Your fellow Black Eyed Peas frequently visit Las Vegas for hosting and DJing opportunities. Is this your first time headlining a nightclub event?

Yeah. Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of things overseas. My career actually took off overseas before I became a resident DJ, domestic. It seems to happen like that. For example, the Black Eyed Peas, we took off with our single “Where Is the Love?” in 2003 around the world, before domestic. So I feel like that’s what happened with me. I got a lot of offers to do Europe and Asia, and I got blessed with the opportunities to be at home, well, not at home, because I’m from LA, but in the United States, to do Rain, which is great.

Many people are familiar with the Black Eyed Peas but might not know your own stuff. Describe your musical style.

It’s open format. I like to call it the ‘Taboo Experience’ … DJing is one part of it. There’s also a performance element where I’m incorporating my own material, some of the songs that I’ve done on my own. … I felt like I needed to incorporate something other than just DJing. I have local b-boys or dancers come onstage with me, and we do a couple different dance sections as a visual. We also have really good visuals behind us, as far as the LED screens. We incorporate video content … You’re getting the all-around experience.

It sounds like a pretty awesome spectacle.

I went to a lot of DJ shows before I actually started DJing, and I wanted to see what an individual could bring to the DJ game because DJs have become the new rock stars. For me, it was like “Okay, how do I differentiate myself from other DJs?” and that’s why I was like “You know what? The biggest assets I have as a performing are my dancing capabilities, my capabilities of connecting with the crowd, being able to go into the crowd, stage dive,” you know, just an element that is a little more rock and roll than just going up there and playing some songs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but for me as an individual, I felt like I was contained. I felt like I was a contained animal, and I’m a wild animal, so I like to go out and really make the crowd be a part of the show.

I’ve never seen Will.i.am or Apl.de.ap live. Is that something they do as well?

No, they have their own style. They’re really good DJs when it comes to just playing the music and keeping the music going. That’s something I learned from them, how to read the crowd and how to keep the music going, how to mix. But I’ve always been the wild animal out of the Black Eyed Peas, whether it was going into the audience and making people feel me, physically, by getting people up and making them a part of the Black Eyes Peas experience. And that’s how I perform always, that’s always been my trademark: “How can I take this level of energy and take it to the next level?” … If the crowd is dead and that means me performing on top of the bar, then I’ll do that. I’m really inspired by Will and Apl, they’ve managed to make a good career out of it. They’ve been doing it three or four years now, and I’m just following in their lead. I just wanted to bring something a little bit more that represented me as an individual and my wildness onstage.

Did you guys come to a conclusion as a group to go off and do these solo projects?

We talked about what we wanted to do, as far as after the album ran its cycle. Usually what we’ll do is we’ll have a break after an album runs its cycle. The last break we had was 2007, when Fergie did The Dutchess and Will.i.am did Songs About Girls. We had a two-year break, which was good because we then came back as a group and we created The E.N.D., which was probably our most successful album to date. And that’s because we had time to rejuvenate and really follow individual projects that we wanted to do. I felt like this is a great time for all of us to just really tap into whatever we want to do.

How long will this break last?

I’m not sure, dude. It’s never really set, like, “Okay, it’s going to be from this time period to this time period.” Because we don’t like to do that. We like to give everybody their little run in their space to be able to do whatever they want to do. When that time comes, we’ll definitely start talking about it. Right now, we’re all enjoying chasing other things.

I read that you have an album in the works. Is that correct?

Actually, I’m working on content right now. I don’t know exactly when it’ll be out. I try to take my time with making a masterpiece, I don’t want to just put something out that’s just like “Oh, we expected that.” So I have been taking my time and I feel like you should be hearing something by summer.

How often do you make it out here to Vegas?

I would say maybe once every four months.

Do you ever get to experience the city or is your schedule generally pretty jam-packed?

I’m a simple guy when it comes to things that I like to do. I went to go check out Love, I went to go check out the Jabbawockeez show. … When you get a little down time, or when you get some time to just go and have a nice meal at a nice restaurant, those are the things that I value the most.

Are you excited to play Vegas?

Vegas is always the most exciting place on the planet. It’s a lively place, people come to party and have a good time. I just want to experience the people. We actually filmed the DVD in Las Vegas, it was called From Sydney to Vegas. Las Vegas has been one of the biggest fanbases for the Black Eyed Peas.

Electronic dance music has been infiltrating multiple genres lately, especially pop music. Do you think that’s where music is going?

If it’s done right and it’s done with good taste and not so watered down, I think it’s good for artists and producers like Afrojack and David Guetta and Avicii and Skrillex and Deadmau5, and people like that who are really getting to see the light of day when it comes to mainstream appreciation, when it comes to artists wanting to utilize their beats. Diplo is another one. So I commend that. I commend that reaching the masses and crossing into something that takes electronic music or dance music from the underground, and takes it to around the world.

What other projects are you working on?

I start touring on March 27, the Ultramagnetic DJ Experience. That’ll be hitting Dubai, it’ll be hitting Thailand and Europe. Right now that’s my biggest asset as a performer and as an individual, is that I get to not only DJ but also perform my own material and see what works and what doesn’t work.

I can literally do a song that day, which is what I’m going to do. I’m doing a song on Thursday at Studio at the Palms, and I’m going to premiere it at the club on Friday night. … I’m inspired in Vegas and I’m going to show the people in Vegas how inspired I am by creating this song specifically for that night. I think that that’s the beauty of being able to DJ and perform—I get to give every city or every country something different and something new.