My 2013: Seth Troxler

Our final, and perhaps finest, is Seth Troxler.

Having been voted as one of the top five DJs in the world by the public for Resident Advisor in the past five years, US producer and DJ Seth Troxler has had a crazy few years; running his Visionquest parties and label with friends, opening a BBQ restaurant in east London called Smokey Tails, and getting in a bit of an internet stir with his naked photos around the time of That Nina Kraviz Bubble Bath Drama.

Notoriously open and funny, Seth struck us as the kind of dude who wouldn't hold back about another year in electronic music and, damn, he went above and beyond. We called him up when he was on holiday in Bangkok - sorry dude, hope the cocktail took the edge off - and he waxed lyrical about labels, his forthcoming residences and, eh, why he and Nina Kraviz don't see eye to eye these days.

2013 has been a crazy year for me.

Probably the most out-there thing I've done is open my restaurant Smokey Tails. It's a BBQ spot in east London and, man, it's been such a dope experience. It all came about because I'm really into cooking. I was the three time ADE cooking champion, and when Ben and I were cooking up my secret, family BBQ recipes at a festival earlier this year, people were going seriously crazy for it. We didn't think much of it at the time, but then Ben found this venue in Hackney Wick on the water and we were like, "Yo, this venue is amazing, we should just do this thing!" Two and a half months later, we got our shit together and opened the restaurant.

It's been amazing. It's got really great reviews too; Time Out said it was in the top five places to eat in London this summer! It's incredible to make my dream a reality. That's where I get the happiness; when I can stand back, whether it's producing an event or playing for people, and I can make people happy. I guess I'd sum it it as feeling like all my efforts are seriously paying off this year, in every way; like being voted into the Top 5 DJs on the Resident Advisor poll again.

Being in the top five for five years running has such an effect on my work. I mean, I'm twenty-eight years old. When I was younger, getting voted for in these polls was a freaking huge deal. I put an emphasis on trying to live up to the hype, but after last year everything became more relaxed. I also think it's pretty weird to quantify people in this way. Polls like that seem to be less about individual DJs, and more about making lists of what the fans of electronic music current tastes are. You could almost look at it as a kind of business trend chart.

It's interesting for research and it has a huge effect on business, which to be honest really stressed me out at certain points. Like, being #1 on Resident Advisor last year was a stretch for me. People were like, "Oh, #1! Better not suck, dude!" Ugh, it just… it stresses you out, your friends fuck with you, and it just gets to the point where people expect so much from my sets. It's like, everyone, seriously, I'm just a guy playing two vinyl records. I'm just trying to make a good night. Those polls contributed to a big realisation of mine of "What am I really fighting for here?" Now, it's all about creating new ideas. What it comes down to in the end though is that being voted for into those polls by the fans is an honour. People connect with you in a real way.

Anyway, another big thing I've been planning this year is a series of quarterly DJ residencies starting after the new year. I've got Fabric in London, Trouw in Amsterdam, Output in NYC, as well ten or more Circo Loco dates at DC-10 in Ibiza and, like, just a ton of other shit. It's going to be intense. It's sort of a continuation of my Visionquest ethos for being about to play really long sets, in good, familiar clubs, and have more of an emphasis on curation. I hugely respect DJs like Ricardo Villalobos for this. He always plays clubs where he's known the people running it for a very long time, and that he likes to go to. That's his whole vibe. It's not about going out and making shit-loads of money playing records, it's about being involved.

When you're playing at huge club line ups or festivals you only get to play an hour and a half. It's hard to build a vibe that'll last in that time and, with EDM now, everything is just this big dumb stage show. Fuck that, man. I just want to hang out at the club and play some jams; where it's dark, sweaty and a bit seedy. I feel that otherwise, there can be a huge disconnect. You don't have the same connection with people that I think is fundamentally the core of our culture.

That's what I've tried to preserve with Visionquest – that this is more than just playing records and going to parties. This is something that has been going for decades. There's a real culture, and that culture has saved my life. In many ways, I want to be known as someone who preserves electronic music culture, rather than being a new electronic music 'star'.

It's been crazy with the Visionquest parties this year, but I'm actually handing over the control of the label to the other guys for 2014 because I'm going to start three new labels of my own, which I'm super excited about. One is like a folk and indie rock label of just limited edition 10". I went to art school when I was younger, so I basically want to be an art director to my labels rather than just throwing records out into the public sphere.

So, the Soft Touch label, that one's all about releasing music by bands that have broken up, bands that never got a proper release, singles from bands that never really played live; almost like releasing (or re-releasing) music with cool art direction. Then the other one, that's called Tuskegee. Tuskegee is named like the University , but it was also a US military regiment during the Second World War that was all black. The ethos behind it all is that the Martinez Brothers and I have had this running conversation for ages now about how there's not that many ethnic people in dance music anymore, and that it would be cool to start something for explicitly for people of colour.

I'm also going to have a sub-label of Tuskegee called Silent Icon, which will be a series of my favourite Hispanic and African-American producers. The overall idea is to release lesser-known or previously unreleased recordings of theirs; have each record come with dope artwork and detailed descriptions of historically influential Hispanic or African-American figures whose social contributions are maybe lesser known than others. In a way, it's like an art project of our heritage; like a memory book of our lives growing up, turned into a label, multi-platform idea, a brand.

I think an issue is that a lot of people of colour (in a way) only identify themselves possibly with "urban music", but just because we're black or brown doesn't mean we're "urban", or that we're trying to grind in this kind of music and society. It's hard to put into words without sounding exclusive…. it's not meant to be bigoted, it's just, something different. And honest, honest too.

What else have I done this year?

Oh yeah, actually, one thing I suppose that ended up being kinda big, for some dumb reason, was the whole naked photos thing. They were getting shared online as if I was taking the piss out of that whole Nina-Kraviz-in-the-bathtub shit, but it was so dumb – that photo is from nearly three years ago! I think I should go into this so people can get it right. It all came from an idea during my time at art school, from this designer called Stefan Sagmeister. When he started his company, he send out this invitation for a party that was two pictures of him naked. One picture was of him with a really long dick, all blacked out with tape that you could rip off, and it said underneath it "My name is Sagmeister, I just started Sagmeister Inc". I thought that shit was so gangster.

Then, this summer in Ibiza, I opened my stuff from my old apartment in Berlin, and there was his book with that concept. I was like "Oh, fuck, that idea was sick!" It ended up being in the back of my mind for a while so, when that festival interview needed to happen, and I knew we didn't have that much time, I thought "Well, we need to do the whole thing in ten minutes, so taking my clothes off would be cooler than me just talking about myself."

I mean, I never really thought about the Nina thing so much. We don't like each other. She's kind of a bitch.

Like, there's been occasions where she's really stressed me out by being such a bitch. One time we were playing together at a festival in France, and I was trying to help her set up the CDJs for her set as I'm still mixing. I asked her to plug the RCA into her CDJ and – I swear to God - she said "I don't do that type of thing". I was like "What the fuck, you can't plug an RCA into a CDJ? You're a DJ! I'm trying to help you out here!" Then she was hopping all over my shoulders and shit as I was playing, and I was like,"Yo get the fuck off my shoulder, I'm trying to play and you're stressing me out". She was really pissed off at me after that.

Then, the third time, I was playing at my own party in Miami. We were outside with a bunch of our peers and, you know, I'm not a dick, so I went to go shake her hand and say hello. She was like, "I don't need to shake hands with clowns like you", so I said "You're a fucking cunt!"

After that, we just don't really speak. I mean, who does that? You came to my party, I say hello, and you react like that? Fuck you then. The funny thing is though, everyone's pretty cool with each other in our scene. Most of us are just trying to hang out and be chill. What's the point in adding that to the equation? It is kind of funny now though, because she gets really bothered by my presence….

Anyway, that aside, I think one of my favourite moments of 2013 was definitely closing Sonar by Night in Barcelona.

Closing Sonar made me feel like my life as a DJ was starting to come full circle. Like, I remember my first times at dance festivals in Europe. I had just graduated high school, and I'd gone to meet Matthew Dear. I was a big fan, but I didn't really get the idea of European dance music culture at the time because it has never really happened on the same scale in America. In the US, you'd go see your OG DJ heroes playing in a bar to fifty people. You never think this could be a career so, when I went to Sonar and saw Matthew play to ten thousand people just before Ricardo Villabolos, it seriously blew my mind. I knew this was it for me.

It was just, amazing to play with the sun coming up like that. One of my favourite things in the entire world is seeing a festival or a club after it's finished; with all the empty cups everywhere, people stumbling around on their way home, smiling and hugging. After everyone's left, and it's just us and a few promoters, it's like 'Woah, what a day".

Seth Troxler is a dude, you should follow him on Twitter: @sethtroxler