Thee Mike B Interview

MikiWAR: Are you originally from LA?
Thee Mike B: I’m originally from here, but I lived in NY for a long time and I guess that’s where I got my DJ start. I was DJing while I was in LA though. The LA scene inspired me.

Dainjazone: You were a resident at one the best parties LA has ever had: Banana Split. You guys had some of the best producers around the world DJ this party. Can you talk about how great that party was?
Thee Mike B: It was a weekly that we did originally at LAX nightclub. It was AM and Aoki’s idea. AM said, “I own this nightclub, why don’t I do something cool here?” He had been talking for years about doing a party where he can play whatever he wants. At the time, he became friends with Aoki. So they started this night. I actually thought I was heading towards the end of my DJ career. I was moving into more of a day job and I was “over” doing Hollywood clubs. I volunteered to come in and play every week because it was a chance to play good music. Not the stuff that’s played in commercial clubs. That’s how Banana Split started. No one knew what was going to come out of it. It changed a lot of things; hip hop radio format, the lives of rappers (young and old), Aoki’s career sky-rocketed, and a lot of DJs who were initially unknowns came out to LA for the first time became pretty big names after playing there.

Dainjazone: Name a couple of your favorite nights at Banana Split? Name the guys that came in and just wrecked shop.
Thee Mike B: DJ Medi was a stand out to me. He definitely came through and played one of the better sets I’ve ever seen. Kid Capri playing in there was pretty amazing because it was so left-field. He played a hip-hop, NY club set. We had a two-year anniversary night that was pretty amazing. It was DJ Falcon, Busy P, AM, and myself. That entire night was recorded. Just look for the audio online.

Dainjazone: Now you’re doing Drais on Sunday nights. What’s the difference and similarities of Drais and Banana Split?
Thee Mikie B: The similarities are Rony’s Photo Booth and me. Haha. We were both at Banana Split and now Drais…and Dim Mak of course being behind it. It’s a totally different vibe. I think a lot of the same kids come out. There are definitely a lot of people who I have no idea where they are coming from. The party has been crazy and packed every week. We’ve had Diplo, Sammy Bananas, Ninjasonic, Mustard Pimp, Dances With White Girls, AC Slater, and Star Eyes. We haven’t been playing to a bottle service crowd. We’ve been keeping it real musically.That’s one of the similar things to Banana Split. Its been working out. The party has been fun and I think the Dim Mak guys are doing a good job with it. Shout out to Fashen and DJ Metric: the other residents.

MikiWAR: I think a lot of guys have respect for you because of your knowledge of music. What your approach on finding music? Do you produce stuff yourself?
Thee Mike B: I produce stuff myself. I recently started taking it seriously. I put out my first original track called “Born To Lose”. I played that earlier in my set. That’s coming out under Money Studies. I have another project with Nate Day. We are called Camo UFOs. It’s an inside joke that turned into a full time job. Our stuff is a little more on the drum and bass tip. We did a “Pon De Floor” remix for Diplo and he put it out. We had an official remix for one of Sinden’s tracks under Fools Gold. We’ve done remixes for Laidback Luke and Gina Turner’s project, Mike Posner, Glitch Mob, and South Rawkus. We have 12 or 13 remixes out and we also have an EP coming out next month on Top Billin’. We recently played at Audiotistic and we’ll be playing at Metropolis, and Avalon (Control).

My whole thing is I like to play different kinds of music and you never know what I’m going to play. I like to think I play it all pretty good, but to bring in a whole other genre that can’t be played in too many Hollywood nightclubs; to go to festivals and play drum and bass and play on these giant sound systems has been awesome.

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