A longtime DJ and music producer who’s worked with legends while becoming a legend himself, W. Jeremy will be dropping beats at one of the hottest parties this Pride Weekend.
Thotyssey: Hello W. Jeremy, thanks for chatting today! Happy Pride! How is the month treating you so far?
W. Jeremy: Happy Pride! The month is going great; lots of DJing and lots of new music projects being created, even as I type this. I love this month because I get to be reminded why I am proud to be a part of this LGBTQIA+ community!
This is going to be both a wild and pivotal Pride, given the state of affairs we’re in. Are you prepared to be twice as fierce this time around?
It seems like anything is possible with the state of the administration right now, so I’ve mentally prepared myself for that. I try to always live in hope despite what is going on outside my control, which is most everything. In terms of being twice as fierce, I’ll just be doing what I’ve always been doing, which is try to lift the unheard voices and stick up for the ones who can’t–especially in our community. It’s in my DNA; I mean, I am a double Libra after all.
Well said! By the way, I was just listening to some great remixes of your original track “Every Day of My Lie.” What inspired that track and it’s remixes?
I wrote that track about four years ago, and I had it mastered by Gomi along with another track. I got inspired from hearing a couple of KiNK’s tracks, and also this old record that was on Shaboom recordings back in the day (which I have on vinyl somewhere) that sampled “Let No Man Put Asunder.” And I sometimes clown around and sing “every day of my lie” instead of “every day of my life.” I sent it out to a big label that I thought would be a fit for it, but then never heard anything back. I didn’t send it to any other labels, but instead just started to send it to my DJ friends. Vicki Powell from the Deep South collective out of Atlanta (whom I’m working with right now on a super special project together) kept playing it, and she would send me videos of people just going bananas every time. So I said, I’m just going to put it out on my own label, Get Up Recordings.
I asked Bianca Oblivion to do a remix and she said yes, and I was so excited because I’ve known Bianca since 1997; I actually dated her uncle for five years back then. I’ve seen her graduate high school, go on to college and then graduate school leaving with two masters degrees, and then go onto now blaze the DJ and producer world. She’s absolutely amazing with what she’s doing right now; she is the moment honestly, and I was so happy that she remixed my track!
Where are you from originally, and what sort of music did you grow up with?
I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, five minutes over the George Washington Bridge. I grew up around a lot of jazz, industrial and heavy metal. I went to school at Rutgers in New Brunswick, so every weekend I would take the NJT to go clubbing either in the city or sometimes to Newark to go to Zanzibar. I was surrounded by a lot of NYC House and NJ House, which I couldn’t get enough of, and eventually I started to work for Tony Humphries. My first official queer club was The Building on a Thursday for Industrial night; I mention that, because clubs like Zanzibar, NASA, Disco 2000, Sound Factory and Sound Factory Bar, were pretty much “just be whomever you are, no judgements,” but not billed as an official queer night.
How did you come to work for Tony and elsewhere in the realm of nightlife and music, and when did you begin DJ’ing yourself?
I was actually working for Angel Morales and Johnny Vicious‘ record labels out of Jeffrey Rodman’s apartment, the owner of Sound Factory Bar and later Twilo, promoting to shops in the Tri-State area that carried vinyl. I became tight with the buyer of Movin’ Records, Alan Anderson (RIP), in East Orange, NJ. He was Tony’s assistant, and said that Tony was starting a label and needed help opening it. So, I mean, when one of my biggest DJ influences says he needs help, I dropped everything!
I started DJing in college, a few friends parties, then DJ’d a few clubs in the city, one of them being Baktun. But it wasn’t until I decided to move to San Francisco a year after working for Tony, that I got my first residency for the next five years at The Endup.
Do you have any favorite moments or memories from your DJ career?
My favorite moments DJing are: playing the PS1 Summer Warm-Up series with my label mate Christy Love, DJ Pierre (who helped us produce and put out or first record), and Phuture, Pierre’s band, who created Acid House music; Susanne Bartsch’s Catwalk party at Marquee–I was the weekly resident for a year and a half there, super amazing party and space; my first residency at the Endup in SF, such a magical club; playing LA, forcing Chris Bowen and Victor Rodriguez to let me be the first guest at Bears in Space; playing Mustache Mondays (Nacho forever); and also A Club Called Rhonda!
How might you describe your preferred sound today in the DJ booth?
Same as been the last decade: happy fun jackin’ house, disco and classic disco.
Many DJs are unhappy with the current generation’s partygoing habits: less engagement with the moment, phone addiction, boring taste, wanting the night to sound like their Spotify, etc. What have been your thoughts and observations about this moment of dance party behavior?
I try not to give those people much thought. People like that will eventually just tire themselves out and move on to the next thing that will give them that ever-sought-after dopamine hit–whatever it may be, just as long as it hits. When I was playing at Le Bain last night, the DJ booth has a sign stating “no requests” and yet still a young guy came up to the booth early on in the night with his phone showing me some song on Spotify asking me to play it. I replied back to him and said “just go home and listen to that.”
So what’s coming up for you this Pride month?
A few gigs here and there (and of course the Queer Liberation March), but the big one is Susanne Bartsch’s Boom! Pride at The Standard on Saturday June 28th. We take over the whole floor, Le Bain and the Boom Boom Room. I’m playing in Le Bain with Tom Peters.
That’s gonna be a night for the books! In closing, do you have any advice for an aspiring DJ who wants to make it big in New York nightlife, or elsewhere?
Yes. Learn how to beat match without Rekordbox or a BPM read out; you’ll understand music better, you’ll be able to mix on any setup, and you will be able to mix classic disco. Not every track needs to be mixed–so true for classic disco. Listen to one entire release a day, whether that’s a full album, a remix package, a single and it’s B-side–get to really know a record.
Lastly, don’t bend your ways just to get people to like you or your style. Just keep doing what you’re doing already, and play what feels good to you… and those people who are really part of your tribe will eventually find you.
Happy Pride, W. Jeremy!
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