion Universe 2026

In this episode of The KonVO, Don Kon takes us behind the scenes of his recent trip to Miami Music Week, sharing an honest breakdown of the experience—from the unforgettable moments and networking opportunities to the mistakes artists should avoid when navigating one of dance music’s biggest weeks of the year.

We also shift into VO’s journey preparing for Votion Universe 2026, the highly anticipated event coming to Boston’s WNDR Museum. From the creative vision behind the event to the pressure of bringing an immersive experience to life, VO opens up about the planning process, challenges, and excitement surrounding what’s shaping up to be a massive moment for the local electronic music scene.

This episode is all about growth, preparation, and what it really takes to build experiences that leave an impact—both as an artist and as a community. 🌴🎶🔥

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Alright, bro, we're back. What is this? Episode six? I think.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Who's counting?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Who's even counting?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Not me, dude.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

No. Just hey, just talking, having a good time.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I I hate writing down anything. I just kind of like going, going, and then keep doing and then worry about it. I mean, it's not really good, I think, because I I do that with my taxes. Too much counting. Dude. Too much counting. My taxes are fucked, dude.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Yeah, dude. I heard the tax man came came a walk and strolling up to Vaux house.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah, I dude, the state government just took like $2,000 out of my bank account. Just because I didn't file, and my tax guy was like, you'll get it back once you file. I'm like, that's fucked up. Just take it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Just take it. Just take it. No end date.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Oh, yeah, whatever you file. Yeah. So who knows? Fuck the government.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Well, that leads us perfectly into our next segment. Nah, man. But how you been doing? Good?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I've been good, bro. Busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. It's it's nonstop. It's it's really non-stop. But you know, you you grow to love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Right. Yeah. If you love it, right? It'll that'll drive that's the that's the biggest motivator out of all, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

You can only put up with the bullshit if you love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Exactly. This is the only thing that'll get you through. 100%. You gotta have that extra piece in it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

And you you put up I I put up with the bullshit when I get inspired, and usually I get that inspiration when I go to shows. And we ripped a show recently. So we're we're pretty much just gonna talk about what we did in the last like two months. Um, since our last episode, we hit um Leighton Giordani. Yes, dude. And he had his uh his Mad Mind show at the Brooklyn storehouse. And wow, what a fucking show!

SPEAKER_02 2:09

It was amazing. It was amazing show. I've only been to you know, a handful of these bigger shows, right? Storehouse, you know, as as an example.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

7,000 people.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Right. Hands down, the best, the best set of scene. He absolutely crushed it. I don't know if it was because he was at home, I don't know what it was, but hands down, one of the best sets I've seen start to finish. Like there was no lulls. You know, sometimes you see guys experimenting, throwing things out there that don't work, yada, yada, yada. He crushed it. He absolutely crushed it. We even had uh Zons, a Votion Records um OG. They Layden played his his Drade Sandstorm remix, and it wasn't until we saw him later where he goes, Oh my god, he goes, That was my song, which was so cool. But it was just it was a very special night, and I'm sure it was for him as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

So it's three hours that set from start to finish, and we were locked in.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Was it three hours? Three hours.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

That's how you know you're having a good time. I didn't even know it was three hours. I didn't even know. And he was by the time we left, he was still going. Yes. And we were like, ah, we gotta get we gotta make it to the actors. So and he probably still went for like another 30 minutes. I I think like if the longer you go, like it's on you, it comes out of your pocket.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

It does. I found that out today. So I found I was on social media today, and there was this band, it wasn't a DJ, but it was a band. And they said, you know, for every minute you go over, it's five thousand dollars out of your pocket. Five grand.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, because probably you're cutting into the next person's set. They probably need to get paid for how much time they're missing, right? Then paying all the staff. Or if you make you if you make the venue stay open past.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

That's what I was thinking. I was more so thinking that. I was more so thinking like that extra money goes towards workers, the the venue, whatever it might be, because they have these guidelines that I'm sure that need to fit like this hour to this hour, you know? Yeah, yada yada yada.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

So I I learned a lot from Layton Set. Yeah. One is how much he repped New York in that intro. Right, right. 50 Cent. Um even just throughout the whole thing. He had the the Statue of Liberty head, you know? He had like the subway samples, um, the people on the intercom, yeah, in the train station. But also, I remember at the time I was telling you how uh tech house is in right now, and and I know your thing's melodic techno, right? And you gotta work it in tastefully. And I think Lane was one of the first times you got to see that. Yeah, right? He I'd say like most of his set was tech house, but when he did play melodic techno, it hit way harder, and it almost was like uh uh just a change of pace, you know? Yeah. So I think I was happy that I was able to uh get you to come along and see that. Of course, man.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

I I love Leighton, I love what he's been doing, you know, within the scene, and to see him live, and more specifically to to your point, the the two sort of big genres that I like right now are melodic techno and then also tech house, right? Then there's melodic tech house. Melodic tech house, yeah. I mean, the subgenre iceberg is just insane. But anyway, just to see him weave between those two genres was very, very cool. And just from a consumer's perspective, to see that, you know, one thing I've always loved being a being a tech oh yeah, a melodic techno lover these past or this past year basically, is the breakdowns. Love the breakdowns. That's one of my favorite things to make, to listen to, to produce. But when you're in on the dance floor at a club, you know, watching these people, it ruins it ruins the vibe just a little bit. And like, but in the right place, it does its job and it's phenomenal. And that was the first time I really saw in a show the importance of a breakdown at the right time. Because obviously he's grew, he has these group like five, six groovers in a row, and it's like, this is amazing, this is great. I need a break. I need it, I need a break. And he had thrown a melodic techno track at the perfect time, and it was it was a nice little break. If you give them too many breaks, then it's like I lose them.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

I need to fucking keep going here.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yep, you want to keep those feet moving, keep them, keep it going, right? You know, and that's what the the the breakdown's for is exactly that a break. Yeah, you know, so it's all about balance, balance, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

It goes to like literally everything we do in life.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Exactly, exactly. But yeah, no, his his set was unbelievable. I loved it. I want I want to go back, and uh yeah, I know everyone else we had a good time.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

We went to the afters right after. Yes, what was the DJ's name? DJ Prime? No, DJ Vibe. Oh, DJ's DJ Vibe. Same shit, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Oh, he was amazing. Dude, never did it, never, never judge a book by its cover when it comes to a DJ name.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

So hold on, back up. Let's let's talk about let's talk about our journey fucking getting in. We get oh yeah, we get their lines astronomically long. And what time is it? This is like five in the morning, right? Yeah, yeah, like six in the morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's our squad, it's like seven dudes or six dudes. Yeah, yeah. And then the club promoter is like, it's a bad look, guys. It's a bad look, fellas. I don't know if I can get you in. We're like, oh fuck, dude. I don't know what's gonna happen. And then all of a sudden, Shlomo goes, yo, whoa, there's a votion hoodie right there. And I'm like, shut the fuck up. What are you talking about? He's like, dead ass. I'm looking at a votion hoodie. I think that's Sans. And I just peek my head over. I'm like, oh shit. We ran up to him. That's when we saw him. Yeah, and he was yeah, he was at Lane, and he was like, Oh, dude, Lane played my Saints from edit. It's fucking insane. But at some point he was like, dude, just stick with me. We were like, I don't know what's going on, but I got you. And then uh finally they started letting people in, and it almost felt like we all just bum rushed the door. Yeah, yeah, we just tagged along with Zanz and his crew and all the Brazilians. So this bum rushed. Yeah, as we were making it in, that's when the promoter was like We went in in a V formation. That's when the promoter was like, What the fuck is this? Where are the girls? And we're like, I don't know, we got tickets though. We're fucking running past them.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Yeah, yeah. It's like he's like, You guys don't have girls, not a good look. Not a good look, guys. I was just like, whatever. Yeah, we're all looking like, oh, really? We don't have any we don't have any girls, guys. Oh, no way. Yeah, thanks, guys. All right, thanks, word, thanks, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yeah. I was it was like a frat house door. Right. But uh, I didn't expect uh how small refuge was. Yeah, it was really intimate uh setting. It was like 500 person. Yeah, but you remember the speaker setup?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

The speaker set setup was awesome. The other thing I really enjoyed was it was a the floor to this club was literally like a basketball court. It was literally it was wood. They they didn't allow you to bring gum in. So one thing I like doing when I go to these shows is chewing gum. I got I got like three things of gum on me. I love gum. Anyway, they wouldn't let me take it in. They had a stack as almost they were confiscating drugs of just gum packs. And it was because of this wood floor. They didn't want anyone spilling anything on or dropping their gum on this wood floor and getting stuck. They said that? That's what that was my hypothesis.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Did you just make that up?

SPEAKER_02 9:27

That's my hypothesis. Yes, I did make that up. But it was it was my hypothesis. It was my hypothesis for why I thought they wouldn't let gum in. I think I'm right, though. I think I'm right.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

If anybody works at refuge, please come.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Please let us know. Because I think along with the sound system, which was absolutely phenomenal, specific to that room, that floor, I think, was also similar to the sound, where it's like specific.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Do you remember how it was built? The place? No, the floor. They they made a post about the floor.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

They did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

They say no gum? No. The floor is hollow, so there's like uh there's the foundation, then there's like supporting structures, and then there's floor about so there's like a gap of air. No kidding. So it's like little bounce. So it's supposed to be easier on your knees. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Very cool. I love that club. I thought it was great. I love how they put a thing over your your uh a sticker over your phone camera. Oh, yeah, no phone vibes. I still have that in my room. I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Actually, mine's is it on your phone? Oh no. I actually have a raw cuts sticker. Shout out to Rock Cuts.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Shout out to Rock Cuts. But um, yeah, I just I love the whole experience of the whole club. And then they also, so yeah, so as Vo said, they had a so they had the dance floor, right? About 500 people. But the other thing I really enjoyed about that place was they had a couch room. Oh yeah. The chill out room. Which I made the mistake of sitting down and not wanting to get back up.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

This dude, this dude was the first one down. First one down.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

You know, little tip of advice if you're going, you're going, you're going. Do not go, oh, I'm gonna go take a break and then get back in. Because you go take that break and you want to go home.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

That's yeah, we're all like we got to storehouse at like 11 p.m. or at midnight, and we're it's it's like what 9 a.m. at this point? Yeah, 10 a.m. Yeah. It's not it's not for the week. No, it's not for the physical either.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

But it's a time, and it's a great time. I loved it. So yeah, no, that was a good experience. You know, and then we go we're gonna give that, we gotta shout out that DJ. What was his name? DJ what? Diesel? Not Diesel, that's Jack. Vibe. DJ Vibe. I just knew there was DJ.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

He's an OG too. Dude. Crushed it.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

So I didn't know much about this guy. And here's DJ Vibe, and I just think of like a some high schooler, right? Yeah. This guy, this guy was awesome for twice. Yeah, he was like three, three, two, three times our age. I don't mean to demean it. He was the man. He absolutely crushed it. It was a great afters. I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

DJ the kind of tech house he was playing, it really just felt like endless. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

You know? I mean, so what I did was I shazamed some of the tracks he was playing because I liked what he was playing. And it felt to me in the moment, each track he played would go like seven, eight minutes. It would go a long time. So if you didn't like one of his songs, you had to wait. You had to wait a good, you might go get a sandwich, you know, do something. But anyway, and then I would listen back to the songs I shazamed, and they were like four minutes. So it opened my eyes to what exactly, exactly. He sees all these guys, people on the dance floor, they're loving it. And he goes, you know what? I'm gonna extend this track. I mean, his transitions were seamless, awesome, flawless, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

So I couldn't even tell it was another song. Right. I was like, oh shit. Right. You know, right. I realized after like three minutes into the song was different. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Exactly. He it was it was awesome, it was very extended.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Granted, we we were in shambles. We were a mess.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

But it was great. You know, when you're able to do that in Europe, you're not you're not, you know, in in the uh right state. Um it's pretty powerful, it's pretty cool, and it makes for a uh a good morning. Shout out to New York, man. What was that guy's name again? DJ what? Vibe. We gotta have him on. DJ forget. DJ, yeah, dude. It's so easy. DJ Vibe. DJ Vibe, we're gonna get him in here. We're gonna get him in here. Dude, he's not gonna want to talk to us. We can try. But yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

So New York's a good time. We're due for another trip soon. Big time. Maybe once a quarter.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Yeah, oh, a quarter. Once a quarter.

unknown 13:17

Yeah, a little uh employee trip.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

So we we go, you know, uh from there, we go straight to Miami Week. And I made the mistake, not really. I just didn't have enough money to go, to be real. Boom! Maybe next time I'll start GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Dude, I will I'm I'll put you in my I'll put you in my suitcase, bro. Like you gotta come next year.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

But I had uh Sophia went, who's part of the label as well, and then you went yourself. I did. And uh I I really wanted to talk to you about your experience. So walk me through. Walk me through from the moment you get to the airport at Logan. Right. Walk me through all the funny shit, all the bad shit, all the good shit, all this shit.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Right. So, first first off, the first thing I want to say about Miami Music Week. If you're in any part of the electronic music scene, you're a producer, you work at a label, you're just a consumer, go to Miami Music Week. It is the best time for networking, for seeing, discovering new artists, for seeing seeing artists you love, for just meeting people, like-minded people who like the same type of music from all over the world. It's it's it's it's an absolutely unbelievable event, and I highly, highly recommend it for those of you who haven't been and are in this space. Um, but yeah, as far as Miami went, the biggest thing that was really, really important that this was my first year, so I'm I'm I'm learning all this as I go. But the biggest thing I learned about before you step foot in Miami is prepare where you want to go, who you want to see. Because those tickets are limited. There's different tiers of of ticketing, right? As with anything, the earlier you get there, the cheaper it is. Um but most of all, where are you gonna stay? Because people are but Miami's only so big, right? The first Airbnb first Airbnb we got without realizing was 40 minutes away from Miami Beach. 40 minutes away. So we were in Miami Beach the whole time. So that would have been a very expensive trip. We ended up cutting our losses, canceling that, getting half back, and booking a place like 20 minutes from the beach. So we made it better, and when we were there, we saw how beneficial that was. Yeah, obviously, right? So basically, the point I'm trying to make is plan early. Plan early, do not wait till you're there, do not wait till weeks before, plan early because all people other people are doing the same thing. Yeah. Um, yeah. So what we did, what I found out about this shift, it was called Shift Miami. And basically what it was, it was a big like it was a bunch of panels, a bunch of talks. Was this the first day? This was the first day, yeah. So we literally woke up, we woke up at four in the morning. Uh Zwee and I, who Zwee just released a track on Voce Records, which I'll let you talk about a little later. But um, I went with him and uh another one of our friends, Jared. And anyway, we get up at four in the morning, we get we get to Miami and boom, right into the first talk. It was perfect timing. What time was that conference at? So it started around 11. Oh. So you flew in the morning. Okay. Yeah, so we flew in the morning, we get there, we still have all of our luggage. And then the funniest part, we're all in sweatpants because it's it's it's it's cold. It was cold with the boss, and we get there, and we still we haven't we weren't able to check into our our place yet. So we're we're sweating, man. We're dressed, we have all of it. We look like Taurus. Anyway, we're gonna bring us to the first talk, and this shift was really good. The shift Miami, and it had all these panels set up with different DJs, like Marcus Schultz, for example. He brought us to a marathon set. He had a bunch of label and rs. They had all these demo drops. You're able to get in line and and get in front of these ARs for labels like Anjuna and Dirty Bird and things like that. So that's the other great thing about this Miami Music Week is it it breaks that barrier. You know, it gets you in front, able to shake hands, talk to these professionals who you'd otherwise have to reach through Instagram or or or email, which as we know is very saturated, and they get thousands of emails a day. So we went to this shift, the very first panel we went to, very first panel we went to, it was all about ghost producing. And I wanted to rip this guy's head off. I'm like, no, no, no. I it wasn't the best start. I'm against ghost producing. I don't, I see where it's beneficial to, you know, someone trying to make me trying to make a livelihood, you know, things like that. But just the second half of that, as far as people trying to take it um and call it their own, I disagree with. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Anyway, the first talk was all about this. So tell us how you really feel. Yeah, we are we are tired, man. I'm like, this is the worst first panel. Um it wasn't he talking about like how he gave up.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yeah, he basically got up there and he's like, Yeah, I gave up on the whole DJing thing, so I just decided to make music for other people. So yeah, you should too. I was like, dude, what? I mean me and Steph were looking at each other, like, what do we what do we get ourselves into? Anyway, it was only up from there. It was only up from there. It was really great. That's good, that's good. It was amazing, learned a lot. Like I said, Marcus Schultz. We went to his master class. He he brought us to a marathon set, 12-hour set. Which I like how to how to do that. How to just do that and go through it. Yeah. How do you? He says, let's see. Um, no gum. Um let's see. He says, um so he he had he likes to mix in key. And what he does is he has uh his library organized by key. And he likes to stay within keys. So he has like big sandwiches, like you know, F minor and then like C minor, and then D major, right? He's and he goes through each one of these and he he likes to um harmonic mix with these 12-hour sets and he has them organized. Each crate is organized from like energy level, right? And he does it the same way I do, which I found really funny, where he has so he has that organized from energy level, and then underneath he has these like legacy sets, which are sets from previous clubs and stuff like that. And he goes, That's a really good way of like organizing your set because instead of like going through a genre, you're going through you know, a night that you planned out, right? You go, and as as we know, those nights don't always go to plan, but it's a nice like thing to look back on, and you like recognize and realize everything you did and how you ordered that, right? You know, some transitions worked exact, exactly. And he even went in, it was funny. He even went in and he highlighted some tracks in these in these crates of past sets showing you on the computer, he's showing us on the computer as he's doing it, and it was really funny. He's like, and then there were some in the uh some some titles in there like I wish or something like that, or like could have been. And and someone asked the question, someone raised their hand and asked the question, like, what are those like I could I wish songs? And he goes, The one that got away. Exactly. He would go back after the set and he'd put that song in there because he's like, Oh, I thought that song would really fit well, or I wish I had played that song instead. For when he goes back, when he's playing all these, you know, these marathon sets, he can go back in and have that previous set systematically the way he wish he had done it before. So it was just really interesting. Look, not everything he did in there is something I'm gonna do, but it was really amazing to see someone at the top of their game and how they organize stuff. So when they're at these stages and doing these things. Um and then yeah, and then like I said, there was a bunch of demo drops. You got to you got to it was a room, big room, and you had labels in each corner and big lines. You know, but you couldn't get in there unless you had this shift pass. And you got to get in front of these ARs, and one thing I really loved about when I showed my music is they listen to the whole song. They listen to the whole entire track.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Oh, they're listening to like right in front of you, right in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

And there's a photo of me, like kind of just like smiling, dancing. Is it out loud? They have they have it in the in their headphones. Okay. And so what are you dancing to? Well, I'm just like, I'm I don't know what to do because it's silence, and I'm like, I'm like, oh I was like nervous too. I mean, like you're in front of these big guys, you know, this is your ticket, right? Um, but they provided with some great feedback, you know. They're like, here, take my email, take my take my Instagram. And it was just a very personalized you think of these these label A and R's when you're sending emails, and like these big you know No, yeah, enough for us, you know. And they're just they're nor they're it's a good to remember that they're normal people just like us, you know, and and a s an experience like that reminds you.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

What's something someone said uh You remember about my track?

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah. Change the vocal. I was really bummed. I showed Anjuna one of my songs, and they're like, the production's fantastic. Like, this is great. I wouldn't change the production, but change the vocals. I'm like, dude, what? I think these vocals. I didn't say this to him, but I was like, I think these vocals are great. Um, and then so then what I did was I then took that same track and I went to another AR. Showed them the same exact track. Interesting to see if there's any parallel crossover about the feedback. Sure enough. Change the vocal. It was almost the same exact feedback. It was almost if they had talked to each other. Love the production, great production, great backing track, change the vocal. I'm like, fuck. But it was great because it's like I got that feedback that you know otherwise would have taken me months to get.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Because you're sending these out, it takes a while to get back. So it just breaks that that door down. Now, the other thing I want to talk about very quickly is beyond Miami Music Week, the connections you make there. Because yeah, sure, you're gonna make a bunch, you're gonna meet a bunch of people. You're gonna meet a bunch of you know high-level people at these labels, things like that. Yeah, they're giving out their email, they're giving out their phone number. So most likely not just you, but other people. But what the most important part is not getting those getting that contact information, it's what you do with it, right? It's uh what you do beyond Miami Music Week that really, really, really, really matters. Because yeah, sure they hand out their number to a hundred people, but how many people are you know gonna be consistent in in in key reaching it? Exactly. So that was the other great thing I got out of that experience as well, is is the contacts I have now beyond Miami Music Week. I have one guy and he's he we he's uh head AR at Empire Records, Grammy N Grammy nominated uh producer. He's awesome. He's he's got his feet and everywhere. Dirty Bird. We have a set we have a we have a call every week now. Being him from Miami Music Week. Yeah, just because I took the time, sit down, talk with him, get to know him, got to know me, boom. That's what you gotta do. That's what these people love. You know, you can't think about it as oh, I'm I'm you know, I'm in their inbox too much, I'm annoying them. They love being annoyed. Yeah, they might not tell you they love being annoyed, but they love being annoyed because it shows you care, it shows how much it means to you, right? If it doesn't mean a lot to you, you're gonna you're gonna message once, go, yeah. I know you didn't message back. I'm too worried to reach back out. You gotta stay active with these contacts. But it was um that was really amazing. So that was like the learning side of it, right? So I signed up for this shift. There was a there was you had this this learning side of things, and it was funny. It was it was like a Friday night in like high school, right? You'd you'd be in class and then you'd get ready to go and get fucked up. And this is my first I I I'd been in Miami before, but it was my with my family. So I I really hadn't been to Miami yet. And I didn't know anything about Factory Town. I didn't know anything. I didn't know the only thing I knew that was going on was Ultra Music Festival, which we didn't get tickets to because this was this trip was already too expensive. But we ended up getting tickets to Factory Town. My God.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

My God.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Awesome, absolutely awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Five stages.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

I think, I think, I think it's yeah, it's it's about five. And the the genre is kind of so it's mostly house.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

I'd say it's about 80% house, and then you have one stage that's at least this weekend, at least the weekend week weekend of Miami Music Week. And then you had one stage which was like techno drama bass, sort of like a little, I think they probably changed that up a little bit. Yeah. But my biggest complaint with Miami Music Week, though, there was too many people you wanted to see at the exact same time. There was too much going on right at the exact same time. That's a good problem. So, yeah, it was a good problem to have. But um, yeah, that was, I guess, my biggest complaint about it. I I had a great time. But yeah, we we ended up getting factory town tickets. Another thing we learned too, with us being, you know, loving house music and things like that, and would prefer factory town, at least me over at Ultra Music Festival, is get the five-day pass at Factory Town. Because million percent, million percent worth it. Because even if you don't go to like one or two of those, it basically pays for three nights. So if you go to three nights, it pays for itself. If you if you go to less than that, maybe not so much.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

I'm assuming you didn't do that.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

So we didn't buy the five-day ticket, and we're here in five days, and we actually had one friend who did get the five-day ticket. And uh shout out Jared. Shout out Jared, yeah, kidney the way. And we we we we bought two nights solo, like individually. It was way too much money.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Way too much money. Did you end up going to like a third night?

SPEAKER_02 26:34

We didn't end up going to a third night. We went to um Anjuna, an Andreuna open air event uh on the third night because we flew out very early the next morning. So we just decided to do that, which was phenomenal. But I want to I want to talk about Factory Town really quick. Factory town was amazing because you saw so many of these acts, underground, top artists, all together. And it was a it was an open air style club. So there was no walls. You could very free, it was very free-flowing, I think is the best word for it. So you didn't feel like, oh, I went to one stage and I'm stuck there, you know, like at Ultra, everything packs in, right? It gets packed, but it's open. So like you can then shift out and go see other acts and things like that. It was never once where I felt like, oh, I'm stuck here and I really want to go see that guy, right? You could you could go catch half this set, catch half that set. So were stages close to each other? Yeah, exactly. So you're able to very quickly within two minutes. Really? Maybe even less than that. Yeah, it was it was and then you had stages in between, too. So you could like poke your head in and see. The one bad experience I had at Factory Town was this room called the Chain Room, which is probably the most confined um stage out of the five. And Ketema was playing, and I really wanted to see Ketema because I missed him in Boston. Dude, I couldn't breathe. There was no, there was no roof, there was no, it was very, like I said, it was open air. I couldn't breathe. That's how many people were in there. They put him on the wrong stage. I think that he ended up going uh was it B3B with like Josh Baker and uh Prosper at the end of the night. So I didn't get to see him, which was at the right stage, which was at the the big one. Um, but yeah, that was I guess my biggest thing was I didn't get I didn't get to see Kedmo on his own. But uh yeah, then we went to open air, an Anjuna event, open air. We saw Nora Impure at Jungle Island. So just I really my big thing too was being able to see things I don't get to see that often in Boston, for sure. Right? So a lot of the Anjuna stuff. Obviously, I got the you know, I saw Josh Baker and I saw Sosa and and um Jay Wara, Green Velvet was my favorite set of the uh of the weekend. But yeah, just going to see that Anjuna stuff. I love that melodic, sort of like open air stuff, and it was just it was very well done.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Everything you experience is like we're not gonna get at that.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

We're not gonna get and it I came back though with so much inspiration. Like so much. It was even to the point where it's like we're after after uh you know a couple of those sessions, those the stuff uh the education sessions, we'll come back and we'll we'll start chipping away at a demo, right? An idea. Just because so much stuff is free-flowing and coming out of everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

So we actually got to work on music.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Yeah, we got to meet me and uh Zwee worked on some stuff in the uh in the Airbnb, just because it's like it's it's you just gotta let it out, you know. It was just us three. And thank God it was just us three, because we were like sardines and that that uh Airbnb. But yeah, no, it was it was absolutely amazing. We spent the uh yeah, it was like the weekend basically. I think we came back uh Oh yeah, it was like th we uh we were Thursday to Monday. Gotcha. I think we were.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Which Oh you just missed Leighton, Leonard.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yes, so that was the other thing I was gonna say. We we scheduled it all wrong, dude.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

We scheduled all because it starts Wednesday and ends Monday. There was even stuff on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Was there? Yeah, dude. This thing is a proper like week. Yeah. Um did you go to Club Space at all? Didn't go to Club Space, and that was one I was okay bookshelving because Yeah, it's always gonna be there. Yeah, and and to not go during Miami Music Wake, I think is the big thing with space because I I didn't I obviously I'm I'm intrigued to see space, I'm intrigued to go to space, but you gotta think a global uh music conference in Miami, and there's one nightclub space with how many stages is there just one stage there?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

There are two uh no, there's like four, but the one that everyone wants is the terrace that's got it, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

You know, dude, there was I would see we would see videos, you know, after waking up.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

The line was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

The line at like three in the morning was around the corner, and the tickets were nuts. So it's like, okay, you kind of have to pick and choose your battles in Miami Miami Music Week, like I said. And that was when I was okay uh pushing along. If I was there as a consumer, maybe a little different. But there was a lot we have we had our schedules jam-packed, and you know, that's a good thing to do while you're there. I think that's the best thing, is is you know, especially it depends on what you're going there for, but treat it as a business trip and not so much as a vacation. Because at the end of the day, like that's your time to shine, and you get one week to do it every year, yeah. Unless you go to ADE, which is I've also been to. And I've I found that ADE was much better for classes, like that little class learning block was amazing at ADE. It was good Miami, but the I didn't get to go out as much as I wanted to in Amsterdam, so I don't really want to compare the two because I've ever feeling Amsterdam might be a little bit better. So I don't really want to compare the two, but I did definitely um I definitely can't compare the two learning sessions, and um, the learning was much better. But I will say this uh as a a lot of the people I met at ADE were global. They were like European, you know, they were from other places, whereas the most of the people I met in Miami were from the USA.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

You know, you did have a lot of, you know, a lot of people from overseas, obviously, but a majority of the people I met were from the USA. So it was really good networking that way, um, opposed to overseas. But not to say that networking overseas is bad, but just you have a lot of lot more commonality, I guess you could say, with the uh with the people in Miami Music Week. But yeah, man, you're coming next year. That's all I'm gonna say. You're coming. I I will I will I will put you in the top, dude.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I will put you in the top with the check of the carry-on. I mean, yeah, while you guys are doing that, I was busy myself.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Yeah, dude. So you got a lot going on right now. So talk to me, dude. What's going on with Votion?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

So you remember what you did the week you came back from Miami Music Week?

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Yeah, dude, that was a little extra and uh and a little video.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah, yeah. So uh it's already announced by now, but we're doing the next Votion Universe event at the Wonder Museum in Boston. And to announce the event, uh I decided to shoot this drone video. And the concept is I don't know if any of you guys have seen there's a famous video on YouTube where uh it's to promote a bowling alley, and it's literally like two minutes of non-stop footage, it's shot in one take, and they basically stage this bowling alley like as though it's a normal day, a normal night, it's open. There's people just doing everything, and it's just flying through people's legs, flying everywhere behind the crep the doors, just highlighting the the space. And I wanted to do that for the museum. And we decided that Wednesday, which is uh April 1st, the ones that you came back, everyone thought I was like, is this a joke?

SPEAKER_02 33:39

You're gonna make me make me show up to nothing. Well, you're very encrypted about it. You're you wouldn't even tell me, dude. I literally go, Yo, what is this for? And you go, You shall see. Yeah, yes. You were very encrypted about it, so I don't blame them for being worried.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

I was trying to keep it on the wraps. But um, yeah, we we shot this uh shout out to Ryan Lee, he was the drone pilot. But we staged I staged the entire uh museum as though it was open. And a quick shout out to everyone that helped me make that possible. Yeah, shout out Shlomo in the building. Shout out Sophia all the way in New York City. Uh shout out to Skylar and the Wonder Museum for opening their space and welcoming us. But and then shout out to all uh 30 people that came that day to be an extra in the video, including you.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

I like idea. We got pizza out of it. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Yes, yes. Someone I forget. Sophia had mentioned, like, oh, should we get pizza for everyone? I'm like, no. Hell no, no, I'm broke. At some point, I was like, ah nah. That was a good idea. The morale boost, you know, for uh for free labor. But the video shoe was a success. I'd say the what I learned the most is um just being super detailed in instructions. Do you remember group shit? I was just listing everything you need to know.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Right, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Like I basically want to nip any questions you even would have right in the butt, you know. That's that's kind of like how I like to do things. I just like to maybe not overexplain, but just cover all the bases that cover all possible chances of questions, even yeah, you know, right? Like this is everything you need to know. And if you really have a question, then I missed it. I didn't think about it, you know? So that's something for me to uh adjust in the future. But just the coordination was uh awesome, and just uh you know how taking on a project of that size and then seeing the finished result was just super gratifying. And the post is out on Instagram now. You guys can check it out.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Yes, check it out, it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

It's at Votion World on Instagram, and then uh what do we do after that? Then yeah, oh Shalomo, you edited that.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Um that was another came out awesome, yeah. Awesome, awesome. It was very, and to your point, it was very well run. Like it was very like you said, it was very well, like it was organized. It was good. It was very good. So we were in and out of there, you know. Sometimes with those shoots, right? It it it prolongs, like it just keeps going and going. And it was like we were in and out of there within like 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

I used to want people standing around just waiting.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

No, because they're helping you out, you know, they're taking time out of your their day to help to help you out, and you did a great job of of rewarding us, getting us in and out. It was it was great, and it was really cool to just see this idea that you had been talking about for so long, right? Actually put going to fruition, at least the demo side of it, like the the promotion side of it, but it was really cool. So I wanted to ask you, so you this is your second votion world, right? And obviously the second one hasn't happened yet. There's still um, was it May 1st, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:42

No, May 30th.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

May 30th? May 30th. May 30th. What have you learned from going from this first one to the second one about like putting on an event like this?

SPEAKER_01 36:58

I learned that uh for uh he dropped something.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

He dropped his life. He dropped his lifeline.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Um I learned that there's two factors that draw people to a show. One is the DJ, you know, whether they're famous, whether they're a really big headliner, whether they have a crazy song out. Um two, it's the space, right? So it's those two things. And I feel like if you don't have either, then it's gonna be a tough show. Right. So um knowing that you know, I'm not some crazy big headliner that's drawing like 300, 400 people, I knew that for this next event, like this space has really gotta be like it. So I uh going into the year, like I was I was already thinking this in like December 2026. I was telling talking to Sophia like, I really want to do the next Vocean Universe and do it at a crazy location. Like, do you have any ideas? We were going back and forth for a while, and then we landed on what if we do a museum. So I started uh emailing a bunch of museums in the Boston area, and my first location that I really wanted was the Museum of Science. Ooh in Boston.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

We did a sleepover there in middle school. A sleepover? Yeah, dude. We slept, we slept over there, slept over there in middle school. Sick. Where'd you sleep? On the floor. I don't know. No shit. Like what room? Like the electricity room. Oh, like the plasma ball. Yeah, dude. Oh, sick. It was dope. Anyway, continue. Sorry, I don't know why I felt like I needed to say that.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Dude, they wanted a hundred thousand dollars to what? Dude, a hundred grand? Yeah, dude. I was like, I explained to them the whole concept too. And then they were like, Yeah, 100,000.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

That's such a major.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Did you guys even read my email? That doesn't make sense for my offer. I'm hoping to like explain ticket sales or whatever outdoor deal you want to do. They were just like, nah, 100k. That is just like mind-boggling. Wow. So I guess not you guys. Nope. And then I I hit up there, the MIT has a museum of technology and innovation. Oh, cool. Which is cool. Because I really wanted to go in the devotion vibe, which is you know, um high-tech, modern, futuristic, you know, space, right, intergalactic, and you know, f landed on MIT, hit them up, and they wanted 30,000. Dude, what is going on? I was just like, dude, this doesn't make any sense. What? So I think they're just their target audience is like the corporations that's just trying to rent it out.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Now, did you reach out to all these museums at the same time, or did you like wait to hear back, no, then reach out to the next one? No. Same time. Same time, okay. Yeah, yeah. Kind of just burst. Yeah, all right, spread the net.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

But the only one of all the ones I've set, the only one that had the most organic response and like the best response was the Wonder Museum. They were just like, dude, this is such a uh cool idea. We're so down, let's schedule a call and figure this out. Hell yeah. And you know, just from that itself. Like they wanted to build it from the ground up as well. So that's kind of why I went with them. And I've been to the Wonder Museum too, so I already had an idea of what eventually looked like. Um and then we got on a call and then uh shout out to Skylar again, and she just kind of like that whole conversation, it was just like a whole big positive thing. She was just like, we're so down, you know?

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Even at the shoot, because she was at the women present at the shoot, even at the shoot, she took time, stopped everything. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for what you're doing. Like, I just I love that they're looking at it as a win-win-win-win-win scenario. You know, they're not asking a hundred fucking thousand dollars to have a set in their fucking Tesla room. Um, that she just she just looks at it in the at the right, she looks at it in the right way. And I think those are the best people to do business with. Yeah. Are the ones that, okay, he's not out to get me. They're not the you know, the they're not power hungry. Like, they're just they want the best for everyone. And I think you've got a great thing there going.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Yeah, she she had mentioned, she was like, Yeah, I I like see your passion. That's what's that's what's making me want to.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

And you can see her think that basically. Like, she loves what you're doing, like she loves this whole thing. It's very cool. And I think on it, quite honestly, too, out of like granted, I haven't seen the MIT museum, but I think out of all the museums, you probably reached out to this is probably the coolest one.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

So that's that's like their whole vibe, too. They like they like different wacky things, and yeah. Uh, they're based out of Chicago, and their Chicago location has a warehouse above their museum, and they throw events. And Skylar is pretty much like, we want to get to that level. Like, but we very cool. We need to prove that we can make it work with what we got before we can potentially expand and get a venue space.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

And would you be the first one?

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah, I'm I'm the first one. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

That's even cooler, dude.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Yeah, so stakes are high. Because if this takes off, whoo! Get this guy's rookie card, bro. Shit. Damn, man. That's awesome. So that's um now we're just playing. And then another huge thing I learned from the last votion universe is um be more intentful with the spending. Um I'm sure that could go beyond Vocean Universe. That's just life. Yeah. I was just fucking, I was like, whatever that whatever costs, share. Like, just make it happen. So I'm definitely being more strategic now. Um, because I uh it's not just me now. I have uh the museum. They're pretty much multiple things, yeah. They're pretty much going half and half on all everything. So it's it's there's more players in the in the table, but um the one main thing that I learned is marketing. Uh for the last votion universe, we didn't really have a marketing plan. We had a concept where it was like an astronaut that that's going walking through Boston and gets his suitcase stolen.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

I remember did you guys go down the Boston top slide? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

That was like that was like three days of shooting of me in a hot ass astronaut costume walking around Boston. You're in the subway too. We're in the subway system. Bro, so fucking the videographer, she's like, Oh, we need it, we need a shot of you getting on the train. I'm like, okay. Fucking I get on. I look back, door just oh no. And what the other video, there's two videographers. The other one has my phone taking that as the door just close. I just go, I just put my hands up, and they all just start laughing. I'm like, uh, sick, guys. Did it just feel the way? Did it just feel the way? So I get off at the next train station, and I'm just standing there in the fucking train tracks like in the fucking astronaut cost with a suitcase with a suitcase. It's hot as fuck. No way. Everyone's looking at me, everyone's laughing, everyone's going up with their phone. And I just I don't have my phone, bro. I'm just there like, I just came from space, dude.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

I just came from mission.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

So I'm like, dude, I how are they gonna find me? So I just stay put and I just stand there. I'm like, I honestly just I should stop moving. Maybe I'm like statue, so people stop fucking going up at me or fucking with me. But no, it doesn't. People just like come up poking me, seeing it's real. And it's oh dude.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

It was like Did anyone hand you any change because I thought you were the performer?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Dude, they didn't show up for the last 15 minutes, bro. Dude. Oh my god, it was brutal.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Now, this is the thing that people want to know. Did you keep the helmet on the whole time? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

I didn't I don't want to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

So for anyone down in the subway that day, it was this man.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

I didn't want anyone to recognize me. Oh no, I'm just so embarrassed, dude. It's one thing if, like, if you're doing this and you have a team that's like recording, you know, it's another thing where you just buy yourself.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

There was zero content out of the 15 minutes he was down the road. People just like, who's this fucking crazy motherfucker?

SPEAKER_01 45:19

That is hilarious, dude. I never knew that story. I never knew that. So it was fun shooting the whole thing, but the whole marketing concept and rollout was just very random. A lot of times I had people hit me up, they're like, What is this even about? And I'm like, shit, that has to explain. Yeah. Now though, it's pretty obvious. Like, I'm we're throwing a banger in this fucking museum. That's really all it is. No encryption. No encryption. Uh making it easy for people to digest and then just highlighting the space itself has been like the number one drawing factor, you know. Right. Because I like I said, obviously, I'm not some crazy famous DJ where girls are like, ah, so but they see the space, they're like, Oh, I I I agree.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

I agree, yeah. You think about a small club versus a big club, right? You could have the same DJ and both, some like some Laura, and it's gonna be the same result, I feel like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

So it's gonna be this is gonna be an immersive experience beyond the club. So I'm really excited. And and then uh I'm gonna have a uh second room where DJ's gonna play as well because uh for capacity purposes, we can't have um I need to have a second room of music going if if we wanna uh sell more tickets than than uh the building holds. And we're gonna have you play.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah, I'll be DJing uh Urinal 3 in the uh in the men's bathroom. It's gonna be great. Yeah, man. No, I'm excited. I think it's gonna be a really great event. I think, you know, as I mentioned before, it's gonna be great on all fronts, you know, for the museums uh side of things, from your side of things. And just like I think it's really cool when DJs and you know, labels and uh collectives mesh these two sort of things together, like music and like a museum. Like these, like we I love these like sets that are in like the weird places, right? And I just I think it's a gonna be a cool immersive experience because where your stage is is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

Yeah, really cool. I'm I'm working with uh this guy Griffin. We're gonna make custom visuals. Yeah. Um, I'm still trying to figure out that that storyline for three hours. I'm doing a three-hour set. Oh, yeah, that's right. Three hours, yeah. Um I don't know how much I should give away. Ooh. I I low-key kind of want to start it off. You obviously have you heard of the Artemis 2 rocket launch? Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

That just happened, right? Yeah, it came back.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

I kind of want to start off with some scenes from that. The rocket blasting off. But obviously, after it's in space, then we then my our visuals start, and you're just flying through space, going, stopping at different worlds, different uh so it's almost like Star Wars. You stop at one planet, see city life, you walk at another planet, it's desert, and it's gonna be a lot of like intergalactic travel concept set.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

And I still need to figure out how I'm gonna end it. I was thinking like maybe we come back to Earth or maybe we land at a different planet. I don't know yet. I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

I still have to figure that out. Uranus. Yeah, dude. Stop at Uranus, dude. And just play like that Dylan Francis fart noise, you know, like the really reverbed fart. And then go to new planet. And then go to new planet after that. All right. We're going to Uranus. Maybe I could finally learn the planets through Vo's set. I don't I don't know all the planets, I fear.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

We're gonna take a deep dive in Uranus.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

This is the this is gonna be the best marketing you've had right now, I'm telling you, dude. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

And then um, you know, recently we just went to another festival. Oh my god, yeah, we gotta talk about that. Yeah, gather outdoors.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Dizzy bow.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

First, first um, first skiing uh electronic music festival in the Northeast in Stratton Mountain. Vermont.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

Vermont. Never thought I'd hear the word electronic music in Vermont in the same sentence.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Right. Crazy. Dude, and uh we had a good crew. Great. How many people do we have?

SPEAKER_02 49:16

Like 10? No, like six, dude.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

Oh, it's been seeing some extras. We had a good crew, and shout out to Red Wave for uh welcoming in his dude.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

God bless that man. That's right. He's awesome. Everyone go follow Red Wave on Instagram. Red dot wave.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

Underscore wave, yeah. Oh, underscore wave. The man, the absolute man. He was actually the first DJ I've ever met, too. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, when I started in college, uh he was DJing one of the clubs, and I just went up. It was actually my first time in a club, too. I found I was 21 and I was already DJ. And then uh he was DJing. I was like, dude, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 49:53

What's up, man? No kidding.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

Yeah, and he has you know why his name is Red Wave?

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Okay, I found this out. I told you I no, he no one told me, but I pieced it together because I did, I went digging on because we got talking in Vermont and he was telling me about his background. Like, I don't know a whole ton. So I looked at his Instagram, I scrolled down, he had the waves in his hair. Because the the red wave we know now has this huge afro. Red fro. It's like a little, it's like the easiest guy to spot in a rave because of his afro. He's the man. Um, but yeah, I I I I saw it. He used to have short hair and then had the waves through his hair. Am I right on that?

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Yeah, you're 100% right. Shout out, shout out. Right. What's the next mystery scoop? Um, yeah, that was that was a great festival. Uh, granted, that they put the house stage. I think that was on the bunny slopes, right? Yeah, it was right by the magic carpet.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

We were right by the magic carpet, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

And then uh shout out to Tech Support, they they did awesome bookings throughout the whole weekend and built a really cool stage. Yeah, but man, that ground, we were in the trenches. Dude, I show them.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

We made the mistake of wearing white trenches shoes. We made the mistake of wearing white shoes, bro. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Bro, it was either mud or ice. Because you got all the snow's melting. And then there's holes in the ground. And uh but yeah, you're in the trenches. Yeah, but we saw um Adam 10 close out day one. Awesome. He was great. What a vibe. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, that Maccabe house is really in random. Tennis Ferrera was great. Tennis Ferrera was great. Um, I like Mink, who's the first guy. He's actually tech support resident from New York. Okay, all right. And then uh You know, you know, when we complain about, you know, that's Cayenne music, Cayenne music.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

Kai and music.

SPEAKER_01 51:37

No, but I wasn't you know, it's not Baikai music.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

It's not?

SPEAKER_01 51:39

No, no, no, it's it's oh wait, no, that's uh one of them, one of them.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

No, that's uh what the fuck is his name? Uh bro, what is his name? It's like Adam Port?

SPEAKER_01 51:50

No.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

What's that? Is it Hugh? No, dude. You sure? It's Adam Port, Strive, and Malachi. Oh, all right.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

Well, is it Adam Port part of uh kind of music, yes?

SPEAKER_01 52:02

But that guy playing was Strive, like that was his song. Does that make more sense now? Yeah, I remember after the show, we were like, why did he play that? I was so random and basic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I and I started putting two and two again. I'm like, bro, that's his song.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

I feel so bad. I feel so bad now. I literally stopped dancing. I literally stopped dancing to like protest. I was like, I've heard this song three billion times. Like, and he played it as is, and I'm like, this is who is this fucking college kid they let up here? Nope. It was his song. Yeah. Well, all the respect to him. Wow. But we saw camel fat too. They were day two.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

Fucking good. Oh, yeah. Day two, we had Shlomo drive up. Shout out to Shlomo coming through. The homie through. But yeah, I saw Camel Fat. We both saw Camel Fat. Yeah, we all saw Camel. It wasn't just you, Dick. And they are my favorite artists. They're the ones I will travel the world to see. Um, and I'm glad you got to see them. Yeah, that was my first time, and I want to see them more. And a lot a lot of times uh the you know, the advice or recommendations I give you, I I learned through them. Yeah, and it's just been watching them so many so long. They've been making music for like 20 years, but they never got the recognition until like a couple years ago. And now they're like playing the main stages of festivals and all this stuff, closing out major events, and they just blend between those genres so smoothly tech house, melodic stuff, melodic techno. Afro house, dude.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

They were ripping Afro House, they were weaving between all that.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

It was amazing. And uh, that's kind of just how I envision you, to be honest. Yeah, man. Like being able to make all these genres and just taking the crowd on a journey.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

So and and the the key thing in that that I've discovered is have it be within your style, though. Yeah, like don't like have play all those genres, but have it be within your sound and style.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

Did you notice that how they started? They didn't start off guns blaring.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

No, they really just smooth the and the more things I go to, I always thought it was the headliner's like, you come out right away, boom, bam, boom. Crazy. And no, it's not that, you know. Like, first of all, you need to you need to it's like the handing off of a baton. Yeah, and you need to follow up what that where the opener left to, too. You know, so that will depend on you know, I think we watched a Camel Fat set on the ride home. Yeah, and they started out with like an afro song.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

No, no, no, they start off with a crazy tech house like banger and then they went down right immediately.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

Yes, yes, which almost sounded like to me they were finishing where the opener left off with that first song and then basically starting their set with the second song, yeah, which was really cool. Dude, we got to tell them about uh our two run-ins with the Popo's at Vermont, dude. The Vermont cops love a little house action at 4 a.m. If you guys didn't know, they love it, they they support it.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

So we're in Redway's fucking house in his garage, whole fucking setup, V10, four decks, sound system, lights. We had a full sub, dude.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

There's like six of us 15-inch fucking speakers.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

There's only six of us, and we're blasting this. And I remember I'm DJing, I'm in the middle of a transition thinking I'm crushing it. And it's below freezing, too.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

It was like below freezing.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

I just hear, yo, yo, four in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Yo, four in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

I finally'd oh shit, that's that yo sounded not fun. I look over, fucking caught this guy in uniform, and I just like fuck, just cut the music real quick. And the thing was, like uh Brian, who opened the door, he was like, he was just going out to his car to grab something, and when he opened the door, they were just there. So we don't know how long they were there for. So then they're they were just basically kind of giving us shit and was like, what the fuck? What's going on? Like, fuck, dude. And I'm like, dude, I'm just getting warmed up. And then the next day, uh, Red Wave's family friend was giving us a ride back home from the festival.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

And this motherfucker pulled us over because we didn't use a blinker at a turn. Dude, it's literally like 2:30 a.m. in Vermont in the middle of fucking nowhere. We were the only car. We were the only car. And then they pulled us over, and he was so weird, just like he was just trying to catch the driver slipping up. Big time.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

You know, he was asking all those sly questions, and it's like, dude, you have this nice woman driving us and a bunch of like, you know, 30, 25-year-old guys in the back. Like, what it I think it's pretty clear what's going on here. She's our DD. You know, you have the wrong guy.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

What if what if he thought that we were being trafficked?

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Ooh, maybe, you know. I did think I heard I did think I heard him say sign me up somewhere. I missed I missed it. But yeah, dude, it was it was crazy. It was so funny that first night. Because I'm like, oh, we're gonna be perfect, we'll be fine. We had the afters in the garage because it was like an unfinished garage. So you had like insulation everywhere. I'm like, oh, it's gonna suppress the sound, we'll be fine. No, dude, we were caulking, we were caulking, bro.

SPEAKER_01 57:07

The cop was like, dude, I can hear you guys down the street.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Yeah, dude. It's like, yeah, we can hear you guys. He goes, we we was going around the house, like it is so loud. It was four in the morning in Bum Fuck Vermont, dude. It was crazy, but no, I thought that was hilarious. But no, great weekend. I saw some, you know, my bit my favorite part about everything we've just talked about is I always learn something new. Always learn something new. And I think it's really important, as I mentioned before with Miami Music Week. If you're going to these shows as you know, a music producer or an artist or DJ or you know, you want to get somewhere within the music industry. I think it's important you go to these, have fun. I think that that's why you're there, right? Have fun. That's the most important time. Take something away from it. But take something away. Yeah. But just analyze what they're doing. You know, think about what they're doing, why they're doing it. Look at the crowd. I always tell you, I'm studying film, you know, like just like NFL players do, right? Study and film, go there and look, observe, be observant. You know, because you'll walk away with so, so much that you can then go back and you know, use however you wish in your own things. Because at the end of the day, you're seeing people at the top of their game. They didn't pay to get up there, they didn't just walk up there. They earned the right to be up there. And I think it's very important that you uh watch people at the top of their game, study, and learn. Because what they're doing, they're doing something right. You know, that's why they're there. Exactly. And you know, it's a great opportunity for you to not only have fun and have an experience, but to improve yourself in in what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

So pretty much everything we've talked about, all the experiences we've done, we were pretty much able to take something away.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Big time.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

And I guess it goes to life too. I think you know, when it comes to like bad experiences, when you go through a breakup, when you lose something, or when you fuck up, it's there's always something to take away so that you can make sure that never happens again.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

But not everyone does that. Not everyone takes the time to separate themselves from the situation or whatever's going on.

SPEAKER_01 59:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

And look at it from a third person's point of view. Where did this go wrong? And what can I do differently next time?

SPEAKER_01 59:19

And I and I kind of learned that with my recent set at basement. So I just headlined um this past Saturday. Today is Monday. Monday, yeah. So um, I my first half, I started off with really groovy tech house, a little bit of Latin, a little bit of um kind of the hard a little bit of harder, groovier tech house, dirty tech house. But my towards the second half of my set, I started playing like really aggressive music, and I could just see the crowd was kind of tuning out a little bit. And I kind of realized too late, because by then people have already been leaving. So I'm like, fuck. So I like really made a smooth transition to disco house, and soon as like that first you know, drum pattern and synth came in, everyone's like, oh my god. And I was just like, oh, these motherfuckers are relieved. We so we finished strong, but you know, I I learned like I think the trend right now is um people like to be part of that groove, you know, really like uplifting kind of music. And um I think I think when Anima was a big thing, I think uh not to say he was pushing the whole all of electronic forward, um, but I think darker music was more prevalent prevalent.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

And I think now people have gotten people have gotten it. They've gotten the gist. And now they're leaning more towards the uplifting stuff, and not not so much like major key or like happy and cheesy corny stuff, just like more of like disco house, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

It's more yeah. I was just telling you guys before they started, I I saw something today where Disco House is on the come up. The Maccabi House. Shout out Shlomo with the disco house. That is the number one, number one, number one fan. He's andt, he's amped. It's on the come up, but I think that's what you you're alluding to is like that sort of style of like lighter hearted sort of like dance music.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

Um a lot of people kind of I they've kind of classified as like down tempo tech house as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

Whatever it is, I'll tell you a macabre, seeing Adam Ton, that macabre house can get dope, bro. That can get great, like it's very versatile. I think it's a very versatile genre, is I think the word I'm looking for. Like you can definitely be light with it, boat party, and you can also be dark with it, nightclub style. Right. You know, which I think he highlighted very much. So no, it was cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:43

So what else you've been up to?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:44

Dude, just grinding away at the studio, just like I, you know, I I go to all these shows and I consume, and I want to go and just regurgitate it into you know my productions, and I noticed a big improvement. Like I notice myself like really adapting in in sort of like what I'm seeing and putting that in. And I noticed a big improvement, and it's really great. And you know, everyone I've been able to show is is had good things to say. So look, man, just continuing you know what I what I love to do and and making everything work and get it to get it to continue to do things like this, you know. And yeah, I'm happy. I'm a happy man if those those are all the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

So that's that's where I'm at, bro. I mean, look at him, he's in this fucking bucket hat.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

Yeah, dude, my little helmet, my little furry helmet, dude. I was like, I wore this, I wore this in Vermont. Awesome, bro. Because I obviously wear the bucket hats all the time. That's no news. I was like, fuck, I gotta stay warm, dude. I'm gonna be bricking those. It's a good car. This thing was phenomenal. It's a good car. Phenomenal. Feels like a helmet, though, but it feels huge. But what about you, Vo? You good, bro? You happy? You happy?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

Am I happy? Of course I'm happy. I am getting to do what I want to do every day, and I'm surrounded by like-minded individuals. I'm surrounded by individuals that appreciate what I have to say and what I have to offer, and what direction I'm giving them, and the fact that they trust me to even listen to me or or you know trust me with their projects, their song, ask me for advice. I'm really grateful for that, and I pride myself in that because I I almost feel like I was one of the first people that kind of paved the way for the more modern style of like DJing and and social media and just kind of like the new age of everything. I feel like I was one of the first ones to uh really put myself forward. Because when I first came into the game in Boston, it was like me and then just OGs, you know, and not to say I was the only new DJ, but I was like one of the only ones that really took social media seriously, um, the online content, and and I felt like I paved the way, and now a lot of friends and other people DJs will ask me, like, hey, when you did this, what happened? Or how did you do this? How did you get that? So it's really cool. Um and just yeah, I'm happy that you know people just trust me.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

You're a mentor, you know, like you you you have wisdom. You may be what, 28? Yeah, about a turn 28. You have you have a lot of wisdom, man. You have a lot of like knowledge. Yeah. And I think that's just because you've you've div you've dove head first into all this stuff, you know, and and when you've you know, look at the whole you you I really saw it when you were looking at uh marketing and reels and you know and Instagram. You were just studying like marketing and Instagram, and you were like you fully invested yourself into this, and you walked out like really, really, really hard.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

I had to tell you, like Yeah, you told me multiple times. One time he posted this edit he made, and I'm sure you worked hard on it. Yeah, I did. And then um Dick. The way the way he made it, I just knew the algorithm would crush it. It was like a minute long, yeah, and like there was no like hook. And I just remember telling you, I'm like, dude, like because I know you, I watched the whole thing. Right. But to a cold person, they're scrolling right up. Right. And I'm sure at the moment you hearing that, it it probably hurt a little, like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

I just did, it sucked, you know. It did, it honestly did.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

I didn't want to hear it, but then you realize I'm like, dude, I'm only telling you this because I genuinely want to help you. And the same thing, like, I I felt like I had to say the hard thing because I know how hard you worked on it and the fact that it it's not gonna get appreciated how the level that you want it to be. So I'm like, dude, I have to say something. Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:48

You were just saying something because you cared. And I you know, and that's a good friend. Like that's a good friend. Cause yeah, like of course your friends are gonna be like, Oh, that's great, that's great, that's great. But a real friend will be like, that's good, but this is what I.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

Ideal. Right. So it's not ideal.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

I I've seen it since since I've told you that you've you know gone light years ahead from what you used to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

Yeah, I've taken a little bring from posting.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

I need to get back on the posting screen. But and I also pride myself on, you know, leading by example. Like I'm not gonna tell you to do something if I haven't done that I haven't done myself or have seen success myself. Right. You know, that's that's every day, that's kind of how I live, and um just continue to help make the people around me better.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

Sorry we had to end this meeting like a like an AAA. An AAA meeting. We had to end this episode. No, I'm feeling good. No, dude. No, seriously.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

I also took an edible but right before episode. That's why. So I'm just getting progressively stoned and more inspirational.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Shout out to you guys for tuning in. Hell yeah. We love you guys. That's been our life the last three months. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

Thanks for listening to us. Listen to us talk about our lives. Hopefully, got something from it. Miami Music Week, please go if you can. You're coming next year.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:06

Votion Universe, May 30th.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Yes. Everyone go. All right, guys. Take us on salesman. Peace.