Its interview time again here in Spencerville and this week we feature one of SA’s most prestigious DJ/Producers. He’s been a resident in over 100 clubs and has featured at massive events like Gatecrasher, Camel Experience and one even hitting the 1.3 million people mark for the world renowned Love Parade back in 2000.  With a discography that speaks for itself, we catch up with the legendary DJ Dizzy and this is what he had to say…

Hey Dean, welcome back to Spencerville! How are you doing?
Doing very well, be very busy with new projects and touring a lot.

You recently released your latest double disc titled Club Traxxx 2009. Tell us a little bit more about it and what can we expect to hear?
Well we are now on volume 2 and I'm currently working on tracks for Vol 3 in December. The CD is something new for me as we have attacked a different market. Someone once said to me , you can play to the underground scene which is 10% of the clubbing population but remember you'll be earning 10% of the money, or you can play to the commercial scene which is 80% of the clubbing scene and earn 80% of the cash, and thus Clubtraxxx is born. It’s a very pop driven album, with remixes of all the top 40 stuff, but with an electro house type of feel. All the remixes are produced by myself and another producer called Hylton so there’s at least 2-3 months of production work that went into the 30 tracks on the CD.

How much work goes on behind the scene to put a double disc like this together?
A lot of time is spent on studying which tracks to use. Mostly we watch the charts and see which tracks are jumping up positions and then once we've decided on it we cover the vocals and get them as dam near close to the original as we can. 99% of the time you wont even know its a cover! Then its all about sitting down and deciding what kinda remix to do on it which takes about 2 days of re-arrangement and production. So roughly around 2 months of work for 30 tracks and then comes the mastering which is the most important part. Again you’re looking at anther 10 days to get through those 30 tracks.

You also promoted Club Traxxx in quite a few clubs around the country earlier this year. Is there still a few clubs left to visit towards the end of 2009?
Yes most definitely. We are so fully booked with vol 2 and in December we start the Vol 3 release, so its pretty much turns over every 4 months to the next volume.

Dean, you are also running a DJ school at the moment. How many students do you currently have and do you find the new generation embracing DJing and dance music with as much enthusiasm as you did when you started back in the day?
The DJ school is doing well, but I am find a lot of students just want the quick fix and they want to get out there as soon as they can. This scares me because there are to many DJ's who'll play for next to nothing and don’t have enough experience. That’s why we have 3 courses set out, beginners, intermediate and advanced each of which take about a month of intense training to get through. I think these days every kid wants to play soccer or be a DJ, so it is a growing passion amongst guys and girls.

Are there any familiar DJ’s or producers who have been reaping the rewards that came out of your DJ school?
Yes there are a few, we've had Ryan Mergatroyd,  Lindi Lush, Andre Fraunstein (techno DJ)….geeez there have been so many, but most of them are still playing somewhere.

Its one thing to come out of a DJ school or a “bedroom DJ stage” and have the essential skills of knowing how to mix but the real hard work is to promote yourself correctly and getting your name or brand out there and getting recognized . Can u give us a few fundamental tips on how a DJ can market himself correctly and make it as a DJ in South Africa or abroad?
Well that’s one part of our advanced DJ course, it’s essential to know how to market yourselves as a DJ. I think the most important thing is that you need to get out into the battlefield and make yourself known. One of my DJ's did plenty of demo CD's and started going around form club to club handing out cd's to the crowds and the DJ was not even playing in clubs yet. The CD was mixed well with a great selection of music and it had the picture of the DJ’s face (very important) on it as well as booking info. This DJ basically spent plenty of cash on CD's but eventually after handing out vol 3 of the mixed series became more noticed by the kids in the club. This led to the club owner picking up a copy or 2 and contacting the DJ for his first gig and magically he became a resident DJ at that club. So its all about persistence and getting those all important demo's to the right people. Your Face, your name and you music are the most important selling points to you getting noticed, and of course persistence persistence!

How much time do you get to work on your own productions while running the DJ school, your design company and gigging every weekend?
Not enough time actually, but having assistance to help out is a bonus, some of my advanced pupils have become teachers too, so you can always learn more once you qualified.

I speak under correction but you’ve been playing for a staggering 23 years now. What does the future hold for DJ Dizzy?
Yes 23 would be correct and I'm pretty certain that I have a few more years of DJ'ing left in me. I am leaning more to the production side now, there's good money in producing good trax and remixing different artists. As for my future I'll be around for along time still in the SA club Scene you'll see.  

I’m sure all the Dizzy die hard fans just love to ask you why you decided to take a new approach to your music style over the last few years. How do you feel about the change?
Its all about surviving in this industry and if you are not prepared to re-invent yourself then you'll slowly wither away. You have to keep up with the music trends and what the kids want because they are the future and will be listening to you for the next couple of your DJing years. I actually am enjoying the change to slightly more commercial dance stuff. The kids are crazy about it and I get packed floors where ever I play (take a look at what David Guetta has done lately), and because of the style I'm playing I'm keeping the floors rocking till the end. My die hard fans will always have the old Dizzy stuff, but if I want another 15 years in this crazy industry I have to think about the new generation of kids and what they want. All my original die hard fans are all married now with kids, and its their kids that I'm actually DJing to. Ha ha ha how weird is that!

What’s your view on the dance scene in SA at the moment? Do you think there will be a rebirth of the hard dance genres?
I think there will always be a small hard dance scene here, but I don't see much of a future for it as its getting way too hard and unfortunately slightly dark and evil, as it is all over Europe. They have a very dark side to all the big hardstyle parties there and that’s just not what I want to be teaching our youth. We have enough to deal with. For me the future lies in making the music scene work as a business, so I am going for the big dollars, and commercial pop is where the big bucks lie (once again I quote Mr. David Guetta’s success with his new idea and he's making millions off his new album)

Where can one get in touch with you regarding your gig guides as well as people interested in attending the dj school?
We have two websites where you can get hold of me for gigs and get all DJ school info.

1. www.housefactor.co.za
2. www.dizzmania.co.za

Thanks Dean