elektro exclusive interview with DJ Phresh

When did you start producing music?

I want to say I started in 2005 but that was more hip hop producing. I stopped DJing for a little and I went to college and got a really good job as a consultant. But one day I was in a cubicle and was thinking to myself like ‘Nah, no way, this is not for me.’ I just wanted to be happy and I went back to DJing and I found myself at all these clubs around the city and one day someone came up to me and was like ‘Hey, you’re one of the top DJs around man’ and I was like ‘what? Really?’ because I was just having a blast doing my thing paying rent and having fun. I never looked at it from the business side but thats when the push comes where people are saying you gotta start producing, you gotta do this, you gotta do that and I never liked the ‘you gotta’ side of business. I was doing things because I wanted to do it. So I was like cool alright I was producing before I can definitely go and spend more time on that.

What was the first album you ever bought?

To be honest with you I don’t remember what the first album I bought was, but the first album I remember was Onyx ‘Back The Fuck Up’ because it was the first album I ever got in trouble for. I was buying vinyl so I had tons of vinyl before that, and cassette tapes and all that but ‘Back the fuck up’ was the only album I had to buy like 3 times and I had to hide copies of it because my parents would be like ‘What the fuck is this?’ My Mom would break copies in half and she knew what it was because she would walk in the room and the cover just said ‘Back The Fuck Up’ this has to be the ridiculous one.

What is one thing you can’t travel without?

Thats a good question. Because there are the obvious things like my laptop phone and gear which I could care less about because if I just have jeans and a t shirt I'm all good. But the interesting thing is that I always have my luggage lined with mad condoms because you cant leave home without condoms. I don't want to be caught in a moment where the lifestyle of a DJ just doing stupid shit. I would rather have my shit in my bag and not have to worry about it.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

Two things. One I had a principle in high school who told me that everybody is a male but not everyone is a man. You gotta be a man. And then I had the CEO of Chase telling me that if there is anything that is worth doing, just do it and move on because there is no point in just doing the same things over and over. He told me ‘Don't get caught doing the same things over and over forever’. And thats how I approach life in general because I feel that the whole system of go to school and be a doctor or a lawyer and thats life just didn’t make sense to me. I'm like damn do you really want to be doing that forever. Maybe I have ADD or something because I feel the same way with Djing. Thats why I'm producing more now.

If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?

Thats hard because you can’t eat anything that will make you stroke out or anything. I can’t be eating steak for the rest of my life. Right now Im stuck on shrimp pad tai because it has a little bit of everything. I love steak but I cant eat that shit every day.

What is your favorite clothing brand or piece of clothing you own?

I love my black V neck and black t-shirt. Thats my uniform right now. It’s simple it’s basic and it gets the job done. It goes with everything. I find myself rolling out of bed and just putting on a black T. I could be in a situation where I have to go to a nice dinner and ill just throw on a blazer over my black T and then if I have to go DJ in a club just take my blazer off and have on a black T. Go to a pool party and wear my trunks with a black T.

If you could meet one person dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Damn thats a really tough one. People probably give a celebrity answer but thats not me. Recently I have been looking deep into my family history going on ancestry.com and shit. And I've gone down to 1865 and I would really like to talk to someone in my family who lived through that time period. Just be like ‘So basically I'm chilling in 2013 and I'm trying to figure out where I come from.‘Because with most people thats just a black issue because we don't know where our families really came from. Im just curious because I want to know where I come from. I want to know what makes me who I am. I want to know some stories about some crazy shit. As a DJ I have a lot of time to think about interesting things to get inspiration and things like that. So I am always wondering about the DNA situation. I was reading that our DNA is composed of all our ancestors before us. Like why do I act the way I act and it could be because I had an ancestor who may have acted the same way that I do. Its some wild shit to think about.