Lazaro Casanova: From Local Rave to Global Stage

February 12, 2008 8:05 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

It’s not everyday that young talent comes around. There’s always the want to be a star, but the talent is scarce. You always get kids wanting to be rock stars, singers and even artists, but what about DJ’s? This may be more of a case for Miami, with its rich club culture and exposure to the many names that grace the thousands of flyers spread throughout the city. Most of these kids looking to be the next Tiësto usually get their break, if lucky, after they’ve paid all their dues, meaning later on in life. But this isn’t the case for a select few. Enter Lazaro Casanova, Miami native and DJ boy wonder. Getting a pair of decks at a young age and playing for the hell of it and for the love of music, Lazaro started paying his dues and making the rounds at clubs starting with a residency at the now defunct Revolver party. After creating a buzz around himself with the help of his Shot Callin’ blog and his gigs around Magic City, he began to get the attention of some big names in the music biz, most notably MSTRKRFT. Now, after establishing his name in Latin America, sharing an agent with Tiësto and Richie Hawtin and earning the gold mask charm from the MSTRKRFT guys á la Kanye in Through the Wire, he continues to work on his music to branch out and conquer the rest of the world. CoolJunkie recently sat down with Laz before his first show at Mansion where his name graced the marquee last Saturday night, and later caught up with him in his new pad in Uptown Miami.

CJ: So how did you get started?

Laz: I first started when I was 15. I was DJing, as bad as this sounds, all ages raves with Dream Team and shit like that. I went under a different moniker.

CJ: What was it?

Laz: DJ Trips. I remember at the time the DJ’s that were doing this type of party were guys like DJ Seasons and even Danny Daze.

CJ: What kind of sound was it?

Laz: It was house, but a lot darker.

CJ: What Miami kids used to call rave music.

Laz: Yea. Because I know that a lot of people at the time were playing stuff like tribal house and trancy stuff, and I was just like on another trip and playing a bit harder and darker.

CJ: So you were 15 at the time, meaning that it was 2001?

Laz: Right, this was my first year of high school. It was a weird mix of music around that time.

CJ: Did you play Higher State of Consciousness at that time?

Laz: It was basically really random shit that I would come up on.

CJ: What were some of the influences that you had around that time? Or were you just a kid who wanted to be a DJ?

Laz: Yea, at the time I really didn’t have any influences. My friend got a pair turntables and I decided to get some for my birthday. Early on when I first started listening to dance music I think Oakenfold was still reigning, but then Tiësto took over. Those were the kind of big names that I heard about because I wasn’t into the underground scene yet.

CJ: One of the characteristics that make you unique is your musical consciousness. What musical influences did you have as far as groups or acts?

Laz: Number one for me would be Bob Dylan. He was amazing. For his time he was doing his own thing and didn’t care what anyone had to say. He kept his artistic integrity for the most part. I have a really weird musical background. The second single of a song I was talking about earlier I was actually sampling ‘Napoleon’ by Joe Arroyo. I was sampling the horns for a massive break down. So I have a couple friends that said, “Hey your Cuban, maybe you should be sampling a little more Afro-Cuban percussions in your productions,” because a lot of people are doing Spanish house, but it doesn’t have a rough edge and it’s very simple and it doesn’t really sound like electro house with Spanish percussion. But for the most part, the 90’s were mostly hip-hop and rap for me.

CJ: What acts?

Laz: Warren G’s Regulate…G Funk Era was probably one of the first CD’s I ever bought. The first tape I had was Doggystyle. Regulate was a big record. But then I got into a little classic rock after that. But the dance really started up for me with Daft Punk, which really opened up the eyes for a lot of people toward the genre. It was something that was easily accessible no matter what musical background you were from.

CJ: Can you talk a little bit about the transition from when you fifteen to when you started doing the Revolver party?

Laz: I took a couple of years off after that but then one day this girl forced me to go out to Revolver when I just turned 18, and at that time I was against going out anywhere. So she took me out and I met Josh (Menendez), and he’s the kind of guy who sees someone new on the scene and would like to make them guest DJ so people can see who was new on the scene. So I played the upstairs of the Soho Lounge and no one really knew that I had DJ skills, but it went well. About a week later he offered me a residency downstairs with Greg at the Mar Bar. At the time all I had to play was indie rock and 80’s stuff, but there was a period where the whole rock remix thing was coming up and you had acts like Cut Copy and Digitalism remixing and when that started happening I started to get really excited because I thought, cool I can start heading back in the dance direction. I just remember that once the dance music stuff was creeping into indie rock I started getting all my records from Pure Grooves and Piccadilly Records over seas. So as soon as they moved into Pawn Shop that’s when I really tried to push the dance music there in the main room. But Josh wasn’t having it at all and he would freak out whenever I would lay down a track that was somewhat dance.

CJ: Yet your profile managed to just snowball.

Laz: What would happen is that the night that we’d have some guest DJ’s in, like if the DFA guys were gonna be in town or if Winter Music Conference was happening or if I knew any guest DJ that would like that sort of music, I would just go against anything they had to say and be like ok I want to play this, I want to network with people, I want them to hear what I actually want to do.

CJ: And that sound was representative of your creative identity?

Laz: Yes. And I think that one of the first guys that actually picked up on that was this promoter based in New York called Alex English. He does Hero Ballroom and a couple other parties up there with GBH. I think that he was one of the first people to fly me up there and appreciate what I was doing down here, and I was at the District here at the time.

CJ: So let’s take a bit of a turn and focus on Miami a bit. What other Miami artists or DJ’s do you believe are doing it right?

Laz: From the very beginning I think that the person that was holding it down for Miami and still is, is Robby Rivera with his Juicy Music stuff. I play Robby tracks now. He has a remix of Nightcrawlers and it’s amazing, I mean it kills dance floors. I had to edit it because it’s like 10 minutes. But besides that I haven’t really heard of anyone as of late as far as Miami music goes because I haven’t been around. Most of the stuff I hear when I go out is Top 40 mash-up shit.

CJ: What were some of the contacts that you were making when Winter Music Conference was going on?

Laz: People that were coming down at the time weren’t necessarily contacts in the DJ world, but they were contacts in the music world. Contacts like Tim Burgess from the Charlatans, Mikey Ramone, the guys from Interpol, the guys from The Stills. It was basically a lot of the rock and roll guys that I was befriending at the time. When I was able to meet James Murphy for the first time during Winter Music Conference in 05’, and it was one of the highlights for me to meet someone that was doing it right. You know DFA records are probably most responsible for getting all these kids to get into dance music. Aside from that, the most valuable networking I did was with the MSTRKRFT guys.

CJ: Before we jump into the effect that MSTRKRFT has had on you, Shot-Callin was a big thing for you. That got a lot of people to start paying attention to you and show your ability to find good records.

Laz: That I started more than a year ago before I moved to New York.

CJ: I think it’s been more.

Laz: Actually yea, it’s going to be two years this month. When I moved to school in Brooklyn I had so much time that I just updated it constantly and at the time it was quantity over quality, but now it’s come to a time where I can give one to maybe two updates a month. I like to think that what I post is considered very different. So I’m posting dudes like Robby, Richard Dinsdale, House of Moguls, which are these two guys from Chicago that did one of the most phenomenal Daft Punk remixes I’ve ever heard. Because of that I’ve developed a good friendship with them and I’m really trying to push them wherever I go and everywhere I go I always have people asking me about that track. And now LA Riots, MSTRKRFT and a bunch others have started supporting guys like that. So I like to think that I’m finally reaching a point where I can influence people on music itself instead of just them just downloading the track themselves and actually influencing other DJ’s to play the tracks as well.

CJ: Shot-Callin has always had the constant for quality dance music. Your style is one that’s pretty high energy.

Laz: I’ve settled down a bit. It’s still more high-energy than what you’ll hear in the typical club in South Beach. But it’s not quite like the French guys, like Ed Banger, I’m not doing that noisy stuff. I liked that noisy stuff for like the ten minutes that it was appealing, but then it was just redundant. Because it’s hard to keep a steady rhythm on the dance floor with those kinds of sounds and it just starts fucking with people. But one thing I’ve really grown to appreciate and I’ve always heard this with Progressive House are these really long breakdowns and swells that just made me say “Wow there’s no music for this long, how can people still be dancing to this.” But if it’s carefully crafted it gets to the point where people just want more and more. It’s almost like pushing how long you can go with that build up before people will say, “Fuck this, it’s too long.”

CJ: Let’s talk about how you met Al and Jesse.

Laz: I met Adrian, who at the time he was their music marketing guy in the States, he gave MSTRKRFT their first couple of shows in the States, a couple of in-stores. And in Miami I got hooked up to play with them. At the time it was really when I was at the peak with playing records. I lugged three crates with me for like an hour and a half set and I was really focused on my mixing. I almost disregarded everyone around me and I was just going back and forth between records. I even impressed myself at that time. So then they heard it, and thought I was young and could DJ some good music. So a few weeks after that they had a tour going on in Canada and they just invited me for that bus tour.

CJ: After listening to you for one set?

Laz: Yea. And I think that the other person around that time that impressed them as well was Johnny Love, who’s now with Guns n’ Bombs. They heard him in Chicago and they thought he was on the same tip as well, which is basically what they call Electro House.

CJ: Did you feel that moment acted like a catalyst?

Laz: That moment was definitely a catalyst just because it took me from DJing here every week, maybe once or twice a week to touring a whole country on a major sponsored tour bus from end to end. It was my first tour and it felt like night and day, a complete difference and it happened very quickly. What sucks with that is that after that it felt like it was raveling off, but it has its ups and downs, but luckily it has been predominately going up for me. I could easily sit back and let the gigs come in and not produce music, but then there’ll be a time when the gigs will stop coming in. Just last month, January, I had most of it off and no one even knows when I’m in town anymore because I just go straight into the studio.

CJ: How did it transition from you being recognized by bigger people in the industry, to producing?

Laz: Basically, when I was in Brooklyn I was experimenting a lot with the Ableton, Reason Combo, and I just started making bootleg remixes of songs I liked and that I thought would be cool for particular party. Out of there came The Knife edit that I did, which was very simple. And then other remixes, and because of the wonders of myspace and the internet they got heard, and not necessarily because I thought they were great tracks, but it was showing that I was putting forth an effort. In time I’ve been upgrading and now I’m fully Pro Tools. So, definitely a lot of the money that I’ve been making off of DJing I’ve invested back into a decent home studio set-up. Al and Jesse, any track I have finished, they’ll run it through the console in a studio in Toronto.

CJ: Can you touch up on some of the artists that you’ve remixed? I know you did Chromeo.

Laz: The last one that’s getting pressed is Hearts of Revolution. This one is coming out on I Heart Comics. This girl that I met maybe a year and a half ago, she has this thing called Arts Challenger where she has this Ice Cream truck thing that goes traveling. It’s a very artsy thing where they sell candy from Japan. But at the time I thought she was really crazy, because she’s the kind of girl that believes naturally in spiritual and natural occurrence of things, like when you meet someone it’s meant to happen. And she said she really got a good vibe off of me and that she was going to make music and she wanted me to remix it and she thought that we could really do a lot together. And I thought, man this girl is really going off the wall on this topic here. Then she sends me the remix parts to this track and I thought this isn’t that bad. I sat on it for a while because I was working on other tracks. Then she sends me the complete package of it. She had a video uploaded on You-Tube, which was amazing, everything about it was really great. Then I thought, shit, these people really put their act together. So I finally did the remix and the 12’ inch, and the other guy that did it was Kavinsky from France.

CJ: What artists have you remixed, or have commissioned remixes for?

Laz: Chromeo, Hearts of Revolution.

CJ: What about The Knife?

Laz: No, I got asked to do a White Label release for them by someone out of Seattle. But what sucks is that as opposed to that system where I was just remixing everything on the internet, now I really have to hold on to things to see what’s going to them, because once you’re out there’s no going back.

CJ: What are some of your plans for the upcoming year?

Laz: For a while I’ve been wanting to release an EP with three or four songs. The way it’s turning out now it seems like each song is going to be released on 12’ remixes. But it’s something that will definitely benefit, as far as my discography goes this year, a couple of original songs for myself. I just got parts for this Spanish pop singer in Latin America who’s huge and with a major label, and I got the parts for it. And I’m thinking of doing some weird poppy shit with it, maybe even if I have to make an alter ego for it, because those types of things pay well.

CJ: So would you be reluctant to use the Lazaro Casanova name if you were to remix a cross over pop artist?

Laz: Maybe, maybe not. The Latin Market has been going really well for me because of my name. But I’d use my name as long as I’m able to keep some creative integrity on the remix. Because I know that there are dudes out there that can do one remix after the other. But it’s been going very well for me in the Latin market, and when my manager got the parts for the Spanish pop singer, he could have given it to any other artist but he said he thought I’d be good for this.

CJ: Because of your name?

Laz: Yea. Which makes me want to come up with an alter ego for every country in the world.

CJ: Are you concerned with the fact that if you have too many monikers that people won’t see the strength or value for you as an artist?

Laz: Well I know that Dahlback has a million monikers as well. If I ever go in the direction of playing more live music and gather a group of musicians I would really like to let them keep whatever name they wanted and just have me as a producer behind-the-scenes person. I wouldn’t be attaching my name onto it.

CJ: What style of music would that be?

Laz: I’ve definitely wanted to venture out into more of a rock and roll thing, but with the electronic aspects. Maybe something like Radiohead in the Kid A years.

CJ: Is the gold mask a clique? That jewelry designer in LA makes it.

Laz: Yea, Han Cholo.

CJ: So who has those? It’s just Jesse, Al and you? Are you the third member of MSTRKRFT?

Laz: I like to say that I’m more of a little brother to them, where they want to mold and show me things. Sort of create a monster if they can. That’s why they’ve let me sit in on their studio sessions and there are a lot of things that I wouldn’t have learned if it wasn’t for that. There were nine of them made.

CJ: So it’s a clique?

Laz: Yea. And the clique was made with the creation of the management company that’s called Undocumented Management; we’ve started off with just MSTRKRFT and me as the clients. Other acts jumped on board afterwards. It’s let us be together as a clique like with the tour we recently did. We were finally able to present ourselves as a clique and let people know what is going on in the States, as opposed to always hearing about the crews over seas like in France such as Ed Banger. We’re trying to form a clique here of talented musicians.

CJ: We know you haven’t been in town because of the traveling you’ve been doing, but what can you say about the Miami scene culturally.

Laz: To tell you the truth, I think that the last good party I went to here was the Richie Hawtin party. I’d been wanting to see Richie play for quite some time, and he was actually playing in Argentina when I was there for a festival for five days, but I didn’t get to see him. When I got back to Miami someone told me he was playing and I really wanted to check it out. After that I tried to go to a Tommy Sunshine thing that kind of flopped at Studio A.

CJ: Why do you think that Tommy Sunshine flopped?

Laz: I think that it’s a combination between the artist and the venue. Studio A was already reaching the end of its lifeline as far as what they could do.

CJ: Do you think that it was due to lack of promotion or did it do with the market in Miami and the people not seeing or getting it?

Laz: Yea, it’s definitely a combination. At the same time it didn’t help out that Steve Aoki was playing at Pawn Shop on the same night as Tommy Sunshine. I respect Tommy as an artist and I know that he’s been around for a long time and he’s capable of pulling heads in plenty of markets.

CJ: Is there anything else you can say about the cultural economy down here?

Laz: Well I think that it’s well on its way when you have Ultra Music Festival with guys like Erol Alkan and Carl Cox and Tiësto and all of them, you have a lot of other guys now stepping into the limelight. And I don’t think that it’s just specific to Miami, it’s picking up everywhere like that New Year’s Eve party we played in LA. Tiësto was the headliner but we shared billing with him and Robby and a bunch of guys that are not associated with our style of music. Miami worries me on a week-to-week basis just because I feel like a couple promoters try to venture and take a risk on this sort of music and a lot of them have completely backed out of it. Winter Music Conference seems like it’s been getting a little better every year, but what happens is that all these cats from out of town are here for a week and think that Miami’s great and they always say that they want to come back to Miami, but it’s a whole other year before we have some good stuff going on. I feel like there’s a huge house music dance scene out here, but I feel that no one, at least on my side of the river have been able to cross over. And I know for a fact that any one of us can go in there and show these quote unquote “Guidos” some shit that they can get down to.

CJ: You got that look and that hipster kind of vibe. You seem to be very individualistic. Can you talk about your inclination towards how you present yourself?

Laz: I’m not doing it for a specific reason; it’s just that I’m comfortable in my own skin. There are a lot of trends that I would never like to be a part of, like the whole colorful new rave shit that’s been going on all over. If I ever even make an effort at all, you’ll see me actually just dress up nicely and maybe wear a suit jacket and a tie or something. But my traveling attire has turned into me bringing a couple of t-shirts and jeans, one slip-on pair of shoes for the airport and one tie-on pair for the shows.

CJ: But do you consider yourself a product?

Laz: I think that parts of my identity have become a product. Like there’s no way in hell, no matter how many press photos I’ve taken, they’re still going to use that same long hair mustache picture that comes out on every flyer and it’s such a bad quality picture. And something that I’ve noticed in San Diego when I played there a couple of nights ago is that some kid made a gold-foiled shirt that was just my hair and my mustache. I was like, you know what, if I’m going to go on tour at the end of this month I’m going to make a t-shirt like that and sell merch with the rest of the guys. But even if decide never to grow my hair out like that or grow out a mustache again, it’s just always going to stick with me no matter what.

CJ: When was that picture taken?

Laz: It was in our dorm rooms in Brooklyn. A girl decided to take it just before I decided to shave my face and cut my hair. And I think it was just a reason why people use it because it’s an easy picture to Photoshop, it’s straight on, I’m holding Crown, which is what describes me in a way.

CJ: I’m going to shoot some words at you and you’re going to give me one or two sentences.

Laz: Ok.

CJ: Electro.

Laz: Electro, I think, it’s a trend right now. Whether or not it lasts, who knows? That’s why I’m trying to broaden my sound, in case shit goes down, like electro-clash and drum and bass, I’m not stuck going down with the sunken ship.

CJ: Indie.

Laz: Indie, uh…..is not even indie. It’s become the new corporate music genre. It’s nice to see though that artists are actually taking indie to a whole new level, when they’re releasing shit for themselves.

CJ: Hipster.

Laz: Hipster is the crowd that doesn’t want to pay for anything. They’re usually too cool to dance to anything. Right now they’re actually getting to the point where they can dance, but before it was taboo for them, and that’s why you have places like Mansion, because you don’t have any of those kids going in there buying alcohol, bottle service and all that. Hipster kids don’t have money, that’s what it comes down to.

CJ: Minimal.

Laz: If it’s done right, Minimal can actually sound cooler than with a track that has ten different layers on it. Like the Get Physical stuff has been amazing. Minimal is the stuff that you hear and you’re like, “Fuck, why did I over-think?”

CJ: Have you had your “holy shit!” moment yet?

Laz: A couple of times, and it’s usually in front of an audience, a large audience. One of them would be at this festival I played in Atlanta called the Eco-Green Project. It was mostly geared towards more mainstream acts like The Killers and GZA and some indie bands. There were really no dance acts other than MSTRKRFT and myself. We were the last people to go on after The Killers. MSTRKRFT went on and then I ended the night. By the time I went on the crowd was full of hippie kids that were fucked out of their minds with countless glow sticks, but in the middle of it I just looked up and thought, “Man, these guys aren’t leaving,” and there was half an hour left before the sound got cut out. It actually got cut out ten minutes before it was suppose to but they even gave us an encore and I was just trying to tell the guys to turn the sound back on as the crowd was screaming for about 20 minutes “One more time,” in unison. I was trying to rile them up even more to bust the balls of the sound guy and I had everyone going but they still didn’t turn the sound on. But it’s moments like that when you have every single persons attention that are great.

CJ: Hand in hand with that, what’s one of the best gigs you’ve had?

Laz: Definitely every time we play in LA at the Roxy. It’s a venue that definitely has a lot of history behind it. You’ve had Guns n Roses, you know Pauly had sex in that green room. It almost makes you feel like you should wear a condom before you go in there. The Roxy and Studio B in Brooklyn have just become places where you’re going to have crowds that have hipster kids, you’re going to have anyone out there. But bottom line is that everyone’s going to be going fucking insane. Like the Roxy has become a non-stop crowd surfing situation.

CJ: What’s one of the best cities right now as far as musical consciousness?

Laz: I would say this small city in Mexico that never ceases to impress me. There’s this border town of El Paso, TX called Juarez. The guys that do that night there are guys that constantly bring in good acts like Richie Hawtin and the Fabric guys. It’s mostly a lot of minimal acts that they bring in, but it gives guys like me the leeway to either impress them with more energy or even get creative with their sets.

CJ: Who would you love to collaborate with?

Laz: Honestly, any of the Swedish House Mafia guys. These days I feel like acoustically it’s hard to find a single bad thing that makes you say it could be produced better. That’s why when I found out that I was playing with Angello for the first time in a long time I actually got excited.

CJ: You’re going into this weekend for this gig and you’re playing a place that’s very different for you to play at, yet you’re playing with a guy that you admire so much. How do you feel about it?

Laz: I know that he plays a lot of tracks that most guys are more than willing to play. He also produces progressive stuff. I’m just curious to see where Angello is going to take it and I’m definitely glad to finally be able to break into a market in Miami that I’ve been trying to break into for some time.

CJ: How does it feel to be touring the world and be represented by the same agent that represents Tiësto and Richie Hawtin among many others? Things have managed to change at a rapid pace for you. How do you handle it?

Laz: You know, I complain a bit when I have to go through airport security but when I finally get to the city, it’s just one of those things that I fall in love with every city. I always want to be there longer. Once I’m out there and I have no responsibility besides catching a flight, it’s the kind of freedom that you don’t get when you’re here paying rent and working a nine to five job. It’s allowed me to really just put my mind at ease.