UncleDad's Mix and Mingle Episode 2: 30 Years of Dru Deep

0:00 Hey, what up, everybody? Uncle Dad in the house or on the roof, if you will, because the roof is on fire. I am hanging out with a good friend of mine and a DJ who's been in the business for a long time. This is Uncle Dad's Mix and Mingle. That's right. Episode two of Mix and Mingle. Thank you guys for the support. It seems like this is doing very well. Probably because Mike's not in it. No, that's definitely not true. Because if Mike was in it, we'd be doing much better. But I'm so thankful to have this guest. And I'm so thankful for you guys to be listening. And, of course, make sure you follow us on Instagram at Uncle Dad Talks. To find out more about all this great content we've got going on right now. We have so many shows right now, my guests, that won't be named yet. Just so you know, that are 100% free. No paywall, no nothing.

0:40 Isn't that amazing, unnamed guests? That is splendid. Exactly. So that voice, those sexy dulcet tones you just heard, come from the one and only Drew Deep. Hey, hey, hey, hey. How are you feeling, man? You and I have known each other for a while now, and one of the things that really connected to us i think was you talk of music and specifically talk of djing and house music so let's just kind of start back from the beginning what made you interested in djing oh man honestly, i wanted to start djing since i seen the saturday night fever movie. No because that was like that the soundtrack alone was like the side story adhd thing that was like the first like record my parents bought me outside of like disney and whatever else but But that soundtrack was always in the house playing, but also my parents and my brother and whatever watch it.

1:33 But the DJ and how he just shut down John Travolta and everything. Look at her. She's dancing. And I don't know. It just seemed dope. You played with me and all the music. Everyone was dancing. And you were the man in charge. What was your favorite line from Saturday Night Live? Oh, Saturday Night Fever? Saturday Night Fever. Sorry. Saturday Night Fever. Sorry. Oh. Can you dig it? I knew that you could. My favorite still will always be, hey, that's my pussy finger. That's always my favorite. So that movie, the aesthetic of it got you interested in DJing. So at what point did you go, all right, I want to actually do this now?

2:15 Well, so my parents had me collecting records since I was five years old, right? And once the original hip-hop and old movies like Brankin and stuff were coming out, I definitely got interested. But I had no concept of anything, and definitely parents weren't going to buy me my own turntable outside of the Winnie the Pooh turntable I had. Right and uh but wasn't until high school and i was like very much into hip-hop and and me and my friend like i spent the night at his house and brought my dad's turntable over there but didn't have a concept of we need a mixer and we like we're trying to hook it up to like the receiver and just like how come we can't do two at one time but and that was like always a thought and i said i was collecting always but it was it's funny because 30 years ago actually last month was like my first rave that i went to in 94 was a couple of friends and i was like this little punk rock skater kid again it's funny because i had like these fucking shoes that said fucking off that i was like hardcore had like green hair and like on these converse you had green hair yeah oh well it was originally blue but it turned green because i went swimming and then the but yeah like we went to this party and like i got turned out man like it was funny because like said i was this little punk rock skater kid took acid for the first time and people were giving hugs and some chick like love on my like arm with the highlighter was walking through walking through a black light and just like dude why am i so angry yeah like so i walk

3:46 around and just like dude it's like just digging it just digging the vibe and like the next day me and my buddy like we went to solid grooves and bought records in the booty bin right. Old you know san jose like store off the like bascom next to the pink pool and like yeah so they had like booty bin records that were like you know 50 cents to like you know an up for those who don't know what is a booty bin record it's just the mark down you know maybe it had a scratch on one track or something like that or just you know like it just to overlook record or use record or something like that maybe a promo even like and but you know we had like five or ten bucks and And we're just trying to get like enough records just to like, so we can just learn to beat match.

4:28 And after that, it was, oh man, I used to save my money like every single week for like for food. My parents used to give me for like at high school. And on top of this, I would sling on the microwave food that they would give me. Cause I had my second class was the graphics class. Right. And so like a bunch of stoners and everything. And I would sling like, you know, food cause it was right before break and, you know, people didn't eat. So like i would save all that money and buy records at the end of the week when they come out on thursday i love that and for those who don't know we're talking in an era where computers weren't the thing yet really right like oh yeah there wasn't a way to really like get your music when you talk about like that impact of like saving your money but like you know we have we have somewhat of a younger audience too and i think like you guys don't understand like how.

5:13 Important that was because that was the only way you could get music right i mean there was like maybe two or three record stores around here like star records and solid grooves even tower records well not there anymore but like before like uh rasputin was around here you know like or even like what's it called uh street like they had stuff but yeah i mean it wasn't like a huge selection but and actually at solid grooves you could actually listen to you know the records there you know like otherwise there was no youtube or anything to like sometimes if you just seen an artist like you just like you know i'm gonna give it a chance and just buy it you know and everything was based like even like movies right there was based on the on concept of like the album art right yeah the album art how to catch your attention and then you're like oh this looks cool right like or who's that guy or whatever right so i love that you say that so when you finally get into that world and you get dancing and you get into buying records and stuff when does it you know for a lack of better term when does drew deep put the first needle to the groove and like begins his first set live in front of an audience.

6:14 Oh man, I think that was South First Billiards, 420 South First Street. Now it's, what's it called? It's Guildhouse, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and it's funny because I ended up working there like years later, but I had some friends, again, met from like, you know, the old rave days and like she was like the head bartender there. And so like random, like Friday night, she would hook us up. I was still, like, learning, right? Like, but it was, like, learning on turntables, learning on CDJs, you know? And not to, like, you know, downplay them, but, like, it's a lot easier to play than that than, you know, on turntables. I mean... Well, it's like three levels, right? Like, the vinyl records era, the CDJ era, and then you have, like, you know, the controller era, right?

6:58 Controller era, let's be honest, it is, you know, technology changed. It made it fast, easier, and whatever, right? CDJ was, like, in between. But, like, the vinyl days, you're right. It's all here it's all mental right yeah no totally yeah have an account you know yeah no and like i mean and know your records like you had to know your music i mean yeah you can like look at a vinyl record and like see where the break is and everything but like you know you're doing that in real time you don't have like a button to push to like oops let me loop this real quick because i'm running out of time like yeah but like my real besides actually just playing out in public um my first like real gig in a real club or even a small club i mean it was the top on lower hate street now it's called underground sf but back really oh yeah dude i was i was barely like 19 years old wow so my buddy dimitri i don't know if you've seen the movie groove we talked about it i haven't seen it though yeah so he's the guy holding the disco ball and everything so like he's one of like my old like friends i mean we he's the guy one of the friends i went to that first rave with like he's the one that like me and him went to the record store and like bought records together and kind of learned together but he also like after high school he moved up there and i mean like he wasn't legal you know either like and he got himself a residency on mondays called moving on up and then he would bring me in and like just throw me into you know the pack and just like just do it you know i was dude i was so scared when i first started playing.

8:24 I would be pounding drinks right and right before i had to get on like five before i would go to the restroom and throw up every single time. Like it wasn't even a big party or club, but I would just like had that stage fright and it would like, you know, think that alcohol was helping me get over it, get some liquid courage, but no, I would toss every time. Wow you know what i'm interested then so that's such a great story it's actually almost cinematic right like i can i can see it happening and see like all right it's time to go and like you whatever so when you did the set do you well first of all what you what i don't mean to date you but what year what year was that roughly like 97 97 okay so we're kind of going in the era of cg cdj's yet right it's if anything it was like the early early i mean you would i mean yeah if i did see somebody would bring like their oh god well because pioneer i don't think they were making stuff back then like i mean i i have their second technical mix or what cdj but like that's that's another story down the line but but yeah no i mean like it was very rare like i would say maybe like around more like 98 99 is that's when you started more so at that.

9:29 Point do you call yourself drew deep or do you are you figuring that out still no you know it's funny because it goes back to Dimitri like I was just the people just called me Drew and then like I don't know I had a particular sound right like when me and my buddy Dimitri like we were like going through solid and going through tracks right and I mean like you know they'd have labels Chicago house you know Detroit techno you know like New York like and you know I don't know like I mean I seen that but I would just you know grab a stack and just listen and so like I guess I had a tendency to like go on the deep side and so I was playing like a lot of deep house at that time and so my buddy Dimitri just started calling me drew deep and it just stuck and he's yeah kind of the reason I you know be called that since then I love that man and that's like that's awesome because like you know there's nothing better when you get like your your your name kind of given to you like you know it's like a like uncle dad comes from a friend of mine right that he called me that now it's a fucking franchise right it's just like with you right you have that you created your your persona based on something that was given by a friend I think it's beautiful, We do got to get to our mix here. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the mix, your thoughts and stuff that you brought for us?

10:41 It's a little bit of everything. Like, no, I want to play just house because, I mean, that's mainly what I get booked for, but I try to play beyond just that type of genre. You know, in the 80s, before house was even, like, coined a name, you know, it was just dance music. You get things from industrial to, you know, disco, you know, or just, you know, some, like, you know, some funk, you know, and like it you know from everything from time to prince or you know whatever like it was a whole just mixed genre of just just sad just dance music you know it's just long as it's the same you know bpm i mean you can work it if you know how to do it like amen brother. But uh all right man so i'm excited to play this i hope you're excited for the audience to hear it we'll be right back after about 20 minutes of the mix and then we'll finish up our interview here but before we go where can our audience learn more about you um you can find me on instagram i'm on under drew deep that's d-r-u-d-e-e-p on facebook too but i really don't really engage in that too much as much as i should but also on mondays i do a radio show on stanford i've been there for god it's like my 15 16 year now and that's right now noon to 3 p.m 90.1 kzsu stanford If you're online, you can go on to kzstoolive.stanford.edu.

11:58 Awesome. Go check them out. All right, everybody, let's get the mingle part, or sorry, the mix part going, and we'll get back to mingling after this. Music.

31:19 Wow. I can feel my whole body dancing. And let me tell you, man, I am ready to groove to the break of dawn. Man, Drew, that was absolutely amazing. Thank you for that. I'm curious, though, something that I heard in there, and I'm assuming I'm right in this because I know I heard it. There's some Prince in there, correct? Always. So one of the other reasons why you and I got along very well is because we both have an affinity for Prince. And we're going to play a game about Prince. Yes, I was hoping. So, you know, on my shows, I usually do some fun games on here and whatnot. But we don't play for each other. We play for our audience. So if you get five questions right, a random listener will get a prize.

32:01 Now I'm going to feel bad if I fuck. So just so you know, my last guest, shout out to Laser Tears, she failed. Yeah. Did you listen? Did you, were you shocked? I'm sure you knew all the songs, huh? You know, no, there was like, I think one I didn't know, but the rest of them, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But to be fair, she's a little bit younger. No, no, that was actually pretty good for, for not being as old as me. Yeah, right. All right, here we go. If you get five questions right, a lucky listener will win and you kick it off being the first one. So here we go. We'll keep it easy. Are you ready? What's Prince's real name? Oh my God. God, Rogers Nelson, Prince Rogers Nelson? Exactly, it's Prince. That's what I thought you were going to say, just Prince.

32:46 All right, that's one. Good job. All right, here we go. In 1987, who sued Prince? Oh, his record company. No. Oh, 87. Ooh, wait a minute. I'll give you a hint. It's somebody related. His dad? His sister. Damn. All right, that's fine. That's fine. You got that wrong. In 1987, Prince's half-sister, Lorna Nelson, sued him, claiming that she had written the lyrics to You Got the Look, a song from Sign of the Times that featured pop artist Sheena Easton. In 1989, the court sided with Prince. Do you remember that whole thing? I vaguely remember, yeah. Who remembers Prince's sister? Nobody. Yeah, I know. Exactly.

33:30 All right, here we go. He's making money now, though. Yeah, yeah. All right, here we go. I have another good one for you. So how many you got right so far? One? All right. Prince the member of what church? Oh, he's Jehovah's Witness. Uh-huh. There you go. Two. Where is... Okay. We got some good ones here. We got some really good ones. Sorry. There's just so many good ones here. can you name the song that Prince wrote for Sinead O'Connor? Nothing compares to you. There you go. Okay. And originally, before even it was on that, it was on one of his groups on Paisley Park, The Family.

34:15 That was the first time it ever came out. Really? Yeah. Okay, okay. You got three years. That's three years so far? So let's see. Can you name the total wins of Grammys that Prince has gotten? Definitely. It's not as high as you think it is, though. Okay. I'm going to go lucky number seven. That is correct. No way. Yeah. That is correct. He won a total of seven wins, but he was nominated for 38. Damn. Look at you. I want that right now. All right. We got one more. This is the one. If you get this right, a listener will win a special gift from the Uncle Dad vault. Are you ready? Name the filmmaker that made a unreleased Jehovah Witness documentary for Prince that will, to this day, has never been seen by anybody. I know, though. I'll give you a hint.

35:11 He's a very famous director who makes movies for stoners oh wait a minute um, oh man i'll forget his name not blunt man or would that be technically chronic, you gotta give him the name not the oh man i can't oh damn i can't think of his name off the hand are you really gonna you're really gonna break into people's heart like that. Three two one the answer is kevin smith dude but that was him no but you didn't say it you didn't say technically it was him no but you didn't say it you didn't say it i already gave you do i put it on the fucking shelf for you and you still didn't grab it so there you go it was him though i just forgot his name but i know he was like blunt man and chronic man dude listener you didn't win again sorry guys damn but that's okay because you guys got a dope mix for free so went better that's a good prize in return so let's continue your career we got the young days kind of out of the way let's talk about the modern era so you know one of the things that we discovered that you and i knew a lot of the same people from i guess the more like when i started getting into that music you know you would have been a little bit older at that time so at what point does it shift where you start doing these bigger events and bigger shows for you oh man that was actually probably i mean i've been playing consistently you know in smaller clubs like through city the City and like around here but like, It probably was, oh, my God, almost 15 years ago. Like, I started playing out in Portland.

36:43 And this is, so it's almost the same time that I started doing my radio show. Because I would technically be doing it for, like, 15, 16 years. But on the airwaves as a whole, I've been on there for about 18 years. So I started playing on the, whatchamacallit, on the solstice marathons that KZSU used to throw. And at that time, I was working at Solo Grooves doing the house bind and met a friend. And he was like, you know, you ever play on there? I was like, no. He's like, what? So he got me booked. And from there, I became like a fixture on KDSU, eventually got my own show. And then, yeah, I had like, you know, once Facebook was going on, then, you know, the house community, it's big, but it's small, you know?

37:26 Especially at that time, right? Because now I would argue it's huge now, but back then. Yeah, it was definitely. I mean, like you had your known folks. And yeah, it's definitely spread out. you got these people just popping up left and right you know make a track here and then all of a sudden they're relevant you know release for until they fall off and such as music though right yeah you know but it's crazy because you know it's like and not to diss on anyone but there's a lot of like bedroom djs and even bedroom producers right and like but they get booked because they have like one hit left out you know but then no one ever actually listens if they can mix and then they book them because they had a hot track and uh i mean look i'll tell you this i'll tell you this man jokes on us because i'll tell you i'll take a hot track and get paid millions of dollars to do some bullshit oh no i mean no i ain't hating on it over like you know that's your hustle whatever but it's like i'm talking about longevity here you know sure but um but yeah no like it's crazy because yeah these cats started booking me my buddy richie stacks out there and there used to be a dope like little underground spot and from there like they kind of opened the doors for me in a lot of ways because i mean once i went there i the doors just you know the the family just kept on you know circles kept on growing and everything and then from there like, got me kind of in my foot to like work in seattle because like it's funny i don't play out here that often but whatever the northwest loves me and and like my buddy joshua marquette oh my god Well, Joshua Marquez, that's another cat.

38:55 On a side note, he used to be my old roommate. If you don't know him, he used to be part of a band called Unique, U-N-E-A-Q, from San Jose. It was him, Andy Lozano, and his sister would sing. And they had stuff on like Mushroom Jazz, and what was it called, like Ohm Records and everything. And me and him have been actually making tracks, even though I haven't put nothing out yet. It's being able to play those tracks and kind of spread them out have actually helped me get some bigger things too. But yeah, man, it wasn't until Joshua Islow, like Joshua Michaels from San Jose, that really kind of put his... I don't know. He shoved my way into a spot in Seattle called Flammable Sundays.

39:41 That spot is if you're a real house head, it's like church, and it's like a bucket list of any house DJ. I don't know. They've been doing it for 27 years or something like that now. Wow. And yeah, man, he got me a gig to open up for him because I've been trying to get in there forever, but so many people hit them up and i don't think they even listened to my messages at that time like even opened them up but like we became friends and like he was playing a gig i was like hey like you think you can get me in there kidding not kidding and he's like let me see what i can do but once that happened man like it really opened a lot of doors because then after that i got to play like south by southwest like in austin like and and yeah and things yeah around here it's a it's a little different you know like but there's a lot of competition out here oh yeah you know It's like, I'm old now, man.

40:31 No, it's crazy because it's a different thing. Nowadays, back in the days, I had 10 different places I could stay in the city. And also being young and on drugs and everything else, I was staying up all night. I'm not doing that anymore. And driving back from San Francisco to San Jose at 4, 6 a.m. With my head sticking out the window just to stay up, it's not the business anymore. I definitely know those days, man, where you're like, oh, fuck, let's, you got to do the Joker when you're driving. Yeah, you know, and it's like, and it sucks because it's not like I don't want to support anybody. Like, I mean, I, you know, love seeing my friends play. I love, you know, supporting all of them. But it's like, now I got to spend $200 for a hotel if I'm like, you know, I want to go out and go see my homies.

41:18 Well, just the cost of everything is expensive. And also, like, it is one of those things, too, like you were saying, like, if we get older, right, your body gets older, it's harder to stay up. You know you're not doing the fun things that you would do like you know it's different right and there's nothing wrong with that but i think that's the beauty of where we are and in this world because now we have like things like twitch you know you've done it you did a show recently on twitch right yeah like a couple of my friends do their thing on there i don't know why i haven't like jumped on it like but yeah like my friends they do like every other thursday pork and beats my buddy joshua josh hausa and notorious pig and then my buddy cj larson he just recently moved out to Chicago but man that that boy like CJ what's up man like his spot like when he was still in the city like in Daly City man like.

42:08 He every one set up i've ever seen it just clowns like he he's doing it right how happy for him he's out back in chicago he does a show on monday nights and he's actually been kind of picking up things here and there like he just did like a saturday morning thing for viva because that's one cool thing you know people that do like their regular shows they can kind of like you know pawn it off to like somebody else to like fill in or you know be part of them but they can do it via their house rather than having to go travel and you know whatever so So yeah, no, that, like that part's actually kind of cool. You're connected always, right? Like there's always a way to see people support in different ways now. Right. So, you know, we are going to wrap up soon, but I know you got, so you have a gig coming up that we want to talk about.

42:49 You don't really do too many gigs anymore, but this is one of your bigger ones of, of late, I guess you would say. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I said, yeah. I mean, I'm not playing that much now that like, I actually have my own equipment because I've had CDJs, but like thousands. So if you know that, I don't know how many of you are burning CDs anymore, but I know it's a pain and I don't blame you because I don't do it even though I had them. But yeah, no, I'm going to start doing my own thing pretty soon. I got like a couple of friends I've been talking to and, you know, I bought some QSC speakers and some, you know, some, yeah, I bought some CJs like two weeks ago. So, you know, that's part of the thing too. It's like, you know, like having your own equipment, you kind of have to like involve people. Sometimes you don't want to involve, you know, and not that you don't like them or anything, but like people feel very entitled if you're using their equipment that, okay, well, I got to play too.

43:38 And you're involving people you don't really want to. So now it's like, I'm going to do my own thing. Sure. Which then leads us into your Halloween event, right? Are you headlining or no? Yeah. Okay. So where is this at? When is it? And where can our audience buy tickets? it's Nevada City at the Fern. My boy, Jesse James, he's a cat that's been in the Sacramento scene for God, ages, man. Like he's a good cat. And I mean, the scene has been like always thriving, but he was definitely a staple in there to like help get it to where it is now. Him and his girl recently got a place out there in Nevada City. So they're trying to, you know, move the scene up there and do some stuff. So yeah, I haven't played for him a while for a while, so I'm really excited.

44:18 That's going to be on October 19th. Yeah, again, at the Fern in Nevada City with Jesse James, Aunt Jackie, and Mr. Anderson. I've never played with them. I've heard a lot of good things about them, though, so... Yeah, and it's a costume party too. So, yeah, probably going to see a lot of my old Sacramento friends. And I haven't seen most of them besides Jesse since before COVID. Oh, wow. Yeah. Less than a region. Is there a cost to get in? Do we have that information? Yeah, we do. And it is, no, no, I don't see nothing. So, it looks like it's free. Okay. Well, let's say tentatively. $5 cover. $5? Yeah, $5 cover, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Five bucks, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

45:01 You go there and you mention Uncle Dad, I'll buy you a drink, though. I hope that's true. No, I will stick to that. Okay. Yeah, so go to the show, tell Uncle Dad sent you, say, hey, Drew, I know Uncle Dad, he's a bitch. And he'll get you two shots. No, no, he won't do that, but he'll get you a beer at least. No, they got to say Uncle Dad gives good foot massages. No. You know what I'm going to do right there? I'm going to bleep that so they'll have no idea what you said. That'll make it better oh yeah then they can like wonder exactly exactly what did i really say, drew it's always a good time hanging out with you man really thank you for bringing that mix that was a lot of fun i guess is there anything else you want to like shoot out shout out there anything else you want to promote or do you just want to tell them how to connect with you.

45:46 Yeah like yeah just feel free to follow me on instagram that's like what i'm on there the most i'm trying to do some more things like especially getting more mixes out there now i just bought myself a recorder two days ago so now i have my cdjs and then the turntables hooked up and a new mixer i'm gonna start pounding out stuff so there's tons of stuff on like soundcloud also oh man what's the other one mix mix cloud yes yeah you could just type up drew deep two words d-r-u-d-e-e-p and yeah we're gonna start i'm gonna start also putting up some of the old shows, from the loop that's yeah that's the name of my show i don't think i've said that but yeah it's It's called The Loop Mondays, noon to 3 p.m.

46:28 At least for this semester, it kind of ranges, you know, depending after reapply, even though I've been there for like 16 years or so, like you still got to apply every, you know, semester and, you know, sometimes they move me around, but yeah, I'll be there. Awesome, man. Yeah. Go check him out. He's a good, he's a good local guy. You know, I think, and this is what I'm trying to do with this show. You know, Drew, you said you listened to the last episode and with Laser Tears, you know, it's, it's all, all ranges, all ranges, all people, all walks of life. It's the same concept as Uncle Dad Talks, but we're bringing it into the world of DJing. Because I feel like there's so many great DJs out there that don't get enough love and respect and just hear their stories. And your journey is different than everybody's, right? Laser Tears' journey was different. Everybody's journey is different.

47:10 And so I'm just very excited to keep this show going. And thank you for being a part of number two. Uncle Dad's Mix and Mingle. So please go follow him. And I guess without further ado, what's up? I just thought right now, because we're talking about my first partner thing. So yeah, it's been 30 years last month that I've been DJing. Wow. Damn. So we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of you then. Yeah, that's nuts. I mean, actually, so you know what? Let's rephrase this episode. It's Uncle Dad's Mix and Mingle, the celebration of 30 years of Drew Deep. Yeah. Everybody take care. We'll see you all.