Eric Sharp on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 5/11/22

Darran: Welcome back to the DJ sessions, where we feature the best producers, DJs, and all around people from the electronic music industry from around the world. I’m your host, Darren. And right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in all the way from sunny LA. At least it looks like it’s sunny out there because it’s sunny here.

 

Darran: We have Eric Sharp on the other end. How are you doing today, Eric? How are you doing? I’m great. You know, I want to dive right into some stuff. You are not just a DJ, a producer, a remixer and songwriter. You’re also a wellness enthusiast. I’d like to know a little bit more about that wellness enthusiast.

 

Eric: Yeah, that’s a, that’s probably my secondary passion underneath music. Um, it’s something that I really got into when I hit 30. I decided that it would be a lot easier for me to create a very fit body and maintain it. Then it would be the try and play catch up in my forties 56. So I spent some time doing a lot of yoga and then I hit a plateau with that and started running and I was doing yoga and running together for awhile.

 

Eric: And then, uh, late thirties, I started strength training maybe when I was 35. And that was just revolutionary for me that not only got me in the best physical shape of my life, but also helped my mental health a ton. So I’m not just a physical wellness enthusiast. Mental health has also been a passion of mine for a very long time.

 

Eric: Um, and so, yeah, and I tried to fuse that into the messaging in the platform I’m building through my musical pursuits. That’s a huge goal of mine is to use the leverage and to use the platform and network that I’m building to have conversations about this and, you know, um, encourage people to take care of their body mind.

 

Eric: The

 

Darran: thing I love so much about that is in, and it was around mid 2020 that I realized actually it was before that, when we first started doing our silent disco, silent concert events, I started putting on events on my own. And as you know, in the nightlife industry, Primarily doors open at 10. It’s usually at a nightclub or venue.

 

Darran: There’s usually alcohol being served here, usually out till 2, 3, 4 the next day, sometimes the next afternoon. And you know, it can start to take a toll on the body. And one of the things I like to do when I shifted our events is I started doing early evening events, like six to 10, um, on the weekends, when we started doing our silent concerts, they worked from 11 to three or 12 to four in the afternoon.

 

Darran: There were family friendly. Um, you know, we didn’t have a bar set up. I mean, people can bring their own stuff they wanted to because we’re doing this at parks, but typically I look at it as more. Healthy music experience something I could do during the afternoon. Not that I’m getting old and I can’t party anymore.

 

Darran: I’m 48, but you know, I just liked it. I’m not out till four in the morning anymore. I’m getting home at five in the morning after cleaning up all my gear and then falling asleep and waking up at 9:00 AM getting three, four hours of sleep. And I just wasn’t conducive to the lifestyle of the productive, this that I wanted to be.

 

Darran: So one of the cool things was, is that we looked at is in 2020 when everything was going on. And then we were doing these silent concerts, kind of came out late 2020 is, you know, you think silent disco, silent concert music. But I noticed I had an open channel and people were not getting out of the house.

 

Darran: There was nowhere to go. So came up with the concept of using one of our third or fourth channels and putting on guided meditation and workouts, even like low level workout. Like the first hour would be low-level workout the medium level workout, then heavy workout, and then maybe a cool-down back to that beginning workout, but with guided meditation and can people go choose wherever they wanted to go a thousand feet away from us and still have that instruction going on in a collaborative environment.

 

Darran: So I really I’m I’m with you on that wellness program of bringing that to the electronic music environment. I think it’s a needed thing because it is so go to the bar, get your drinks, pound your shots party all night, rinse wash, repeat

 

Eric: so many artists. Their entire brand is the bender. And it’s really, it makes me sad, but so I just want to say Bravo to you for creating that.

 

Eric: That’s amazing. And I aspire to towards.

 

Darran: And I also noticed that, um, food is important to you. Are you a bit of a chef? Are you constantly, are you a culinary, uh, fan of the culinary arts or, cause I came across an article and you were talking about, let me get it here, where the term turn up the beets. And I was reading that article on you.

 

Darran: And I just, I didn’t know if this was, you know, your eyes, there’s a picture of you standing from the stove. So gas range, by the way, I, when I lived in LA, I got addicted to gas ranges. By the way, here we got electric. Uh, yeah, totally better. But I was just wondering if this was your recipe or you have special recipes or are you a foodie at

 

Eric: all?

 

Eric: I am a bit of a foodie, although I have to give credit to my partner for that because she was so helpful putting that together. Um, but no, I do. I’ve been, I’ve eaten a vegan diet for a number of years now. Let me see, I want to say 23 years. So to do that in a healthy way, you have to cook. And now, especially as inflation has gone crazy, uh, we are, we buy as much vegetables as we can from the farmer’s market.

 

Eric: So they’re fresh and local, and we try to prepare as much food ourselves from scratch as possible. And again, I mean, she’s very prolific at that and an incredible cook. I am not at her level, but I do, I do enjoy experimenting and trying things and making things for us.

 

Darran: I, I literally got back from the grocery store last night.

 

Darran: And my, my, I did my monthly stock up, looked at the bottom of my receipt and I was like, what? This is this, this is like probably 30, 40% higher. I felt that than what it normally was. And, uh, you know, uh, I made dinner for my, my partner, my girlfriend, the other night and handout. She likes to cook and made me wonderful.

 

Darran: We like to cook back and forth too. I’m a huge foodie. If you go to my Tik TOK, I would think all I have is me making food right now. Cause tic Tacs are like really cool. I’m into it. I try and understand it and get it. I know all the kids

 

Eric: get it. Yeah. I’m struggling with it a little bit. I mean, I post stuff on there.

 

Eric: I just the same content that I post on Instagram reels that does really, really well, just doesn’t seem to hit on Tik TOK. And also I think I just don’t have the consistency cause I can’t post everything. I post on Instagram on Tik TOK, everything doesn’t cross formats. Uh, I just the frequency that people seem to need to post on Tik TOK to gain traction.

 

Eric: It’s like 2, 3, 4 per day. And that’s just a lot of putting themselves out there. So hats off if you’re running that game. Great. I feel like I need to be more present on that platform and I’m just like,

 

Darran: Uh, we were talking about a pre-show, you know, we mentioned, I mentioned, hello, Wolfie. Uh, I got to give Arjun and the guy that team of plug, because it definitely changed my life after using all the tools and Tik TOK is one of the integrated platforms along with Instagram.

 

Darran: So if you can pop it in there, the one thing I noticed though, is Tik TOK only allows you to do 150 characters, almost like the old Twitter days, when it was built off the text messaging platform, you are going, you only put 140 characters in there. So that’s kind of a little annoying because you’ve run out of hashtags really quickly.

 

Darran: And, you know, you want to reach that with hashtags where Instagram will let you put 30 hashtags and it gets a little bit more, you know, uh, on the word side of things, but hello, Wolfie, there’s my plug, right? Yeah. And

 

Eric: also with Tech-Talk, um, there’s not really a need for captions. That’s one of the differences about it is it’s a native sound on platform.

 

Eric: So you’re generally you’re explaining or you’re cashing it in the video. So almost always underneath it’s. Almost exclusively hashtags with maybe like a tiny little blurb, which is very different from what you would do on Instagram, because a lot of people are scrolling and don’t have the sound

 

Darran: and Instagram doesn’t allow links either.

 

Darran: Correct? Yeah. Which is kind of like,

 

Eric: okay. I mean, if that’s met his whole thing, they want to keep you in their ecosystem forever, completely distracted and going down rabbit holes until you die because you haven’t eaten.

 

Darran: Well, switching gears here a little bit, you have been playing in a very amazing nightclub.

 

Darran: I heard one of the best nightclubs. I was looking it up last week and an interview I was doing with a couple of guys by go by party shirt. And they were talking about sound nightclub. And I thought that I had visited sound in the past, but it wasn’t sound like it might’ve been sound like love, but so many nightclubs in LA and it was years ago.

 

Darran: So who knows it’s still there, but tell us what it’s been like playing a sound, a nightclub over these years.

 

Eric: It’s an amazing venue. It’s. I love the size of the room. I think the legal cap is around 600. Uh, you can stuff a little bit more in there, but that’s, there’s not a lot of those mid-size venues in Los Angeles.

 

Eric: You have little dive bars and then you have enormous. There’s a couple of big clubs, but then it’s like theaters and, uh, you know, arena type things. So there’s not a lot of kind of mid-size rooms. And it’s just the it’s tuned incredibly well there. Like it’s, it’s a cliche, but it’s named sound for a reason.

 

Eric: It sounds incredible in there. So, uh, their curation is very top-notch. I want to just rattle off a few of the artists I’ve played with there over the years. It’d be dirty south Hotson Sadie to kidnap Georgia and Julie, um, Yon Blomquist. It just, it Felix, the house cat, holy ghost. So like this wide range of incredible house and house adjacent talent, and they do some techno, they do some, they used to do a little more like analog disco, less of that right now.

 

Eric: Um, but yeah, it’s been, it’s an amazing experience and the crowd that comes there, and this is really hard to find in LA the crowd that comes there is there to experience the music and dance. A lot of spots in LA. Even if they’re packed, people are there to be seen. They’re there to try to meet their next agent.

 

Eric: That’s going to get them their next acting contract there. It’s just, it’s all this pomp and circumstance. And the music is it’s not quite an afterthought, but it’s not the central part of the experience. And the sound will be low or it’s just, you know, it’s, it’s just not, or, you know, even if. Seems to be built around the music.

 

Eric: A lot of the crowd will be very self-conscious. They don’t want to let themselves go. Cause, I mean, and to be fair, you never know who’s in a room in this city, so, um, you know, you don’t want to act a fool. And so I get that to an extent, but also like if I’m going out dancing, Hey, I think I’m a good dancer.

 

Eric: So I think I look good while I’m dancing, but even if not, like I’m there to experience the music and have a release and have a good time. And so what I will say for sound night club is that is the audience that they have. Uh, it’s an educated audience and it’s also an audience that’s up for experimentation.

 

Eric: So I can go off the beaten path. I can play new things or old things that not everybody knows. And as long as it’s a good track, that hits they’ll go off. So, yeah, it’s great. I mean, I can’t, I can’t speak highly enough about that venue. And then the crew, you know, framework that’s behind it. Uh, they curate the Yuma tenanted at Coachella.

 

Eric: They curate the art of the wild festival in Las Vegas. They do a lot of, um, larger scale outdoor events in Los Angeles. They really bring a lot to the community and bring this, this touch of, I think, kind of refined curation. It’s a little bit more mature. Um, they’re not really generally catering to.

 

Eric: College kids that just discovered, you know, rave music. Um, it’s a little bit more refined. I think it’s a little bit further down the path when people have crossed past the more mainstream EDM and dubstep and you know, the whole thing, that’s kind of the entry point for a lot of people. For me, it was hard house in the nineties, but there’s when you’re a kid, it’s like, you have all this energy, you just want to go.

 

Eric: But then as you get deeper into the music, you become a little, think, a little bit more open to more subtle sounds and they do an awesome job of pushing that and kind of being on the forefront of, of nutrients too, without being like without trend hopping. Um, you know, I think on the more sophisticated side, they’re, they’re incredible about that.

 

Eric: So yeah, it’s been a pleasure to work with those guys over the years and I feel really grateful and proud of the work I’ve done with.

 

Darran: Two artists that you mentioned hot since 82 and Felix, the house cat. I’ll never forget that the first time. It probably wasn’t the first time I heard a hot sense 82 song, but it was a hit and run.

 

Darran: And Anthony Attala had come by our show and he dropped it in the studio. And I walked around from behind, got up on the decks and said, I went to go take a picture of it. He goes, dude, if you want this track, I’ll give it to you. How will forever remember that? And there was a really funny story about how I met Anthony Attala that weekend without knowing it was him.

 

Darran: I was at an after party and, uh, he was playing it and I didn’t know it was him. And he shows up the next day, anyways, Hudson city. Felix house cat kinds of acting back to mind, going back to the early days, he is the only person that had done an interview with that has never aired. We have too much fun that evening.

 

Eric: Okay. Lots of .

 

Darran: There was, I know,

 

Darran: yeah, there were a few bottles of petrol and a few bottles of tequila and it was like 4:00 AM in the green room, VIP room of a club up here in Seattle. And yeah, I was, uh, it was, it was a good time, a good guys, good people. But, um, you know, we’re here to talk about you. And one of the things I want to talk with you about is your latest EAP emergent, and I was an emergency EAP or emergency P tell us a little bit about the pro or what inspired you to make that and what is emergency.

 

Eric: Yeah. Uh, well, what inspired me to make a body of work and release it as an EAP and also in the titling of the EDP it’s coming out of, you know, a couple of years of not very productive time for dance music. Um, you know, the lockdowns were definitely. Crushing for me from a mental health standpoint, from a career standpoint, uh, everything just stopped in a day.

 

Eric: You know, I had months of work, uh, you know, DJ gigs lined up that just poof gone and the bottom fell out of everything. And, um, I know that a lot of people did some good work during the lockdown. So I don’t even like talking about this stuff anymore. Cause I feel like people are just over it, but like some people really embraced the online streaming and, you know, kept releasing music.

 

Eric: And for me, so much of what drives me in this is live performance that I just, it just didn’t make sense. I just didn’t see that. Why would I put a record out that no one can hear on a dance floor? You know, even though like, yeah. People could maybe hear it on a stream. I don’t know. I just like, it’s those things like for me, the music production and the live performance and dancing, it all is so.

 

Eric: Like inextricably linked for me that it just didn’t feel right to me. It’s like I’ve done more online stream stuff since things have reopened than I did during. Um, so coming out of that, I wanted to, you know, I’ve evolved a lot as an artist. It’s not like I didn’t stop growing during the, the quarantines, but, um, I just stopped pushing music out there.

 

Eric: So I wanted to take a step forward and, um, bring together a couple of. Disparate elements of production that I had focused on over the years when I first started making music, I was just making club bangers. So it was like, uh, you know, find some cheeky sample, make some cool jumps in a baseline, in some sense, throw it, toss it all in a blender, you know, build up whatever, you know, whatever was the in Vogue at that moment.

 

Eric: Um, and so the first couple of years I was releasing music was just straight up like pretty straight ahead, just club bang or DJ tools. And then I decided to pivot away from that and to stop focusing on that and to start focusing on music production as a craft, as a mode of creative expression. And I started getting really interested in creating everything from scratch.

 

Eric: So, you know, not sampling at all, writing everything, myself, focusing on how to compose core progressions, how to write melodies. And then really once I started to. Meet some vocalists that I felt were talented and I would be excited to work with focusing in, on songwriting. So sitting in on sessions with them.

 

Eric: And there was an evolution from that to where, like I first started just producing instrumentals and then would do the thing where I would send it to someone and they would come up with an idea and send it back. And that worked, but found myself releasing some music that didn’t make sense with who I am as a person, uh, and just didn’t track with my life story and with my experience.

 

Eric: And so that’s when I got more hands on about the actual songwriting process and the lyric creation and the vocal melody production. Um, and so spent some time just kind of honing that and going down that lane and that those, those records are a little bit more indie dance. I mean, there are four on the floor, but.

 

Eric: They’re not tracks like the originals. I would rarely play in a DJ set. And I just figured, like, I’m going to leave the creative constraint of the dance floor behind and just write. And if I want a version of this for the dance floor, I’ll leave to remix it myself or get some mastery make sense. So there’s a number of VPs floating around that I released that are kind of in that vein.

 

Eric: And then, so now it’s been, how do I bring those things together? How do I compose, how do I write harmonies, melodies, chord, progressions, and songwriting in a format that’s going to work, uh, in the club and work well in the club. Like, uh, cause I just was like, I want to make things that I also want to play again.

 

Eric: Um, cause I had gotten away from that and it was a conscious choice, but so in terms of the creative process for crafting and constructing these tracks, like that’s, it’s, it’s a fusion of, of those threads and springing them together into a new tapestry. Um, So I don’t think I nailed it 110%. Perfect. Uh, I think if I could do it again, there’s a track.

 

Eric: I would use less of the vocals in, um, but they all work, you know, there’s, these are tracks, I’m not playing every one of them in my DJ sets and they’re getting great responses so that that’s. That’s an accomplishment for me, you know, and there’s definitely room to grow there. Um, each track kind of has its own arc, um, like water, which was the lead single, and it’s the one that’s gotten the best response and it’s been received the best.

 

Eric: Um, that was, I initially wrote that in the kind of more indie dance, songwriting composition phase. Uh, I composed, uh, I’ve may end up putting it out as a chill version, but I compose like a very melodic, very chill track and then got in the studio with Sonia, goes by HARO and we wrote the song aspect of it.

 

Eric: And it was really cool because Sonia and I have a lot in common, she’s definitely really focused in the mental wellness community. She does meditation, retreats, breath, work, this kind of thing. And so we really had like a lot of synergy. And so when we’re bouncing lyrical ideas off each other, it was just like, it just flowed and it just made a lot of sense.

 

Eric: And so that one started there and then. Uh, you know, I sort of reproduced the whole thing when I decided what direction I wanted to go with the EAP. Um, you know, with the more hard hitting drums and the, you know, the more club focused production style and, uh, and the arc of the song itself. Um, the gifts, uh, kind of started in a similar way.

 

Eric: Uh it’s that I did with a vocalist named Chao, who I write with a lot, and I actually hit him up during the quarantines to do something remotely because I, I figured because we had a good rapport and we’d written a lot together and be a little bit easier for me to write with him versus trying to write, because the digital thing and writing is weird to me, I’m a little bit woo.

 

Eric: But I think there’s a magic when you get in the room with someone, particularly in a creative endeavor, there’s just like this energy, that flies back and forth. And so I hit him up and he was like, I think he was maybe similarly effective. I was going, he was like, I can’t write songs right now. And I was like, disappointed, but.

 

Eric: I got it. I was like, okay, I respect that. And then out of nowhere, he sends me this, uh, this spoken word arrangement, like I think like a month later. And so this is a recent one where I didn’t write the lyrics, but it’s, I resonated with them so much. I was like, I want to bring this to light. So that’s kind of where that started.

 

Eric: And similarly, like, you know, I had kind of a sketch composition I made and then really refined it into more of a dance floor, anthemic kind of, um, vibe. And then, um, with Lauren, Shawn, that one we wrote a long time ago and the demo version will never see the light of the day for that, because this is really different from where I’m at now, but I could never get the production.

 

Eric: Right. Uh, it just took. I, I honestly, he did such an amazing vocal performance and just like hit it so hard and so aggressive. And it took me several years for my production skills to catch up to where I could produce a track that, um, would compliment that vocal. And I that’s the one, I don’t know if I a hundred percent nailed it, but it was good enough to at least release into the world.

 

Eric: And

 

Darran: are you a classically trained, did you go to school for production or is this just something you jumped into and started learning on

 

Eric: your own? No, I’m, self-taught a group playing guitar and trumpet, so I have some music theory background, um, but, and I only recently. In the last eight months, took two production classes at IO academy here in Los Angeles.

 

Eric: And, uh, I’m a little ashamed to say that those are the first production classes I’ve taken. I really have done a lot of this on hardwood, like refusing to sample. I like, I think that’s a noble pursuit and it’s been nice that like all my tracks that have done really well have been things I’ve written every part of.

 

Eric: And at the same time, you know, I’ve been leapfrogged by so many people who just like grab it already popular hook and loop it and sample it. And so I, you know, and so similarly I think, you know, teaching myself everything, you know, and I learned from it like other people I collaborated with or like engineers that I would sit in with.

 

Eric: But, um, Yeah. I probably learned more about production tricks in the last eight months than I did in the first 10 years, because it’s like the learning curves in saying, I don’t know what, like, why I think I have to do everything myself. But, um, so yeah, but no. So I have a little bit of, you know, I’m, I’m not classically trained on piano, but I do understand music theory from the guitar and trumpet.

 

Eric: Um, and that’s kind of, my foundation for chord structure would be guitar and then kind of melody, um, feel comes from my trauma training. And

 

Darran: are you, are you a hardware producer, software producer or both? Yes.

 

Eric: Yeah, like I don’t have, um, I don’t have my own studio with a bunch of analog gear. Um, I just got the Ableton push prior to that I’ve been using just like a really simple Berenger, uh, 24 key mini controller and a lot of what I write, I write out at proper studios that have, you know, I’ve used Juno stands and Mo’s, and, um, you know, a lot of other.

 

Eric: A lot of other fun stuff over the years. So, um, you know, modular. Boxes with patch, cables, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. I

 

Darran: saw you breaking out that new abled and toy out of the box. You mentioned it was the Ableton push you just got. Yeah. How long were you eyeballing that before you actually decided to get it?

 

Eric: Well, we had them at Iowa academy, so while I was there, I really got comfortable with the workflow in it. And so when this last, uh, when this last quarter ended, I was like, I gotta have it.

 

Darran: Nice. And do you, do you have a dog? Do

 

Eric: you have pets? No. I had a cat that I was like, so in love with, and she passed last summer.

 

Eric: Yeah. That’s such a power. I didn’t realize how close you get to companion animals until, until Mrs. Mayo came into my life. She was a really, really special cat, but I, I dog sit a little bit. So you might see some pictures in my stories of me hanging out with, with dogs. I have a couple of friends that have pit bulls and they tend to get asked to watch them.

 

Eric: And I love pets. They’re like. You know, if they’re training while they’re the sweetest, like most friendly kind of dogs

 

Darran: and our pets allowed in the studio with you, when you’re there, did they help create a sense of creativity for you or calmness in any way?

 

Eric: Yeah. I mean, I love animals, so, uh, I, again, I, I, right now I don’t have pets.

 

Eric: So when I’m making music at my spot, no, but if I’m, you know, if I’m out of the studio and there’s a studio, cut, bring it. I love them. You know, they mean they, they definitely. Calm me down and help me focus and just bring joy, you know, and I think bringing joy into a studio session is never about trying to make like dark, you know, new way or, or which house or something.

 

Eric: I don’t want the happy vibes.

 

Darran: What are three things? Uh, three major things that create inspiration for you.

 

Eric: Um, visual surrealist, visual art is a huge one for me. Dolly is definitely an inspiration for my handlebar. So that would be one. I would say like live performances is a huge one. Like when I have a good performance and I get to rock a dance floor for an extended period, I just feel so uplifted and inspired.

 

Eric: And so I tend to take that into the studio with me. And then I would just say the third one is my life experience, and this is something I don’t know, it gets enough burn. I think that as you grow as a person and you, you gain more experience, you gain more perspective. I just think it, it, it deepens your emotional toolbox that you can tap into in a studio.

 

Eric: And I think a lot of times we’re, we’re really obsessed with you and our culture. We’re really obsessed with new. And so it’s like, who’s the next new big producer. And like, I see the, you know, we like shiny things. I see the appeal in that, but I think we downplay how important experience is from a live standpoint as well as from a production standpoint.

 

Eric: So, you know, I think that like my life experience is a massive wealth of inspiration that I draw from, particularly when I song. Right. Um, but also in terms of like, you know, how I’m feeling the music. So, yeah, I think that those would be my, my top three would be like surrealist art imagery, my life experience, and then just, yeah.

 

Eric: Live performances.

 

Darran: And you mentioned earlier that you start you, was it at an early age that you were playing the trumpet and the guitar? Or is that something you like, how early of an age did you start that? And what was the motivation for you to pursue a career in music after you kind of said, oh, I know the guitar, I know the trumpet, I’m going to dive in into this per DJ and producing thing.

 

Darran: What was the strongest motivation that you had to to make that jump?

 

Eric: Sure. So trumpet was my first instrument.

 

Darran: I played it in the fifth grade. Yeah. I

 

Eric: think it was around there. I think I took trumpet lessons for like three years. Um, but it was really cool. I had a really cool trumpets. That was more into the jazz side of things, which is, and that definitely influences, like I said, the way that I write melody is like, I like off hits or like, you know, I like borrowing from the next scale over, like, I like to break the music theory rules and the ways that they can be broken the right way.

 

Eric: Um, I like to incorporate that into my productions, um, guitar man, I was like super into grunge, rock and alternative. Uh, you know, a lot of the Seattle sound actually really inspired me when I was an angsty, a young pre-adolescent or you know, just barely adolescent team. So I taught myself to play guitar and I was in some shitty bands and, um, yeah, I, uh, that was a dark time in my life.

 

Eric: And then I, I really got into. Dance music in high school. When the rave scene in new England was just really kind of getting its legs under it. And I knew some of the people involved in the scene, they would, but they wouldn’t let me come to the parties. Uh, I had a major drug and alcohol problem, um, early in high school.

 

Eric: And it’s really funny to me because it, you just wouldn’t think that someone that, I mean, I knew that people that were moving the bulk of like ketamine and ecstasy into new England and they were like, we’re not selling you any of this. We’re not taking you to parties. Cause they were like, we’re not going to be responsible for what happens to you if you get on this stuff.

 

Eric: And I was really fortunate to get sober at 16. So I think at the point I was at, I was either going to get into much harder drugs than I was doing, or I was going to make a change. So, uh, I sobered up and then. That’s when I really, I mean, I was already into the music and I was like, you know, a liquid Todd used to spin live on the radio in Boston, where I grew up on Saturday nights.

 

Eric: And I would just like be in my bedroom, dancing all night to his stuff, like, um, but then I started going out dancing all the time after I got sober. I had like a, you know, a crew of friends that we would go together and kind of like look out for each other and keep each other safe. But we had so much energy.

 

Eric: We just dance all night and that was really. That really solidified my connection to dance music. It was such an uplifting and spiritual experience for me and such a healthy release. And it didn’t matter like what kind of darkness was going on in my life. And there was plenty. Um, I could just get on the dance floor, move my body and just get lost in the music and just feel this sense of oneness with everybody else that was there and with the music and with the universe and just kind of let everything go.

 

Eric: And so that was my connection to music. And I was break dancing. That was my connection to music for awhile. Um, like through college. And then I moved to San Francisco when I graduated college and started going out and the scene was different there. This is right in the thick of like hipsterdom when it was real hipsterdom before it became a trend and a fad and a commodified thing, it was like, You know, it was a pretty small group of like specific people that had a specific style.

 

Eric: And that was kind of like, there was an intersection between the, the house scene in San Francisco and that kind of hipster movement. And so I was going to. And the thing about hipsters at the time is they did not dance. Like no matter what they could be at the best show ever. And they’re standing there with their arms full that maybe not in their head, a tiny bit and approval.

 

Eric: If it’s like the best song they’ve ever heard in their entire life, they were just super stoic. So, uh, I’m going to parties and I’m like digging them. And no one’s dancing. And that was what kind of pushed me into deejaying and organizing shows because I felt like there was this element that had been so important to me, um, that was just missing from the scene there.

 

Eric: And so I wanted to bring that. So I started throwing warehouse parties. I started booking artists that I knew would bring that kind of energy to the dance floor. I built my whole brand around. Like, it was always, you know, like see you on the dance floor. It was like on all of my marketing for my parties.

 

Eric: And, um, yeah. And, and I started DJ. It was all right around the same time I like left, uh, an environmental fundraising job I had been at for a few years and just, you know, bought turntables on a Lark because I got a crazy deal for them on Craigslist. I ended up like selling them. Nine years later when I moved to LA at a profit and that’s like, you know, the kind of steel I got, but, uh, was in the record store, collecting records that became an obsession.

 

Eric: Uh, I fell in love with deejaying right away when I tried it. I mean, I like learned to beat matched from some friends earlier on who were like, you know, bedroom DJs, but then yeah, once I got decks, I was, you know, 6, 7, 8 hours at a stretch, just like, you know, the magic of mixing two trucks together, particularly when you don’t have a sync button, it’s like getting that and making it happen for the first time.

 

Eric: And, you know, figuring out what makes us go all together is just like an awesome journey. Um, and then things just kind of grew from there. My first party was really successful. I had already was junior from Chicago to headline and it was really well attended. And you know, some people saw me spin before Roy and like gave me a residency at this little lounge right away.

 

Eric: And, um, Yeah, things just kinda were plugging along. My parties were growing and then everyone was telling me that I needed to get into the studio and produce music. And I, I resisted it for a while. I resisted a lot of things. Honestly, sometimes I’m just resistant to change. Like I resisted shifting from vinyl to CDJs for as long as I could, until people stopped printing, you know, vinyls.

 

Eric: Um, and I was like, I want to just like, you know, I just want to be a DJ. And then I just saw sealing coming. You know, I knew that even it’s like, it’s not 1994 anymore. I wasn’t going to be able to really build beyond a certain point just as a DJ. And then now I see some people that can do it. I’m very envious.

 

Eric: And like, I think, uh, Jackmaster, isn’t a D just as a label, you know? And it’s like that dude is touring constantly just on the strength of his DJ. And like, I wish I could do that. And like, not from an ego standpoint, but like, I feel like I’m good enough to do that, but it’s just like, The marketing is so difficult if you’re not putting music out, you know, it’s like such a huge touchpoint.

 

Eric: So in part I got in the studio for that reason, um, you know, from a sort of brand building standpoint and I don’t love that. And that’s partially why I made that shift in my trajectory after producing trucks for a couple of years of like, I don’t want to be producing music as a marketing plank. Like I want it to be authentic income from my heart, but, um, Yeah.

 

Eric: And I, and I, and I just like, you know, I picked up and learned a little bits along the way. And then I was, I’ve worked a bunch of different jobs while I was doing all of this. And then I hit a point in like 2010, where both things were kind of bubbling. I was working in a really cool marketing agency in San Francisco called flavor group, um, consulting the car brand Scion, which was a brand of Toyota that is now defunct, but they were sponsoring everything under the sun.

 

Eric: They were like, Toyota’s cool brands. So, and I was like the lead account manager on that. So I was consulting side on, on like what parties to sponsor in the market. And I was like producing events for them. Like if they had a new thing that they were launching, you know, we throw some crazy party with like a huge budget, you know, a bunch of headliners and stuff.

 

Eric: Um, and so, um, I was a little bit of, I was, you know, I had this kind of executive career happening in the, in the cool end of marketing while. I ended up graduating from doing warehouse parties, into doing proper clubs. And I was holding down a residency at temple night club, which the 1200 person spot. And I was doing every Friday night, they’re promoting and deejaying there twice a month.

 

Eric: And I was doing a guest DJ sets out around town and I was starting to play. It’s like I played at symbiosis gathering. I was starting to get some festivals spins and outside lands. And I was launching my own music label that I ran for probably eight or nine years, um, before giving that up. But. Yes. I had all of this going on at once and it just hit a boy and then I was just starting to burn out and I had to make a decision like which path do I take?

 

Eric: And, you know, I’ve kind of always valued freedom and flexibility and adventure more than I’ve valued confidence to deal with. And I really hope that doesn’t bite me in the ass when I try to retire. But, um, it was just pretty clear that like, I wanted to pursue this as, as a career and not just as a hobby.

 

Eric: Um, and yeah, I just kinda got the bug that,

 

Darran: how would you define success as a DJ producer? Would it be a, B port top 10, hit a sold out tour? What are the

 

Eric: things, what are your thoughts on that? For me, it’s the ladder. The tour thing is that’s what I’ve been chasing. And as like, I’ve not been able to make happen.

 

Eric: So of course that’s the one that I fixate on. Right? Like, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve been supporting myself. So. As a DJ since 2010. So it’s been 12 years now that I haven’t had another job and that in and of itself, I think a lot of people look at that and say like, dude, you’re successful. Like that’s, you know, most people can’t do that.

 

Eric: And I hear that. Uh, and for me, it’s like, I just have a bigger goal of reaching more people with my music. And again, like I come from this standpoint of really wanting to effectuate an experience for other people that I had. I just want to like reach people and look them up and, um, you know, and let like some universal life force flows through me, into them.

 

Eric: And so that, that for me is where. I’m hung up on that right now. Of course, like if that happens, it’ll probably be something else because that’s always like how my mind works is I’ll, you know, I’ll, I’ll move to the next thing. Like if you’d ask me from a production standpoint a few years ago, I would’ve said like, oh man, if I could have a track that had, you know, six figure streams on Spotify, that would be amazing.

 

Eric: And now I have a bunch of them and I don’t care. Like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s an accomplishment, but you know, like I don’t think that that has, you know, made any kind of massive shifts for me in my career, which is strange, but I think, actually think it should. And so I don’t know if, as I don’t have the right team to leverage that or what, but, um, you know, so sometimes, uh, there’s no, there, there, and so I wonder if it’s that way with Tori, for me, but it’s because live performance is like my favorite part of all of this that’s really, you know, that’s, that’s the one that I kind of like salivate after, you know?

 

Eric: And I just like, I just want to be like out there, you know, Traveling to different markets and kind of bringing in the good word,

 

Darran: any market in particular that you would want to go to, or a region that you’d want to tour a, is it a US-based tour, European tour, south seas tour, or all of them?

 

Eric: Yeah, I think all of them, um, I kind of wonder if it would be easier for me to break in Europe than in the U S sometimes it seems like there’s a hometown thing that can be really, really hard to break through.

 

Eric: And I ran into that when I was in San Francisco, which is a big part of why I moved to Los Angeles. I just felt. Everybody kind of knew me there and still saw me as the person I was when they met me. Um, and, and so it, it was, you know, I knew a lot of people that were like deep in the music industry. There, it’s not a huge industry in San Francisco.

 

Eric: Right. You had own records. You had a, well, it was blue collar entertainment now, other liaison artists, and you had dirty bird, um, and like naked music as kind of an adjunct of calm. And yeah, just kind of felt like no one really took me seriously as an artist there, you know? Cause they all knew me when I was a flyer.

 

Eric: Right. You know, like before I started throwing my own parties, like I had a job for this company called YBR yellow brick road promotions, like literally like going to venues and handing out flyers all night. And so, um, yeah, so sometimes I wonder like, cause uh, I mean I’ve played some, some really.

 

Eric: Prevalent us festivals, right? Like I’ve played at Coachella outside lands. Life is beautiful. Southwest, Southwest. Uh, I did an after party for decibel festival in your town. Um, you know, so it’s, it’s not like that’s, that’s totally missing, but I’ve not done like the, you know, the grind of like playing and the primary and secondary markets, right?

 

Eric: Like I’ve, I’ve done. One-offs like, I’ve played Seattle, I’ve played Portland. I played Vegas. I’ve played in New York. I’ve played, um, Boston, like, uh, You know, so it’s not that I never play out of town, but I’ve not done like a proper, like, you know, four dates a weekend, you know what I mean, for like a couple of months or a month.

 

Eric: Um, and I sometimes wonder if like, if I could do a tour in Europe, if that would open the U S market to me. Cause I see that happening for a lot of people. So strategically I think you’re, it could be really cool, but also like I love beautiful places. So like, you know, some of the resort areas in Mexico I think would be amazing.

 

Eric: I see what’s going on to loom. I think that’s incredible. Or, um, you know, I love Bali and Thailand. Um, not that I’ve been, but I loved it that you’d like the pictures I see from there. So that like, if I could, you know, if my DJ career could take me to beautiful, like natural places, that would be incredible for me.

 

Eric: And then also like, you know, another thing that’s been a big goal of mine is. This whole wellness thing is kind of taking off, uh, beyond just the DJ world, but we’re seeing these transformational festivals pop up and I’m thinking of like digital festival and lightning in a bottle. And just these like, you know, earth dance, um, just these more than their music festivals, but they have yoga and they have really high quality organic food.

 

Eric: And they’re just like on this, like, I don’t want to say higher vibration because I don’t want, it’s not like it’s better, but it’s just different. It’s a different focus. And so that would be another like big focus of mine is like, I, because I live that lifestyle, I feel like I want to represent for those decibels.

 

Eric: And it kind of confuses me that seemingly they don’t skew towards booking people that act, cause I’m not sound like I’m the only DJ. Like there are a lot of. DJs and producers and electronic musicians who do have a health and wellness focus. It just seems like that, that, like that level of alignment doesn’t seem to happen because I see some of the acts that these books book, and I’m like, yo, this dude’s just on like a six year bender.

 

Eric: Like what, how does that make sense with like Alex Gray artwork and, you know, Kundalini yoga, like what, you know? So that’s a big goal of mine too, is to kind of push my brand into, into those types of events also. And I’ve been able to do that locally. Like I played for Daybreaker here. They do an incredible.

 

Eric: Um, morning party. And then, um, funny that we say that we’re bender, but I have a friend who has a brand called bender, but it’s not about alcohol. It’s, it’s a, it’s a yoga and music brand because bendy. Um, so I’ve gotten to do some of that stuff locally, but yeah, I’d love to push into some of those larger festivals that focus on that, because I feel like that’s an audience that is in alignment with who I am as a person.

 

Eric: Um,

 

Darran: and if you can host an event of your own, because it sounds like you’ve put on events right now, an event of your own without any limitations named five things you would have at that event.

 

Eric: That’s an awesome question. Um, yeah, I think a high quality organic vegan food would be one, uh, yoga would be another, um, I mean it could be a different movement modality, but I think.

 

Eric: There’s like, yoga’s a really great fusion of physical fitness and, um, and like mental focus and concentration. Um, I would love some live art, particularly like if I could find some magical realist painters, that would be amazing. Um, I would want it to be outdoors. Um, so I kind of call that a fourth, just cause like, to me, there is like a very distinct element.

 

Eric: One event is like outdoors and open air versus it being indoors. And then I would just want to line up of like incredible music, curated. Um, and one thing that I don’t like in terms of where stuff’s going with stages is, um, it seems more and more that like one stage we’ll have one sound for the whole time and it’s like, I just, I don’t, I don’t know.

 

Eric: Like I love. I love all forms of house music or most of them. And so I think you can build an arc like within the house world, like where it starts off kind of brick or deeper and then builds into, you know, maybe some more uplifting Chicago stuff or more solar driven stuff, and then gets like a little darker in tech years.

 

Eric: And that goes on and then like ends out like with a more melodic, progressive, like, so like having actual an arc to the music and, um, and maybe giving DJs some freedom to. To explore and express different sounds and moods, because so much of the time, I feel like we’re doing these festivals, it’s one hour set, and it’s literally like the same production with a slightly different baseline and different acapella live the whole time.

 

Eric: If it’s a tech out stage, or if it’s a techno stage, it’s like, you know, a different clap pattern with art. It’s just like, it’s, it’s very samey. And like, I get that, like people want a brown grand a sound, but for me, the exciting thing about going to see a DJ, as opposed to going to see a live act is I like when I don’t know what I’m going to hear, when the DJ can interact with the crowd, really audience’s energy funnel that into the music, spit it back out to them, directed in different ways and just go on a journey.

 

Eric: And those are like, those are my favorites that’s in. So I really would like to. So represent that in the way that I would, would book it out.

 

Darran: Uh, are you still able to go back to your original roots before you started deejaying? And remember what that’s like to be on the dance floor for that first time and see I DJ player, have you.

 

Darran: How do I use the word jaded, but your experience has, I’ve done this 20 times. I’ve been here 30 times. I’ve been here 85 times. I’ve been here 900 times. I know exactly what key they’re going into next. They’re going to drop this. I already know that track. I’ve heard it played 15 times. Is the, is the magic still, are you still able to gather that magic?

 

Eric: And if there is a special DJ playing? Yes. Like when I saw Fatboy slim at sound, I was like dancing my ass off all night when I went. And like the last time I saw Tega the last time I saw green velvet. Like, yeah, if it’s, if it, if the DJ has that kind of knack for. Really energy and really bringing it. Yeah, I can totally get there, but I would say that it is astronomically more difficult for me to get there with all the training, with the trained ear and, and like with all the experience and you’re right.

 

Eric: Like, I can’t, I couldn’t even fathom to guess how many club nights I’ve been to in last, like. 26 years, however long I’ve been going out. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s an enormous number. So yeah, it does. It does. It’s it’s not as easy, you know, it’s like, I’m not as easily impressed I would say. Or like, I can’t access that as, as quickly because of just, uh, you know, it’s done.

 

Eric: It’s not new anymore.

 

Darran: Yeah. One thing that’s happened for me in my, in my local town here. I’m been going out for 30 years here and it’s kind of hard after being through so many venues rise and follow the news going out. And even the ones that have stuck around, I know the green room, I know the backroom, I know the bartend.

 

Darran: I know, I know the workings and I kind of, after last year I took a bucket list kind of thing for my birthday. And I went to New York and, uh, one of our DJs was opening for lay youth, um, had, uh, at the Brooklyn Mirage. And have you been there

 

Eric: before? No, but I hear it’s amazing.

 

Darran: It, it, it set the bar for me now that I, I will really only go to nightclubs outside of my own home, down, um, on the, on the whole, uh, I am working closely with a couple of nightclubs here in my city.

 

Darran: So I will go to those clouds, but on the whole, I, I strive now to want to go out and see other nightclubs. That’s why I’m excited to go down to LA and with our new Southwest venture, we have going on in Phoenix, going out to the clubs and Phoenix, getting out to LA a little bit more hop, skipping over to Vegas and just exploring that territory with the new division of what I got going on.

 

Darran: But, you know, we’re, I’m actually going to ADE the for, for my first time this year and being, I’ve never even been to Europe before, let alone Amsterdam let alone 83 in Amsterdam. So super excited for that, um, to be taking place and getting out there and being a little bit more international to show and catching what that international live is because it does make me feel.

 

Darran: Like I’m a kid again, like I’m 18 again. And I’m going up and seeing Donald Glaude, which is one of the first DJs I ever saw play.

 

Eric: We’ll scream over like however many thousand watt sound system at the top of his lungs. You’ll hear him over the music. And that was the craziest thing. The rave DJs that I would go out and hear what else?

 

Eric: Yeah.

 

Darran: I never, I had never seen that before. I’d never at the club. We were going out the underground, you know, he would just make some fucking noise people like, oh, what’s going on here? What’s going on? I’ve never seen a DJ turn the music off and scream out loud. And the crowd just goes insane. I mean, he’s a good buddy of mine.

 

Darran: Pretty well, hometown hero and I love the guy super nice guy, super chill. And, um, that was my first experience. And I want that experience when I go out. And so I feel a little, like I’ve been in the Seattle market for so long in my life, but when I go out to those other markets and experience that I, I’m glad to hear that you can still turn that ability on and remember what that’s like, because I think that’s key.

 

Darran: Um, but speaking about learning about things, um, looking at your Twitter account that was going through there. And I quote, if I’ve learned anything about growing a house music career in the last couple of years, it’s that I should have gone to accounting school. Why is

 

 

Eric: that? That’s a jab at John summit.

 

Eric: Um, yeah, he was an accountant that just was like, Fairly successful with that. And it was like, fuck, this, I’m going to become a house music artist. And like, you know, he went from zero to hero like that. So I was just like, kind of taking the piss a little bit. Yeah, no, the

 

Darran: reason I asked is I went to school to be an accountant.

 

Darran: I’m like, I don’t see the parallel here. What’s

 

Eric: I think that Sid’s story too. I think Carlos wasn’t account, I think. I should look that up so I don’t misspeak, but, um, no John’s summit was absolutely an accountant and then turn DJ in his, like lit the world on fire. So

 

Darran: well, and speaking of, you know, schooling and in jobs and careers are switching careers to sound like they had a career in doing that is, you know, but now they’re successful success doesn’t last forever, especially for an artist.

 

Darran: And so what do you do to save it for the future? What do you invest your earnings in? Or what do you do?

 

Eric: Stock market. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it’s a long play for me. So I know a lot of people that are excited about crypto and I think crypto can be great in the short term. Um, it’s also very volatile, so it’s higher risk, higher reward, but for me at the stage I’m at, in my life.

 

Eric: Yeah. Like I, I just want to grow my money in the market so that I’ll have something to return.

 

Darran: And I see you do have a merge star and, and are you looking into NFTs as well? By any chance?

 

Eric: I have done one that was not successful. Uh, it wasn’t marketed well. So now I feel a little bit gun shy about that space, uh, because.

 

Eric: That was this just a little discouraging when you like create something and no one bids on it, a giant fail and like that doesn’t happen with other types of mergers for me. Um, but you know, I have some friends who were kind of deep in that space, so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll give it another try, um, you know, in the next next six months or something here, but I would, I would want a little bit more supportive platform than, than I did the last one on Ethereum.

 

Eric: And it was just kind of like, I just, I, maybe it’s a whole different marketing strategy that I don’t understand. And maybe it’s like the people that are into buying an MDs are not the normal people that follow my music. Um, So it’s figuring out, like, how do I get in front of the right people? Because I feel like there has to be some kind of familiarity, right?

 

Eric: Like just, here’s an, there’s an artist I’ve never heard of. That’s like releasing an NFT. Like, what is the value there? Versus like, if it’s, oh, there’s this designer that I know their stuff is going to be worth $5 million in five years, I’m going to buy it for 10,000 or, you know, whatever it is like with that whole thing.

 

Eric: Also, like, I feel I have mixed feelings about it at T’s in general, like, but we’ll see, you know, like I’m, I’m always, I’m not always the earliest adopter of things. I know some people that are just like printing money in that space and like good for them, but also sometimes those things collapse. And so I don’t know if that’s going to be a bubble or not.

 

Eric: And I, and so there’s, I feel a little bit of. I feel a little bit ambivalent about it, whereas like how would I feel if one of my fans paid a bunch of money for an NFT that then had no value in two years? Like, am I going to feel great about that? Probably not. So I feel like I’m, you know, I’ve dipped my toe in a little bit.

 

Eric: It feels a little. I don’t. Are you in that whole three space? We’re, we’re

 

Darran: looking at it as, because, um, the assets that we create it’s it’s, uh, right now making a graphic file or making an MP3 file, you know, music wave file. I’m I’m, I’m going to be interviewing one of the first NFT record labels that was created, uh, here soon, but, um, RSUs label.

 

Darran: I don’t have it up in front of me. I know it’s supposed to be the world’s first NFT label,

 

Eric: gold room, have a whole thing going on with that

 

Darran: sounds familiar. Um, I gotta check with one of my booking guides. I got three helped me out with this, but I’m super excited for that, but, um, we have, we’re a video show, so we have video assets and figuring.

 

Darran: The thing is trying to figure out how to get a gigabyte file as a whole NFT. I don’t want to give 20 seconds of the show or 10 seconds of the show. And here I go, that’s your piece of the show you have is in up T but, um, we’re looking into that space. And my, my, one of my developers that I work with on a number of other projects, he actually has a compression tool where we did it the other day and got a 700 megabytes down to about 170 megabytes.

 

Darran: He designed that compression software himself. So we’re super excited to get that up and you’re right. The value of it, you know, um, I I’m, that’s about as far as I am into the biz, I’m just trying to understand it anyway. So I wouldn’t probably say, oh, I’m going to dump a hundred dollars into each of these.

 

Darran: You know, and say they’re worth a hundred bucks a piece. I might start on say, okay, these are what, two bucks, a piece or three bucks a piece. And I might make 50 of them, you know? Um, so I’m putting a hundred dollars into it, but they’re two bucks a piece. And if you like this interview that I did with Eric Sharp, go ahead and buy an NFT of this interview.

 

Darran: And you can hold onto that, you know, as a fan, like it would be more for fans like, Hey, I got the NMT of that because one of the things that I’m seeing, which is interesting, his Twitter did this not too long ago, that if you put up an NFT as your pitcher, he would give you like a special logo. And this is an NFT photo.

 

Darran: So I’m wondering if, you know, Facebook, Instagram, all the other places will follow suit suite with that suit, with that. And, um, and starts. This is an NFC photo. You actually do own the rights to this photo. How far could that go into social media and saying, Hey, you don’t own the rights to this photo. You can’t put it up here unless you own the entity of it.

 

Darran: Or you know, that dah, dah, dah, dah, and is all of a sudden our mobile device is going to NMT a photo, right? As we take it, we’ll then go into serving. Okay, you do own the rights to this. This came from your account mints, all in the background for you and assign the value that you want as a penny 5 cents a dollar.

 

Darran: And it just goes and goes right to the marketplace and it’s out there. Um, or, you know, you can grant permissions to it and say, this is every, almost like your own personal copyright, you know, it’s, it’s like protecting it and saying, Hey, you can’t use my pixel. That’s where I’m curious to see where this goes.

 

Darran: You know? Um, cause one of the things we want to do is we want to be able to go back and gift say, Eric, thank you for being on the show. I can’t get you a bottle of wine or I can’t get you a box of flowers or, you know, whatever I can go, Hey, here’s this NFTA. Of your show, you know, hold onto it, you know, and just something as a gift, it, just to explore the marketplaces where we’re looking at.

 

Darran: Um, because one of the moves that we’re moving towards is, is into VR and AR and um, that those areas, we just launched two nightclubs in Altspace that we’re getting ready to rock out and had a lot of people come in and go, and this is one of the best nightclubs I’ve seen. So we’re super excited to start getting this up and running and live streaming in there.

 

Darran: And inside that those clubs, it’s basically, we’ve built it in the way, like it’s four walls and a roof and floor, but it’s basically a full gallery. So we’re just going to line like you’re kind of come in and the amount of content we’re putting out, the amount of shows that we have, we can line that whole place on the walls with all the past episodes and FTS and say, you want to buy an NFT of this K two bucks, boom, that’s our merge.

 

Darran: I can make shirts and merge all day long. Can somebody get a copy of that episode and they can download it, but they won’t have the NLT version of it. And maybe there is a marketplace. They can take that to and go, Hey, I got Eric sharps NFT, anyone want to buy this? And they go, I’ll buy it for four bucks.

 

Darran: And they’re like, oh wow. I bought it for two. And they sold it for four, you know, not trying to do the 10,000 and $5 million thing. I mean, maybe if I got TSA or Carl Cox on there, I gotta be able to pick it up a little bit when we’re working on those two. But yeah, that’s about as far as we’ve gotten into exploring the marketplace and I hear that, is it easy to, or eat the newer urothelium coming out is going to be even better, more secure.

 

Darran: And that they’re also trying to work on a way that, um, once the I’m pleased do not take this as an official quote or anything, I just read stuff that I see online that apparently the new system they base it on will be much more eco-friendly

 

Eric: and it could be another thing with. Gas usage. Yeah, yeah,

 

Darran: yeah, yeah.

 

Darran: Yeah. So it should be more eco-friendly the way it works, but it’s supposed to work, but I don’t know if it will work, have it doesn’t work, then it goes and then people go, no, we’re not. So that world is still figuring itself out. But I think just to, you know, I always ask people, are they jumping on and what have they done?

 

Darran: What has been their experiences? You know, I had a girl, uh, um, St kitty Yaki the other day, she’s out of LA and she’s just like all about it. Just books, art, fashion, paintings, everything. She was part of the first ever NFT, um, online virtual marketplace in virtual reality. Uh, so like you said, some people are, like you said, are just printing money and.

 

Darran: I don’t know where this is going. So,

 

Eric: uh, and to me it makes more sense if there’s something that actually has value in the real world. Like if, you know, I don’t want to spill the beans on something that I was just spoken to about, but, um, let’s say that, like, there’s a large number of NFTs and everyone that has one has, can get access for free to something that other people have to pay for things like that.

 

Eric: I think there where there’s a tangible value in reality. Um, that’s more interesting to me, like, and like I said, I know there’s a market for people like, you know, in video games, people pay all this money to have a certain skin, which is just basically like. An outfit on a character. I cannot, for the life of me understand why someone would spend that kind of money.

 

Eric: Like it’s like, I don’t know if you remember, there was, there was an iPhone app, there was an iPhone app. It was called, I am rich. Um, and the app store ended up shutting it down. There were, they sold. 10 of them was the top price in the Astro that you could sell something for is $999. So it was $909 99 cents.

 

Eric: All the app did, it was like a screensaver that had a glowing red, like Ruby or something. And like 10 people bought this, like for what? So that they could show people that they were rich. So like, I get that. There is like a thing for that. I’m just like that money could go to much better things than that.

 

Eric: So more interested in things that would have a real world value. I heard

 

Darran: about it. There was a, and it might’ve started in LA. Or wherever it is, but you buy the NMT and it is your ticket, your lifelong ticket to get into the events and ticket can be transferable to somebody else, but that is only, only people with that ticket get in.

 

Darran: And I love that idea because, uh, one of the things we’ll do with our membership program, with the DJ sessions, when you sign up for 50 bucks a year, or you’re part of our virtual reality club that can get you into certain areas for $50 a year, four bucks a month, you’ll get an NFT pass and then NFP pass will get you in here.

 

Darran: It’ll get you in here. It can get you into our physical events as well and get you the discounts. But that’s your, that’s your, that’s your new membership card. I like it from that. And it may be a special logo. And every year when you re up, we get you a new logo. So there’s a new NMT for all the people that sign up.

 

Darran: That’s where I see a really being cool. And then if something

 

Eric: really takes off. Then it’s like do your 10 years in someone who has the first year at Ft, that’s going to have like all this cool value to it. I think, you know, we’re there at the beginning, right?

 

Darran: Yeah. I think that’s going to that. That’s my, I’m literally getting goosebumps, talking about that idea right now with MTS.

 

Darran: I think that that’s a good sign. I think that’s what we’re going to do. Um, uh, a couple of last questions here, though. If you could put one non-famous person in the spotlight who means a lot to you other than your direct family or friends, who would that be and why

 

Eric: one non-famous person could put a spotlight is not direct family.

 

Eric: That is a super hard question because a lot of the first people that come to mind are famous, right?

 

Eric: I mean, I feel like it would have to be some kind of unsung hero. And I’m trying to think if I like know any unsung heroes, but they’re not my friends. Right. Like, I feel like it should just be some of this like happily content with their life, you know? And so I don’t have a specific person for that, but I think so much of the time, like with media, we’re saturated with like bad news and like, you know, everything is catastrophize and like, look, there’s a lot of like gnarly things going on in the world, but there’s also like a lot of beauty, you know?

 

Eric: So I would say either like, You know, an incredibly talented artist, who’s never been exposed as creating something really beautiful. Or like I said, just like a regular person who has a happy life, you know, that just as like a joyful human being that like doesn’t have some spectrum. Cause we’re, we’re so into, you know, like everything being bigger, better, faster, more here.

 

Eric: And like someone that leads a simple life, you know, maybe they have a garden and grow their own vegetables, but someone who’s just content. I feel like we could pay more attention to contentedness. Like I think we have, a lot of times we get caught on a goal of being happy, which a lot of us translate to just like experiencing joy all the time and sort of chasing this thing.

 

Eric: And in the meantime, like we’re missing our whole life and like I fall prey to this. Like I fall prey to this a hundred percent, which is why I would want to spotlight someone who like probably doesn’t have necessarily. Good a life has me from the outside, but they’re just like happy and, and contents of you, right where they’re at.

 

Eric: And that’s a massive goal of mine. So if I could find that person and I know tons of them exists, it’s just like, can’t think of someone off hand that I’m not friends with. It fits that profile. Um, that would be, you know, I think that person would probably have a lot of simple wisdom to share that.

 

Darran: Awesome. Good answer. Well, we’re going to wrap it up here. Is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know before we let you get going back to having fun in the sun or whatever it is you do down there in

 

Eric: LA? Yeah, totally. Um, well we mentioned my EAP that just came out. Uh, so if your listeners are interested, I would love for them to check that out.

 

Eric: It’s on all different platforms, just under my name, Eric Sharp. And it’s the emergency P uh, I have more. Tracks that are done, that will be coming. Uh, so I think we’re probably going to go through my socials in a minute, but if you, you know, if you tune into those and watch, I’ll definitely have more coming and then you can also find DJ mixes of mine, like on, on various platforms.

 

Eric: So if you want to experience more of know the live side of what it is that I do, um, you know, there’s plenty of options to do that on SoundCloud and Mixcloud and you know, I’ve recently done mixes for insomniac radio and the music essentials podcasts, and. My publicist, Jamie Sloan has been smashing it.

 

Eric: So she’s kind of gotten me all over everywhere and that’s how I got connected to you. So

 

Darran: Jamie, I have a bug in Jamie’s ear frequently.

 

Eric: Oh, it was, it was one of our, one of her staff that puts us

 

Darran: together. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I thought you had found us through Alex Harrington and said, oh, okay. Interesting.

 

Darran: There’s so I, like I said earlier before the show, you know, we’re sending out three, 400 emails a week and then I get all this coming in. So the Jamie’s mind is in my head.

 

Eric: Jamie is incredible. Everywhere all at once, man. And she’s just got a work ethic that, you know, that’s like, you find people like that in this business.

 

Eric: Cause there’s a lot of people that over promise under deliver when you find people that really would like go to the law for you. Sure. Yeah. So, but yeah, so just like, yeah, there, there is more music coming. Um, I just wrapped a remix for a Brooklyn artist named hella Lightfoot. Um, I don’t have a release date for that yet, but it’s been approved.

 

Eric: So just like finalizing that and that’ll probably come out at some point in the summer, I think, and more singles and collaborations. And then, you know, Probably another EPA down the line. I’m kind of doing a thing where, um, I want the EPS to just be solo productions, maybe featuring a vocalist, but then, um, you know, I love collaborating too.

 

Eric: So with collaborative tracks, that’s going to be just singles that are kind of be tossed out on different labels

 

Darran: and

 

Eric: drop those links. Sure. Um, so the easy way to find me is just Eric Sharp music. So that’s my ad on Twitter. That’s my ad on Instagram. That’s my app on Tik TOK. Um, my website is Eric Sharp, music.com.

 

Eric: Um, but Instagram is probably the stickiest platform for me. And then, you know, in terms of streaming, you know, streaming wherever you want, Spotify has been kind of the hub that my music has the most traction and attention on. So if you care about that kind of thing, it’s a good place to follow me and, you know, get my stuff in your release radar.

 

Eric: Um, right when it comes out.

 

Darran: Definitely I was listening to your Spotify right before the interview, some awesome stuff there. So Eric, thank you so much for coming on the DJ sessions. We’ll be following up with the air and staying in touch with you over the years. It’s the watch your career and everything grow.

 

Darran: Thanks

 

Eric: Darren. It’s a pleasure meeting.

 

Darran: Absolutely on that note, don’t forget to go to our website. The DJ sessions.com. Find us on Tik TOK. Find us on Instagram. Find us on Twitter, hand that thing called Facebook and all the socials out there. Uh, mainly our website, the DJ sessions.com for the virtual sessions.

 

Darran: I’m Darren that’s. Eric. I always get these pointers wrong coming to you. Live for the virtual sessions. And remember on the DJ sessions, the music never stops.