Anthony Paul: Press/Articles/Video

EDM Virginia was remade a few years ago, and a new site owner took over. Most of the interviews were lost in the shuffle, but some, including this one, were saved to offline archives for future use.

EDMVirginia: You are involved with one of the most successful events in VA in quite sometime. Tell us how Euronight started, evolved, and what it takes to keep it going.

Anthony Paul: It all started when I met a friend at work who liked EDM. He loved partying and threw some house parties with full DJ setups and what not. It wasn't long before he started Djing himself. Every Saturday he had a house party and over a 3-4 month period, more and more people were showing up. At one point he and his roomate did a head count and counted over 200 people leaving the house at the end of the night (early morning rather). He decided that his parties could use a name. His address was 641 and since his house was like a club every Saturday, decided to call it Club 641.

Word got around and it became an all night/after party type thing. There would be hundreds in the house already and at about 2-3am about a hundred more would show up. One of the people that came was an owner/manager of Premiere. He offered that if we could do a successful party at Premiere, we could have one night a month. Our first party was at max capacity with a line out the door. A year later we're still reaching capacity with head counts over a thousand.

It's not that hard to keep it going. It's just like any other event. Make fliers, promote and cross your fingers. I'm still nervous at every one of them. "What if no one shows up?" I think every month. Hell, I'm nervous at every party no matter how big or small.

EDMVA: You are also an avid producer. What inspired you to start producing? Who are your influences? What kind of sound are you going for?

AP: I just wanted to make some music. Make some beats, good or not, I just like making loops and then putting them together. I don't honestly have any influences as far as production goes. I have my favorites but when I sit down I aim for a specific sound and usually end up with something else. The kind of sound, lately, that ive been making though is a more big roomy-type sound. Big basslines and such.

EDMVA: What is your musical background? What pulled you into the EDM scene? Who were your early influences?

AP: I've been able to follow music since before I can remember. Listening to a song was easier than reading a book. You can tell when something is gonna happen in a track, even in the middle of a measure. You just listen to a track and you can predict what will happen and 95% of the time it happens. Music was just always something that came naturally to me. I also took up piano for a few years when I was younger. I played the trumpet in middle school band, and I messed around with a drum set that a friend from high school let me borrow for a couple months.

I was always listening to different types of music but one thing never changed over the years. I LOVED the generic house beat. When I first heard EDM I didn't know what it was so I couldn't ever find any tracks with the beat I liked. I just knew that the "boom tis boom tis" beat was just cool. I eventually got a trance CD and I was sold. I must have listened to that CD about 500 times a day. A few years later I went to my first party in Norfolk, VA called Flood. This was the hot spot of EDM back in 1999. My first time ever there it was like I was in heaven. I even remember one of the tracks that was played that, to this day, I'm still looking for. That music style was what I always wanted to hear but I never knew where to find it. After that, every Thursday went something like this: "So what's going on tonight?" "Flood!" "Hell yea!"

I guess my first influences, locally, were probably Pam B and Dru Le Cue. Even though Dru and I started at the same time I learned more about Djing in a week than I think most people learned in months. After that I guess my main influences were probably Dave Seaman, Micro and BT. Before I figured out that digital mixing was the new trend, I tried and tried to get my mixes as long and perfect as the ones I heard on Dave Seamans mixes. I practiced for ages to match his mixing style and once I did, I learned his mix CDs were not even Dj mixed. Oh well, at least he inspired me to become a better DJ.

EDMVA: What artists do you believe have been the most influential in EDM music over the last decade? Who do you see as pushing the musical envelope?

AP: James Zabiela has definitely been on top of things lately. I'm not really sure how to answer this since so much has happened in the last decade and music has progressed quite a bit. Its tough to narrow it down to a few when so many have pushed the boundaries.

EDMVA: You've run several of your own EDM events, how does that compare to DJing? Which do you get more satisfaction out of: dropping a great set or pulling off a great event?

AP: I find a different type of satisfaction in both. Theres no arguing that dropping a sick track to a full room of people and listening to them cheer is an awesome feeling! Then throwing your own event and seeing a big crowd come out is a similar feeling too. You just feel good about yourself.

EDMVA: What upcoming project can the people expect from you in 2007?

AP: I plan on having my first track released in the later part of 2007.

EDMVA: Of all the genres out there, what factors made you decide to go with house?

AP: Well, not many know this but I started with DnB but I wasn't really into it. After about a week I switched to hard house and trance. Then dropped hard house about a month, or so, later. I also started buying house after about a year of playing trance and began playing both. Trance started getting alittle…over the top? The older tracks were still awesome but the newer ones coming out, out of 20 tracks one would be good. The rest had those corny synths going nuts in a loop that sounded like a monkey mashed a keyboard for 10 minutes. That's about when all the trance heads started getting into house or breaks or DnB.

I took the progressive house route. The darker stuff was fun to play, but it was just fun to play. When I heard it on the other end it never REALLY motivated me. Only a few tracks motivated me. I started getting more trancey with my progressive. More vocal and, as some people have even said, more cheesy. It was all good because I enjoyed it and the people I spoke to enjoyed it so what more could I ask for? Then I started getting into funky progressive house and this evolved into funky house. I guess, long story short, I just love tracks that groove, pump, and/or get people moving. Not only do I love house (and trance) more than anything, I also noticed house gets people moving without the 3 minute breakdowns and without super repetitive beats that get boring, at least to me. Plus I don't like thinking that im playing music that is beating the hell out of people instead of making them groove. My music does get hard, but it doesn't cross the gap between bangin' and splitting headache.

EDMVA: What is the best event that you've ever spun at?

AP: Well, I've spun at some awesome events. I can't really name just one or two. Hell, not even three. There's been some pretty insane moments at some events and just fantastic feelings at others. I feel if I chose one out of the many, it wouldn't be doing the others justice. So basically, ill go with the most memorable moment.

Yes, this was at Premiere but it was too funny too forget. My friend and I are tagging 3 for 3. I just got done with my 3 and he gets on. Mixes out and then his next track has a hi synth that hits on every first and third bass kick. After the first breakdown of the track, the fog machine went off and the place filled with smoke. Not 1 minute later there was another sound that was hitting on the second and fourth bass kick, perfectly, that wasn't part of the track. He and I looked at each other puzzled. "What the hell is that sound? Eh, who cares, it sounds pretty cool!"

Turns out, the fog machine set off the fire alarm in the club and the fire alarms beeping was perfectly in synch with the track playing. It even lasted through the next breakdown. What made it awesome, though, was that everyone in the crowd stopped dancing and looked at us. Then they looked up and all around. I remember this perfectly, almost all of them at the same time realized what the sound was and they started cheering VERY LOUDLY! I immediately got goose bumps and a HUGE smile when I saw about 800 people cheer at the same time when they figured out the fire alarm was going off to the beat of the track playing. Good shit, good shit.

There are quite a few events that I could list that could be considered "the best" but I don't want to list them all here.

EDMVA: What is the worst thing that's ever happened to you while you were Djing?

AP: Actually, this past Saturday (January, 2007) was quite interesting. It was our second monthly, Pulse. Other than starting an hour late, due to a prior event the club was doing, everything started off pretty well. Decent crowd, setup was quick and easy, music was pumping. And then everything went downhill. Mind you, all this happened in one gig.

It first started off with a skip in a record, going from vinyl to CD, resulting in a weird sounding train wreck. I had to fade one channel out completely before I had even started Eqing the mix. *sigh* I had both my video camera and my digital camera at the event too. My digital camera was in my back pocket and I was jumping around stage and I look to my left and notice my digital cam flying through the air. WAM! It lands on the stage. I pick it up, luckily nothing happened to it. Then I notice my video camera had fallen off the table too. I checked it and the LCD was somehow smashed. Well, this was an expensive buzz kill.

After that, I had a full drink next to my CD case. I do a mix, turn around and see that the drink spilled all over my CDs. Luckily only about 100 CDs got red bull vodka on them. Then after I hastily cleaned most of them off I was wiping my headphones down because they, somehow, got wet too. While I was wiping them off, as if things couldn't get worse, they snapped in two at the earpiece. Well, the night was over and I was getting my things ready to go. Depressed already, I picked up my jacket and as I pick it up, a puddle of red bull vodka falls onto the stage. Apparently when the drink spilled, it dripped through a hole in the (old) table and got ALL over my jacket. Fun stuff.

EDMVA: Where do you see the EDM scene being in 5 years?

AP: This is another tough question. From my point of view, the scene seems to be evolving everyday and while one part of it evolves, another part of it seems to die. So much can happen in 1 year that predicting 5 in advance is very… It makes things kinda blurry. The "scene" acts like a DJ set. It acts like a roller coaster. It starts off slow and then gradually reaches a peak. Then it will gradually drop back down and begin to lift up again. It might take a bit to lift back up but it always does. History always repeats itself in one way or another.

I think that in 5 years what's left of the "underground" scene will almost completely be gone. People are getting older. The newer people are not as informed as they used to be. The "underground" can't survive if there is no one new to support it. I think the natural state of evolution is that the underground music will migrate into a mainstream crowd. Of course underground parties will always be around, but I personally don't think they will be as strong as they once were. I've already seen a lot of people that used to be decked out in cargo pants or "candy" or whatever, show up at a more main stream type club wearing just short of a suit and tie, but listen to the same music and dance the same way.

I do notice, though, that a new wave of producers and DJs are coming out lately. Most of them are very talented too. I've heard tracks from people that I've never heard of and they blow me away. Then do research and find out it's the guys' first release ever. Wow! In 5 years I think there will be a whole new line up of headliners.

Some might hate me for saying this but I think Djing will see a lot more digital Djing in the future. It's a fact that a lot of people haven't accepted yet. From what I've noticed, the current common DJ setup is usually 2 analog turntables and 2 digital tables. For most of the major headliners its digital only now. CDs are easier to transport and easier to replace if something happens to them. As much as I love vinyl, digital seems more appealing everyday.

EDMVA: If you weren't doing music, what else would you be doing?

AP: Working the 9-5 and being miserable...