"DJs are the ones who let people who don’t know, know."
How did you get into DJ’ing?
I’ve been DJ’ing since I was 13 years old, and I used to break. When we’d do shows, I had to edit the tape. I started mixing with cassette tapes, then turntables. I started doing mixes, and in high school, I was doing the dances and any party I could do. It was all a love of music. Being in Chicago, you have legends like Bad Boy Bill on the radio and you get influenced by that. I’m so lucky to be from the city where house music was born.
Tell us about the whole experience you’re having right now touring in North America. What is special about the electronic music scene here in places like Las Vegas and even Canada? I think people across the pond who haven’t experienced this side of the EDM world would love to know your thoughts…
One thing that we’ve noticed about the EDM scene here in North America is that is much quicker than overseas. Here’s the intro, here’s the build, here’s the crazy part…repeat & then mix out all within a matter of minutes. One of the positives of this is that the energy out here stays very high – you definitely need endurance to rock at a Jump Smokers show.
When you play on stage, who is in charge of what and what does your rig look like? Tell us a little about your DJ set up!
On this Pitbull / Enrique Tour, Flipside is the DJ & Roman is the MC. We’ve actually got these sets down to a science, Flipside definitely drives the entire set by reading the crowd! That’s the thing about being a real live DJ, you have to be able to adapt to each crowd cuz no two crowds are the same! We’ve already found that tracks that work in New Jersey, might not work in Toronto. And songs that kill in Montreal, might not work in New York. Our sets are completely live & always different in each city.
How important are the DJ's to the music game in your opinion?
We 110% cater to the DJ's!!! I mean, two of our members are AMAZING DJ's themselves (Reydon & V-Skratch) so we know firsthand how important DJ's are to the music game. We figured out a long time ago that DJ's are the ones that play the music to the masses...so if the DJ's feel us, they'll be spinning us at all their gigs.
You’re a successful radio host and one half of the Chicago radio show Stylz & Roman, while Flipside, the other half of Jump Smokers, has his own mix show, Flipside at 5, both featured on B96. How have you been able to juggle the world of producing and DJing across the world while having a regular show on terrestrial radio?
It was a lot of work. We just finished touring with Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias and had to come back to our radio show in Chicago any night off of our tour. There were a lot of times when neither of us had any sleep, but it was definitely worth it for our careers. We love performing and producing and there’s a parallel for both what were doing in our music and radio, because we know what songs and formats work. We take and use that knowledge when we start producing to make a hit.
What would you say is the most challenging part of being a DJ/producer?
Flight layovers. My flight was delayed four hours today…. but if you’re a DJ, you do it because you love it. When you’re producing, you do it because you love music. You do it because you want to go out and do shows, you want to travel, you want people to hear your music. As a group, we feel so lucky to be embraced by DJs who support us.