Music Dj Quotes & Sayings

I make the music as if I was scoring it. I do my best that the sounds will fit the theme of that track, but then there are many other times where it can be random and things happen for no reason, just for fun! A storyline can let me organize changes in the music better, like acts in a play. — DJ QBert

As a DJ, people expect a certain sound and a certain danceability for the music. As a producer, I really like to let go of any rules that may exist. — Armin Van Buuren

I think that the audience intuitively understands the idea of sampling and remixing stories. That's why electronic music is global. — DJ Spooky

I think that electronic music mirrors the complexity of "information landscapes." You carry the terrain in your mind. — DJ Spooky

That's what a DJ is at the end of the day - someone who leads where the music goes. The only thing that's changed is that in America, people have woken up in the last few years and realized it. — A-Trak

Man, didn't anybody ever tell you that art is propaganda? It doesn't matter whether you think it should be or it shouldn't be, it just is, and motherfucker, like or not, you're sitting on a funky Magna Carta. — Paul Beatty

So, in addition to being a full-time father of two and everything else in life, it isn't so much that I'm sitting around plotting an album. I just kinda follow my muse and wherever my interests lie, and at some point I decide, "Right. It's been a while, time to figure out how to get serious and make some music." — DJ Shadow

Dance music cannot compete with a really great rock n' roll song. There ain't no DJ that's gonna play something that can take 'Mr Brightside' or 'Don't Look Back In Anger.' — Brandon Flowers

I wanted to do with Antarctica was say let's hit the reset button on that and see what happens to your creative process. Let's go to the most remote place that you can imagine, set up a studio and see what music comes out of it. — DJ Spooky

I've always wanted to be a DJ so I could play the music I love for other people. That feeling hasn't changed, but my sets are always evolving. In terms of tailoring to a specific crowd, certainly I do play differently depending on the situation. It's a different feel, for example, in a small club versus a festival. — Tiesto

There aren't that many songs that pay homage to the DJ. They are the ones getting artists' music out there. They are the ones getting the club popping. But no one's giving them any love. — Tila Tequila

DJ Tiesto was my first inspiration. I heard him play at the Olympics in 2004 and from that moment on I knew I wanted to make music and become a DJ. I made a bootleg of a track by Enrique Iglesias called Tonight. — Martin Garrix

I was never really a DJ ... I just kinda figured it all out at once as I started to tour. I was making music and producing and I just had to start to DJ as I got more into touring. — Skrillex

Disco is the first technology music. And what I mean is that 'disco' music is named after discs, because when technology grew to where they didn't need a band in the clubs, the DJ played it on a disc. — Will.i.am

My core values are still the same about music, and my work ethic, and what I want to represent to people. — DJ Shadow

As a DJ, it's my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that's coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I've always gravitated to something that's just different, you know? — Diplo

Music, art, and literature are inseparable for me. How does "composition" evolve in a music and art context? It's a question we can never answer: it only asks for more information and generates more questions. — DJ Spooky

I'm not really the author, the entrepreneur, the DJ, the martial artist, the teacher, the lecturer, the music producer, or even the person you can talk to when you need. I'm the guy that does what is necessary when everyone is busy talking about it and expressing opinions. — Robin Sacredfire

I'm not a DJ - I don't know how to scratch or mix records, but I know how to party, and I know music. I grew up in Philly; it's a very musical city. My house was full of music. — Amber Rose

but if that ever stops, I'm just going to remove your head from your shoulders and see how good you are at healing yourself. You understand step two?" "Yes. What's step three?" "Oh, yes, that's an easy one. Tell the DJ to stop playing this god-awful shit and put something fun on. Maybe a bit of Kenny Loggins, you can't go wrong with Footloose. Everyone likes Kevin Bacon." Karl's eyes widened in shock. "Are you insane?" "Hey, Kenny isn't that bad. Yeah it's a bit cheesy, but it's a good fun song." I stared at Karl for a heartbeat. "Oh, you meant in general. No, I just really fucking hate dance music. — Steve McHugh

I've been getting really into mixing, and there's kinda like an art to it I think. I feel like I still have a lot of ways to grow. But you can just watch the way that other people blend songs together, and it can be a pretty mind-blowing thing. And you can hear music in a very different way, depending on the way a DJ presents it. — Chris Baio

Downtown New York, I'm within certain styles of music and I'm also within certain cultural, you know, and literary context. — DJ Spooky

I can be a badass DJ when I want, but I am also an insufferable music snob. — Rachel Cohn

Suckle was the first West Indian DJ and he had this fantastic source of music. — Georgie Fame

A friend of mine that happened to be a DJ at another club actually offered me a job [as a DJ]. I didn't think I could do it but he said, "You know all the music. You are at all the parties, and everybody knows you." — Frankie Knuckles

The song reminds me of my life lately and the way things that happen devastate you so badly but then turn around and totally surprise you by growing into something unexpected and astounding.
Of course, i could be wrong. I mean, who knows what the song is really about except whoever wrote it? But that's one of the many things about music that's so great. You can interpret a song and relate it to your life any way you want. — Love Maia

I think if I lived in New York I would be really stressed out going out to a club and seeing a good DJ who's doing something on a similar level. I'm pretty critical of myself when it comes to the music. Maybe they're not doing as many samples or the samples aren't put together as specifically but it would stress me out to feel like I needed to be one upping someone. In Pittsburgh, I'm in my own world - I know I'm the guy doing this here. — Girl Talk

I strapped an MP3 player to one of those floor-cleaning robots. Call him DJ Roomba - little guy cruises around and plays music. What's hot, DJ Roomba! — Aziz Ansari

I'm a DJ who makes dance music who got to play with Sting. — Afrojack

And more than anything, I like the improvisation of jazz. That's the same thing with DJ-ing. There's so much improvisation you can do with cuttin' and scratchin' that's reminiscent of jazz music, because it's all about how you feel. You're capturing a vibe and just going with it. — DJ Jazzy Jeff

I remember when the big shift happened in 1996-97, when suddenly it dawned on the music community: 'We should license our music to commercials and sell out for all intents and purposes. It doesn't really matter.' — DJ Shadow

I feel," Simon went on, "that this evening DJ Bat is doing a singularly exceptional job. Don't you agree?" Clary rolled her eyes and didn't answer; Simon hated trance music. Her attention was on the girl in the white dress. Through the darkness, smoke, and artificial fog, her pale dress shone out like a beacon. No wonder the blue-haired boy was following her as if he were under a spell, too distracted to notice anything else around him - even the two dark shapes hard on his heels, weaving after him through the crowd. — Cassandra Clare

What's coming out of the stereo is like a genre unto itself, a charming, fucked-up fairy tale that immediately breaks my heart in all the best ways.
I stretch out on the floor with my ear parked next to the speaker, in a trance. I place the album cover over my face to block out any interruption as "I'll Be Your Mirror" seduces me. I immediately add the song to my mental list of top ten songs ever.
And as I'm bobbing my head with dreamy abandon, I hear a voice. "Nice choice, DJ," it says.
I slowly slide the album cover down past my eyes and look up. My eyes spy his shoes first
paint-splattered brogues. My heart stops when I look at his face. Pale skin, messy black hair, emerald eyes ... Senor Smolder! He's eighteen, maybe nineteen. And no, my imagination didn't lie, he is just as devastating now as he was the first time I saw him. Only even more, because he just complimented my taste in music. — Shauna Cross

My main thing is constantly looking forward and trying to make music that I couldn't have made at any other time. — DJ Shadow

I was born into a very religious family with no TVs and a very strict Episcopal Christian religion. Music was my outlet and more of my therapy than anything, but yeah, it was the one thing in life that I've had, art and music. — DJ Ashba

I DJ'd for years. I DJ'd in high school, and I think my parents thought it was a passing thing. And then when I was in my second year of college, I was like, 'Yeah, you guys don't need to send me money anymore. My DJ gigs are good enough. I'm selling music; I think I'm gonna have a record deal. I can pay my tuition.' — Kaskade

You know, radio DJ's must really love to talk to theirselves. Especially when they have the graveyard shift. 'Hey this is Ellen with 89.1. It is currently three in the morning. There are few cars on the road. And it your still listening heres a little music to get you to dance.. — Ellen DeGeneres

So many people equate money and success with happiness, especially in the music industry. — DJ Jazzy Jeff

When I started, DJs weren't in the media, electronic music wasn't in the sales charts and a DJ was the freak in the corner who provided the music while other people had fun. So to do it, you must have been a freak and a music lover. — Paul Van Dyk

You'll get this kind of psychological relationship to the imagery of the music, but that idea is translated to iPhone apps. It's translated to the small, you know, kind of icons on your computer. You name it. — DJ Spooky

I don't want to be classified as an old-skool DJ or new-skool DJ. I want to be classified as an all-skool DJ who plays it all. I also want to learn to DJ house music in my own fashion. — Grandmaster Flash

I personally feel the need to experience life and new music and ideas before I can sit down and start writing music again. — DJ Shadow

Anything that sparks some eight-year-old's interest in music or DJing is great. — DJ Shadow

There are a lot of music startups that don't have anything to do with anyone's love for music. It has to do with them having a glorious IPO and then retiring to the Bahamas somewhere. It's important to keep that in mind. — DJ Shadow

When I started DJ'ing, it was no big thing. There was no money in DJ'ing, and you did it purely for the love of playing music. — Paul Oakenfold

I saw this DJ playing music and saying things to the kids. They would answer him back, and I say, 'That's a great idea.' — Sylvia Robinson

Hip-hop is a part of rock & roll because it comes from DJ culture. DJ culture is the embodiment of all genres and all recorded music, if you actually pay attention to it. — Chuck D

The music that I have always liked has always been more rooted in anger or sadness or alienation or any of those inspirational factors that drove rock'n'roll, gospel, and blues. I tend not to value a more pop aesthetic. — DJ Shadow

Traditionally, with a DJ set, you just go hear DJ that has a good reputation and let the DJ take you somewhere. It was up to the DJ what he wanted to play. Typically in dance music, people didn't know most of the songs a DJ played. — A-Trak

Speaking of WAMU, [bluegrass and old time music DJ] Ray Davis did a lot of work there. I've know Ray, I guess for 50 years - 40, or 50 years. And, he plays a lot of my records. — Ralph Stanley

I still consider myself a consumer of music more than anything else. — DJ Shadow

Most producers today are little bedroom producers and then they get their record and get signed by an agency and go on the road, but they have no idea about DJ-ing. They have no culture about where that music comes from and they just stand behind the booth, put their hand in the air, and play all the hits. — Cedric Gervais

I really admire David Guetta; he's an unbelievable DJ and I love his style, his music and everything like that. So I look up to him. — Pauly D

I am trying to walk a tightrope; trying to keep the DJ community happy while trying to spread the message about dance music to more people. That is the mission that I am on. — David Guetta

It's getting to the point where, to be honest with you, even though there is a lot of great music around, especially in clubland, certainly from my corner of something I just felt like I needed to get my hands dirty and DJ out. — Erol Alkan

I started in '88 to play House music, it was a huge revolution for me. I went to London and I saw a DJ on stage and that was crazy at the time. I was one of the really respected and famous DJs in Paris, but they would never show me. I was hidden. A DJ on stage and people dancing and facing the DJ, looking at him? I was like 'wow! — David Guetta

We found a great rhythm. Contractions started kicking in. I sat there with her, right between her legs. We got tribal on it, we danced to it! I was DJ-ing this Brazilian music. — Matthew McConaughey

You never want to look like an old fart doing young rap music. — DJ Quik

It's like the iPod playlist has killed the way we think of the normal album, so let's think of this as just saying you go into your record store and all those categories and all those different ways of segregating music have been thrown out the window, so the difference between myself in real life in that is that I'm the opposite. — DJ Spooky

The best thing about being a DJ is making people happy. There is nothing like seeing people get up from a table to dance or the expression on their face when they hear a song they love. I also love to educate people on music they have never heard. — Chelsea Leyland

I saw. I wanted to start my own store so people would know that what they were buying was real. There were bootlegs around at the time that had my name on the cover, but the music had nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to compare myself to [Jimmie] Hendrix, but back in the '70s, there were some Hendrix bootlegs. — DJ Shadow

If you think of any long-term artist that makes music throughout several decades, you would hope that it's autobiographical and a form of self-expression, and that's certainly how I approach my music. — DJ Shadow

The parties happen when we book the studio. That's a safe place. Get alcohol, food, girls, homies, and have these small listening parties while I'm recording. And that energy always gets into the music. — DJ Quik

Look, dude, you've sampled your life, mixed those sounds with a funk precedent, and established a sixteen-bar system of government for the entire rhythm nation. Set the Dj up as the executive, the legislative, and judicial branches. I mean, after listening to your beat, anything I've heard on the pop radio in the last five years feels like a violation of my civil rights. — Paul Beatty

I don't have no favorite rock bands. I'm a fan of rock music though. — DJ Khaled

I basically taught myself how to DJ, but I've been inspired by DJs throughout my whole career. I have some good friends that would hook us up with music. You learn some little things here and there from each DJ and you just take it and put your own style into to it. — Pauly D

At a festival, a lot of people came to see other artists, so you have to put on a signature set and performance: 'This is what I do, this is why I'm here.' At solo gigs, I'm a DJ - I'll play two-and-a-half hours, and not just my own music, also my favorite songs by other artists. — Afrojack

Trance had become a dirty word. Thanks to Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo, Flip 'N' Fill and DJ Sammy, a generation of kids has grown up thinking trance is the shittiest music since country and western. — Paul Van Dyk

I've been making electronic music for twenty some odd years but, because I grew up playing in punk rock bands, when I started touring, I thought in order to be a viable touring musician I had to do it with a band. I would DJ or tour with a full rock band. — Moby

On one hand you have a string quartet, which is not a symphony. On the other hand is you have me sampling them and making it sound like there is many more people playing, so the whole notion of, kind of, sampling applied to classical music is very intriguing to me because composers throughout history have borrowed motifs and quotes from one another. — DJ Spooky

I remember when I was coming up, the music stores where you could get guitar strings was where I got my records from. Now the place where you get your records from is where you can get your DJ mats and your mixers. — Jam Master Jay

I remember I did quite a lot of interviews when the book and the CD came out, and I did a drivetime interview for Radio London or something. You wouldn't immediately associate the music on Ocean Of Sound with drivetime radio, but people found things that they liked, and the DJ was playing some records at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a weekday.The man who was playing them said to me, "That Peter Brotzmann track, it's like having your head boiled in acid." — David Toop

Let your heart beat for music. Don't be a DJ for the wrong reasons, do it because you have a passion for it. — Jennifer Lee

Now it seems like there is no culture. The school of fish are all separate. Everybody's just randomized, listening to their own thing in their earbuds. That's going to be the downfall of music, if anything. Nobody enjoys one thing anymore. — DJ Quik

The Independent Record Store is the reason why i STILL do music ... It seems like they're the only ones that Really care about the real music lovers ... we need them ... they're our balance to all of the music we are FORCED to listen to ... they're the only ones that may still suggest something NEW and FRESH instead of just what's popular. — DJ Jazzy Jeff

Watching 40 mile chunks of ice break off of Antarctica will change your life forever, but realizing that driving a car, or flying a plane, or having a nice steak, or drinking from a plastic bottle all contributed to the destruction of the environment - it's a bit complex, but music needs to pave the way for getting people to think about this kind of complexity. I'm just doing my share. — DJ Spooky

The only thing I knew how to do was draw and play music. — DJ Ashba

When you think about a composer you know like Wagner or Pier Boulez or something like that most of the issues a composer is working with are about discreet, notated music that someone else will play. — DJ Spooky

I think whether dance music had exploded in America, I still would've been a DJ a long time. This is my first love. — A-Trak

There have been a lot of people involved in the growth of EDM's support in the U.S., from DJ/producers like David Guetta, Deadmau5 and Skrillex, to major festival organisers and pop artists of EDM integrating elements of dance music into their music. — Tiesto

Sometimes it's hard to listen to new music and get motivated, because it's elementary to me - no disrespect to new artists, because that's where we started, too. But it's like they're way back there in first grade, and I'm in college. — DJ Quik

I'm trying to satirize what it's like to be a recording artist in 2011. I realize that standing on a soap box and ranting and raving about my opinions on the digital age and its effect on music is only going to get you so far. — DJ Shadow

I feel lucky that I didn't have to give up music in exchange for getting clean. I wouldn't recommend that anyone else continue to DJ while they're getting clean. — Larry Tee

It was mix tapes, that's my story, I did a lot of mix tapes, that's what I started doing when I was 17. I got with a hot DJ out here and you know Texas, the rap scene is different, everyone out here is on the Screw music. — Slim Thug

I first started writing music when I was 15 and at 16, I was playing in different cities in Australia. When I was 18, I was voted number one DJ in Australia. — TyDi

Sometimes I'm in the studio, sometimes I'm not. It's about delivering the music to the artist, but it's also about the inspiration. — DJ Khaled

My forte is the music. But obviously if ya don't keep up with the business, then your kinda doing it for nothing. So I do plan on being well off doing, maximizing what I do now. I heard Jimmy Kimmel describe being in your thirties in hip-hop is like the equivalent to being 300 yrs. old; almost like a dinosaur. — DJ Quik

Music has been more, you know, the only thing I've ever known. — DJ Ashba

I try to get the hip-hop aesthetic, most times without an MC. I don't use a rapper or a DJ to give it the hip-hop style; it's strictly the band that makes that music, which is a lot harder to do. — Robert Glasper

I tend to gravitate away from the more trendy Ibiza style of dance music. It's not me. — DJ Shadow

The greatest DJ is one who can live within the formula and make it sound ... as if he producing and pulling the music all by himself. — Dick Biondi

I'm influenced by the music of the '60s. It's a mishmash of everything. To me, psychedelic can be all the way to a DJ. House music can be very psychedelic. Flying Lotus is very psychedelic. Even though it's urban and technological, it's also mind-expanding, anything-can-go mishmash. — Anton Newcombe

There is a complexity and layering that goes on with this kind of thing, so the music is slightly repetitive and when I say repetitive it's in the same tradition as people like Steve Reich or Erik Satie or even WC. — DJ Spooky

The way I see it, the blue is the stuff you can't control, life's major heartbreak and struggles, that feeling of devastation so massive and brutal it inflicts permanent damage on the heart and spirit that can never be undone and will always be there, spewing somewhere in a corner of your mind like deep scars you'll have with you you're whole life.
The green you also can't control. But that's the part that reminds you life is worth living. It's not the here-and-there type of good stuff that happens every day either. The green is the stuff that comes in huge doses that slap you in the face when you least expect it and brings a light to all that you are through growth, bravery, and goodness, and love. It's the stuff that picks you up when you're at the bottom and makes you keep on going even when you're sure you can't. That's the green. — Love Maia

If I had to play only for people who liked the music because they heard it on the radio, it wouldn't make me happy. That's why I'm working so hard to have, yes, a profile as an artist, but also a profile as a DJ. — David Guetta

In Paris in 1964 was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all. Paul got the record (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) from a French DJ. For three weeks in Paris we didn't stop playing it. We all went potty about Dylan. — John Lennon

I've been on a major label for 14 years. I've always wanted as many people as possible to hear my music, and it definitely made sense for the majority of my career to be on a major label, on a distribution level, to be in people's faces and be out there, and have access to major labels' incredible machine, even though they have not understood or haven't been invested in what I was doing. — DJ Shadow

DJ Sliink is amazing, and his production is on the next level. There are a lot of EDM producers that I'd like to work with, not for the sake of having an engineered record, but for the fact that I love their production and music. — Travie McCoy

I was sort of like a kid in a candy store, realizing it was fun making beats without the perceived burden that every track I did had to be a some progressive sample masterpiece. It was nice to blow off steam and work on those songs. For me, that's what 'The Outsider' was about in general: forget everything, I'm just gonna follow my own music, and make the music I want to make. — DJ Shadow

My heart and soul is still music. — DJ Jazzy Jeff