Classic rock, psychedelic rock - I like to dig up old music and see what I can get influenced by.
Diplo
People like me, DJs and producers, have a bigger say and a bigger voice than we've ever had before.
As a DJ, it's my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that's coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I've always gravitated to something that's just different, you know?
I do a lot of collaborations and productions, whether it's Switch or Steve Aoki or No ID or Will Smith or No Doubt - I always like to collaborate and be a quality control person for the people 'cause I have my own taste in music and bring that to other peoples' brands and help them learn a little bit.
It's cool to play the guitar, but to me it's even cooler to scratch a guitar backward and forward, to manipulate it with a turntable. Guitars can't do that themselves.
In Philly, there are a lot of social programs. If you have a degree, you can go and apply. I was basically a social worker, but I became sort of a sub teacher in a special program, helping kids with reading or math. But we would also do plays, learn about music... We were doing lots of fun stuff, but that was such hard work.
I put out this record on Ninja Tune called 'Florida' when I was about 22. And at the same time, I was DJ'ing and beginning to mix stuff up and promote shows in Philadelphia and New York and my own parties and make mixtapes, put out bootleg white labels.
The kids that are making the ghetto stuff I can't even reach are the ones that are inspiring me to play music for the other kids in the city they don't even know about. If I don't get those kids making music, there won't be an original kid DJing like me in five to 10 years.
I was playing hip-hop when everybody else was playing the giant rave music.
When it comes down to helping kids, a lot of ways for education to move forward is through music because that's exciting to kids. Reading books and going to a bookstore is not that exciting.
Dancehall has always had a homophobic problem, but you go to dance parties in Jamaica, and some of the biggest dancers are kinda gay, just not outspoken about it. Dancehall was the first kind of music I was DJing, and it was always more about the rhythm.
If I make a song, and it's my song, like 'Lean On,' we're going to make money off the synchs, the Spotify, and we get to headline festivals on it. That's the model I want to explore.
Sometimes I make more money in a weekend than my grandpa made in a year.
How mad would it actually be to do an 'Avatar' type animation film, but about something mundane like a Winn-Dixie cashier's day at work? That'd be something else, I think.
I was never good at scratching, but I was good at collecting old records. Florida was a great place for that, because it's where people go to die.
Man, I don't got any real fans. Just fair-weather ones and groupies.
Good bands won't get famous anymore unless they get really lucky.
That's what I care about is the people I work with and representing them and helping to make their music apparent for the rest of the world.
People don't know exactly what I do; they just know I'm 'cool.'
I wish I played guitar so I could start a band with great musicians.
You can never judge any music by their audience. That's the main reason people in England have a prejudice against someone like Skrillex. You judge people by their music. That's always been first and foremost.
I'm trying to always do new things because if you stay behind and fight the future, you are just going to be left behind.
I never got tied down to any social scene. I was just into creating stuff. And I think, even today, that's how I'm able to work and move between so many different genres - I want to be part of what's happening, I want to make new things.
I've probably got the most eclectic social media there is because it literally goes from hanging out with my son at a park, to, like, Madonna's house, to a rave in Africa.
All of the best songs happen on a whim.
I love Marvin Gaye. I like jazz and all that stuff.
Every day is work for me, but it's also a party. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
I was a schoolteacher for a while, and it was the worst job.
I was in Fort Lauderdale from about age 7 to 14. And that's where I learned the most about music. My favorite DJ was this guy named DJ Laz and the Miami bass guys. I was super into, like, Arthur Baker, that kind of stuff.
I have heard, 'Never go to bed angry,' and that makes sense. Unless you're always checking yourself, a grudge or something small can break apart a relationship, and you start to forget what is so amazing about your partner.
I see the value in every kind of music, even country.
I'm not a superstar, per se... but I'm a musical creator - a producer in the same vein as what Quincy Jones was, or Pharrell and Timbaland were.
I was making crappy beats since I was, like, 17 or 18, using Florida rappers, where I'm from. Then I started DJ'ing because I just wanted to have a new job.
I never became a producer to go to parties or wear nice clothes or put sales figures on my Wiki page.
You always have to evolve - the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you're going to lose.
The best gift you can give to a girl is your devotion, not some Louboutins. But buy those if you're busy, for sure.
If anybody is excited about my music, that's all I care about. I care about people who are excited about new music.
Money, for me, is just to create bigger and better things. A lot of guys in the deejaying world flaunt it, but I don't see any use in that. I don't need anything. I live in hotels. Most of my clothes I get for free. I like to invest in ideas. In people.
A lot of producers get famous because they decide to be superstars for their own reasons, but I'm inspired by Timbaland and Pharrell and Swizz Beatz 'cause they're doing things that are so different. I like how they're introducing ideas I never would have thought of.
When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.
I've realised that if I aim for a successful record, I probably won't have any success. But if I keep making weird things, then hopefully the audiences will come to us.
As a youngster, I lived in Philly for 12 years, and I would go up to New York to do shows and make money - it was the dream to maybe be able to survive there and live there.
We first started to rent old VFW halls in Philly or whatever; we rented kegs and did parties and played our own music. We had to find a way to do it because nobody else was helping us, and I think now it's important to keep those dialogues happening, those parties happening.
You just have to do; you can't live by the rules of what you're supposed to do. I think every person is good at something, and you just have to push that forward.
If kids can have some sort of social responsibility, that's cool. But if they're not actually having social responsibility, and they're kind of hiding behind it, that's kind of useless, or even worse.
There are opportunities that I have because I'm a white dude, and it's controversial because that's just the way that the world we live in kind of is.
Attention. That's all girls want.
90 percent of the records I make are spontaneous.
I think you can't really beat Bob Marley, especially the stuff he was doing with Lee Perry. Just that kind of clubby and dark and crazy stuff, even with the Wailers... Some of the songwriting was phenomenal.
Man, the only thing that's important is what is due tomorrow. I don't care what it is as long as it's good.
