Jerry Dávila: Block & Crown, Funky House, and Global Festival Highlights on the On Location Sessions at ADE 2023 10/18/23

Jerry Dávila: Block & Crown, Funky House, and Global Festival Highlights

In this exciting Virtual Session from Amsterdam Dance Event 2023, The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce sits down with Mexican DJ and producer Jerry Dávila, half of the internationally recognized duo Block & Crown. Known for their dominance in funky house and nu-disco, Jerry shares insights into the duo’s journey, global performances, and their prolific output that has made them one of the most sought-after names in house music today.

Jerry reflects on the energy of ADE, describing it as an essential gathering for DJs and producers to network, learn, and showcase their sound. He highlights Block & Crown’s unique approach to label management, with multiple imprints each specializing in a specific tempo and style, ensuring consistency and clarity for DJs and fans alike. Their philosophy is simple but effective: create tracks with strong intros and outros that are easy to mix, making them accessible for both emerging DJs and seasoned professionals.

The conversation dives into Jerry’s performance highlights, from Singapore and Ibiza to Bahrain and beyond, including a dream-come-true appearance at Pacha and Ushuaïa. Looking ahead to 2024, Jerry explains their focus on expanding nu-disco and radio-friendly productions to reach wider audiences, competing alongside global pop artists while maintaining house music’s integrity.

With over 300 tracks released in a single year, Jerry emphasizes the importance of hard work, investing in studio equipment, and maintaining professionalism by avoiding distractions during sets. His passion and dedication showcase why Block & Crown remain at the forefront of funky house worldwide.

Show Notes –

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Jerry Dávila (Block & Crown)
Location: ADE – Amsterdam, Netherlands
 

Overview:
Darran Bruce speaks with Jerry Dávila about Block & Crown’s funky house philosophy, ADE’s importance, prolific output, and performances across the globe.

Topics Covered:

• ADE as a hub for networking, learning, and showcasing music 
• Origins and philosophy of Block & Crown’s funky house and nu-disco sound 
• Managing multiple labels with clear styles and tempos for consistency 
• Producing tracks with intros and outros for easy mixing by DJs worldwide 
• Over 300 tracks released in a single year with partner Audrey 
• Performance highlights in Singapore, Ibiza, Pacha, Ushuaïa, and Bahrain 
• Goals for 2024 focusing on nu-disco and radio-friendly productions 
• Competing in global markets alongside pop artists like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande 
• Achievements on Traxsource and Beatport charts 
• Advice for DJs: invest in studio equipment and avoid alcohol while performing 
• Philosophy on testing tracks live and learning from audience feedback 
• Vision of maintaining funky house’s presence while pushing into mainstream radio 

Call to Action:
Follow Block & Crown on Instagram @blockandcrown and stream their music on Beatport, Traxsource, and Spotify.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ sessions on location sessions coming to you from ADE Yes, that’s Amsterdam and I’m sitting here right now with my good friend coming in all the way from Mexico City But you got another house down in Texas yours all over the world, right?

[Jerry Davila]
Well, we come from Puebla Mexico Mexico Mexico.

[Darran]
Well, it’s Jerry da la Davila Davila Davila But that’s okay, that’s okay From around the world. What did you what what got you here? What brought you to Amsterdam this year?

[Jerry Davila]
Well, I think ADE is a huge Event and every DJ every producer has to be here. We learn from from everybody We do a lot of networking here and interviews like this one.

[Darran]
I think every ADE Got something special for every artist Absolutely, I mean it was our first year here last year and I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of artists being backstage hanging out The party and that can be a lot of fun Speaking of parties you have an event going on tonight.

[Jerry Davila]
Tell us about that Tomorrow and is it tomorrow and tonight is going to be the party with VIP records okay, we need some tracks with VIP records and We have the invitation around here Jesus We have the invitation for for tonight That’s gonna be a escape is escape escape looks escape the locks escape the locks and It’s going to be huge Tonight 11 p.m. 11 30. I’m going to play 11 30 p.m Awesome.

[Darran]
Well, you know, we definitely like getting out there and seeing the action in the city of Amsterdam How beautiful it is to have over what a quarter million people over four or five days.

[Jerry Davila]
It just goes crazy Crazy more than 1,000 events.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Jerry Davila]
Yep.

[Darran]
Absolutely Just it’s the place to be and I think that you know I put a post on my socials the other day said to go hang out with the top of the top And be with hundreds of thousands of top of the top, you know You’re right if you’re a moment at the same moment and if you’re not I don’t want to look down on anyone and say oh, you’re not at 80. You’re nobody But if you are somebody you have to 80 you come to me You got to come to 80 and network. I’m speaking in networking block and crown.

Tell us all about block and crown.

[Jerry Davila]
Well Here it is block and crown our new project our new project. We have some years with block and crown and Thank You DJ Mac for this for this post In the magazine of in the official magazine of ADE Well, it’s a project of funky house music. We love we did a lot of interviews about what music do I like?

I like house music but a funky house music has really something special. So we produce and undo Funky house music and new disco music and recover all the music from the past bringing to the future with a Fresh beats and you have nine labels that you work with here. I mean Those are our labels we Put every different kind of music inside funky house in one of each Label for instance, we do music 110 BPM.

So it goes to Air h2 or for instance hard copy is the the the most hard music inside the Funky house in that way people who buys that music out of a track source or beat board or any platform Know that that specific label label has a sound Absolutely, otherwise you look like crazy this guy produce fast music and slow music

[Darran]
You know, we were toying with the idea of starting our own label at the DJ sessions as working with Luke from Futuristic polar bears, you know Luke and I were talking about that and it’s it’s still in the works But we’re still deciding what our sound is gonna be like, you know We haven’t determined what that’s gonna be yet and who we’re gonna bring on board if we’re gonna open it up to All artists that can submit or are we just gonna keep it internal with our own producers and produce but you know I’m leaning more towards house.

[Jerry Davila]
I like house music I think this is a very good decision the thing that you’re going to do with with Luke because you have to look What kind of sound do you want in your label? Otherwise, as I said before If you put in in one label different music, no, no one is going to follow you otherwise if super Circus super Circus here is is One of our most famous labels inside Funky house and we have a lot of music from 126 to 128 in that label with certain kind of sounds that people just buy it By looking not hearing the music by looking at it like okay. This is another one should be good That’s good, that’s good and then we produce music Let me tell you about we produce music with a good intro and a good outro To be easy for the DJ’s for the new DJ’s and from the DJ’s who works in an in a restaurant in a bar Not not these with a lot of energy from the club that DJ who works in a restaurant Across the world and can play the track and mix easy So I’ve been in a lot of places Jerry we have 100 tracks from you 200 tracks for you because they’re easy.

[Darran]
Mm-hmm So that means I should start DJing by playing your music.

[Jerry Davila]
Oh, yeah Well, it’s easier than that mix pop music with a small entry with different kind of notes Certain things Now it sounds tell me about some of these world gigs that you have going on that you’re playing around the world Well, we just play in Singapore. We play in Phuket we play in Ibiza. It’s my first time that I played this summer last summer in Pacha it was like Something that that I had to achieve in my in my life But a visa Pacha has something really special and I had the opportunity to play there.

People were crazy Amazing night. I was Fell in love with Pacha That it still is on my bucket list to make it to Ibiza. Also, I play in Ushuaia.

Okay, we play in Bahrain Bahrain Yeah, Middle East. It is a different different market. But yeah Really amazing.

[Darran]
What can we expect coming out in 2024? From your labels. What would we expect to hear?

What would you focus on more? What sound are you gonna be looking to focus on more you are you feeling anything hitting the ground running now

[Jerry Davila]
Well being at ADE and saying we’re gonna lean towards this because because we came from EDM And we reduced the speed to funky house now We also reduce a little bit more the speed to new disco and I think new disco Is easier to hear it on radio and if you hit it on radio You hit in life and from that point you can do whatever you want.

Mm-hmm to become to become Your sound more popular you have to hit their radio. Mm-hmm. You have to compete with pop music.

You have to compete with Justin Bieber Doing doing house doing house. You have to compete with Ariana Grande. You have to Jason Derulo, but Doing house music what happens when Justin Bieber starts doing house music well Well, Justin Bieber is pop music But because the important of the artist everyone every radio station put Justin Bieber.

Mm-hmm. So to be in that list You have to have Certain kind of music that you can play in in a restaurant Without being annoyed like okay that that sounds so What I want to do with this 24 is to hit that market and from that market Be love. Okay, that sounds like a plan and it does that also because most of your DJ says, okay, I like hard Well, I’m going to do psytrance.

I’m going to do Hardstyle, I’m going to do fast music. I want to do big shows with a lot of energy. Okay, and What kind of what kind of people are going to listen Your tracks how many people are you want to be on radio?

No, no in every country It’s difficult to get those those countries if you know Go slowly. Mm-hmm.

[Darran]
The exam the clearest example is Calvin Harris in USA Definitely definitely speaking of top DJs top artists You’re trying to aspire to be one of the top 100 DJs in the world Tell us about that journey and and what that looks like what the processes of trying to to get on to that list well Actually, well now we have a lot of Achievements on track source on beat board.

[Jerry Davila]
We have a lot of tracks on the list according to beat stats who measures the DJs We are top number one funky house DJ in the world Congratulation, thank you very much, but we still working like we don’t have nothing. Mm-hmm We still working focus working every day doing six tracks a week six new tracks This is you or you in the team. This is me and Audrey who is my my business partner who is part of the this this name block and crown and Yeah, we both release six tracks a week you both really six tracks, that’s twelve tracks a week

[Darran]
Six tracks a week together together and That’s 24 tracks a month or is that two or one thousand one thousand five hundred tracks so far

[Jerry Davila]
More than 300 tracks more than 300 tracks only this year

[Darran]
How you sound like me in interviews last year when I was like doing almost like 250 interviews last year

[Jerry Davila]
That’s a lot of track. That’s a lot of track. That’s a lot of track And I think and I think if we try a lot we can we have more opportunity.

It’s like buying tickets for a lottery Yeah, absolutely.

[Darran]
Well, you have that phenomenal studio at your house that I got to see once Interview I’d like to get another virtual well-timed time. Yeah, absolutely. We’d love to come down and check that out You know, is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions DJ sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Jerry Davila]
Yes I think As you start with this interview ADE is a huge platform Huge huge opportunity to come here and see what people is is doing in life To become successful on the other hand if you are a DJ who are getting money out of the geeks Invest in your studio you say it invest in your studio and things are going to be easier Because you have better speakers. You have better players. You have better sets and the other thing very important is Don’t drink doing your set Don’t drink.

I personally don’t drink alcohol. I never drink alcohol Mm-hmm. I’m a weird guy.

I never drink alcohol, but if you don’t drink Your set is going to be in the same mood from the from the beginning to the end people who lost in the alcohol is The set is going to be like that and no one is going to take that guy seriously, even though he’s doing the rest correctly

[Darran]
I’ve seen some backstage Stage performances before people drank before they went on stage and then it wasn’t pretty

[Jerry Davila]
Yeah, it wasn’t pretty this is in my personal opinion personal opinion

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely.

[Jerry Davila]
Where can people find out more information about you and what you got going on? Well, I have an Instagram blog and crown Facebook blog and crown website blog and crown and Yeah, listen our music and tell us We love the feedback we been in Singapore we’ve been in Hong Kong We’ve been in a lot of places and they say a Jerry we have a lot of your tracks We love your music. This track is especially good this track I don’t like this track because you you you did you don’t fall you Didn’t have the enough respect to that track and it’s also it’s good to know In what do we fail?

[Darran]
Well, it’s always great to get feedback especially from your peers or what works Of course might not work what works somewhere might not work elsewhere. Of course, you know I’m sure you you get out there and maybe even tonight you’ll test out a few tracks on the crowd Yeah, they’ve never heard before and and see what their feedback is and see if they go crazy again Where is that tonight?

[Jerry Davila]
You’re gonna be at club escape escape the looks tonight 11 30 p.m. See you here at 80 e Today is Wednesday 18 of October see you tonight first day first day at 80 e.

[Darran]
We’re super excited to be here Thank you again for coming on the show Jerry. Always a pleasure. We’ll get another virtual interview with you here Thank you very welcome to our studio.

Absolutely. I’m looking forward to coming down there Pueblo, right? Well, I play well one hour from Mexico City.

So it’s one hour. Yeah one hour drive or one hour plan one hour drive Okay, one hour drive. I’m coming down.

[Jerry Davila]
Of course.

[Darran]
All right. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show again Thank you very much.

You’re welcome On that note, don’t forget to go to our website the DJ sessions calm find us on X Instagram tick-tock Everywhere out there is all of we’re on all the socials Just go to our website the DJ sessions calm over 600 news stories a month Exclusive interviews with like this guy right here Jerry and you know coming to you from 80 e this is Darran and Jerry from block and crown For 80 e and remember on the DJ sessions the music never stops never