“Five of Dance Music's Finest Come Together To Bring the DJ Out From Behind the Laptop”   – DJS ARE ALIVE

Djing has become a lost art. Gone are the days of the all-powerful “selector” manipulating two pieces of wax, tweaking the pitch of one record to magically match the other, mysteriously and fearlessly creating a new and seemingly-impossible soundscape. A truly great DJ has the power to move thousands of people on the dance floor in a way that can best be described as tribal; a shared experience through music.

What is becoming more prevalent, and what waits on the horizon, is very different from the classic image of a DJ behind two turntables. Even CD DJing could soon go the way of vinyl, leaving the dance floor in the hands of laptop DJs or even a DJ controlling the night from two iPods.

“There’s no myth in 2 turntables anymore,” says Jesse Houk, aka The Scumfrog. “Everyone’s a DJ nowadays and it’s not that special for a crowd to watch anymore.”

The Scumfrog is issuing a warning to DJs that are attracted to the burgeoning DJ technology. That warning comes in the form of DJs Are Alive, a collective of DJs/Producers and Performers who are placing the live performer back at the forefront of DJing. He has brought together Texan D:Fuse, Detroit Techno-mainstay Static Revenger, MTV super-jock DJ Skribble and international recording artist Kristine W in an effort to strengthen and preserve Dance music’s commercial and financial success by giving it a recognizable and marketable face.

“We’re reaching a time where technology doesn’t automatically work for us anymore, it can also work against us,” Houk states. As a DJ, he clearly feels a responsibility to engage the audience, and expects his peers to take that responsibility as seriously as he does.

“If you get too caught up in the laptop culture, there’s way too much of a gap between the DJ and the audience,” he cautions. “The audience doesn’t see what you’re doing– they’re just looking at a guy behind a screen.”

But let’s not get too serious just yet. First, a little background on how the concept for DJs Are Alive was born:

Technical difficulties caused by weather had stalled the Texas appearance of the Wet Grooves tour last summer. While passing the time over drinks, The Scumfrog and D:Fuse were impressed by DJ Skribble’s tireless efforts to re-arrange the stage set-up and make the best out of a difficult situation. Inspired by their mutual respect for each other’s skills, the three performers decided to combine their shortened sets into one longer set where all three switched off between the turntables, drums and effects modules.

The experience was a challenge and a breath of fresh air: Here was the perfect balance of DJ know-how and live musicianship, a rare combination that is particularly important for a project such as this. Berklee College of Music graduate Static Revenger and chart-topping Diva Kristine W were brought in to round out the line-up.

While DJ Skribble skyrocketed to global fame with regular appearances on MTV and hit remixes with Anthony Acid, he has always kept one foot firmly rooted in the underground. His dedication to the craft of Dance music is evidenced by his personal, almost hesitant, views on the expansive digital technology that is dominating the market and changing the way in which Dance music is produced and created.

“I’m not against technologies, if you use them as tools,” he explains. “But if you depend on them for your craft, that’s a problem. You’re taking the craft out of the craft of DJing.”

DJs Are Alive is not a revolt against technology, since even a rock star needs technology and equipment perform. It is about people working with technology as DJs and producers, and (most importantly) working with each other as a live band. Working together and listening to one another becomes even more important when live instruments are part of the equation.

“We have to totally depend on one another to keep in sync,” Skribble explains. “There’s no beat machine, there’s no synchronizers. When we’re DJing, we have to play those turntables as instruments and make sure we’re not going faster than Kristine on Sax, or D:Fuse on Percussion or Static Revenger on Keyboards. When I’m mixing underneath them, I’ve got to keep a straight time. When you’re DJing, it’s a synchronized beat and it’s never going to float. We as a band have to be in total sync with one another.”

“Technology is cool as long as it’s in moderation,” Kristine W offers. “Whenever we get too far out on one thing, that’s when we’ll become destructive.”

Looking at the damage that MP3 and illegal filesharing technology caused to the music industry as a whole, one doesn’t have to think too hard about the possible consequences of Digital technology on DJing. As computers become more and more prevalent in the DJ booth, who’s to say the DJ will be needed at all? In fact, why would you need to leave your home to go to a nightclub at all, when a computer could create a perfect DJ set in the comfort of your own home? DJs Are Alive are taking a stand by insisting that Dance music cannot exist without a living, breathing human being; someone that the audience can connect with on an emotional level.

By taking the basic premise of a live band and framing it with the sound of Dance music, DJs Are Alive is able exist in two worlds at once and they are able to take the best elements of both. It was a conscious decision, for example, to use pre-programmed drum loops instead of a live drummer.

“With dance music, the beats are so important. You want to have a huge variety with the drums sound,” Houk explains. “We wanted to stay true to the real sound and the real feel of a DJ set, so every track has a different snare, kick and high hat.”

DJs Are Alive is also an opportunity for the Producer to be featured onstage, front and center, since the music being played is actually being “produced” live on stage. Houk explains that maintaining this high level of sound engineering reminds the audience that this is indeed the same dance music they hear in clubs and enjoy at home.

“Kristine will be playing the Sax and Skribble immediately starts to put effects all over it. That’s a difference from a live band where a technician makes sure the levels are OK but won’t put filters or effects on anything.”

As a concept, DJs Are Alive presents an interesting juxtaposition between modern technology and the original organic sounds of 1970s Disco, the roots of modern Dance music. Kristine W (who has just recorded a new version of Diana Ross’ Disco classic “The Boss”) looks back fondly at the music of the 1970s, pointing to the musicality and orchestration that was standard on records during Dance music’s infancy. “I wish that music today was that musical,” she says. “When you listen back to those records and you hear the string parts and the horn sections, you want to gag it’s so fabulous! I feel obligated to bring that musicality to the music.” Just as each member of the group has achieved underground acceptance as well as mainstream success, DJs Are Alive is poised to reach an audience that is much larger than each performer’s individual fan bases. “I think mainstream people will see something that they don’t know about the DJs,” Skribble says of exposing a large audience to this unique blend of Dance music. “The

In concert, DJs Are Alive combines material from each member’s respective career, as well as updated versions of other well-known Dance music songs. “We’re taking these songs and putting a different slant on them. We put on a show where everyone can be involved,” Kristine W says.

“It’s about celebrating dance music and putting a face to it,” she continues. “Our audiences are completely different, so we’re bringing a lot of different Dance music fans together under one roof. “

It is not only the audience that is exposed to new styles of Dance music; DJs Are Alive gives the artists themselves a chance to step outside of their usual genres and explore music they might not otherwise seek out. In a world where music is so often broken down into sub-genres within sub-genres, this is a lesson that encourages those lines to be blurred and broken down by inviting fans of Progressive House to explore the more Tribal side of Dance music and vice versa. After all, Kristine W explains, this unity can only serve to strengthen Dance music as a whole.

“Some of the music we do is music that I wasn’t familiar with,” she admits. “One of the songs I learned was “Living the Dream”, which was written by D:Fuse. I had never heard it before but now I’m humming it and singing it to myself all the time. I’m being educated on music that is new to me. Through this sharing and embracing of music I’m learning about other kinds of Dance music that I’m not familiar with. We all put songs into the pile that we liked, so it’s a true collective. I think we [the Dance music industry] need to be more of a community and stick together.”

The Scumfrog knows that, even with the potential of reaching a large audience, there is a great need to maintain a balance with the project in order to ensure that potential. “You want it to be musical, but not too musical. It’s a balance between musician’s culture and DJ culture that you don’t want to distort too much. You want to step it up a notch, but you don’t want to alienate the dance music fans.”

Thanks to Kristine, Scumfrog and Skribble for speaking with me. Thanks also to Jeff and Len @ Project Publicity for arranging the interview.

For photos, music, news and live dates, check out DJs Are Alive @ MySpace!