South Beach Sessions - Diplo

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[MUSIC PLAYING] These are the teeth I was born with, except with this one because it fell out. Because I got a fight in Orlando, like 20 years ago. And then I used my fingers to put it back into place. Like it was dangling a little bit.

And it was like this, like you'd say, or teeth. Are we recording it? This is Thomas Wesley Pense. You might know him as Diplo. And yes, we're recording continue your story.

He's a multigraming winning artist. DJ producer. And you can continue your story.

“Why did you have to push your tooth back in?”

My face looks great on this camera. You're making a grow that a really good job. I look super, like, young and cool. I had a fight with this guy in the parking lot of like a dorm. And he made me head, but I mean, that's like trying to cheating.

And my teeth were like this, and this one just went in. Like it went like this, this tooth. I went in.

And I was like, damn, that's like really suck.

I mean, I've kind of cousins was like missing front teeth. I was like whatever I'll do with it. But I went home and I just kind of shoved it back in there pretty quickly. And maybe it's like when your finger cuts off and you immediately freeze it. So back on it, it stayed for a little bit.

Uh-huh. About five years later, started to get grayer. And then like eight years ago was pretty, pretty gray. It was kind of like, it was still hard to like, it just looked like not. It was running.

It was kind of like, it was falling out. I had to get a root canal. And they're like, what does up with this tooth to your skipper to this thing? I was like, all right, cool. And I have a lot of gold teeth.

I have like, I heard like, I don't know if you've got like, yeah.

“Probably eight gold teeth in the back because my bad, my, my, my mother and father, beautiful people.”

But they didn't have a lot of money. We got like really bad feelings back in the day with that whatever material it is. That's kind of cheap. So how to get rid of these, these teeth after a while.

And gold teeth are the best teeth to put in your mouth.

Like it's the best material that your body bonds with. So I was like, I like my gold teeth. I put a gold tooth right here for about two years. I had a one big gold tooth in my front of my mouth. And it was just it felt really cool.

But like every picture it looked like I was missing the tooth. And then people just didn't want to talk to me. Like I would have like to meet with people that aren't just like rappers, whatever. And they were just like, are you good? Like, just look like a, I look more like a prospector that I'd look like a cool person.

Were you getting into a lot of fights? You weren't getting into a lot of fights in Fort Lauderdale. Where are you? Now, Fort Lauderdale. I got into a lot of fights because in Fort Lauderdale.

This is when I was younger. This is this site happened in Orlando in college. And college when I was at UCF for a year. Or Fort Lauderdale, though, is where we would go to school early. Because we walked to the middle school of seminal middle school.

Me, my friend Sam Borkson is an artist and he's still a friend of mine. We would go to school early like around seven because we could walk there. And the bus would take that long anyway. And we'd go to the back of the school. And we would have the record ball kind of course that we would play this game called ASS.

Remember that game? I do not. The blue rubber ball. So the name of the game was ASS. Yes.

So you go there with this ball. And you just 10, 20 people would play. We'd throw the ball and it would bounce someone grab it. And if you touch it, it didn't grab it.

“You have to run to the wall fast, touch the wall.”

And someone could throw the ball at you and hit you hard. And that would start a lot of fights. So we would go there early. Try to get like one or two fights and just like, you know. And if you get the ball, you're out.

But sometimes people hit you after you got the deal. What's up? And so you would fight them and yeah, I think I probably had like two or three fights a week. Really? It was pretty good.

I used to like fighting. This is when I was like 14. It was just kind of, you know, you just get meet up a little bit. Black eye, like scrape falling on the ground. When you're good kid, bad kid.

I was pretty bad. Pretty bad kid around that time. So bad to where I had to, I ended up going in my eighth grade year. I went to Florida, Air Academy in Maryland. It's Melbourne, Florida.

Yeah. I learned to fight planes and I was still pretty bad there. And I got bad trouble. And then I somehow worked my way through a year of that in military school. And I became pretty decent human being.

I think it really worked for me. If anything at learn, I learned how to be bad. But not get caught. Maybe that's kind of what you do in military school. But you just can just become a little more mature.

I just needed to mature. I was not a good kid. I was troubled when I was like kid. And I was just moved a lot of places. And I just think I was wasting my time.

And then military school. I got through it. I loved it. It was so cool. It was really diverse.

And I just loved the music. We got them all. You know, we were, we were our military outfits. I learned how to fly. Like a session on a simulator.

And then went back to Florida. I went to South Plantation High School. That was pretty rough. Pretty rough high school that one. I went back to go visit.

But I would imagine that military school was quite the culture shock.

“Have you had more culture shock than military school?”

Well, the Florida. It wasn't like a licensed part of the arm services. It was Florida air academy. And it was mostly kids from Europe. Some Pakistani kids Indian kids.

A lot of Caribbean kids went there because they wanted to be pilots. So they started there. And you could also get into the air force or end up being. There's a big connection of Caribbean kids. Middle class kids that go with our pilots.

Like Jamaica has an insane amount of pilots that came from there. So a lot of kids want to be. That's their does their dreams. So you go there and you learn your basics of flying. And then, you know, you go back and do a bigger flight school.

Whatever. And you can start flying. Like, you know, 18 years old. You're like, flight planes and be a pilot on a major airline. But that was mostly what people did it.

And then kids were just bad. Like me. They got sent there and had a that accurate. You know, because the public school system doesn't really teach you discipline. Doesn't teach you how to behave and teach you how to, you know,

while it's a public school in my whole life. So it doesn't. It's not a good guy. My father loved him to death. But he works very hard.

And I didn't seem very often. And my mother had two other daughters. And I was a problem child. So I think that that school took a lot of time off their hands where I could, you know, learn to behave and become a good person. And I think going to military school and my father being a veteran of Vietnam veteran.

I think discipline is the one thing that I didn't realize I had until I got older. And I implemented it into my career. I'm going to do everything from being a father to being a musician and that's the most powerful trait that you can learn to be successful. It's so simple. Just discipline.

Just understanding like the time that you spend matters. Time management. All that things matter. Like being consistent matters.

“And I think that's why I learned from the military.”

What are some of the worst jobs that you had before you found music? Not all of them were that bad. I was really loved having a job.

And I never had a job that just suddenly like shovel shit or whatever. I guess stripping was a pretty bad job.

I had a shrimp for my dad. He owned a bait shop in Daytona area and he was from Ernesto when I was out of between kind of college and high school. I worked for him a little bit and I'll have to wake up every day at like two, three in the morning when the moon was the highest and go out on a shrimp boat by myself. Maybe if someone else helping me and I would just lower the net and grab the shrimp and sort it in. The first month was pretty beautiful. You know, you're just like, it was beautiful.

I was like, I feel like I was forced going, but I was just like the moon. I was so big and sometimes I'd rain. I'd catch some weird ice shit. I caught baby hammer head shark and some fish to it. I don't even know what the hell. We're by cape and arrow. So there might be some alien type of shit going on.

I was just sorting them out and there was some weird shit. And then after a while, like this job is really rough. This sucks to do this every day for like five hours and not sleep normal. And then I ended up going, I moved to Philadelphia. And I was like, let me just go try to try another dress school again.

And then I wasn't that bad. Subway was pretty bad in Orlando. I worked at the subway on Colonial Boulevard. Because it was up until four am in Orlando, man.

“I just love Florida, but I think Orlando's one of the worst cities in the entire world.”

Like I've been everywhere. It's just so weird shit going on over there. We got robbed like weekly. Like we would just get someone coming next to this open so late and someone just come with a gun. I would just hide the refrigerator. They take whatever.

And then, um, what's another bad job. Oh, that sounds like a really bad one.

Yeah, but you never shot me.

I know, I was routinely high in the fridge. We were doing it with guns. It seems like it should have come abortion. It's crazy. That was why before they started locking the money. Because after a while, there was like, you have the drop box.

So when you have over $100, you got all the money in there. We didn't have that implemented till like middle of my, I was like, bro, this is safe. And I can get robbed. No one's going to come robbers for $17. Like that's, but we would get robbed. Then people started like, that's all you got. And they stopped robbing us like, that's such an easy, easy, easy fix.

One of my favorite jobs that I only did is twice because I was released. This was, this might, you could die this job. Was during bike week. That's another big thing. So after I lived for, for a lot of it, I lived in, they'd tell an area.

And bike week is a good time to make money. So I wanted to, the two times that people are in Daytona's, the 500, which is this weekend. And bike week, huge event, black college reunion, spring break doesn't really happen there. And I would work at this place called the cabbage patch.

It's a biker bar, and it has cold, cold-slaw wrestling. It's still there. You can still go to this place. It's a small bar, but a thousand people would come and watch women wrestle in the cold-slaw. So I, I'd, I'd park motorcycles. And I get like good tips because some bikers are, are proper drug dealer, like gangsters.

And some of them, half of them are like, day traders or doctors or whatever. Like, like, like, don't, just do it for one. Like, cosplay bikers. And they would give you tips, like, 30 bucks, sometimes 10 bucks. Most of the guys would just give you a dollar.

But I saw, I did the one year, and I was like, I made like $5,000 in a week. And I was like, this is insane. Like, tips. So I was like, this is crazy money. The next year, I did it. I saw a guy just one bike fell over.

And like, the guy, like, got his ass kicked. Like, bad. So I was like, this is a dangerous job because the bike guys don't play. That's the one thing we have in Daytona is like, it's a bike. The gangsters are like, like, guys, it's kind of up and down to us one.

They kind of, they just kind of run the drug trade or whatever. But it's cool culture. It's pretty weird. I just spent a week in Daytona. Like, as a grown up, going to the 500, playing a show with Leonard Skinner, just all the redneck stuff that I grew up doing.

But seeing it kind of come into, like, into, like, a new version of it now. Because NASCAR was very exciting right now. Like, it was the craziest race I've ever seen.

And it just feels like they finally got a little,

they got a little pizzazz to it. They made it look a little cooler. And I think that it could be big because a lot of good stories in NASCAR. It's been kind of lost for like 20 years in the, in the modern culture. But it was really exciting to see other people there.

It was really cool. You said cold, slow, wrestling. As if it's in normal thing. There's been wrestling, big being wrestling too. But the cold, that's up in Norman.

But the cold, slow wrestling was in New Somerna. And I think that, this will have, it's a huge, like, plastic pool. And it feels, I can't believe how much cold started getting. And then the girls just get in there and there's some, there's some cute girls, most of them are big, bigger girls.

Because they're kind of, they're trying to win.

“But, um, you should, you should go check it.”

Wow. You mentioned forest gump. I imagine you feel like that still. Like you're, shrimping is one thing. But as, as one example, okay, please elaborate on this story.

And I want any other stories you have like it. How is it that you end up doing, a show from a hot air balloon? And then running through the mud with Chris Rock, all as part of one escape from where?

It was burning, man. I think I'm just constantly like my life. I'm a producer and a DJ. I'm a songwriter. But I'm really just, that's like the hobby.

The rest of my life is a bunch of side quests. So yeah, I did realize when you talk, I did, I have mixed running and tripping a lot. That's what forest gump kind of did. I don't play ping pong.

But that movie was one of my favorite movies growing up because it had great soundtrack. Like, I really loved like, it interested in creating this clear water. It interested me to like disco.

Just things that like, it was the best of American music over 40 years. And I really loved Elvis as on that. And it was just such a great testament of culture. From from the south, forest gump was from Alabama.

I was born in Mississippi. That's where I was born. I was born. Yeah, I was still, I really feel an affinity to Mississippi for some reason.

Because it's really like the, I don't know, demographic and data wise, one of the worst places in America. Well, it's the poorest place in the forest. The highest, like the lowest literacy rate.

The hobby levels are super high. But it's really pretty. Like, it's always green.

I'm always been where driving through.

It was like, Dan, it looks like the, it just looks like this, everything's so green. It's just so beautiful.

“And then I think when I was in high school,”

my last year, I was in a creative writing class. And it was probably the first class that I was really turned on to. I was like, wow, this is, I started reading a lot more. Like, I never really was a reader.

And there just be a lot of southern writers. So I read Zoran Neil Hurston. I don't know if you know she is. Amazing African American writer from, the early 1900s that was from Florida from Eatonville, Florida.

And I was introduced to a very famous, Mississippi writer named William Faulkner, who wrote Absalom, Absalom, Light Noggest. None of his books became films like a lot of classic books,

but he was, he won a lot of poll surprises. He was one of the most famous writers of this century. And he was from Mississippi and he made up a lot of the shit. Like, everything he made up, he created this genre called magical realism.

And if you are familiar with Gabriele Garcia Marquez. So Gabriele Garcia Marquez is from Columbia. And he was inspired by, he was probably bigger writer. He was inspired by William Faulkner.

“Because of the, I think Columbia, Mississippi are very similar.”

And like, the African meets the Caribbean European heritage. And I just felt like the more I started learning about William Faulkner and where I was from, and like the cities of Mississippi and the, in the history. I was like, damn, I'm really, I'm really lucky to like be from this place. Because that's actually the birthplace of a lot of American culture is

the Mississippi Delta, like music wise. And that opened you up to creativity, though. The first time you're thinking as an artist. Yeah, because I felt like, wow, I'm from here. This is, this is America, like at its center.

You know, and I felt like, I was inspired. Like, I can, this is my story, too. Like, I want to keep telling the story. And I got into Gabriele Garcia Marquez. I saw like, you know, 100 years of solitude and which is a huge,

you know, Netflix show. And he became, he's a much more popular writer. A hundred years of cholera. I just started reading these books. And I was like, I was into that idea of magical realism, a little bit of history.

But it means to be a north of South American.

Like, just Colombia and Brazil and the American south are just so amazing places.

Like, I'm part of that.

“Like, it's going to be from Fort Lauderdale, too.”

And South Florida, I was like, wow, this is, like I said,

you growing up in Fort Lauderdale, and Brower, it was so, I was so lucky to do that. Because the diversity in Brower County gave me, like, all of the, the understanding of what I do as a musician. And growing up poor middle class and Brower,

and like being raised on one side of your streets, like a Haitian immigrant. Other sides, like a Jewish kid. There's Jamaican doctors, like, you know, there's little, like, a hillbilly is like that whole area where I lived in plantation was just, like, I went to the most ever school of everything.

And they're introducing you to tricking. Trick that exactly. Trick that. I loved dance hall records. I was into, like, you know, guns and roses.

I was in a hardcore, you know, metal because of the kids there. You know, what's a bar missed for us? I was like, what does it do? What are her Jewish people? I only do like bar missed for us.

Like, poor kids. Like, it was like a clown or whatever the bar missed for us. So there, there was no religion in the ceremony. Just a clown. Like, we just, like, I don't really know.

Like, oh, you turned 13.

“You got to get a president and be like, what's happening?”

It's like a party. And then, like, there's like a clown or like a magic trick guy. And I was like, okay. That's a bar missed foot. And then I'm like, older.

Like, 30 on playing bar misses. Like, try to scots playing the bar missed. So I was like, what's, what is bar misses? You're getting a million dollars to just show it. I had a bar missed.

I was like, I don't remember these bar misses when I was 13. But even all that, all that added up to what was beautiful about Broward and just being here, I'm not going to speak on Miami that much. Because I only go to Miami as an adult as a DJ.

I never really came to Miami when I was growing up.

Because I always thought Miami would just Miami bites. Just drug dealers and fucking alligators. And like, cheating people, I'll drop off the boats and people stab each other and cocaine coming from airplanes. I didn't know what was Miami really.

It didn't really know. It didn't really know. Just somewhere out there. You got it. And who's smoking crack in the bathroom?

I don't know what. Yeah, that's it. You got it. You're at it, right? So yeah.

So I was like, I'm not even all that. It's like beautiful. I was like, that's great. I love this place. I love all these stories.

Because it's just, you know, when I tell people from Florida when I travel on Europe, either they're like, you know, like, they're like, that's the word. You know, people from Washington state, wherever they're just like, or they're like Europeans that are like, that's fucking.

I've heard about that. They're like, they're either like, they love the fantastic elements of the South and Florida, or they're just like in, you know. So you got to like, educate me a little bit. Florida is, is weirder than you think.

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In Decke, now all the garden products in our field. And in the action app, action, kleine price, gross in heute. Can you articulate for us what music means to you? I know it's a broad question, but you've devoted your life to it. And I imagine, given that your three decades in on the grind,

“that you must still love it and it must still move you.”

100% I'm only doing this for one. I'm very lucky to have this job. I would tell people maybe the making the music side is probably 10% of what I do. But the other 90 is ideas and the building of the music in the country. The music in the creative direction is what I'm really good at.

I'm really good at curating and being the right place to write time and exploring and investing my energy and different music scenes or learning. That's all what I'm great at. The actual technical parts sitting down, writing a record, playing a guitar, using a computer. It's not my favorite thing to do, but I learned how to do it well enough to get by.

But luckily, being a DJ, I'm kind of like it's pedestrian. I get to just kind of watch music move and I get to kind of roll with it. Like I'm like on the boat, right? Music's like a river and I'm just kind of writing with it. And I'm stopping here and this and that.

And we're just always on a ride.

And I think that's the main key to longevity is just kind of writing with it. And if you're inspired, they're just so lucky and I've always been inspired. Because I've always been looking at the future. I'm always like, what's this music? What's that?

People hate on something.

And I go to it. You know, like whether it's in Brazil when I was making, you know, funk music 20 years ago and the favelas or I was doing reggae music when it wasn't popular or, you know, country music when it was underrated, you know, five, six years ago and mixing it with hip hop. Whatever it is, I'm just like pushing to where people aren't and trying to like investigate that

“and you know, curate that and I think that's driven by being excited about music still.”

You've worked with Bruno Mars, Brittany, Bad Bunny, Bieber. Those are just the bees. You've worked with just about everybody. The Beyoncé is also a baby. I can't believe I forgot that one.

I'm going to get me. She has the biggest of the bees. She's the biggest of the bees. But have you found yourself in many of these instances? Just totally odd, scared, weirded out.

Maybe in the beginning.

I think my very first set, because even when Bieber was starting, I was like working on his stuff.

It wasn't even that huge of an artist. It was kind of like after baby was in middle and I was just like, you know, it was like a, I didn't think he was that going to have this career that he had. It was kind of like between this transition from a teenager to a real artist. But usher was probably the first one that I was like, what am I doing here?

You know, because he, like invited me to New York and we made this song that, it's one of my favorite songs I've ever made. It was called climax by usher. And it was like he just, the amount of time that he gave me to like work on this and cared about it. And like I was just taking, being taken seriously as a musician was very odd for me. Because I was just don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

So it was like, when he was like, we're locking in. And it was like fall settled. I was just like, I had a really, really grass. Like what am I doing here? I have to really make this project happen.

And like feeling like a real creator, it was was like a huge transition. You had an imposter syndrome inside 100%. Because before that, just like, you know,

I didn't even have a fucking computer until MIA bought me one.

I was like on a little PC and like samplers. Like I didn't really know how to use a DAW, like able to interpret whatever people are using for the loops. Folks back then it was cool at it and acid pro. And I really had a hard time learning that. Like I learned how to use it.

And I, you know, it was hard for me. But then you started like, oh, making music. It's not just like sampling loops and putting a beat on it or whatever. It's like there's songwriting as arrangements. There's like mixing.

There's putting stuff in the right key. There's like, you know, making the snares. And the vocals blending together, all that things. I had to learn, you know, trial and error because I didn't have a teacher. So I didn't have imposter syndrome for sure.

You said usher though, because it was early. How about later in life where you've got your confidence. You've got your skill set.

“But you're still like, how am I in here with Madonna?”

Probably I say Madonna's the next one where I was like, really felt like an apostle because like I'm like a guy here. Here's my idea. Guys, you know, whatever. Have fun with this.

I'll come back whenever I'm going to do some other shit. Check my emails. Madonna's like, where the fuck are you going? Like, get the fuck back in here and like, burger. It was like 10 hours of, you know, locking in.

Like, she's a real. She's from the old school era. Like, we go this. We book a studio, make a record. It's every day for five weeks, 12 hours.

It's like, really working. Like, I'm just kind of like, make a beat. Go get a sandwich. Whatever. I go to like, watch TV.

Whatever. Go DJ something. You know, I'm just kind of winging, you know, but she was like the real artist. Like, she was like, I had a lock in with me. But I have a little bit of both.

Like, I don't mind doing that. Like, I did the same thing with BTS. Like, I just did like all last year, like really locked in with them. Try to finish their album. And it was like, just one of the hardest things they were done, you know,

because there's so many influences beyond those seven boys. Like, there's seven men now. There's the label behind it. There's all the songwriters that would be part of it. There's the cultural relevance.

What sounds, you know, what's going to be interesting for them all to use. And like, trying to put all that together was very difficult, but it was, I love doing that. I'm like a proper case of ADHD. Like, when it's chaotic and I'm under pressure, I really do perform with the best. I'm like, Regimilar, like, you know, a fourth quarter.

I like really need everything to fall on top of me to survive to make the best stuff.

That's kind of like always been my MO.

One of the reasons I was excited to talk to you, and I don't guess that many people would cite this as a reason, is because of the amount of wisdom you once expressed in a very small sentence that I'd like you to elaborate on now. When you just said masculinity is a prison.

Yeah. Man, I guess for a lot of men, young ones, especially,

“we don't have a lot of internet or a lot of access to information, right?”

We only had our fathers and like TV and like what it means to be a man. So I think I'm one of the first, I'm 47 years old. I'm probably one of the first guys I was really on the internet research. Just learning that I just loved, I just loved learning because of music. I was like finding myself in record stores, going through a liner notes.

And I felt like the internet was finally like, wow, this is freedom for anybody. You can literally find whatever you want and be explore things, right? So when I said that, I think it was at a time when there was probably a lot of energy

or like what it means to be heartbroken or what it means to have a job, what it means to have a responsibility, what it means to be a father.

“And a lot of people just men are supposed to just roll dog life, right?”

We're just supposed to hide it, be inside of it and just, you know, go through it. My father did that. He didn't have riddle in or you know, his annex, he was just like, "Boars over us, time to go, you know, raise this kid or whatever, get a job." And as you get older, you're kind of just trained to just be this machine, you know, kind of like just be on this routine thing and you have things that you're not supposed to do.

You can't really explore anything. You can't really be different or try things. And I think my whole life I've just been able to just be open about what I want to do, what it is possible to do. I think, you know, I've had success because I tried everything. Like all child kinds of music and I've been able to fail and succeed.

And I think before, you know, two other 26 when we do have the freedom of thought and freedom to be able to we want, I think you had kind of like men didn't really find information on like what it means to be a man. And I think that being a masculine person is just had a set of rules.

And I always felt like when you don't think about that, you have a lot more freedom to create whatever it is.

Well, how and where though did you start upon that evolution? Clearly, that's not something you're thinking of as a teen, right? Like you said don't. But I was always, I was another thing that was probably a blessing for me was that my father moved many times. So I never like locked in with a social scene. Like I never fought a lot or my little gang I was in.

I was probably the last time I had like a friend, you know, like a friend crew. After that, it was like military school, they told me beach. You see, I have job. It was like I just moved everywhere and I was like Nashville for two years. I never really had friends. I was kind of on my own.

Like, like, just trying to be myself, you know? And then when you have that and you're like kind of like on your own, it gives you the freedom to people just care too much about what their friends think of them or what the internet thinks of them or whatever it is. And once you're by yourself a lot, just developing something, you have a,

you can have a sense of yourself that's so much more important. So, talk about my son like he just, he got his first phone at 14.

And he never had internet really before that.

It was like some mobile games or whatever I've had. And I think I'm so proud that he was able to find out who he was without outside influences.

“Because that's what we have a lot now with the internet.”

A lot of people aren't able to become something that they, without these outside, you know, pressures. Telling them what they should do, what they shouldn't do, who they should be, who they should love, whatever it is. And I think my son now is 15 and he's just kind of like he's so, he has so much confidence.

That's the one thing I can't really, I can't force him to be the best athlete or the best musician. And then I'm not a tiger dad like that. I just wanted to always feel like he's good enough to do whatever he wants to do. Like that he's like, that's the main thing I can give him. Because I can't wish upon all this success or whatever.

From what I, it's so hard to do what I did. It was like up combination of luck and determination that more luck than anything. So all I want to give him is just the confidence to just know that he could do anything. Well you're still running in very young circles and I imagine you've seen and felt sort of what's happened to young people inside of the addiction of the internet loneliness, anxiety depression all up.

Do you see those things as you're moving around the world? Yeah, I mean, once you're comfortable being yourself, which is so difficult to, like once you feel like, you know,

you know, you're always going to be lonely. You know, you're always going to do always depression can creep in,

but a lot of people just let it just take over. You know, a lot of times they don't see like get up, get whatever it is. Like there's something everything can change. You know, you're only a prisoner in your own body. Like you can wake up, do a trip, take a whatever it is.

If you sit there and let the whole world just like run on top of you, you might feel hopeless, you know.

“But I feel like everybody I tell them, even when come back to running your body is the only way.”

Every day when you wake up, that's the only thing you can change. Like you're, but you can't, the problems that are out there, the politics, this all that stuff doesn't matter. Like you are physically yourself. Like you can get up and if you go for run or whatever it is,

that's the hardest thing you're going to do today. Then you can, you're starting to win, you know? It's so easy, but if I teach anybody anything, it's like being okay by yourself is the beginning. Then once you do that, you can really build relationships with people

because you know who you are. And that's the best way to do it. But if you're not honest to yourself, it's really hard to be honest to other people. So you said though, you haven't really had friends since you had, that you were running with since a gang of kids.

You don't mean literally a gang, right? It was kind of a gang, we were kind of a gang. It was kind of like we played football together. We like, you know, shop-lifted together. I mean, I have friends, but I've never felt like I've never felt like I was locked in

with like a social student. People moved to LA a lot of times. I moved there as an adult. I moved there when I was like 29 and 30 and I had my first son there. And I feel like people moved to California and they're just like,

I don't get it. Why did you not? I don't really meet people and I'm like, man, this is where you come. Just to get some money, whatever.

Because the industry's that we're in are just, they're very surface level. You know, it is hard to meet people.

“You know, especially when it comes to California,”

Miami is the last, the same if you move here. Well, the place that I was headed though is I imagine, how many days a year are you on the road? Probably over 200 or so. So you've had to get very comfortable with the fact that you're often alone

or traveling, you know, with people who might not be friends. They might be co-workers or helpers. But you're alone a lot, right? I've had more dates with my tour assistant eight and you might be there's somewhere than any woman of it.

I mean, I've really never been on a date really.

I feel like I'm always having dinner with like my tour team. Or, you know, friends that I have that I visit. I've been really lucky because I'm in my career. Like a later phase where I can kind of decide what I do. You know, like I came today telling it to play the 500 because I could be my dad.

Like be my sister. I get to bring my friends from California to like Daytona and be like, I know you guys think about this, but check this out. Everybody who I brought to Daytona this weekend was like mind blown. They were like, what the hell?

Like they were like, I brought my Italian friend from he owns from restaurants in L.A. He's from Rome and he was just like, this is the greatest. I've been a Bernie man. This is like rivals. How insane.

This little city is. So I get to choose things where I was like, how do I, every day, how do I get smarter a little bit? How do I experience something new and I'm lucky. But in the beginning, yeah, you're like flying

to random part of the journey. Then you're like, go on a shitty place and Cleveland. And you're just, you know, doing your job as a DJ or a musician. And sometimes it's like, what am I doing? It's kind of like, feel like a waste of time unless you're building something.

You don't know what you're building until you really look at it from from the outside.

“Do you have a lot of items that are still on the list?”

Like I need to get over here to do some learning. I need to see this place. I just wish I could speak a couple language fluently because I do feel like that's just like a. It sounded like you gave me a little Spanish there. I thought for a minute.

I kind of like, like, you threw an accent on something. Like made me think that you knew some Spanish. I could speak a little Spanish when it comes to like. Really necessary, but I mean, I'm not going to tell a person. My dreams and my thoughts.

That's the most important thing.

You know, I could speak a little Japanese and I lived there for a while. And I was probably the closest language I feel like I grasp. Portuguese a little bit. But I want to be able to, you know, have thoughts. And I want to be able to communicate with people because those things.

You're talking about ideas. The hard stuff in the second language is a fluency music really mad. If you don't understand, like you can speak Spanish. But a lot of people that speak Spanish don't really understand Puerto Ricans. You know, they, you know, it's difficult.

Every, even, even people from, you know, if I bring someone from England, and I'm like, show them some good eye black records, they don't speak the same language. But do you have no idea what you're talking about. So there are intricacies and languages. I think I get the culture sometimes about love to, I'd love to learn the language.

There's an American. It's like, I feel like we all take for granted how lucky we are that we have this, like, language that took over the world. And it's disrespectful sometimes. I really wish I could be fluent in more language.

So languages is the bucket list stuff.

You don't really have things that you want to go do.

What are you going to Mars? I want to do that. I'm waiting. I think it's a one way to get. So I got to get some.

Okay. Yeah. So you got to, you got to keep on the grind. Make a little more money to make sure that you have that. Yeah.

I'm going to, I might not come back kids. I've got to be like Christopher Columbus. Just like we're just on a way. We don't know what's going to go on. But I'm going to take this boat through months.

I might not come back. You know, I'll make sure they're safe. They're good. But I want to go somewhere. I want to be like a.

I want to see something known as ever seen before. The grind of it after three decades. Do you feel your age? Man, I wear the I wear the hoop. And I think I'm very healthy.

And it still says I'm a little older than I am, which is kind of sad because I really feel like it work hard to be younger than I am. But I just live a really, I don't know. For no people, maybe a lack of better words. I live a harder life.

You know, I, my strain is a lot more every day. Because I stay out of longer hours. And I try to exercise as much as I can. I sleep, not as much as I should. And my stress levels are probably high all the time from the jobs I do.

But I'm really good at coping with all that. So I think sometimes I feel young at heart. You know, I can't, I hopefully the technology will make my body better as I get older. But I just feel like I live at the highest level I can every day.

“And that's the best thing in the stay healthy.”

I do feel young though. I do feel young. I don't feel like I'm almost 50. I'll be 50 and two years. Like that's crazy.

Well, the hours you keep though are crazy. They're crazy. I mean, they're just not. I don't know when you're sleeping, how much you're sleeping. But if you're somebody who's at space, you know,

when Miami's got, you know, these 20 to 24 hour club, like, I don't know how you're doing what you're doing. I don't, people got to realize where DJs were not. We don't stay up all night long to play eight in the morning. We don't stay up all night to say to play sunrise sets.

We go to sleep and we wake up at four. I could like when I go shrimping. I wake up at four in the morning to go catch the shrimp at when the moon's the highest. The only really sick of people are going to stay up for like 24. And there are people that do that.

And I, man, I could, I can don't.

Well, it's just drugs isn't it? The drugs help. It keeps you awake.

“I can stay awake for a long time with that drugs.”

If I'm, if I'm excited. If there's something going on, if it's like, sometimes it gets hard. You know, I don't really drink hard core energy drinks. I don't really do drugs.

Not anything else. Keep me awake. I like some drugs. Some, some things that I help. I think maybe smarter.

I feel like, but, you know, most times I just feel like. My hardest thing in, in my daily routine is, is to go to sleep. But getting up, like, getting, like,

let's go to DJs party.

I've never have a hard time like turning it all on.

That's the one thing DJs are really good at. We're able to, like, you know, whatever bad mood or how we feel, we're able to, like, bam, let's go do this. You know, because it's still exciting to you.

It is, but it's also our job. Maybe it's just second nature. You know, like, you know, like, you don't have to tell like a emergency room nurse. Like, it's, uh, she has to go up and do her job.

Like, we're the same thing. We have to, if we want to be great at what we do, we have to give it everything. So it's not hard to learn that. Do you have to come down from a show?

That's the hardest thing. Yeah. It's the hardest thing sometimes. Because, but the quarters of levels are high. It's just high.

It's high energy. It's, it's everything. You know, you're having all these people express happiness with you, and you, it's addictive. You know, a lot of, a lot of musicians,

you know, probably suffer from bipolar personality, or, you know, manic depression sometimes. Because the, the, it's ups and downs are so much. You know, you got to understand that's just, like, the lifestyle.

People are brand new to it. And they're, they're two musicians. It's, it's mostly very difficult for them to not. Find alcohol or drugs or love or whatever. As a coping mechanism.

Because it's just so extreme. Then what your life was before you went on the road. But I would do this for so long. I just, I still love the idea of traveling. Being new people.

You know, if take my father with me, make, bring my kids with me. I just, I'm very fluid in the way I travel. So it, it helps a lot to, to, to not find, you know, times where you're like in,

you know, stuck into despair or whatever. But every musician definitely has a lot of feelings. Because we wouldn't be musicians if we didn't feel everything. That's why we're creative. So if you can find, I don't have as many feelings

that say the next guy that might have problems. But I, I know what he's going through. Because we all have that.

We all, as creatives, we always,

we just feel a lot.

“You know, that's why we translated through our,”

our music or our writing or whatever. You mentioned anxiety is one of the feelings. I was, you said a lot of anxiety in the doing of what you do. And I, I was surprised by that just because you've been doing it for so long.

I would think that you have the dragon by the collar. I've never, I've never, I don't have the fear of like not performing well. I don't really care. Like at this point I've done so many times. Like you're going to get what I give you.

You know, like when I'm out there on stage or whatever. Music, music wise. But I think just the over, over abundance of responsibility that I have sometimes I get anxiety because of a father of many children. You know, the businesses I have to run.

To run the everyday there's news this night. You know, there's so many outside things interfering that yeah, I can't, I can't lie and say don't have anxiety. But I think I'm very good at that putting it into something. I think somebody, I think it was,

maybe it was the actor that was in fallout. Was it that Walter Gawkins? I think he had an interview. I was the centenary said anxiety is like a tool. He kind of likes when it comes on.

It kind of like gives you some motivation to get out of it. So it's like an inspiration. You know, if you can kind of tap into it. It's powerful. Are they getting anything that could be a crutch?

You can kind of tap. But you don't have performance things. Sometimes I'm like damn, this is not an expect this. Like I mean, you might, you know, I might pull up to a show and I'm not sure what's happening.

And I'm like, I kind of thought it because I do a lot of different type of music. I've, you know, I played in like Nigeria for my first time. I was like, I don't know what this crowd's going to mean to. You know, I did my best and it probably wasn't the best.

But for some of Jamaica, I've never played this club.

Me and a switch we played this club. And New Kingston, it was called. It starts with an A. We had a show like a Tuesday night. And we just bombed so hard like we just didn't.

Because we don't, we're not playing like the Jamaica. You gotta play these quick mixes. And I mean, we try to play our records. And it was just like, you flop. You know, when you go back and you do it better the next time.

You know, you always change. That's the cool thing about DJing. We do it so many times. You can learn so quickly.

“Well, that, I mean, failures just learning in disguise, right?”

100%. If I was like, if I really, if I really wanted to win every night, I would have a pre-recorded set. And I would just run it, put some visuals. But then I would not be inspired.

I would be very bored. And I'd be fake up there. Like, do you like this one? No, I like to be like, well, about this one. I like to surprise people and try things.

And I like to read a crowd. And, you know, tonight I'm playing the food and wine festival. It's going to be a little more Miami style. And, you know, maybe a little more elevated version of, say, like, live it whatever. But then day-to-one, I played after dinner.

Skinner, so I was playing proper redneck anthems. And like, you know, mixing like, you know, classic rock with some trap music. And then, you know, when I come back for a win or music conference or my music,

And I'll be doing another dance hall party with Major Lazer. We'll be like a dub reggae party. We're doing a baby. So every night, I'm so lucky that I get to try new things. Because I'm a music fanatics, so I get to, I love that I get to switch to styles all the time.

First thing that comes to mind when I say, you at the center of the most moving performance, you've ever felt in your heart. Man, it's probably a hard one to answer. But I think I can give you some beautiful moments. You know, like, some sun rises, some places where you just feel connected with people.

And you're just, you know, you know, you're never going to live past some of those.

A burning man said, or whatever, where you're just like here, the everybody's waiting for this.

“You don't know what they're going to get, but you have to give something beautiful.”

You know, I've done a lot of those, but I think probably the most moving moment I've ever had was my mom passed away. Two summers ago, and I was playing, and I think I was playing in Sicily. Or one of those, I was, if club fee fee club, it was like a night club in my, I didn't tell anybody. My crew, my mom, my cousin was trying to text me. But I had the wrong number, and I found out that my dad coming when I dinner, that my mom passed away.

And I didn't tell anyone in the crew, so like, I got it. I'm going to fly to, I told like my two minutes like, hey, can I get this flight to where I had it or more morning? Just give me out of here, like six a.m. I didn't tell anybody, we had a bunch of those there. It was like six of us.

And I just went to the show and I, I DJed, like three hours. I just didn't want stop DJing because I didn't want to be by myself. So I played this whole set. I was like, I was like, I was like, just started playing records. I just thought, like, gave me goosebumps.

You know, I didn't want to leave the stage. And it was, I was like, I, like, about to cry at a whole time. Like, like, three hours. But I was like, damn, this is probably the best thing I could do right now though. It's like, go through this, have a good time with this party, go back to my room.

You know, call everybody, you know, just kind of like meditate a little bit. But it was like, I didn't want to not DJ. I wanted to like get through that night and, you know, just do something that felt like a release for me and just kind of make something that made me feel happy again too. So that's probably the one moment where I was like, that was all emotions.

You know, for myself, when you have the energy of the crowd, it's always different.

“Even the very first time I played stage coach, maybe I was like, what am I going to do here?”

People with a country and I remember we, I was so drunk. I don't even remember. I was like, I was like, let's go on a stage. And I'll be honest. I was pretty drunk.

And I was like, god damn, I'm the best DJ in the world right now. And I was like, I'm locked in. It was the first year of stage coach. So like, nobody knew what what even a DJ was. And then it was like, fuck in.

Little nice ex came out. We did a whole town road live. And then like, Sam, I was like, I want to come out. I was like, oh, I could dig up a sample. He played mine sang a song with Thomas Wright came out. I just was like playing for 15,000 people.

Just random songs that people in the audience were coming up with singing. I was like, damn, I really, I really, because people were just kind of madhouse playing stage coach. They were like, what do you do? You're not country, you know? The country music is probably the one genre where I got the most backlash of all the things I've done.

All the music I've done is the hardest. It's really the hardest one to really get accepted in. I kind of ran you off the road though when you were thinking of moving performances that you'd witnessed. So if there's inspiration for you there, please. I didn't let you answer the question perhaps that you wanted to answer.

Man, maybe coming full circle because you'd be on say watching her do Coachella was like, was like probably the best concert I've ever seen. It was like there's like three but her Coachella performance because I had, I wrote some songs on lemonade and like, bro, it was just like, the whole experience of those songs I'd done is she, her music director is blending with old school things

and then she had like the black marching band out and it was just like a experience that, she really understood the culture of like what it means to be Beyonce. What it means to be from Texas and she really put it out there that, like kind of like, bad bunny at the Superboy, you're like, well, telling a story. It was like, I got goosebumps watching bad bunny.

You know, everybody, I don't know how people were mad. I mean, I can't, I don't speak Spanish but God damn,

that was like a really fucking amazing show considering how bad the game was.

It was like, we were lucky to get that out of it. But I don't know. Prince, I saw Prince play before he passed away at, I think it was the film one. So I was going to play these like stand-up shows where he just did like 20 shows

for small crowds over and over again every night. And I'm sure he just like loved doing that. So he was like locked in with audience. I'm just lucky to see him. There was something I just seen.

I was like, yeah, that was the best show I've seen in a long time. Where were we? I saw Tom Petty plays that show at the Hollywood Bowl. And back to Florida, Mark Ronson hit me up.

“I was like, hey, you want to come to Hollywood Bowl?”

I was like, who's playing at Tom Petty? I was like, I mean, I'll pull up. I don't really know Tom Petty songs. I got there. And he played like a roadrunner song.

I didn't really know it. And then he played like 40 songs. And I knew every song because he don't realize you're from Florida. I was like, I'm like Tom Petty's like in my brain. It's like locked in.

I was like, I damn, I was like, I didn't leave. I was there for three hours. And then he died that morning. He was like the news. He passed away that morning.

So I saw his last show in LA. And another thing I like, I'm really proud of people from Florida. Just things. He's from Canesville. So he's cool.

I love Tom Petty now. Thinking back about it. Anybody from Florida? I love them. From Code I Black and Tom Petty.

There's a band called "Athesucker."

He used to love. I think like a metal band. It opened for mayor of the Manson. When I was in high school. "Athesucker."

Yeah. More manager. I used to love metal. And so Tampa.

“They must have spent so much time coming up with that name.”

"A-S-S-U-C-K-O-M-A-Fair-Bands" in high school. It's sick. Merch. Deicide. I mean, if you'd like metal.

Florida was about. It was like good metal. Good hip hop. Miami bass. Oh my God.

I love Miami bass music. I love DJ IC. I love break beat. Magic Mike. Uncle Luke.

Uncle Al. I love bass music. What do you regard along your 47 years as the emotional landmarks that cracked you open. Like that just changed who you are.

Altered your path. Uh. Made you. Uh. Damn.

A couple things, man. I think Philadelphia. Moving there. And just being part of that music scene. Like that was a scene where I felt like I had a family there.

Two like I was part of the scene. Where was like Spank Rock. And sound to go to MIA because she would come there. We worked on music there. Just this little shitty.

Philly is this like a fucking dark place.

“You know, like I think Sun Raw had a had a quote that he's like.”

He's a famous free jazz guy. He lived in Philly for a while. He was like. God told me how to go the worst place on earth to make music. And that's why I went.

He was a Philadelphia bass jazz musician. But if I wasn't for going to Philly. And just having a rough it like get by like really because you just know. I didn't have any money. I was like working.

And I was working at school and being a teacher. And then just seeing what hard work does like pays off for like a couple ideas. Like, you know, making my own parties and making mixed tapes and like learning how to be a human being and run a business. And I was so lucky to be there at that time. Well, the music was really exciting at the time.

I had Quest Love on one side. We had some cool rock bands. We had like these awesome venues. And the rent was cheap. And people were just creative.

And in my eight coming down there and she just changed my life, you know, working with her, like her having putting faith in me and putting music together with me. It was like, you know, I thought I didn't have her to give me that jump start as a producer and as a creator. I would never be here.

My first son being born was a huge for me because it made me like really have to lock in.

Like that was when I was like, I have to, this isn't, it's not my life anymore. You know, so everything mattered a lot more.

“And that's like, and I think a lot of people don't realize the power of having children.”

It's not just like, this is a drag your life down. It really makes it another life, you know. And I think that was a huge step for me. Those two things. You know what really affected me as a kid was the challenge of shuttle blowing up.

It's crazy. I was living in, I was living between four Latterdale and New Summer to Beach. And I remember we walked outside. This is the shuttle that Kate Cranaver on it blew up. And I was like, seven or eight years old.

We had a walk outside. We're going to watch this teacher go up into space. And it just like exploded. I had a tatted on it because that was like one of the first memories I ever had. It was like watching that.

And I was like the one that crazes Florida. That's really Florida. You know, that's young to get mortality blown in your face. We were like, we had to go outside and watch it in the future. Like everybody went inside, you know.

That was one of the first memories I had of like, whoa. Like life is like, it's crazy out here. And it's such a Florida thing.

You know, because we always have the we have the kind of rope that we have like,

Kennedy space. And it was just something that it's all licensed plates. And we always, you know, it was the thing by my parents house. I don't know. There's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff.

I think maybe going to India as well. Probably blew my life. I have so many touchdowns. But India, my first time leaving the country was going there and living there. Like for on six dollars a day and like meeting people and just being part of the world.

You know, that even you like give up all the comforts of America. And you go there and you're like, it's makes you understand how much your work. It really is valuable. How lucky we are to be here in America. And I go in back there.

I was back there in November. We did the same thing I did when I was 20. We ran in motorcycles and rode around. The highways and cities and a group of me group of my friends that travel. And it was like.

It was, it was back to that feeling where you just all the luxury we have here. When you're like locked in writing motorcycle around somewhere like India, the cities and the traffic is crazy and everybody, every movement in your body matters. That's really that's the closest you get to meditation for me. How long did you do that for?

This trip we did like five days like probably between five and nine hours a day like writing bikes around. But man, we rode to the in the same places. Like we rode to like parts of seven citizens, which is like the the the northeast corner by the border of my and being like that's where you can ride around. You're like to parks, where there's 400 run offs versus you know, then you like the little city where like you have these like home quick meals and

most beautiful sunset and it's just like there's so much of the world that we don't. He was like when you hear in America, you don't travel.

What are the details you most remember about being most broke?

Man, it's probably when my son was. He was born in October and November. We were, man, his mom were just living in like an apartment and those fields because back when you were a songwriter in your young, you don't have it. You just, they, they, you fly out to LA and they put you in like a little home.

Like a bottle apartment where we had like a little place and we just there. We didn't have any money. We just made like Thanksgiving dinner. We had like chicken nuggets like shaped like dinosaurs and I remember just being there like, I got to get a house because like I kind of feed this kid. You know, it's like, Oh, but that's because you're scared, right? You're scared of a little possibility.

You're just like, oh, man, I got to like, this is because I'm living such a, you know, I don't mind living like a wild west guy like on a motorcycle. You could do that in Philadelphia when it's just you though. This is the burden of responsibility. It's the responsibility of pairing.

I think, but also when you, you realize how many problems come from being broke. Like, you really like, when the order I get in the more I don't let it, I sort of live pretty frugal. Like, like, if I don't really like, I don't take jets. I don't own a car really. I like, I'm pretty chill. I wear like, use clothing and stuff. I don't really like, I don't buy jewelry anymore.

You know, I just, when you realize how much problems it is when you don't have money,

how much pressure there always is. Like, what's next?

And then people don't really realize how much Americans have to deal with that all the time. And you know, when you do know it, when you have that in your life,

“you're like, that's what it's like. You don't take anything for granted.”

I think a lot of kids, if you don't come from having a little hardship, it's probably hard to live a good life because you don't realize how to utilize it. Why are you frugal? Is it to be not materialistic? Is it to be spiritual or not care? No, I don't really need anything. I'm just like, everything I do, I feel like now that makes me happy is like being with my family

or, you know, traveling or seeing something. I'm never, I'm never like, I did this necklace or I don't really know. I don't really, I never felt like that motivation. I just feel like moments with people are the most valuable things I've got.

Experiences, but I've got to imagine though, I mean, your wildest dreams looked like what

when you started in music because, oh my God, this couldn't have been anything close to this. I just didn't want to have a job because I did it. I did, I did it a couple of jobs. Like, I worked a subway, I took tickets. I was like, I deliver flower. I do all these things when I was like, God damn, I want to work for something that every day when I finish, I feel like I made something.

You know, I didn't just make money for a CEO or something. I didn't make, you know, somebody else rich. I wanted to make something that it's meaningful.

“And that was the music was the only way I could do it.”

Tell me the dinosaur, tell me about the dinosaur that you're named after. Like, what, what is that all about? Well, I was really obsessed with paleontology as a kid. Like, I was really in a dinosaurs. You were going to, you were going to be that. I was, that was the thing that I, I mean, high school's like, that's not a real idea.

That's crazy. That's like, I'm not even a job. No, let me be a DJ. That's not a job. I think I'm going to do it's be a DJ. Even, even weirder, I ended up going to get my, I got my degree in anthropology. So I was really into, I wanted, after the dinosaurs thing didn't work out for me.

I was like, I want to be, I want to work for National Geographic. I want to travel, I want to take photos. I want to make, I want to like document things. And I was like, not going to any, I want to like document stuff in Florida. I want to go back to, I want to like lock in American culture. I want to like, you know, document it and be part of it.

And I want to like show people to keep up money. I just wanted to be like, I just was obsessed with, with culture as like, as an idea. And I got all the way through school, graduated from Temple. And then I applied to, for a film and anthropology school at FSU. I got accepted. I was like, spending your off. I worked in Italy. I worked at Colors magazine.

They hired me there for somehow. I said, I'm going to application and they were like, you're pretty weird. They flew me to Italy. I worked there, made some cool stuff for 90 colors of Beneton. Learned a little Italian sent an application at FSU. I got accepted at grad school. You know, living by the skin of my teeth like barely paying rent.

My dad called me. He's like so excited. He was like, you got into grad school. Like I can't believe you did it. Like he's like so surprised like how the fuck did you get into a grad school.

“And I was like, dad, I got to tell you, I think I'm going to be a DJ.”

Like this DJ is like, yo, get the fuck the ear. He was like so pissed off. Because it was like the most crowning moment of his like, you're my son. Made it to Greg with like no help. He like did it himself. And I was like damn, he'll be a DJ. He was like, I think he hung up on me. And then it took him like another five, ten years to really see me be a DJ.

He was like really like, even now he's so proud of me. Like I remember at the Leonard Skinner show. He was like, this is my cousin, this stuff. He's like, isn't he good?

I really won the lottery of my parents. I got so lucky with two great, two great parents. I don't think you answered my dinosaur.

“That was just never. That was the, that was where I started.”

I loved the deploticists at a point in time. He was the biggest animal on the world. Longest dinosaur, blue whales a little bigger than him. I was obsessed with like the size of this dinosaur. So there was this girl that gave me the nickname in high school deploticist. She called me that. I don't know why.

She had a kind of like a funny face. She kind of looked like a giraffe. So she looked like a giraffe when he ate like the leaves. That's what she felt like. It was like a girlfriend.

I always made my make-up under her lap.

You know, she, the game of that name. And I was like doing little parties in Daytona and like Orlando. And that was like the artist name I picked. And I made a little mixed tape. And it, you can find that my first album is called Deploticist.

It's not called Diplo. It's called Epistemology Sweet. It's like a little mixed CDs on discogs, whatever. And then I got signed to an institute on that mixed tape. And I changed my name at Diplo because it was two. No one could pronounce Diploticist.

And then that's the minute. That was like 30 years ago. You've mentioned how close you were to your mom. How lucky you are to have your parents. You lost your sister and your mom a month apart.

How did that change you?

Well, my mother was sick for a long time.

She had a bad, bad long problems. She smoked her whole life. So she had an infosema and she had a walk with oxygen. And my sister also had like a lot of health problems. She was diabetic and very overweight and very unhappy.

And but she was so sweet. Like Amy was like one of the most beautiful people I've ever met.

“And my mother honestly, she was living eight years longer.”

And she should have been because I think she loved my children so much. And she was like living so long to like meet them. It's been more time with my sister died. My mother just kind of like, she just, I think she gave up. She was like my sister died and she was just kind of like,

It's time, you know, she would be my sister. I feel like she kind of left. So it was kind of like, it was difficult, but it was like, I'm so happy my mother got to see my children that grow up. So.

Altered you. Like obviously it's a painful thing. And I'm sorry for your loss. I've been talking a lot over the last couple of years after losing my brother. There's a lot of gratitude in it now that I got to say goodbye.

But it is, it has changed me. My life perspective is different. Well, I think my mother passed away my son. I was like, we came to the funeral and it was so beautiful because they were so like adult. They're by some of those probably like 12.

But he went and saw my mother. It's like body before because we didn't, we didn't show my mother. This is like crazy. But he was like, he was like, I want to go see her and say bye. And it was like so.

Powerful for me. Like see that he was like gone, we're not just she hurt.

“But I think my mother was like the rocket or house.”

So when she passed away, it was kind of like. But she lived a good life and she had like children who loved her. When she lost her daughter, she was like. Like her life felt like it was a little bit. It wasn't much left for her, you know, so.

But she lived a lot longer than she should have to be part of my life. I think she's like my biggest fan. I was going to say her belief in you was something that you're still carry, right?

Yeah, my dad was always like kind of like, you know, he's always like, what are you going to do?

He never really believed my mother's like whatever, man. You're like the best like she's always like putting me on. So the phone call that you've described here with your father seems like a crazy telephone call. Where he, he's very excited about your grad school accomplishment. And that's when you're deciding to tell him.

Yeah, I'm going to go on this crazy pursuit. I remember the phone call my dad brought up to me. I come like two years ago. He's like, I just didn't care. At that point, I was so focused on, I was like, I got to make music happen.

If I don't make music happen, I don't know what's going to happen. I just can't live. Like, this is it. This is like my dream. You know, if you have a dream that you believe in so much, you're going to fucking.

You know, you're going to do it. You know, if it's all, if it's the only choice, you're going to make it happen a matter of what. But the things that you're describing, I don't know how innate your creativity is. But everything you're describing sounds like I have stuff inside me that can't be locked

in a subway fridge by gun-toting men. I need to like you're talking about national geographic photographer. You're talking about Philadelphia music scene and jazz that comes from pain. Like everything about you is creativity.

Like my creative writing side, like just learning about where I was from. And I just felt like I was special. Like I hope you don't realize if you tap into like who you are. Like where you came from, where your parents came from. Everything you have is like different than everybody else.

If you really, you know, put everything into that and like that's you. It's so powerful. Once you've realized you are like the one, one of a kind. When you feel that way, I feel like that's the strongest brand you can make.

You can have a million different ways to your ANR to tell you this step.

You like just make it for yourself. Like inside of you, like this is me. I'm special.

“I think all the things I grew up around and being around.”

I just channel all that. Like you know, this is why Diplos is interesting. You know, I did my work in the cultural side. I did my work traveling my research. I loved music and I learned how to make music.

I learned how to play music. And behind it all had my parents. And like where they are from. And I had like back to William Faulkner. And I had like, you know, being a volucia county.

I still fucking let you know Orlando. My dad was growing in Belglade. I wanted to go visit where he would grew up. And all these things was like, well, how the story is nuts. Like I'm really special.

And then when even that's like, I'm not like, I'm not like a prince. I didn't like living. I'm like, I'm like, these are little things. But I was like, yo, this is my story is great. And I'm going to keep writing it.

I feel like once you find that when you realize you're like the author of your story,

it becomes a very powerful tool to keep it going.

Diplos.com is where you go.

“If you want tickets, tore dates, diplos run club.”

You've mentioned running a couple of times. You're very big on meditation. You're very big on physical activity. In fact, I've read stories about you here in Miami running a half marathon. And then running straight over to space in order to do a show after a half marathon.

Diplos run club. That is meditative for you. The act of running. I mean, man, it's the easiest way I'll tell you what. My ADHD prohibits me to actually meditate.

I just so hard for me to sit down. Get that ball of light in my heart. Put it to my whatever the speaker says to me, I'm like, bro, I can't, I can't do it. But like running a motorcycle running those things or even surfing. Those are my favorite things to do.

Like sitting on the water and just being by yourself. You know, all that stuff is meditation. You don't have to like do transcendental meditation. I tell people at all time, it's great. If you can get that, that's probably the most powerful way to do it.

But if you can't reach that, so many of the things in your life. Just are able to get you to that point. Just putting your whole body out there with those distractions and doing something. You know, if you channel it right, anything you've been meditating, you know. I feel like the running is the easiest way to do it because you can't.

Once you start running, you can't, that's it. Your whole body is the mechanics are going together. And that's beautiful. So anybody can do it. But the mind is both blessing and a poison.

And I imagine you have difficulty stopping and slowing your down. I do it too.

Just always noise all the time.

I mean, that's the one problem would be a creative. It was like, there's the voices. Oh, like, you know, I'm not hearing crazy voices. But there's always noise. There's always ideas.

There's always something I'm like down. Like, well, that's not a came up from dinner. I was like, you know, I got to make this idea. Like, I had it that my, my mind all the time. I didn't go to sleep.

I woke up before in the morning with back to my computer. You know, that's, if you have an idea, man, make sure you write it down, get it out there. You know, even AI, like, whatever do, but what's cool about these AI opportunities, like, put a little small idea in there.

You don't have a full formed idea. You don't have the patience to write something for three hours. Put your basic stuff in there and see what it comes up with. And then, oh, God, that's going to inspire you to finish something. Well, what's happening there is that that you don't want the data.

And like, what it, what's happening that there's inspiration and opportunity everywhere. Like, why you are still a grinder. You're, you don't have to do it this way anymore. You can cut your schedule in half, no matter how much of an economy you are, how much of a pressure guy you are.

Especially if you're living frugally, you can slow it down. You clearly don't want to, right?

“I think I just, I'm, I'm, like you said in the beginning,”

I'm still so inspired. Like, I'm, I've just, I've been really lucky to be this generation where, I don't know how old you are, but I was born between like 78 and like 82 or a certain thing. It's called like, um, it's not a millennial, it's like a zillionial. I think it's a name of it.

It's literally a special, like, four years where we had analog. We had the vinyl and we were the first people on the internet. So we have this, like, weird connection with both sides. This, I'm, I'm part of that generation. And a lot of my older friends that are at the same age,

we all are like lucky because we were literally, remember when there was no data. Like, there was no, it was like, everything was analog. The world was, and we, we operated in that world. And then we were right when the internet started.

We were like, wow, we adapted quickly. And I think that is probably another really powerful tool that I have. That I'm able to see both sides. So that being said, when everything happens,

"Oh, guys, this is that.

I'm just like, yo, let's run with it."

Like, everything is a tool. You know, everything is a tool to use.

“If you don't believe that, eventually, you're just going to be kind of like,”

cast it as, you know, the ones who are writing with it, go forward and bring else kind of like, yeah.

You can sit back and protest, but I mean,

it's going to be fun without you. It's a cool story. I really appreciate your honesty and the fact that you're so open about sharing it. Thank you, sir.

I'm only me. I got nothing, you know.

“I can't, I gotta just give it all out there.”

Thank you, sir. Yeah, thank you. [MUSIC]

But what I want to tell you,

you don't want to support your whole studio. The Master by Tag Laptop, your soft hand, the internet. It's like a master. I'm sorry.

You can say, you can say that. Yeah, you're a master, right? But you don't believe it. No. It's just a loss for you.

You just do something like this. And if you work, your house is catching. That's right. Save.

What do you mean? Hold your money. Now, it's just a loss.