Mashup maestro Z-Trip brings his skills back to Vegas, where he’ll be front and center at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday night. We caught up with the turntablist to chat about what promises to be a multifaceted set.
You normally play nightclubs in Vegas, but Brooklyn Bowl is more of a concert experience. What is the change in venue like for you? It’s great. It’s the pendulum swinging to the other side of what I do. There’s another side of how I play and how I can play, and you don’t really get to explore that much in nightclubs or at festivals. With a performance show I get to actually go a little bit deeper into the performance side and elaborate on my craft a bit more, which is fun.
Are you able to focus more on the music and maybe DJ tricks in a concert venue? I feel like when the production value of these stages and clubs take on the level that they do, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by it. It’s a spectacle in and of itself. Whereas a live show, sonically that’s the thing I’m most concerned about, that’s the thing I’m trying to really zero in on. In fact, it’s a little bit even more intentionally not overblown with production; it’s like the acoustic set or the unplugged set. It’s the “Let’s get down to what this thing is all about,” which is the music, crowd and the vibe of the room.
Do you feel like you’re getting back to your roots? For me, as a DJ, it started on a stage in front of people in a bar. Getting back to where it started for me was going back to the roots—you just have a great sound system, you have a crowd and you have your skills to weave and sew this music together and introduce people to old stuff and new stuff and crazy juxtapositions. It’s really more for the eclectic music person.
Z-Trip at Brooklyn Bowl at the Linq Promenade, May 5.
