WMC 2008

Posted by Mason, Winter Music Conference

Tuesday Afternoon -

Arrived to decent weather, not sure what has happened over the years down here but I remember when it use to be swamp hot when you got off the plane and it was like, yes I’ve arrived. Now it’s about the same or colder than Los Angeles! That Global Warming theory is in full effect in my opinion when it comes to WMC. Anyway got to my hotel and of course my room is nowhere near ready, so I head over to Jerry’s to grab some lunch. Sit at the bar as I know if I get a table I may be dead by the time they come to take my order. Head back to the hotel and the room is ready so I check in and it is up on the 10th floor where it is already a full party. All the rooms around me have boom boxes and are going for it. Normally I can handle noise without an issue and I don’t plan on getting a lot of sleep but this room has the window nailed shut. Unacceptable so I head back downstairs and get the nicest girl at the front desk who is actually willing to help me as she heads to talk with the manager about getting me another room. After she walks away I look around for the “candid camera” crew that may jump out at any moment because this shit never happens. After waiting for another hour she delivers and gets me a nice room with a balcony and ocean view on the 4th floor where it is also pretty quiet. Perfect, quick nap before all hell breaks loose.

Tuesday Night �"

Wake up to a text message from my man Luis that says, “at my gig and the booth here is whack”. I hit him back and ask, “what?” The reply is “old denon CD players and no monitor.” After a volley of texts back and forth about how pissed he is I get up and get ready and head over to see him as he is playing a Barbara Tucker party with live singing. A very cool event where a lot of people sing to TV tracks, my favorite is definitely Monique Bingham. I hang and drink a few beers until Luis is done DJing and then Terry Hunter shows up as he is next on the decks and I get a laugh as he now sees the set up and flips out. Luis and I head out and start to hit up some parties, you gotta love Miami where you can just walk from event to event and see friends on the street before you get to the event. We run into Hector Romero, Julius Papp, and Jay-J. It’s like going from class to class in high school and stopping in the hallway to socialize for a bit. We head over to Shellborne for Shelter and see our old friend Dennis Wheeler, it wouldn’t be Miami without a visit to see Dennis. After that we make our way over to the Defected party which is a cluster fuck to get into so we head on down to the Large party. Close it out and head back for some sleep.

Wednesday �"

Here we go as I wake about 4 hours later and my boy Hatem who is staying with me arrives from Los Angeles. We get settled and head down and get Luis up and head to the Delano for breakfast and then it’s over to set up for the King Street Anniversary party. The King St. party is on top of the Sony rooftop and when we get there the drama is thick, for some reason Sony is being really picky on all sorts of things. It’s like this, yea we agree to allow you to throw a party but you can’t have anyone come and have fun and keep you volume low. Wait isn’t this WMC? Did the person in charge just get transferred down from Kansas or something? So without hesitation the leader of the King St, our man Joe B moves the event down the street where it goes off! A great vibe of course and great music with Frankie Knuckles laying down a great set. I have to head out to head over to the Shellborne for the “Canada loves Miami” party to interview S.O.S. Get to the Shellborne and run into a grip of heads from Behrouz to his wife Megan to Betty Kang of Plexi and Scotty of Stereo. Have a great interview with SOS and then head back to the hotel to change and get ready for the night. We head over to Karu Y for the Got Soul party with Jojo Flores as both Luis and Lars are playing. What an amazing time we have there running into a lot of people and seeing some great sets… first time I get a chance to see Jellybean Benitez rip it up on the patio. Jojo of course comes on last and does us right, a great party we are all smiles as we head out and over to the Pawnshop to see Danny. We arrive at the Pawnshop at about 4AM and head on in to catch up and see Danny Tenaglia, what a crazy time I have no idea what Danny was playing but it was unreal. We ended up staying here until so late I don’t care to mention when we left but we had a blast.

Thursday

Day one of opening up our Red Bull on the Move suite at the Remix Hotel �" Beatport Stage. Before we head over to make this a go we jot over to the Delano and get an interview in with deadmau5. What a nice guy and what a great story someone who a year early was unknown and didn’t have many connections and now is the hottest ticket in town playing Ultra and Beatport! Great success story and all the power to him for his hard work. After that we hang out for a bit and then sit down with Carl Cod and his protégé Jon Rundell for another interview. Then we head back to Remix Hotel and start doing interviews in the suite with Johnny Fiasco and Fred Everything as well as catch up with a ton of artists. Everything is going on so fast it was hard to remember all that happened but I was able to break free to run downstairs to see one of the masters on the decks, Francois K. Sick. After a long day at Remix we head back to the hotel to get ready and then it’s over to Dek 23 for the Shifted Party (Jay-J and Friends). Luis and I are both playing the back patio and had a terrific time playing together, after all these years we finally tag team a proper house set thanks to Jay-J. The rest of the party was mental, proper house all night. The Random Soul guys were the biggest surprise for me, Yogi & Husky are on top of it watch for their stuff, Yogi’s voice singing live is on point. Jay-J killed it of course and ending with Jamie Lewis how can you go wrong? Also connected with a full house community from my hometown of L.A. which was great.

Friday

After a few hours of sleep it is up for what is to be my last day, yea cut my WMC early this year for many reasons, mainly so I wouldn’t kill myself with too much fun! So this is it the big finale and it proved to be just that as the Red Bull suite at Remix was hopping, names like Dennis Ferrer, Stacey Pullen and Chris from Hybrid and Dirtyhertz all popping in to say hello. Then my main man Saeed Younan came up with Mark Pappas for their interview which was a great one after that we made our way down to the Beatport stage to catch Tiefschwarz. I headed back to the suite to check on some things and run into Roland Clark who was having issues getting a few heads in… I ask who? He says Kevin Kevin and Todd Terry. Can’t leave those heads outside so I help get them in and invite them up where I was able to sit with all three of them and do interviews. They were not planned just happened and couldn’t have been happier to get some knowledge from such influential giants in the house community. A long day of interviews and work and it was time to shut down the suite. Ended the evening partying to the music at the Beatport stage with Saeed and friends and family, then headed home to change and end up the entire trip with my L.A. peeps for Marques Wyatt’s DEEP in Miami… what a feel good night to an amazing conference… wait did we ever take a break and eat?