Not often do you find doctors in our scene who split their time between taking care of their patients and taking care of party goers on the dance floor. listed productions resident Naveen G has quite the interesting story that originates with radio, a medium not so common anymore to today's electronic music listeners. For this edition of 'Pulse loves…,' Naveen goes into detail of the art of the opening set, how he began to DJ in Chicago, and what it entails to be a listed resident. You can catch him this Saturday, July 13th in Brooklyn, playing the Cityfox Experience at Output.
Pulse Loves…radio. How did you get involved WNUR89.3FM in Chicago and later Proton Radio? While Chicago proper had a young, upstart rave scene (as did most of the midwest in the mid 90s), going to University was really a separate world, so I felt pretty lost having left the New York scene for Chicago. I really happened upon the electronic music show at WNUR by chance, as it aired weeknights. Obviously, hearing German acid trance from the local college radio station, I naturally stopped by to see what was going on. It was a tight knit circle of some real music heads who were very active at the time in the Chicago scene across the board, from drum n bass to techno. So I started out DJing in 1996 and then got a show on station with a friend devoted to progressive, which was a fairly new genre at the time but I think it exposed a lot of people to sounds evolving in the Twilo-London Prog axis at the time. There was also a lot of cross-pollination in the styles of the DJs from the station, which I think was very beneficial later on as we moved on to other projects. Kate Simko was music director at one point and I remember constantly butting heads with her about the big room prog trance I was playing at the time, but looking at our styles now, I think we've both met somewhere in the middle compared to what we used to play. Others have gone on to start some really great eclectic labels like Kimochi by Area/m50. So, it really served as the roots of everything I've done since.
Proton Radio came to me to do a Featured Artist mix back in 2001 or so, and they liked the mix enough to offer me a show, which I've continued ever since for the last 12 years or so. It's been so long we actually forgot to do a 10 year anniversary mix. But it's a great way to stretch your legs and play some music you wouldn't normally in a club. We get to do three hour mixes, play some downtempo, some IDM here and there. We've even done some LTJ Bukem style drum and bass, so its been good fun.
Pulse Loves…moving for your dreams. After living in Chicago, what prompted your move to New York City? Where there any other stops along the way? New York was always home, so heading off to Chicago for school for 8 years was out of necessity. I ended up coming back here as soon as I could though, and have no idea if i'll leave again.
Pulse loves…saving lives. How do you balance working as a doctor and being a DJ? It revolves around trying to be as efficient as possible and having to switch my whole mindset after work to get in music mode. The two are really disparate things; as much as I'd like to come up with some way that one influences the other, really it's just that the music provides a great respite from work, as it does for most people.
Pulse loves…evolving musical journeys. Some of your earlier productions were more progressive house, what inspired you to vary your musical approach? I actually started out playing drum and bass before switching to progressive, after a year of DJing. But being surrounded by people at the radio station who played a whole variety of other genres ensured that I was keeping track of what was going on across the spectrum. I think as the music has evolved, seemingly disparate and once diverging styles are actually now all blending together. It used to be fairly hard to dig something out of the deep house bin in a record store and play it with some progressive or techno, aside from even simple BPM issues, but that is no longer the case. The music has changed a lot since I started playing, but I want to be able to go back and dig out a track from 10-12 years ago. So, I'm constantly exploring and adding new sounds, but trying not to let the old stuff gather dust. Even if I have to edit the hell out of it and pitch it down 10%, it's always nice to get those old gems in the rotation.
Pulse Loves…producers. Do you have any upcoming releases or remixes in the works? Is there anyone you would like to work with? There's some new stuff in the works. Quite a bit different from what I've worked on before, but I still think it sounds like me. As always, the problem is knowing when something is done enough, rather than constantly tweaking inconsequential things. I'm looking forward to testing some of it out in the next few weeks, though. Feels like it's been a long time since I've worked on productions on a regular basis, so it feels good to be back in that sort of creative role. Curating music for DJing is one skill set, putting together mixes is another, and making tracks is yet another completely different set, so shifting between them easily takes time to perfect.
Pulse loves…keeping in the family. You've been with listed Productions from the start, as its grown to span the continent. Have you found that working with such a tight group of residents and parties has helped open doors for you?What have been some of the most exciting listed events you have participated in? From a DJ point of view, one of the coolest things about being part of the listed residents is that it's a tight crew with a consistent roster. We've had the chance to play extensively with one another over the last few years at a wide variety of gigs. It's really easy for two of us to jump on the decks and tag together and not have it sound like a random jumble of tunes coming out of the speaker. We read each other well, and I think people notice that when the residents play in pairs or threes or even fours, although that gets a bit messy. But on the other hand, listed knows our strengths and they are really good about pairing us off with certain artists for opening sets and also who will complement the vibe of a specific party.
In terms of the productions side of things, there's something to be said for making something more than an event with a DJ and really focusing on turning a party into a production from start to finish. From the music programming, to the look of the room, to the sound, to making people feel like they're part of a unique experience during that night/day. I think what really exemplifies those ideas are the Tikki Boat parties from WMC, that really have gone down as the highlight of Miami for those involved the past several years in a row.
Pulse Loves…new experiences. What's it been like working with Cityfox and bringing their unique party concept to New York City? Cityfox and Listed both have a similar approach in that they aim to make these parties a real production, where every last detail has been thought of, in terms of how it contributes to the artistic vision of what the "experience" of the night should be. It's not just, 'let's throw some DJs in a room and charge some money.' There's a serious effort to make familiar spaces feel unfamiliar and new, so you feel like you're exploring a whole new club or loft space. There's an overall theme to the night. There's a big focus on music programming, keeping it varied yet cohesive. and through all these things you can make the whole night feel greater than the sum of its parts. And with what listed has done in the past with the Tikki boat parties, Get Weird, and Lovefest, it's really amazing we didn't find each other sooner.
Pulse Loves…the art of DJing. Which do you find more challenging at this point in your career - creating a journey with an opening set or maintaining the energy in a headlining spot? The art of the opening DJ. There's been some great articles written about it, but it seems like it's still a rare occurrence when people notice an opener. It's an extremely challenging job and often completely thankless. However, if you find that ego-less balance of playing music that is interesting enough to keep people going, maintaining tension without release, and the headliner steps on the decks with a dance floor that's chomping at the bit, it's one of the most rewarding experiences in DJing. Often the best and only recognition you'll get is a handshake from the headliner and you then fade off into the crowd as he drops a bomb. But the work involved gets to the core of what makes DJing fun for me, i.e. digging for hidden gems across genres, figuring out how to string them together in a musical progression and getting people to listen to things they wouldn't normally like or expect to hear in a club. You have to get a feel for what the headliner plays and where they'll go sometimes (as opposed to where they really want to go). In that sense, the opener has a very strong role in the night because you can either play inconsequential background music by just playing what you normally play pitched down or you can go too big and then the headliner feels obliged to bang it all night. Or, ideally, you can draw people away from the bar onto an otherwise empty dance floor by taking some musical risks and play wide variety of music and leave the headliner with a eager crowd and a blank musical slate, so they can take any direction they want. It's really like night and day compared to headlining, but despite the risk of there being no payoff, opening is really what I think I'll always love more.
