Uptown Magazine - Z-Trip - April 2/09
It’s not every day a DJ is asked to perform at a presidential inauguration. Although Phoenix, Ariz., native Zach Sciacca (aka Z-Trip) wasn’t able to play the event because of touring commitments, the invitation shows how much impact his Obama-themed mix had during the recent U.S. election. Downloaded over 100,000 times, Z-Trip’s genre-blending mix of hip hop, rock, punk and funk was his way of supporting Obama and helping fight back against eight years of Republican rule.
“I was tired of the Republicans being in power,” explains Sciacca over the phone during a soundcheck in Eureka, Calif. “They fucked up the country so incredibly bad that it was important, in my mind, to get new blood in there, even if (Obama) is inheriting the worst fucking situation ever. I felt it was important to get a new voice in there and I thought he was the right person for the job.”
While Sciacca is obviously pleased that Obama was able to knock off John McCain to become the first African-American President, he knows Obama is entering the game at the bottom of the ninth with the bases already loaded.
“He obviously had a huge campaign that got everyone’s emotions involved, mine as well, but he’s up against one of the worst situations ever. A lot of people have their fingers crossed. It’s a fucked up situation” contends Sciacca. “At the end of the day, no matter what, he’s fucked. There’s so much stacked against him. He has the world on his shoulders, trying to fucking figure it out. The whole world is watching. I feel bad for him. It’s such a historic situation and we just had a little kid in fucking charge. It’s a bad situation. Here it’s his time to shine. You put in your star player and you give him the worst fucking situation. He’s got his hands full.”
A forerunner to the whole mashup movement, Z-Trip has been breaking down barriers and pushing his rule-bending style way before anyone heard of The Grey Album or Girl Talk. Never afraid to take chances or throw some curve balls, his 1999 album, Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1, raised the bar for DJ mixes and helped kick-start a whole new approach to music.
“I think there are way more people who play it safe than try to push the craft of DJing forward these days. I think that is a shame,” Sciacca says. “I think you owe it to yourself as a DJ to push the boundaries as much as you can, when you can. Take some chances. If you’re in fucking Vegas, play some underground hip hop or drum ‘n’ bass, fuck their heads up. If they don’t like it, you can always go back to playing Lil Jon or whatever the fuck they want. To go all the way to some place and not take a chance, what the fuck? That’s the way I have always looked at it. I’ve built a reputation where people come to expect the unexpected.”
Although the musical landscape has changed since Z-Trip first fell in love with hip hop, collecting records and DJing, that doesn’t mean he’s going to take the easy road and follow the trends of the day.
“Anybody can play a hit, anybody. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know how to play a hit song,” Sciacca says. “If your playlist is just filled with hits, there is no adventure in that for me. There’s nothing that separates you from the next guy. There are plenty of DJs out there right now that have made a name for themselves playing the safest shit out there. I am not knocking them, but that just isn’t my shit. You got to be doing something different, I don’t care what the fuck it is. There are so many DJs out there nowadays. Why the fuck would you want to waste people’s time with the same shit if you don’t have to?”
*Extended version - Original article appeared in Uptown Magazine*
DJ Z-TRIP - April 3/09 @ Republic
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Make sure to check out Z-Trip’s account in URB of a gig in Kuwait.
