Diplo
I was in Fort Lauderdale from about age 7 to 14. And that's where I learned the most about music. My favorite DJ was this guy named DJ Laz and the Miami bass guys. I was super into, like, Arthur Baker, that kind of stuff.Collection: Age
I have heard, 'Never go to bed angry,' and that makes sense. Unless you're always checking yourself, a grudge or something small can break apart a relationship, and you start to forget what is so amazing about your partner.Collection: Amazing
Classic rock, psychedelic rock - I like to dig up old music and see what I can get influenced by.
I wish I played guitar so I could start a band with great musicians.
You always have to evolve - the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you're going to lose.
All I know is don't ever get into a feud with Taylor Swift. She has, like, 50 million people that will die for her. You can't step into that arena.
When I first started producing, all I had was this little crappy sampler called a S20, which had, like, a minute sample time. I was making crappy beats since I was, like, 17 or 18, using Florida rappers, where I'm from. Then I started DJ'ing because I just wanted to have a new job. I was a schoolteacher for a while, and it was the worst job.
People don't know exactly what I do; they just know I'm 'cool.'
I do a lot of collaborations and productions, whether it's Switch or Steve Aoki or No ID or Will Smith or No Doubt - I always like to collaborate and be a quality control person for the people 'cause I have my own taste in music and bring that to other peoples' brands and help them learn a little bit.
A lot of producers get famous because they decide to be superstars for their own reasons, but I'm inspired by Timbaland and Pharrell and Swizz Beatz 'cause they're doing things that are so different. I like how they're introducing ideas I never would have thought of.
When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.
How mad would it actually be to do an 'Avatar' type animation film, but about something mundane like a Winn-Dixie cashier's day at work? That'd be something else, I think.
New York is so serious about the creation of work. Everything is happening so fast, it feels like there's another studio, another session on every block, and I love that.
As a youngster, I lived in Philly for 12 years, and I would go up to New York to do shows and make money - it was the dream to maybe be able to survive there and live there.
New York feels like the whole city is into dance music. That's not how it felt when I was younger. There was more of a hipster scene.
Every day is work for me, but it's also a party. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
Attention. That's all girls want.
The best gift you can give to a girl is your devotion, not some Louboutins. But buy those if you're busy, for sure.
Dance music is so interchangeable. There's not a lot of face to it. It's a bunch of Dutch DJs with the same haircut.
I was playing hip-hop when everybody else was playing the giant rave music.
I was a schoolteacher for a while, and it was the worst job.
I was making crappy beats since I was, like, 17 or 18, using Florida rappers, where I'm from. Then I started DJ'ing because I just wanted to have a new job.
I grew up in Florida in different cities. I was born in Mississippi. My parents moved a lot, so I moved to Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, all through the South. But my family's roots were from central Florida, like Daytona Beach area, so we ended up moving there.
If kids can have some sort of social responsibility, that's cool. But if they're not actually having social responsibility, and they're kind of hiding behind it, that's kind of useless, or even worse.
You just have to do; you can't live by the rules of what you're supposed to do. I think every person is good at something, and you just have to push that forward.
The kids that are making the ghetto stuff I can't even reach are the ones that are inspiring me to play music for the other kids in the city they don't even know about. If I don't get those kids making music, there won't be an original kid DJing like me in five to 10 years.
I was never good at scratching, but I was good at collecting old records. Florida was a great place for that, because it's where people go to die.
As a DJ, it's my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that's coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I've always gravitated to something that's just different, you know?
There are opportunities that I have because I'm a white dude, and it's controversial because that's just the way that the world we live in kind of is.
That's what I care about is the people I work with and representing them and helping to make their music apparent for the rest of the world.
I think one of the reasons I've been successful is that I can see things before other people do. I've always been able to do it.
Money, for me, is just to create bigger and better things. A lot of guys in the deejaying world flaunt it, but I don't see any use in that. I don't need anything. I live in hotels. Most of my clothes I get for free. I like to invest in ideas. In people.
I used the name Diplo at one show when I was really young, and it just stuck. I never meant to keep it. But it's kinda cool.
It's cool to play the guitar, but to me it's even cooler to scratch a guitar backward and forward, to manipulate it with a turntable. Guitars can't do that themselves.
Bieber's so talented, he needs to just be himself and be by himself and work on his craft. He has a lot of people around; he has to find the right team to help him make something that's going to stand alone.
I've probably got the most eclectic social media there is because it literally goes from hanging out with my son at a park, to, like, Madonna's house, to a rave in Africa.
A lot of DJs don't realize they're here today and gone tomorrow. They're literally taking jets to every show. It's crazy how much money they're spending.
If anybody is excited about my music, that's all I care about. I care about people who are excited about new music.
I see the value in every kind of music, even country.
I'm trying to always do new things because if you stay behind and fight the future, you are just going to be left behind.
When it comes down to helping kids, a lot of ways for education to move forward is through music because that's exciting to kids. Reading books and going to a bookstore is not that exciting.
Dancehall has always had a homophobic problem, but you go to dance parties in Jamaica, and some of the biggest dancers are kinda gay, just not outspoken about it. Dancehall was the first kind of music I was DJing, and it was always more about the rhythm.
I've realised that if I aim for a successful record, I probably won't have any success. But if I keep making weird things, then hopefully the audiences will come to us.
I think Usher is a bonafide superstar because he's very honest in his songs, and people can relate to that, especially in the feelings and textures of his voice. He is one of the best.
Man, the only thing that's important is what is due tomorrow. I don't care what it is as long as it's good.
I never became a producer to go to parties or wear nice clothes or put sales figures on my Wiki page.
It's funny - some producers ask me, 'Man, how do you work on a Bieber record? That would kill my career.' I can work on any record there is as long as they are good records and you're pushing things forward.
Klaus from the Teddybears, Bloodshy and Avant and Mike Snow, they've done lots of Britney Spears production. They went backwards from production to being in a band, which might be cool. I might do that, too, one day.
I just love to collaborate with people who take my ideas real serious, and they don't put up walls around them.
I think you can't really beat Bob Marley, especially the stuff he was doing with Lee Perry. Just that kind of clubby and dark and crazy stuff, even with the Wailers... Some of the songwriting was phenomenal.