Disco Fever
Tommy Boy's latest acquisition, Disco D, is ready to take ghetto tech to the masses.
By Erik Fong

In a Rolling Stone article two years ago, Beck pondered the possibilities of incorporating ghetto tech into some of his upcoming material because "…we heard that was the next big thing. We're going to ride the ghetto tech wave to the next Grammys." Today, Disco D - the 22 year old DJ who not only coined the term "ghetto tech," but also helped create the style - is finally out of college and ready for a full-time job.

Before earning his Business degree at the University of Michigan, Disco D (real name: Dave Shayman) had already performed both domestic and international shows, and was well known as one of Michigan's hottest DJs. The Detroit native has released several 12" albums, but his latest mix CD, A Night at the Booty Bar Vol. 1 (now available on Tommy Boy), is his first release on a label that actually has money. If you've never heard ghetto tech before, let Disco D explain it for you in this interview. Or, do the easy thing and buy his new CD. It's worth it.

This is only the beginning for D; an extensive North American tour (including a stop at San Francisco's Compression in the Cellar on June 8) will soon commence, and his music is even set to appear in an upcoming McDonald's commercial. But first, he has to pay his dues. Yes, that's right - he has to put up with our annoying questions.

Perfect Pitch Online: How are you?
Disco D: Nervous. This is a big step, man - this is the first time that this style of music's really been on a label with the stature and credibility of someone like Tommy Boy. It's going to be real interesting to see where this goes and what happens. So I'm both nervous and excited.

PP: Very good. Are you in Detroit right now?
DD: I'm in New York. I live in New York now; I figured the way to take this music to the next level is to get the fuck out of Detroit. My management in New York thankfully wanted to stick with me while I finished school, and didn't want to push doing something on a bigger label until I graduated. So the second school was over with, they started shopping me around, and Tommy Boy seemed like the best fit for the music, so there you go.

PP: Two years ago, ghetto tech was being hailed as "the next big thing." But is "ghetto tech" still the cool term to use these days?
DD: I'll tell you how the name "ghetto tech" came about, and not a lot of people know this. The way the music evolved is, people were playing a lot of Miami bass when I started, and DJs like Gary Chandler would also throw in a lot of old Detroit electro, like Juan Atkins, Model 500, Cybertron, things like that, along with old sped-up Chicago records like Adonis and No Way Back, and mix them together. Then this whole booty house sound from Chicago came out, and Gary would incorporate that as well. Then Miami bass got stale, and this whole techno bass sound came up, and around the same time, people like DJ Assault, Godfather and myself started making records that combined all those elements together. We drew from techno bass, booty house and Miami bass. So people were calling it "Detroit bass," "techno bass," "ghetto house" - people didn't know what to call it. In 1998, Mixer ran the first national article about the style, it was written by Hobey Echlin. And Hobey asked me, "What the hell do you call this? There's like five names for it and no one knows what it's really called." I was thinking of all the influences, and me with my silly business mind, I was like, "Ghetto tech, I don't know. Whatever. That sounds cool." So we just made it up and the name stuck. Some people like it, some don't. I know Assault hates that name. Whatever you want to call it, it's fine with me.

PP: Super-electro-techno-ghetto-booty-house is my personal preference. Anyways - when musicians attempt to combine music with their business-savvy, they often times end up compromising their art because they're constantly second-guessing what will sell. Have you found the business end to be a distraction in your creativity?
DD: No, I don't think so. If you listen to what I've been doing – if I really wanted to do what I thought would sell, I'd just say screw this and focus exclusively for producing for other people. There definitely has to be a balance between the artistry and business side, and it's not like I'm trying to run everything myself. I do have good management and good representation, but at the same time I went through a couple of very screwed up music business experiences when I was young, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. And I figure, look, if I really want to make a go of this, it's important for me to be as knowledgeable as possible. While my relationship with my manager is more of a partnership than a typical artist-manager relationship - I have a lot more say in the direction and goals and even business dealings than a lot of artists do - it's more about me being smart and seeing the whole picture. A lot of being successful is being able to market yourself and hussle and do everything properly.

PP: What's the next project in the world of Disco D?
DD: My next project's an artist album, it's going to be pretty producer driven. We actually haven't fully flushed out the creative concept of where I want to go, but it's going to destroy the boundaries between urban and electronic music. That's really my goal: To take people's preconceived notions about what dance and urban music are, and throw them out the window.

PP: What was the one moment that you knew you wanted to be a DJ?
DD: I was 15, my parents had just split, and a friend of mine was into the Detroit rave scene. He took me to a huge rave; the main room had Carl Craig and lots of other DJs. Pretty big line-up in retrospect. I had never been exposed to dance music or DJ culture. Then he took me around the corner to the booty room, and at the time people were playing a lot of Miami bass. I saw Gary Chandler and DJ Godfather - Gary Chandler being probably one of the biggest radio DJs in Detroit. Gary was my biggest influence, but seeing them on four turntables - I fell in love with the art and act of DJing before I knew anything about dance music. And that partially influenced my style, in terms of drawing from different places and not giving a fuck, and just going crazy because no one told me you're supposed to play these types of records with those types of records. I just grabbed whatever sounded cool to me and made them work together, because no one told me any differently.

PP: What's one of your most memorable performances?
DD: I played for this really eccentric director, Tony Kaye (who wrote and directed American History X), at the Cannes Film Festival in France. They flew me out for a week and we hung out at this villa they rented. He was working on some movie, which I don't think he ever finished. He has this whole band of assistants. He just tells them random things he wants to do, and it's their job to make it happen, whatever the cost. He wanted to promote this movie he was working on, and flew in two of the actresses. He asked for a float with a sound system on the back, and the two girls in full garb with wireless microphones, and me spinning in the back. He wanted to drive up and down the Croisette, which is the main drag where the festival is. They had to set this thing up in two days. One of his assistants was like, "D, I don't know what's going to happen. You need a permit just to bring a car on the Croisette during the festival. If you get arrested, we'll bail you out of jail. Don't worry." I'm just like, shit, what's going on here? [laughs] So we set this whole thing up around the corner from the start of the main drag, scouted the area out, and there were 15-20 cops on the corner. But we all loaded up on a flatbed anyways, started driving, went around the first corner, the cops looked at us, we all waved, and that was it. And we drove up and down the parade for four hours.

PP: Have you ever gotten laid while listening to your own music?
DD: [laughs hysterically throughout the entire anecdote] Yeah, actually, it's funny. I first put "You Need Another Drink" on a 12" on my own label GTI [Ghetto Tech Institute]. I had a model visiting from Toronto, and we had the radio on in my room. They have mix shows on urban radio in Detroit, and I'd just serviced promos of this record. So we're doing our thing and the radio's on, and we're getting into it, then my song comes on and I lost my shit a little bit. The first time you hear your song on the radio, it's a really interesting feeling, I don't know how to describe it. So I kind of lost my concentration. I'm like, "That's my new single!" She said, "What!? No, don't stop!" I hadn't thought about that in a while. Thank you for bringing up good memories!

PP: That's what I'm here for. You finished up, right?
DD: Of course. C'mon, you know she already came six times by that point.

PP: Good man. A related question: In the words of Princess Superstar, have you ever fucked anyone on the dance floor?
DD: No, but one time I scratched with a six-foot inflatable dick. And another time, a female promoter in Ohio offered me an extra $500 to whip it out and scratch with it on stage. And I'm like, "Hell yeah," and then she told me she was kidding. [laughs] I totally would've done it, no problem.

Purchase Disco D's latest album, A Night at the Booty Bar Vol. 1, through Amazon.com.