DJ VICE GETS THE PARTY GOING

This summer, revelers at hot nightclubs across the country — especially in the party capital of the world, Las Vegas — will groove to the beats of DJ Vice. The Saturday-night resident DJ at “it” club, Tao, at the Venetian, and star of Vice Sundays at the Palazzo’s Lavo, Vice has become synonymous with high-end, A-list nightlife. A young DJ Vice, then known as Eric Aguirre, became fascinated with the art of deejaying while watching DJs spin at weddings and house parties. Honing his skills on the turntables with his older siblings’ records, the Eagle Rock-raised L.A. native soon landed house party and school dance gigs. His big break came while still a teenager when he worked at L.A. tastemaker radio station, Power 106.

According to Vice, who has been spinning for the past 19 years, he’s flown nearly twoand- a-half million miles and played over 600 clubs during his career. Raised on his brothers’ and sisters’ music collections, he grew up listening to the likes of Cat Stevens, Pat Benatar, the Doobie Brothers, Air Supply, Journey, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Exposé, The Cure, and Morrissey, before discovering hip-hop.

A self-described “wedding DJ on steroids,” due to his eclectic taste in music mixing, Vice jokes that he was a mash-up DJ- in-the-making at age 12. Having recently remixed Enrique Iglesias’ “Dirty Dancer” track, DJ Vice is now preparing to release some music of his own.

Venice: You recently played Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas in front of 10,000 people. What was that like?

DJ Vice: It was my first massive festival performance. It was a different experience than a nightclub where people sometimes go to people-watch. This time, the crowd was there to DJ-watch. It was definitely a high.

Tell us about the difference between a live show and a club gig.

A festival is completely different. It’s playing whatever you’re feeling; it’s not playing all the hits — the Kanye West record,
the new Beyoncé, the new Lady Gaga. It was a whole different experience for me that I’ve always wanted to get to, but it was the progression I had to go through, of nightclubs and building my name, and now it’s going to a global scale with festivals.

Do you think they invited you because of your Vegas connection?

It was definitely the Vegas connection and it’s also my L.A. connection. EDC is a festival that originated in Los Angeles. Pasquale [Rotella], the event organizer, has always seen me deejaying in L.A. and the progression of it going to Vegas, it only made sense. They not only gave me a slot; they gave me a prime-time slot on a big stage. It was definitely a big step for me as a DJ to have that stage to perform on.

What are the duties of a club DJ?

You’re definitely a crowd pleaser. The nightclubs that I play, whether I’m playing a Hollywood club or in Vegas, it’s definitely about keeping the energy up. I’m blessed to be able to get on at the peak time. I don’t really have to warm up the crowd. I get on right at midnight when it’s ready to go. My job is to take it from wherever it’s at, hopefully it’s at a 10 already, and I take it above that. My job is to definitely keep all these people dancing and happy, but also to maintain my integrity as a DJ and add my own flavor to these pop hits. Playing a Kid Cudi record, or a Ke$ha record, how do I make it cool and how do I surround it with something they don’t know? That’s what differentiates you from another DJ. Any DJ can go in there and play all the hits and keep the crowd going, but what DJ can play all the hits and play them in a cool, different fashion? And also play the “oh wows,” I call them — they’re the records that you haven’t heard in forever.

You started working at Power 106 as a teenager. Did you always know what you wanted to do?

I knew I wanted to be a DJ but I had no idea what a DJ entailed. I just saw wedding DJs, so it was just me creating it in my mind and figuring it out as I went along.

Did you ever envision yourself as a radio DJ?

No, I envisioned myself as having more records and just having fun with it and playing in my room. Then I did one little
house party and that was cool. It was just a natural progression. I did a wedding and that was cool; then when I had my first taste of radio and getting the confidence within myself to do what they were doing, then I knew I could do this. When I was doing radio I never thought I wanted to be a big club DJ. Then I honed my craft as a radio DJ, and one thing you learn on radio is that you can’t mess up. There are no retakes; it’s live, so you have to have clean mixes. And that molded me to be a skillful DJ, to keep the beat consistent.

How did you go from radio to clubs?

DJ AM introduced me to the Hollywood nightclubs and it was the first time I got to play what I wanted. At radio, you have to play the hits and keep the format the same. Then I went to Garden of Eden in Hollywood with DJ AM and he could play Madonna and Jay-Z and Biggie and Guns N’ Roses. That was dope. Those were the songs I grew up with. I could mix them too. And he said, “Jump on with me,” and we just played back and forth. Then I wanted to be a club DJ, which led me to where I am now.

What do you listen to when you’re driving around town?

A lot of people laugh at this, but I listen to a lot of talk radio. Because I’m out at clubs four to five nights a week and I’m in the studio the other days, I try to let my ears relax. I listen to a lot of podcasts. 

You have a son; what does he listen to?

He’s about to be 13. He is a complete sports fan and he barely listens to any music. His iPod is empty. [laughs] It’s funny because at the age he’s at is the age I started deejaying and I always tell him, “Whenever you want to DJ, yo, I’ll teach you.” And at this point he doesn’t want to learn, but I know when he goes to his first school dance he’s going to want to learn to DJ because the girls will be checking out the DJ.

Is he as big a sneaker-head as you are?

He’s not as bad as I am. He only has a few. I think he’s amazed at all mine and he’s waiting to hit my shoe size, which is coming up close. And I’m close to 200 pairs, which in a shoe-head category, it’s not out of control, but to the average person if they walk into your closet and see 200 pairs…

Do you recycle them?

I hold on to so many of them because I feel I have a memory for each one. Eventually, I’ll try to clean out.

And now you own a chain of sneakers shops, CRSVR.

That’s my other passion, collecting sneakers, which started when I got my first pair of Jordans in the fifth or sixth grade. I’ve always been into shoes but I never had a big collection because I couldn’t afford it. I always spent all my money on vinyl. And close to three years ago I opened up a little boutique sneaker shop in Santa Barbara. And we had the opportunity to open in Vegas with Cosmopolitan and that was a big step because it put us in the big leagues. Now we’re branding our store on a worldwide level.

How much vinyl do you have?

I have probably 30 milk crates full of vinyl. I’ll never let go of those. It’s cool to have vinyl.

You think of L.A. as the entertainment capital, but when people talk about party cities, they always mention Las Vegas, Miami, and New York. You even hear more people talk about San Diego clubs than L.A. Where does L.A. rank?

I always say this, because I’m born and raised in L.A.: I think L.A. is not a party destination. It’s a people destination where you want to see cool trends and celebrities and the coolest-looking nightclubs and bars. And L.A. has that. We have that forward fashion, forward thinking, and even forward taste in food and music, but it’s not a party destination where everyone is going to rage all night and go crazy. Vegas is the world epicenter of partying. It’s above Ibiza, it’s above London. The world looks to Vegas for where the party is. Vegas doesn’t have a nightlife scene; it has a whole day scene where you wake up and the party begins at your hotel with a pool party, then you go to the party at night, and then you go back to the pool party. It’s a nonstop party. Vegas is untouchable. New York has more lounges and a cool, low-key scene. San Diego is out of control. Scottsdale, Arizona, is raging and they have a big scene. Miami is my Vegas because I like going there and I’m out of my comfort zone and I can let loose. Miami is basically the sexiness of all those cities thrown into one place. Miami is definitely a sexy city with a sexy vibe and they party until five in the morning and they have a pool party the next day.

Tell us about your current club residencies.

I’ve been at Tao since it opened, so I’ve been there for over five years, Saturday night. And what’s crazy about Tao on Saturday night is that I’ve never walked in and felt, “It is slow tonight.” That has never happened, which is crazy for a nightclub in  Vegas. And every weekend there’s a celebrity. On one night alone we had Usher, Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri, Nelly, and 50 Cent. And that’s just one night. And you’ll have another night where Kim Kardashian, or Leonardo DiCaprio will pop in with his baseball cap all low. It’s “Tao the zoo.” That’s what I call it, because there are so many people in that place. It’s packed and that’s what you go for on a Saturday night. And Lavo on Sunday, I play for a smaller industry and local crowd. It’s called Vice Sundays and it’s my night to make everyone that is from out of town miss their flight. It’s more intimate and I can see the whole crowd. I can feel what records are really working. And I do a once-a-month residency at Marquee, which is the brand-new club at Cosmopolitan. That party, which is crazy because it’s on Monday, feels like a Saturday. Did someone flip the switch on the days of the week? Everyone at that party goes crazy.

Who are some of the celebrities you’ve had in your DJ booth?

I’ve had everyone in the DJ booth from extreme sports star Travis Pastrana to “McLovin” (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) from Superbad. I always try and make everyone who comes into the DJ booth do what I do. I’ll throw the headphones on them. There’s Jamie “Muthafuckin’” Foxx, that’s what he goes by. I’ve been with him so many times at Tao that we almost have a show now. I always know what the next record is that he wants. He’ll sing along and say, “Vice, cut the music,” and he’ll start whistling a song and I know that’s the song he wants to hear and I’ll drop it in. It’s cool. The average person that’s standing at Tao or Lavo or Marquee could be from Arkansas or Ireland and they’re watching Jamie Foxx on the mic and they’re losing their mind. The saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? It doesn’t. That saying should go away because what happens in Vegas ends up on YouTube or Facebook. Another thing you have to know as the DJ: if a singer or rapper comes in, you have to keep in mind what to not play. Britney Spears was in recently, and she was in low-pro, and I knew not to play a bunch of girlie pop records because you want to keep her in there and maybe she, or Beyoncé, don’t want to hear a bunch of pop songs.

What’s next for DJ Vice?

I’ve been taking time off from gigs and haven’t played as much and been putting my time into the studio. I just put out a remix for Enrique Iglesias’ “Dirty Dancer” with Usher and Lil Wayne. And I just did a remix for an artist named Dev — she’s the girl that’s on the “[Like a] G6” song — called “In the Dark.” And I’ll be releasing my own original production called Brainstorming. 

How excited are you about releasing your own music?

It’s awesome! And it’s a struggle because I’m such an open-format DJ, where I love all types of music so I have to know if I  want to  make dance music or make a hip-hop track or have a reggae-vibe track or keep it funky. It just depends on the mood I’m in. I feel like I’ve conquered the nightclubs across the country. I’ve played all the major ones in the U.S. and now it’s time for me to take it outside of the U.S.

Are you looking to sign to a record label?

There’s no need for a record label. We’re starting our own here at our production house because we can put out all of our own music digitally. And if I want to release a limited edition, like a piece of vinyl, I know how to do that. I’m already touring, so the artists that I’m working on a track with, I can bring them on tour. Do I need a record label for that? No, I don’t. It’s cool because I’m in a unique situation as a DJ, knowing all these key spots. An artist would die to have a chance to sing at Tao on a Saturday night. And I have that opportunity to give that to a new artist.

Tell us a cool Vegas story.

With no names involved, this was the coolest night: I’ve seen a lot of people spend crazy money. I’ve seen one-hundred thousand, two-hundred thousand, and three-hundred thousand-dollar tabs, easily. But the coolest night I saw, this guy
was dropping money and he wanted to get the crowd involved, so he bought 100 Corona bottles for the dance floor. It looked like a rap video. Now there were Corona bottles in the air. Then he bought 100 shots of Patrón for everyone on the floor. And then the same person came back on Sunday at Lavo and he bought a bottle of Cristal for every table inside. It was my birthday weekend and he wanted me to tell everybody that it was from me to them for my birthday. That was unreal. Those are the things that only happen in Vegas. ▼

For more information on DJ Vice, visit www.djvice.com.