Talented West Coast house DJ Justin Michael is back in Taiwan for another visit this week. After being signed last year by high-profile dance label Ultra Records — whose roster includes Kaskade, Deadmau5, Roger Sanchez, Tiesto and PVD — the 29-year-old Californian has delivered one dance-floor hit after another and become a sought-after international producer in both the underground and commercial scenes.
Vinyl Word: How many times have you been in Taipei?
Justin Michael: I’ve played at Luxy more than one time. I was here for a month during the Sabbatical [an event at Luxy]. And I’d played at 2nd Floor before that, also I’ve played at Primo last year and now I’m here playing for Room 18 and Barcode.
Photo Courtesy of Ultra Music
VW: What brought you back to Asia this time?
JM: I’m going on a little Asia tour. I just had a couple gigs in Bali and Singapore. I’m also here for some meetings. I’ve produced a couple tracks with Bruno Mars for Vanness Wu (吳建豪) and Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) so I’m gonna meet with them and hang out.
VW: What kind of music did you produce for them?
JM: As a music producer I like to be very diverse. My passion and what I love the most is of course dance music and house music. But I also do pop music, urban and hip-hop.
VW: When did you decide to treat deejaying as your career?
JM: I started going to underground parties when I was really young in LA. And then I started deejaying at raves and warehouse parties when I was 15. I just realized then this is what I wanna do ... it’s my passion, and I’m gonna do what I can to make it happen. And then I got my first residency at a club when I was 19, but in LA you have to be over 21 to go into a club, so the security guards had to escort me to the DJ booth until I got a fake ID.
VW: It seems like the music you’ve released on Ultra Records now is moreso progressive house? Why?
JM: I used to play progressive house about 10 years ago. And then I got into the deep house scene and I was producing deep house records and doing remixes for Miguel Migs and releasing on his label. But ... since I signed with Ultra, I’m kind of going towards a bigger sound, like more tech house, big-room house and progressive house. It’s just been growing like that so I’m kind of going back to my roots.
VW: Are you still producing deep house?
JM: Not so much anymore. I love it and it’s in me. I did that for about eight years and I’m not producing that as much lately.
VW: What about your label Hermosa Recordings?
JM: I had a lot of releases on that and it did quite well. But that’s a deep house thing and kind of like a chapter that I’m not closing, but just moving on to different things.
VW: Future plans?
JM: I definitely will be a music producer my whole life. Hopefully follow in Kaskade’s footsteps [laughs] and keep going with it, tour the world and be able to share my music with my fans and dance music lovers.
Ultra Music presents Justin Michael tonight from 10:30pm to 4:30am at Room 18, located at B1, 88 Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松仁路88號B1); and tomorrow from 9pm to 4am at Barcode’s Kaohsiung location, at 130, Siwei 3rd Rd, Lingya Dist, Kaohsiung City (高雄市苓雅區四維三路130號). Admission is NT$700 for the Room 18 show and free for the Barcode (Kaohsiung) show.
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