Vice at Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas. (Photo source: Encore Beach Club)
DJ/producer Vice recently sat down with Young & Reckless founder Chris “Drama” Pfaff for an in-depth and candid interview. The near 2-hour conversation covered much of the Los Angeles native’s career and personal life.
Topics discussed include starting out as a DJ at 10 years old, DJing high school dances, weddings, and quinceañeras in his teens, working at Los Angeles’ Power 106, DJ AM, landing a $1 million Las Vegas residency, building his brand beyond DJing, plus much more.
When talking about his time as a wedding DJ, Vice said:
“Weddings are the hardest gig anyone could ever play. It’s the most random group of people, from old to young to middle aged. And everyone’s emotional and you gotta play like swing music for the elderlies and salsa because someone wants to cha-cha dance and then the kids are pissed because they wanna hear hip-hop and then the middle-aged are like ‘Yo, we wanna hear some old school sh#t.’ And everyone’s yelling at you. Everyone’s coming up to you and saying, ‘Change the music. Change this.’ And they’re wasted. There’s so much work.”
Stream the entire convo below via SoundCloud or on iTunes.
Here’s some of topics covered:
– His family and growing up in Los Angeles (8:00)
– The moment he got hooked on DJing at 10 years old (16:00)
– Learning how to DJ (19:40)
– His time as a high school, quinceañera, and wedding DJ (24:10)
– Hustling mixtapes (29:00)
– Working at Power 106 (35:10)
– Unexpectedly becoming a dad at 19 (41:00)
– Attending a life-changing Tony Robbins seminar (44:45)
– Meeting Kanye West (55:52)
– Meeting Suge Knight and LL Cool J (58:40)
– DJ AM (1:01:00)
– Landing a $1 million Las Vegas DJ contract (1:16:00)
– Surviving the EDM bubble (1:18:00)
– Leaving SKAM Artist (1:19:00)
– Getting into music production (1:20:50)
– Opening his shoe store (1:28:30)
– Starting his Electric Taco series (1:33:40)
– Building his brand (1:35:20)
Related: Watch DJ Vice and Comedian Jo Koy Go on a Taco Run