| Introducing, TREVOR MCFEDRIES a.k.a. DJ SKEET SKEET! |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Friday, 08 January 2010 11:31 |
 While TREVOR MCFEDRIES a.k.a. DJ SKEET SKEET was in New Zealand on tour with 3OH!3 - click HERE to read our 3OH!3 interview - Coup De Main caught up with him for a bit of a chat to discuss all things DJ-related, the role of record producers, surviving Warped Tour, and his cameo in Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl' music video... COUP DE MAIN: You're here in New Zealand with 3OH!3 as their touring DJ - how did you hook that up? DJ SKEET SKEET - TREVOR: 3OH!3 were a Warped Tour connection - I knew some friends that knew them and they were doing this dance-music thing, kinda before it was popular in the United States. People would always talk about them and when I met them I thought they were really cool guys and that was kind of that. After two and a half months on the road with them we became great friends, and people that I could count on for all kinds of shenanigans. CDM: What's your craziest 3OH!3 tour-story? TREVOR: One time on Warped Tour - we'd always have these after-Warped-Tour dance parties - Sean [Foreman] had been drinking a bit and had went off to the dance party and had stolen some girl's golden jersey, it was a super hip-hop sparkly jersey... He must have been dancing with her and having fun and took her clothes off and put them on himself and came back to the bus and was a little drunk and had this jersey on and was all sweaty... He took an acoustic guitar and we all started free-style rapping! It was a hilarious time, we were rapping about Warped Tour and like... it's like we'd hit a certain stride, you know, playing the same show every day, people get a little tired, a little crazy... but it was definitely a memorable moment with 3OH!3. CDM: Did the girl ever get her jersey back? TREVOR: I don't know honestly, I don't know what happened to Sean that night. He must have disappeared off the bus and back onto his, and passed out. CDM: Having seen 3OH!3 play live on Warped Tour with a backing-band and now touring as their DJ - what are your thoughts on the differences in the kinds of sets that they perform? TREVOR: That's a good question! When I first saw them it was them with a CDJ, a little DJ device playing a song... CDM: To a backing track? TREVOR: They would cue it, so basically DJ'ing for themselves, and I was so blown away with how good it was. It was one of the best shows I had seen all year, and it wasn't even a proper band show, it was just some guys dancing and having a great time on-stage. And I think it speaks volumes about how great performers they really are. They are able to rock crowds in whatever medium. I think having a band is cool, but it's almost a distraction for them, because they are such great performers - if you're looking at someone else and you miss out on a second you miss some of the fun of the show. So when I play for them, I try to push play and hide as much as possible - because I want them to be the rockstars, because they are so talented.  CDM: Where did your DJ Skeet Skeet nickname come from? TREVOR: My friend Adam, when we were growing up together - he was kind of this skinny, quirky dude, and people always called him Doug - we had this cartoon in the United States called 'Doug', you might be familiar with it? CDM: Yes! TREVOR: It was on Nickelodeon [while I was] growing up, and his best friend was this blue dude named Skeeter Valentine - so I was nicknamed Skeeter after him, because we were always hanging out and we were partners in crime, and people embraced it and it was kind of a casual thing, and Skeeter stuck. CDM: Nowadays, the 'art' of DJ-ing means iPod playlists to some people... personally, what's your definition of a DJ? TREVOR: I think the idea of DJ-ing has changed quite a bit, people can just be playing records... I mean, at the end of the day, if you're rocking a party and providing the tunes, you're a DJ. Whether you're on an iPod or on a tape-player, or on two turn-tables, whatever it is, as long as you're providing the party - you're a true DJ. CDM: When you've got your DJ hat on, what does your job entail? TREVOR: I think the biggest thing is recognising and being able to read a crowd. Knowing who your audience is, and losing your ego and just playing music. You want to make them have a good time, you know? Playing songs they enjoy, and making sure they have a good time. It's not your party, you're working. You're DJ'ing and making sure they are having a great time, [while] doing whatever you're doing. CDM: Do you professionally see it as playing songs that you want to play, or that the crowd want to hear? TREVOR: I think professionally, you have to walk a thin line between educating your crowd, and playing songs you're passionate about breaking. That's really the art-form of DJ'ing, but at the same time, not forcing a bunch of music on them that they will potentially dislike because it was forced upon them in an awkward way. If you're playing songs that you know they will like, and songs that go over and you sneak in one or two they don't know and you have a great response, then you really know you're doing it the right way. CDM: Do you go for a mix of old songs and new songs? Or do you lean more towards a preference? TREVOR: I definitely go for a mix of new and old. There's nothing like rediscovering an old song, especially like a 90's tune that you grab onto that has all this nostalgia attached to it - I think that's an exciting feeling. Definitely mix it up as much as possible!  CDM: Have mix-tapes been kind of forgotten now that people can so easily make playlists? Are you all about bringing that back? TREVOR: I enjoy putting together a collection of music and I think the Internet's a great tool for that. Sadly because music industry people have gone out of their way to stymie the growth of people sharing music, I think some of that love has been lost, but anything I do I put out for free, that's my business model. Music should be free, to me, it's an extension of someone's heart and if you're really passionate about it, people will find a way to reward you for it whether it's touring or merch, or whatever else. CDM: If you're doing it for the right reasons then good things will happen... TREVOR: Exactly, that's what I like to think. Maybe I'm a little too much of an optimist right now... CDM: Hey, you're in New Zealand! It can't be that bad... it's working out for you. TREVOR: <laughs> It's been alright. CDM: What was it like being named 'Paper' magazine's Nightlife DJ Of The Year? TREVOR: It was pretty insane, because also at the time I was just really starting to get a lot of respect in the nightlife community, and so to have a magazine that's a really big organisation based out of New York come out and say how I was a DJ of the year for a certain year, [that] was pretty wild. Also, it began with some of my heroes like James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem and A-Trak, some peers of mine who are really, really talented, and so to have that happen was pretty cool. I was pretty speechless. CDM: As a record producer, what do you consider your role to be when you're producing music? TREVOR: It always depends... I have my first artist now, an artist that I'm developing called GUMSHOE, bottom-to-top. I met her, she was working on a bit of music but was more of a personality, so I played her a bunch of music she might like and went over a bunch of music, and just helped guide her vision. If you're doing remixes or something like that which still falls into the producer window, you're really putting your vision on a song. At the end of the day it's about me as a producer having taste, and knowing what you like and how to, I guess, relay that message through a song. CDM: So it's a little bit about mentoring the artist as well? TREVOR: Yeah absolutely, for what I'm doing. Some producers just get in and turn a few knobs and press a few buttons and that's it, but what I'm doing with artists that I'm working with, [is] I like to really mentor them and talk about their sound, play artists with a similar sound and educate them - so when they're up there doing their thing they know why they are doing it and why they are rocking out for a certain reason. CDM: Do you also look after the actual recording of the music as well? TREVOR: I do! We have a studio in downtown L.A. where we do a bunch of record recording. It's kind of a make-shift studio, it's down by the American Apparel factory in L.A. actually. They've been supporting me for a while now so that's cool [and] taking care of the website. [The studio] down by the American Apparel factory is an old warehouse that was turned into a studio for rehearsal spaces, and we've sound-proofed it and turned it into a make-shift studio. CDM: Do you prefer DJ'ing or producing? TREVOR: There's a side of me that really loves DJ'ing because of all the perks like traveling - getting to be in New Zealand obviously - and getting to be the center of attention for an hour or whatever it is, but definitely there's a part of me that misses a bit of normalcy, that's why I like being in the studio, because you get in there at ten AM, work till six, and then go home. And that's, that! I think as I get older I will begin to appreciate some of that. I really enjoy producing, but DJ'ing is what has taken me to New Zealand and Australia, and Hawaii... tons of places... Europe. So I could never dislike it, it's done too much for me. CDM: And you've also spent some time as a graphic designer? TREVOR: Yeah, when I first got involved in music I was doing primarily design for clothing. I was doing a lot of apparel and graphics for t-shirts etc., they ran the gamut. From high-fashion to Hot Topic, doing whatever I could to get by. Music was always an inspiration of mine, but I was working on stuff for whatever else. I got asked to do some graphics for a line and then they heard I did music and asked if I could do music for the runway show and it kind of fell hand-in-hand. The long story short, I do a lot of graphic design, and music's a big part of that because it's a lot of the same ideas, whether it's composition or balance. CDM: Have you designed any band merchandise? TREVOR: A bit for myself, a few for friends. But a lot of it was pure fashion, and I think now that I'm signing artists and developing artists - I brought on my friend KATE MOROSS, I don't know if you know her, but she's done the La Roux logo and Simian [Mobile Disco] stuff. I've done a bit of merch stuff, but primarily it was high-fashion graphics, stuff like that.  CDM: I noticed that you've been blogging since 2006 on your personal website. Have you noticed a change in the blogosphere from when you first started, until now? TREVOR: I think that when I first started doing it... well, my peers were more about social networking sites and Live Journal, Myspace etc. and blogging was an after-thought for nerdy dudes, or nerdy people in general and news websites. It's kind of run the gamut now from where it went from Myspace dying off and Facebook taking over, and then blogs having a role as pretty standard with college kids - you have a medium to portray dumb videos and messages - and blogs grew to prominence. I think my blogs and other blogs are kind of falling off a bit now, with Twitter and easier access to data right away. CDM: Do you think Twitter will cause blogs to become less relevant? TREVOR: I think that for what I use my blog for, which was essentially relaying things I like to my peers and my fans, I think my blog will have less of a role. But something like 'The Huffington Post' where you've got a world opinion and you've got to use more than 140 characters, that will always have its place. CDM: I noticed that you've opened for COBRA STARSHIP before - how did that come about? TREVOR: They are good friends of mine. We were on Warped Tour together the year before last, and met and had a ton of fun. We always talked about getting involved, because I grew up in the pop-punk world and emo... I was a fan of Midtown and a fan of bands like that [from] playing in hardcore bands. I knew some of the guys in that world, but I knew DJ'ing didn't have a role in that community... they are punk kids... CDM: "I play an instrument! I'm a real man..." TREVOR: <laughs> Yeah, yeah, yeah! Which is all changed now, because half the songs you hear in pop-punk are all co-writes with pop producers going in and writing these songs for them. But, I wanted to try and see if I could have a role in that world, and the one band that opened that bridge with that, was Cobra Starship. It's very dance-oriented, kind of a cross-over between the dance-world and the pop-world to the punk-world. It was a really good stepping stone for me - it was really tough, a lot of those kids were really young and didn't know a lot of dance records and didn't care, so it was tough for me, but it was a great experience. CDM: And you also did Warped last year with SHWAYZE? TREVOR: It was great! Shwayze and Cisco are great friends of mine and have been for a long time and are really great dudes, they were around and would come out to nightclubs where I was DJ'ing at. Going on tour with them was great also, it was good to see it from the beginning - we were playing nobody shows, to a television show on MTV, and then Warped Tour. It was great and it was really a great experience for me. I got to hang out with my buds and go on tour, so you can't ask for a whole lot more. CDM: Are you still doing any work with them? TREVOR: Not really. I sent over a couple ideas for their record early on and their new record process, but they are kind of doing their own thing, taking a new direction. [They've] got a great new single out and are just doing their own thing. CDM: What are the top five things that people don't know about Warped Tour? TREVOR: They have one of the best catering companies in the world, they are called 'Ta Da Catering' and they are really great people... Warped Tour has a B.B.Q. band, that travels with Warped Tour. So they have these B.B.Q.'s every night and they have a band called the BBQ band, they only play the BBQ, and they cook the BBQ - I didn't know that! People know a lot about Warped Tour because kids are passionate... bands might know this, but all those cans of Monster Energy that people go out on stage with, it's canned water. They have a contract with Monster Energy, so I imagine they like to let the kids think that bands are up there drinking Monster Energy, throwing down Monster, but it's actually just canned water.... Showers don't really work on Warped Tour - I think that's pretty well-known, but I spent a lot of my time as a dirty kid on some 120 fahrenheit degree days on blacktop, and you're sharing a shower with thirty-five other bands... so the amount of dudes going in there is pretty gross. You don't even want to go in there! You probably feel dirtier after your shower. CDM: What have you discovered to be the greatest myth about touring? TREVOR: I guess, that it's all partying. I've been in New Zealand for a few days now and I haven't been out once. We've just been handling press and doing interviews, stuff like this, going to play the shows and going back to bed. CDM: I heard you got to see NOFX the other night though? TREVOR: Yeah, that was great! They're friends. I'm so flabbergasted that I'm in a position that I get to hang out with NOFX, they were one of the bands that got me into this world. I remember just like stumbling across one of their records in an old-fashioned record store and being like "this is sweet, I like this band..." and now I get to party with them in New Zealand! It's pretty crazy.  CDM: What's it been like working with SKY FERREIRA? TREVOR: Sky is awesome! I've known Sky for probably four years... it doesn't sound like a lot, but she was like thirteen when I met her. She's so young, but she's really talented, and since I met her she's been saying: "Let's work on something! Let's work together!" To her own accord she's been able to rally up a lot of hype because she really is super talented and she wasn't afraid to let the whole world know that she really wanted to do something. The Internet has been great to her. CDM: She's really great at connecting with people online... TREVOR: She's super great. I really respect her as a new model for an artist - someone that's super talented might have fallen through the cracks in the past because they weren't able to get that attention they wanted because they were fourteen. But she's been able to get to anyone through online mediums and show how confident she is and get a lot of success. I think it was great that I waited until she was seventeen and signed, to actually do something proper. We did a cover of that Stevie Nicks song called 'Stand Back' and it turned out really, really well. CDM: In New Zealand, there's currently a big debate about the future of investing in a creative economy. As a creative person in the creative industries, do you think it's a viable economic option? TREVOR: My personal opinion, is that because people have access to so much more information they are more able to accurately define what they are into and I think whatever you are doing creatively, you're going to have a market. It could be a super small market - where as when our parents were growing up they were punk, prep, goth, jock, whatever... Nowadays, you have people that are neo-punk-prep-goth-christian-jocks and they have their Live Journal community with their ten friends that are the same way and they have their one band that they believe in - and they could potentially support them. I think that a creative economy of people having their own ideas and doing their own thing is something I'd like to see come about. If there's a reality I'm all about it, but I still think that it's still a few years away. CDM: Could you see it happening in America? TREVOR: America is pretty lost in a lot of different respects, and I think the economy we have out there has taken a ton of hits, so people are looking for a lot of different options... it could be a reality, [but] my biggest goal for America immediately is to end the war and to get a public health care option, so people can be taken care of. Public health in the United States is a lost battle, that we could potentially win. CDM: What are your thoughts on President Obama's latest healthcare announcement? TREVOR: It's tough. It's a combination of a lot of things. Americans can be pretty hard-headed, and pretty un-educated in a lot of parts, sadly. He's up against a lot of competition, and whereas a lot of people that were supporting him early on were in it for the right reasons, they have lost interest now, just because it's an A.D.D. culture. He's got a lot of stuff stacked up against him. I wish him all the best, and I do my part to make sure people know how I feel, but I still say we are a few years away from legitimate change. CDM: I guess it's hard to put change into something that's been so long-standing, you can't just snap your fingers to change institutions... TREVOR: Exactly, and like I said, Americans can be quite hard-headed and stubborn about things - one thing they are very hard-headed about is government control. We're a country based upon people running away from government and people fighting government for freedom. So fighting government is in their blood, but I think our government now is making some of the right calls and people are still fighting them... so, I'm a bit worried... maybe I should move to New Zealand. CDM: Do it! Gabe from Cobra Starship already opened a bank account last time he was here, so I'm sure you can crash with him... TREVOR: Alright, perfect. That will work out alright! CDM: In the future, could you see yourself releasing a solo album? TREVOR: I've been asked a couple of times to put out a record and offered a couple of record deals, but I guess my idea of a record is so all over the place, I don't even know if it would make sense. And I'm really a big proponent of putting stuff out for free... so, there will probably become a time when it makes sense, but not in the immediate future, I don't think so. I'd much rather work with other artists that have one clear vision, that want to do one thing, because I love so much music that it would be a hardcore song, a dub-step song, a UK funky house song, and a cheesy pop song... people would be like: "I love this guy... but I hate all his other songs!" It wouldn't make sense as one whole album. CDM: Where do you get your style inspiration from? TREVOR: My Mom! My Mom is a really awesome, awesome lady, who's always been way cooler than I am. She's always been so cool, even when I didn't know. I grew up in a small town in the midwest, I didn't know what was cool, she always knew what was cool and was throwing me cool stuff. But right now, it's whatever I can find on tour. CDM: Acting seems to be the only thing you haven't experimented with, could you ever see yourself acting? TREVOR: Because I live in L.A. I'm presented with opportunities to do things like that pretty often, and I have shied away immediately, but it could be interesting. I think the art-side of that is great, becoming a different character. But not in the immediate future, I like to be behind the camera more, behind the scenes. CDM: What are your five favourite things about Los Angeles? TREVOR: Number one: taco trucks! You have a regular transportation truck - something that moves stuff - these Mexican people come up from Mexico and they carve out a window and they cook tacos in these trucks, and they park them on the side of the street. So you just go up and give them money and they give you tacos out of a truck window. CDM: Is this safe, food-poisoning wise? TREVOR: I don't think so... but they are great! I don't know how well they're sanctioned... but they're super cheap! I live on the east side of L.A. which has a pretty big hispanic community, and that's my favourite thing. Second thing, is probably the weather, it's always pretty nice there. CDM: It's finally sunny for you here, now... TREVOR: Yeah, we heard so much about how nice the weather is here in New Zealand and when we got here, it was pouring down. I guess another great thing about L.A. is the people. Believe it or not, if you find the right group of people it's really great. I'm blessed to have met friends like Shwayze and Katy. CDM: Perry? TREVOR: Yeah, I've known Katy for a long time. I'm in her video for 'I Kissed A Girl' - at the end where people think it's Travis [McCoy], it's actually me. <laughs> CDM: Oh! I totally thought it was Travis!! TREVOR: It's pretty hilarious, my real name is Trevor McFedries and his name is Travie McCoy, and even when they were dating, her family would be like "Oh, Katy's Travis?" and I'd be like "No, no I'm just Travis!" and then on Warped, people would be like "Travis, can I get an autograph?" and be like "I saw you with Katy, I know you're Travis!" and I'd be like "No, I'm not, but thanks!" Yeah, people in L.A. and the great art and music community, that's probably five. Complete the following sentences! I am...  Find me...  The most important thing that you should know about me is that...   |
