Dave Storm - deephouse.com podcast #010
This week, we welcome Estonian producer/DJ, Dave Storm. This artist from Talinn, who's had releases on many labels such as Salted, Cabrio and many more, has always pushed the bar with his hybrid DJ/live sets which resulted with nothing but dancing bodies on the dance floor. He has delivered a special mix for deephouse.com this week which contain some of his releases. Enjoy.
How did you get started with DJing and/or getting into the underground scene?
When i was a school kid I started my own small “business" - I prepared my own compilation on cassette and then made hundreds of copies and sold them to small shops. It was illegal of course. Back then it was really hard to get hold of new music and I found the way to collect music and also make money out of it. It brought me to music “industry”. People knew I had some music and they asked if I want to try dj-ing, then it all started.
Who we're your biggest influences growing up?
I was listening different kind of music - hip hop, pop, metal. But when I started to buy house music on vinyls my first heroes were people like David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Grant Nelson, MAW, Armand van Helden.
Being originally from a diverse city as Tallinn, how has it helped your upbringing as a performer or DJ?
Tallinn is a lovely city but it’s too small business wise. It’s such a small market so if you want to develop you have to look outside. It’s a lot harder to break through. In big cities there are way more clubs, bars, labels, agents, managers. If you’re active you can make great business relationships. Sometimes you just need a lucky coincidence, can meet someone in your local record store or club and he can be a guy who can help you with you career - get you a gig or get your music out there.
You've always been very technical in your live sets, which piece of gear could you live without in the studio or live?
It’s really hard to say. I keep changing my live setup all the time, still looking for that perfect one. Korg has been doing really nice gear lately, I love their stuff and keep using them. In the studio I guess I couldn’t get along without my Mackie monitors.
Which parties would you recommend checking out in Tallinn?
If you’re after underground dance music you should check out places like Studio, Lekker, Sinilind and von Krahl. In May I opened my own open air venue called Peatus. There are restaurant and bar in two old train carriages and huge terrace between them. In summer we made parties on a terrace four days a week, mostly house music, free entrance. In winter we’re doing smaller rave parties at one of our carriages.
Can you tell us a bit about your mix?
There are mostly tracks that I have been playing out a lot during last six months.
What is your "go-to" tracks these days when you're playing?
Nowadays it’s easy to have all your collection on a USB stick. It’s great as you never know if it’s suitable to play sweet and easy 115- 120 BPM deep house set or go tougher and through some bangin acid or tech house grooves. I don’t like to plan ahead too much. It’s good to go with the flow and look at the crowd.
There’s few special tracks that I play very often nowadays - Fred Everything “Winter Tones” and Kink “Strings". These are both are included in my mix.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music?
Unfortunately not too many. Music has been playing most important role in my life. But I play basketball and follow NBA.
Podcast Tracklisting
- Katorski - L’Offspring
- Vincenzo - Melbs
- Vince Watson - Subculture Story
- Fred Everything - Winter Tones
- Sahar Z & Guy Manzur - The Man Who Souled The World (Audio Junkies Remix)
- Mat.Joe - Music On
- Maya Jane Coles - Little One
- Dave Storm & Shur-i-Kan - Losing You
- Kink - Strings
- Doza - It Comes In Waves
- The Revenge - Let Love Take The Blame