Recent interview it with NYC based Magazine, Goodies.  We discussed the past, present, and future of Risk One, girls, and my crazy experiences in this line work.. enjoy!

 

 

There are those who mix and then there are those who MIX. DJ Risk One is amongst the few innovators who not only gets the party pumping, he taps into your ever loving musical hearts like no one else and makes sure you leave the party craving for more. He’s been involved in the club scene for several years, influencing many and taking it to a whole other level with his original style and unique mashups. We recently got the opportunity to sit down with the legendary DJ and chop it up a bit. Check it out.

So how old were you when started mixing?

17, fresh out of High School

How did Risk come about?

It’s not an amazing story.. DJ DV One (Seattle pioneer) was my mentor, and after 4 months of DJing he felt I was ready to battle and pushed me to enter a battle coming up in 2 months.  Not only was I nervous as all hell, I didn’t even have a DJ name. We were brainstorming names on a white board and he eventually threw out “Risk” and it stuck. The “One” came a couple years later, when I thought my name was too short haha.

Who were your influences/Inspiration coming up?

DV One for sure. The first few years of battling I definitely resembled his style.  Beyond that, Rob Swift, Ricci Rucker, and D-Styles were my favorite DJs. On the production side I was way into Timbaland, El-P, and Scott Storch. I also played classical piano growing up so that had a heavy influence on my battle routines and early production work.

What’s your favorite musical genre?

Man, I can’t even give a single answer to that question. It depends on the day and my mood. I came up on the backpack hip-hop tip, which led to digging for original samples from funk and soul tracks. And the club shit has turned me into a house head over the years. And as a DJ I literally listen to everything.. good music is good music, I don’t really even think about genres anymore.

What’s your origin?

I was born in Denver, lived in Europe for 4 years, spent most of my life in Seattle before moving to San Francisco. Sooo, Seattle I guess?

What are your traveling habits?

According to my Southwest status, I travel over 100 times a year. My recent trip to Shanghai was pretty amazing, so that’s def gotta be one of my top 3 favorite locations.  I haven’t been to europe since grade school but Amsterdam was probably my favorite place to go in Europe. Both places have such a care-free environment, and Europeans as a whole seem to be more intelligent and have a better perespective on the world than most Americans. Sad but true.

So you’re high in the sky 100 times a year? You earn a membership for the mile high club yet? Got any stories you care to share?

Shoot, I think I got mile high status back in high school haha… These day flights are where I get my best sleep, I’m usually passed out before we take off or I’m making edits in Ableton. I’m the anti-social traveler..

You’re right, it is sad to say that Europeans do have slightly a higher intellect than the majority of Americans. But besides the fact that they are more politically involved and less square minded, how wild do the parties you’ve spun for get? What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever experienced?

Those kids over there party harder than anywhere I’ve ever seen. In Shanghai at least, you can drink 24hrs a day, inside, outside, in cars, doesn’t matter. I would DJ in the club til 4am, then go to raging afterhours parties w/ the club staff until like 8am. A few times I woke up the next morning not even knowing how I got back to my hotel room, which is crazy considering I was in a foreign country and don’t even speak the language! If we are talking one-night stand and 3-some crazy I can’t put those in print lol.. jokes. However one of my craziest DJ experiences was last year after the Giants victory parade in downtown SF. I was hired by Red Bull to DJ on their ridiculously dope truck, and they were going to hand out Red Bull etc to people passing by. It was supposed to be a relatively low key sidewalk deal, but people just ended up hanging out by the truck, a few people started gathering in the street and dancing, next thing you know we have 2 major streets blocked off by hundreds of Giants fans going ham in the middle of the streets. We went hours over the scheduled time, and it just kept getting bigger and crazier. Keep in mind we only had permission to occupy the parking space we were in, we had no permits from the city to have a full on block party and close off roads. Not sure where the beer came from but that was flying around in the air like champagne as well. Red Bull dude was like, ‘Yo how and when are we gonna stop this thing?’ I was like, if I stop playing music right now, there will be riots… We kept going until a barricade of cops in SWAT gear showed up and shut the party down. I got the whole thing on video it was pretty amazing.

When it comes to women what’s your type?

Dark hair, dark skin (any shade is fine), bottom heavy!  Gotta have hips, lips, and nice skin. Preferably from another country.. Beyond the visuals, they have to be intelligent/educated and be able to carry a conversation.  Sense of humor is huge too.  If you don’t watch Family Guy, Archer, Aqua Teen, The Office, or Will Ferrel movies, we probably won’t get along.

Where else would you like to DJ?

Shoot, everywhere I haven’t been!  Dubai, Tokyo, Isarel, and back to Europe for sure.

What sort of events do you usually spin for?

It’s all across the board. Most commonly bottle service venues and events, but I’ve done plenty of sweaty hipster parties, grimey hiphop jumpoffs, festivals, corporate events galore, a couple of exotic weddings abroad, you name it.  The wider range of events you can do well just means that much more opportunity. Daddy’s gotta eat.

How do you feel about where you are today as far as DJ’ing and where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

Good question.. I’m definitely blessed to be where I am today in my career. Especially because I’ve done everything completely on my own (i.e. no management). Alot of people never make it this far and it’s becoming increasingly hard to do so. That being said, I’m always looking ahead and I have a long way to go. Kind of the neverending road you know? No matter what I’ll always want more.

5 years from now I plan to be dominating this club game. Alot of the big travel dudes are like 10 years older than me, so I have alot of years left to keep growing. Bigger parties and events, and more international stuff. Overseas is where it’s at. Crazy huge clubs, more money, and better appreciation of dance music and DJs I think. Besides that I’m getting more into original production. Working towards doing official remixes for labels, and eventually original music. The key to longevity in this is being an artist, not just a DJ.

Who have you collaborated with?

Hmm, not too many people actually. Super 7 vol. 3 was probably the biggest collabo effort (Jayceeoh, Scene, Spryte, Team Canada, Klutch, MOS). And I’ve done a couple other mixtape collabs w/ homies in other cities. Beyond that I’m kinda the one-man-band-man (no swizzy). I tend to work faster and more efficiently solo. Just from personal experience..

Who would you like to pump a collab with?

 

On the production tip i’d say Diplo or Bam Bam. I love everything those guys put out and their styles are right up my alley. If we made some shit together, faces would be melting. As far as artists, probably Busta or Ting Tings. I mean, Busta is incredible.. and you can put him on anything and it will sound good. I’m sure he would be fun to work with too. I’ve always like Ting Tings, and I think they are just far enough off my normal spectrum that if we did something together it could be really bad ass. Like, if someone saw “Ting Tings – Prod. Risk One”, they’d be like- oh snap, I gotta hear this.