I first met Troublemaker one late night (one of many) in Austin at SXSW in 2005. I was with my friend Aimee from Fox Theater, huddled in with their crew, including Z-Trip, who was on a mission to find late night burritos.
I ran into Troublemaker again when he came into town with Z-Trip a year later, where the two threw down at Cervantes. A few months later they were back again, and again. Now Troublemaker makes Denver a part of his city circuit, and we couldn’t be happier.
To avoid keeping you in suspense, we did accomplish our mission that night. You can sleep sound tonight knowing that, or crash hard after shaking your ass for a few hours straight to Troublemaker’s set at Bender’s tonight (Thursday, February 21), as part of Wesley’s Night of the Living Shred weekly.
In between covert operations (see his agent photo above) and mixing an electic array of tracks from every genre possible, he took a few email moments to say a few words.
KB: How did your residency come together with Wesley?
TM: I had DJ’d a few events with a local promoter, who then worked at Benders, and has since left. He thought I would get along with Wes, Parris, Charlie and the rest of the shred crew, which is what happened. We laughed, we cried and somehow I come back every month.
KB: What do you think of the Denver dance scene and how does it differ from other cities where you DJ?
TM: Denver is great to me and has a similar vibe to some of my other favorite cities to play, like Austin and Milwaukee (yeah, I said it). People are open to all genres of music and they like to drink and spazz the fuck out. I think they call that a win/win in the business world.
KB: What’s some new music you’ve discovered lately and what will you be bringing here on Thursday?
TM: I’m into glitch mob, Modeselector, Robosonic, Switch, Amanda Blank and Santogold. I’ll probably play all that, a bunch of new jack, my own shit and a few unmentionable gems. on some whole other shit, my homeboy Famous Nick hipped me to Aphrodite’s child, which was Vangelis’ band before he went solo. Definitely worth a listen if you are into greater mind expansion.
KB: Besides DJing, what else are you working on in 2008? Are you still working with Z-Trip?
TM: I’m currently helping Barack Obama get the democratic nomination for president. Besides that, I’m working on a bunch of production. I have an album in the works of original production with a few vocalists. Tatelarock, another Hollyrocker, and i are working on a single. I’m also working on remixes for Lady Tigra, Robosonic, and a few others i cannot mention but are super duper fly. Z-Trip and I have a top secret project in the works… wait, now I have to kill you.
Well, I’m with you on getting Obama into office. The killing thing? Not so much. I have plans for Europe later in the year. I pinky swear I won’t tell anyone.
