It Takes Two: The Get Down get it right on Wednesdays.
nThe bubbling noises coming from Kyle Erickson’s living room huka are so frequent, they sound like part of the music thumping out of his speakers. Erickson, aka Flash n’ Flare, reminisces with fellow DJ Lance Trimble, aka Roksteady. The duo recently started a Wednesday residency at W Lounge known as The Get Down. Their style is best described as indie electro-dance music, but their set also features a strong fusion of hip-hop, soul and other styles. Someday, they might leave as big of an impression as DJ Trip left on them after a live set at the Hotel. n
“Yeah, that was a total Wayne’s World moment, like, ‘We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!’” Trimble says, to which Erickson replies, “He really dwarfed us—we saw how far we have to go.”
n nCity Weekly: What do you think of Salt Lake DJ’s?
nFlash n’ Flare: We have some really good DJs and we have some that shouldn’t even have the letters D and J in front of their name.
nCW: Names, please?
nFNF: Ha, no. But I will say there are some really skilled DJs like Sam Eye Am, Chase-One and Knuckles. They’ve all got a lot of respect.
nCW: Is being technical really that important? It seems promoting has become the largest role of a good DJ.
nFNF: Yeah, I personally suck at promoting. But some guys are good at it, and they may just be pushing play, but they know how to fill a club and know what will keep the crowd moving.
nRoksteady: I find myself saying time and time again, “Hype kills.” I always hear all this hype about a show, or about a DJ, and I go, and I’m just unimpressed. So for us, along with the guys at the W lounge, we all agreed, let’s let the music speak for itself.
nCW: How is the Salt Lake City crowd from a DJ’s perspective?
nRoksteady: I think [Salt Lake City] can sometimes be difficult because people claim they want to hear the latest and greatest, but if they go out and don’t hear the tracks they know, they kind of get turned off. In Los Angeles, DJs can probably play stuff that people don’t know yet and still fill the club. So here in Salt Lake City, we’ve just got to find that perfect balance.
nCW: During the ’80s, DJs were more of a backdrop to the MCs. Why do you think we’re seeing more DJs as touring solo artists?
nFNF: There was a time when Daft Punk blew up and Fatboy Slim was all over the place. A lot of European DJs were all over MTV for a while, but it kind of went away from that and moved more towards rap. But now you’ve got people like Flosstradamus. People are going back to dance. I don’t know if they are dancing more because of the new DJs or if DJs are just feeding off the demand for dancing. People are dancing to hard electro-shit, and that used to be really rare.
nCW: What would you say to someone who says a DJ is not an artist?
nRoksteady: Let me show you what it takes to make a mix and a remix. As soon as they realize that you’re manipulating something with your hands, you’re checking the tone of something, you might be doing a mash-up that’s something brand new that nobody’s heard before. It all takes creativity and if you’re doing something manually that takes creativity. That’s art.
nFNF: I think that scratching alone is almost like picking a guitar. You have to train your hand in a certain way. Nobody can just walk in and do that on a record, I mean, it takes years and years of practice.
nCW: What can people expect out of your Wednesday sets?
nRoksteady: People can expect good, new music, every week—music that hits all those different genres. Just come out and get ready to dance, because we’re just going to take that beat and carry it from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m.
n nTHE GET DOWN @ W Lounge, 358 S. West Temple, Wednesdays, 9 p.m.
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