The philosophy of this year’s Dillo Day lineup, which smushes ’90s prom-pop up again against ’00s political punk and two forms of Chicago rap, isn’t that far from the philosophy guiding the two DJs in Flosstradamus: For them, it doesn’t matter what kind of music comes out of the speakers so long as it gets people moving. In their remixes, bootleg mash-ups and original tracks, Curt Cameruci and Josh Young seem to always be searching for a common group between pop, rock, hip-hop and electronic music — and usually, that common ground comes in the form of an awesome beat and shout-along chorus.
The Chicago act brings their club-tested DJing skills to Northwestern tomorrow, when they’re scheduled to play sets before and after Broken Social Scene (so that means they’ll likely play from 5 to 5:30 and from 6:30 to 7). In a phone interview with North by Northwestern, Cameruci and Young talked about their expectations, their “have fun” philosophy and the difference between them and a certain other DJ who came to campus this year.
NBN: You’re playing on Dillo Day, which for a lot of Northwestern students is the day where they wake up at 9 a.m. and get drunk or high and then they go see a bunch of concerts. So how do you feel about playing for a bunch of drunken college kids?
Curt Cameruci: That’s pretty much what we do all the time (laughs). I mean, depending on if they’re college kids or if they’re just normal kids, we usually just play for drunkies anyway. We play in clubs all the time, so it’s either they’re drunk or on something.
You’ll be playing outside, does that change your act much as opposed to when you’re in a club?
Cameruci: A little bit. Lollapalooza last year was the best. When we play outside, kids just let loose a little more. I think the whole festival environment is just a gateway to letting loose and having a good time. We love to play outside, we love to play at festivals.
You’re playing before and after Broken Social Scene, and you’re playing on a day where the other big acts are Common, Cool Kids, Third Eye Blind and Ted Leo. Would you ever think of mashing up any of their songs?
Cameruci: Yeah, maybe. When we make our bootleg songs, we kind of use whatever, anything that sounds good. So, yeah, that’s the thing: There’s no boundaries to what we do. If there’s good music we’ll just use it. It’s going be an interesting thing tomorrow cuz of all of the different bands, all the different types of music. We’re more party music. I think the Cool Kids are probably the closest to us, they’ve got the same party vibe. Common is more thought-provoking. Broken Social Scene will be a little more crazy. It’ll be weird in a good way.
How would you describe your act for someone who’s never heard you?
Cameruci: It’s fun. There’s no boundaries. You shouldn’t take yourself seriously if you come see us. You should be ready to wild-out and have a good time. Because a lot of time, people think that since we’re DJs that it’s all pretentious, but our whole stance on the DJ thing is having fun. We play a bunch of anthems and stuff like that, and we don’t really look at ourselves as DJs, we look at ourselves as an act.
The last big-name DJ to come to campus was Girl Talk. Who would win in a battle between Girl Talk and Flosstradamus?
Cameruci: It depends on what the grounds are in the battle. Because we could do what he does, but could he do what we do? He uses a computer to make a lot of his stuff, and when he performs it’s all computer stuff that mixes it all together. Josh and I, we could do the same thing, we could cut up a bunch of loops and do the same thing. He’s a talented dude, he’s awesome, we like Greg. But it depends. I don’t know what the analogy is. If you ask a BMX biker to battle a road-bike racer, like, who would win? It’s like, we kind of do the same thing, but we also do different things.
Any advice for an aspiring DJ? How do you get a crowd dancing?
Josh Young: Straight up, just try and be you. That’s the key to being a good DJ in this day in age, cuz everyone has access to everyone’s music on the Internet. So, honestly, just play what you actually feel. Play music that you really love to hear. And, you know, be nice to people. Because there’s a lot of people out there that kind of get in their heads and get kind of crazy. You just gotta go out there and have fun. If you’re enjoying it, everyone out there out there is watching you and will know that you’re really feeling it.
You guys are working on an album, right? What’s it gonna be like?
Young: It’s our first record, outside of just doing remixes. It’s all our original production. We’re gonna have some guest rappers on it and different people and different friends and family members and all that. It’s gonna be cool. It’s kind of interesting, because it’s our first time. We’re just gonna play it by ear, collaborate with our friends and get a lot of good people to get the vibe strong.