People like me, DJs and producers, have a bigger say and a bigger voice than we've ever had before.
— Diplo
Classic rock, psychedelic rock - I like to dig up old music and see what I can get influenced by.
My first production job after M.I.A. was actually the xx, but they didn't like what I did, and at the end of the day, we used their demos.
Snapchat's the place where people are hearing and learning about culture.
When I first started producing, all I had was this little crappy sampler called a S20, which had, like, a minute sample time. I was making crappy beats since I was, like, 17 or 18, using Florida rappers, where I'm from. Then I started DJ'ing because I just wanted to have a new job. I was a schoolteacher for a while, and it was the worst job.
I was in Fort Lauderdale from about age 7 to 14. And that's where I learned the most about music. My favorite DJ was this guy named DJ Laz and the Miami bass guys. I was super into, like, Arthur Baker, that kind of stuff.
When we think about big records, a lot of producers are thinking of how to make it as standard as possible. I think those days are gone. I think you have to surprise the audience in 2015.
Gucci is a rapper that doesn't try and be anything he's not - he's straight up. Yeah, maybe it's ironic and all, but I'm just a fan and have been one since day one. Gucci Mane is the cool uncle I never had, even though I'm sure I'm probably older than him.
Man, I don't read books! I just read a bunch of 'Walking Dead' comics. I don't even read comics, but zombies are something I just can't get enough of.
Sometimes I make more money in a weekend than my grandpa made in a year.
I appreciate people who are authentic. Someone who just wants to be cool, I can tell when their intentions aren't right.
You can never judge any music by their audience. That's the main reason people in England have a prejudice against someone like Skrillex. You judge people by their music. That's always been first and foremost.
Klaus from the Teddybears, Bloodshy and Avant and Mike Snow, they've done lots of Britney Spears production. They went backwards from production to being in a band, which might be cool. I might do that, too, one day.
Man, the only thing that's important is what is due tomorrow. I don't care what it is as long as it's good.
I've realised that if I aim for a successful record, I probably won't have any success. But if I keep making weird things, then hopefully the audiences will come to us.
When it comes down to helping kids, a lot of ways for education to move forward is through music because that's exciting to kids. Reading books and going to a bookstore is not that exciting.
If anybody is excited about my music, that's all I care about. I care about people who are excited about new music.
I'm not a superstar, per se... but I'm a musical creator - a producer in the same vein as what Quincy Jones was, or Pharrell and Timbaland were.
I used to be a record collector. Mark Ronson, Questlove and I used to be part of, like, a record-trading crew.
We first started to rent old VFW halls in Philly or whatever; we rented kegs and did parties and played our own music. We had to find a way to do it because nobody else was helping us, and I think now it's important to keep those dialogues happening, those parties happening.
The traditional media never gave Bernie Sanders the time of day. But he went viral the same way hip-hop and new dances go viral. And I'm part of that culture.
In Philly, there are a lot of social programs. If you have a degree, you can go and apply. I was basically a social worker, but I became sort of a sub teacher in a special program, helping kids with reading or math. But we would also do plays, learn about music... We were doing lots of fun stuff, but that was such hard work.
PC Music is a really post-modern attempt at pop.
90 percent of the records I make are spontaneous.
Man, I don't got any real fans. Just fair-weather ones and groupies.
Every time I want to impress someone about samples and hip-hop, I play 'Portrait of Tracy.' It's one of the greatest bass players ever doing a whole composition with only the two harmonics of electric bass; then a three-second loop in it became every great R&B song in five-year intervals.
Selling MP3s or physical copies, it's still cool, but I think it's slowly becoming outdated to where people just want to build a culture.
When I worked with M.I.A., who was, like, the coolest person back then, she was just a girl I met on the Internet. Or even when I met Azealia Banks on Myspace, I never thought, 'Oh, she's cool.' I just loved what she was doing. So I've always been like that. And I think, as a producer, that's what you've gotta do.
I think you can't really beat Bob Marley, especially the stuff he was doing with Lee Perry. Just that kind of clubby and dark and crazy stuff, even with the Wailers... Some of the songwriting was phenomenal.
It's funny - some producers ask me, 'Man, how do you work on a Bieber record? That would kill my career.' I can work on any record there is as long as they are good records and you're pushing things forward.
I think Usher is a bonafide superstar because he's very honest in his songs, and people can relate to that, especially in the feelings and textures of his voice. He is one of the best.
Dancehall has always had a homophobic problem, but you go to dance parties in Jamaica, and some of the biggest dancers are kinda gay, just not outspoken about it. Dancehall was the first kind of music I was DJing, and it was always more about the rhythm.
I'm trying to always do new things because if you stay behind and fight the future, you are just going to be left behind.
A lot of DJs don't realize they're here today and gone tomorrow. They're literally taking jets to every show. It's crazy how much money they're spending.
You can never figure out what the future sounds like. As soon as you make it, it's the past.
I love Marvin Gaye. I like jazz and all that stuff.
Even in America, we're not a huge act by any means, Major Lazer.
If I make a song, and it's my song, like 'Lean On,' we're going to make money off the synchs, the Spotify, and we get to headline festivals on it. That's the model I want to explore.
I put out this record on Ninja Tune called 'Florida' when I was about 22. And at the same time, I was DJ'ing and beginning to mix stuff up and promote shows in Philadelphia and New York and my own parties and make mixtapes, put out bootleg white labels.
K-pop is a weird term because K-pop has everything - rap records - it's very pop-sounding; there are really boy-band-sounding records.
I've been in jail a couple times. I've been caught shoplifting.
Good bands won't get famous anymore unless they get really lucky.
All of the best songs happen on a whim.
I never got tied down to any social scene. I was just into creating stuff. And I think, even today, that's how I'm able to work and move between so many different genres - I want to be part of what's happening, I want to make new things.
To me, rap music is bigger than who's the coolest rapper, the biggest rapper. It's everything about your personality.
I just love to collaborate with people who take my ideas real serious, and they don't put up walls around them.
I never became a producer to go to parties or wear nice clothes or put sales figures on my Wiki page.
You always have to evolve - the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you're going to lose.
All I know is don't ever get into a feud with Taylor Swift. She has, like, 50 million people that will die for her. You can't step into that arena.
I see the value in every kind of music, even country.
