Queen City Hooligan on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 5/9/24

In this high-energy Virtual Session, Darran Bruce reconnects with Queen City Hooligan after nearly 13 years to trace the winding path of his career through multiple identities – Perfect Dark, Atroa, Drop Goblin – before arriving at his current hardcore persona. From his early days in a street punk oi band to discovering hardcore gabber in the late 90s, Queen City Hooligan shares how raw aggression, underground culture, and a love for authenticity shaped his sound.

 

He recounts pivotal moments, such as learning to mix vinyl before embracing production, meeting legendary Rob G in a cinematic “mafia-style” encounter that led to his first label signing, and navigating the challenges of rebranding while protecting his creative identity. The discussion dives deep into industry changes – from the shift toward social media-driven bookings to the over saturation of DJs – and his refusal to lean on past notoriety in building his current brand.

 

Candid about his distaste for trends like dubstep (despite charting releases), Queen City Hooligan emphasizes the importance of real instrumentation, finishing every track, and resisting sample-pack sameness. His gritty outlook on life fuels music that stands apart from happy, commercialized hardcore – favoring an unapologetic, aggressive edge rooted in personal truth.

 

From wild marathon DJ nights to label loyalty, his story is equal parts perseverance, adaptation, and unfiltered honesty – a testament to surviving and thriving in an evolving electronic music landscape.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Queen City Hooligan
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Manchester, NH

Overview:
Darran Bruce catches up with Queen City Hooligan to discuss his multi-alias career, hardcore roots, industry challenges, and why authenticity drives every track he makes.

Topics Covered:

• Early music journey from punk oi band guitarist to hardcore DJ/producer
• Origins of the Atroa name from Another Thousand Rounds of Ammo
• Discovery of hardcore gabber at Satellite Records in Boston
• Learning to mix vinyl and produce before the YouTube era
• Meeting Rob G and joining Adam Recordings in a “mafia-style” waterfront talk
• Transitioning aliases: Perfect Dark → Atroa → Drop Goblin → Queen City Hooligan
• Brief dubstep era with Play Me Records and Beatport charting tracks
• Philosophy: always finish tracks, avoid overused samples, integrate real instruments
• Commentary on industry changes and the saturation of DJs
• Emphasis on authenticity over “happy” commercial trends
• Label loyalty and collaboration with G Thang Music
• Mental health challenges in production – the “James Cameron effect”
• Advice to new producers: patience, persistence, and self-hype

Call to Action:
Visit queencityhooligan.com for music, socials, and updates.
Discover more episodes at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host, Darran. And right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington.

And on the other end today, we have a long, we haven’t seen this guy for almost 13 years. We have Queen City Hooligan on the other end. Where are you coming in today from?

[Queen City Hooligan]
I am coming from, let’s see, what do we want to call? I’m from Manchester, New Hampshire, but normally we call it Manchganistan nowadays. But yeah, New Hampshire, New England.

[Darran]
New Hampshire, New England. So all the way on the other side of the East Coast, right on. Well, thank you for coming on the show.

Hey, like I said, it’s been about 13 years. When you came on the show, you used to come on the show. Back in the day, we were checking out and making sure that episode is still up and live on the DJ Sessions website.

[Queen City Hooligan]
It’s amazing, it’s still up.

[Darran]
As a Troa, A-T-R-O-A, playing in the back of the mobile studio back when it was ITV Live Presents the DJ Sessions. And you were actually doing that on iPads at the time, weren’t you?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, I was the only one, I think, on the planet at the time that was exclusively on the iPads, nothing else. Like independent, no sync, no nothing.

[Darran]
No sync, no nothing. Just like, I mean, that’s crazy. I mean, it’s just interesting the world where technology has come since then.

I mean, I think I was using the CDJ-MK1s at that point and a 900 mixer. I think that’s what we had for our studio setup.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, I remember it. I remember like it was yesterday being in that truck. I was in that truck a couple times that weekend, actually.

[Darran]
Yeah, that’s right, because we went out and played in, what was the name of that?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Candyland.

[Darran]
Candyland, it was Candyland, that big, what was the name of the venue?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, I don’t remember the name of the venue, but I remember it like it was yesterday, yeah.

[Darran]
Yeah, but so you started out, at the beginning of your career, you started out in hardcore EDM under the names Perfect Dark and A-T-R-O-A. But you were doing something before that. Tell us a little bit about the history of how you got started in the music biz and then transferred, you transferred.

You went from doing this to this. Tell us a little bit about that history.

[Queen City Hooligan]
This to that, right? Yeah. All right, well, let’s bring it back to like 1990.

Let’s start with high school. Like I went into high school in 1998. I think it was 98, 99.

No, wait, no, I graduated in 94. So 89, sorry. Went to high school in 1989.

I was a little bit of a nerd. A skateboarding nerd. I was kind of, I was in the cool kids skateboarding crew.

You know, wasn’t named the cool kids skateboarding crew, but it was like, you know, we’re the skaters. We’re all the skaters. Cool kids.

Just go ripping it up, that whole thing.

[Darran]
You know, Tony Hawk skateboards.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, big ass tails, little nose, big wheels. You know, we’re 80 skateboards, right? So I got into high school and I got this.

I’m gonna preface by saying that a lot of people were going to make some judgments. But after I got into high school and I was hanging with the DJ, the skateboarding crowd, I got involved in the skinhead lifestyle. And, you know, now people are like skinheads.

Oh my freaking God, you’re a Nazi. No. First, I wanna say skinheads came before Nazis.

Nazis are boneheads. Nazis suck. But I got involved in this community and skinheads are rooted from like the reggae and ska, you know, multicultural, where people are just hanging out, having a good time.

You know, fuck the system. Let’s listen to some good music and cause a little trouble. There was no judgments.

There was no racism. There was judgments upon the government, but there was no racism or anything like that. And then, you know, the bonehead Nazis thought it was a good look.

So they adopted the look and lifestyle and all of a sudden we have stigma. But mentioning the whole skinhead lifestyle is when I got into music because one of the skins was putting together a band, like, you know, a street punk Oi band. And Oi is a term, you know, used in like skinhead punk rock and roll.

And I started learning how to play guitar. And I learned pretty quick. It was like a crash course because this person wanted to get a band started pretty damn quick.

So I learned guitar literally from not knowing how to play guitar at all to learning power chords and stuff like that. And I was put into a band. At first we played, well, of course I was put into a band because that’s why I was playing guitar.

But yeah, I was learning and learning and we were playing shows as I was learning. So this is a crazy thing. It’s like, you know, here I am trying to learn and get my fingers comfortable with playing the strings and we’re playing shows.

You know, a few songs, you know, just opening up, you know, for other bands, whether they’d be hardcore bands and hardcore metal, not hardcore EDM, like hardcore metal bands or other, you know, skin punk bands. And the name of this band was Another Thousand Rounds of Ammo. So that’s a long name, but when you take all the letters of the first, you know, the first letter of each word, what do you get?

You get A-T-R-O-A, which eventually turned into a TROA. So when I went on to be a DJ, I just took the acronym. I took the acronym of Another Thousand Rounds.

And I created a TROA with it. So yeah, so I got into, you know, music and the skin punk, you know, oi style. And one day, Darran, I told myself, you know, I’m not really into this.

Like, I mean, the lifestyle is great. You know, I love the camaraderie. I just love the feeling of, you know, being part of something.

But the music, being part of a band, having to rely on other people and people relying on you or me, you know, to have to group together, practice, go places, play shows. It was fun, but it’s kind of like a small job, right? So it was time for me to branch out and do something of my own.

So I went to my best friend at the time and he was the one that actually got this whole band together, that, you know, got me into learning how to play guitar. I told him, I said, hey, you know, I’m gonna duck out. You know, I’m gonna kind of do my own thing.

I even might’ve said, I’m gonna, you know, try my hand at DJing. Man, keep in mind, I didn’t even know what I wanted to DJ at this point. I just wanted to just do something of myself.

And he’s like, all right, cool. So a few days later, I went to where we practiced, which was at the bass player’s house. I went downstairs, went to the basement, grabbed my stuff, put it in my car, came back in, and at the time, my best friend was, my best friend at the time, he was there and the singer was in the other room.

And I went out, shook his hand, you know, I went, I extended out to shake his hand. And as soon as I shook his hand, I started to turn around and I felt the blow to the back of my head, you know, with a fist. And I got, the attempt of beating me down was made.

Unsuccessful because it doesn’t matter if you’re a skinhead, if you’re a hardcore kid, if you’re an army of one with lots of muscles. When you’ve got a guy that’s twice your size wanting to beat you down and then kick you in the face when you’re on the ground, you run like a pussy. You do that, that’s the best chance of survival.

You just run to your car and get the fuck out of there. But yeah, he started, it was all a little, you know, kind of like the mafia, right? You know, it’s your best friend that does it, right?

And he put on a pretty nice, clean, happy face until the moment I had to go and he showed me how he truly felt. And that was my kickoff, pun intended, into the electronic dance music industry. And it’s the greatest kickoff I could have had.

[Darran]
You know, you, and you went into your style of choice of the genre of choice that you went into was hardcore, correct? Yeah. And why did you choose hardcore as your style at that time?

And this is, what year was this again?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Let’s see, 1999. So let’s see, actually about 1997. 1997 is when I decided to go off and do my own thing.

[Darran]
Yeah. Okay.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Because the band started in 1995.

[Darran]
When did you start producing?

[Queen City Hooligan]
All right, well, real quick, before we start talking about producing, when I got out of the band life and got into the DJ life, I didn’t know what I really wanted to DJ. I just knew that there was music that had a beats per minute that was electronically influenced. It was on a grid.

It didn’t have any, or barely any, depending how it was produced, fluctuation of tempo. And I had to learn how to mix it. So I spent, you know, a good year or so just learning how to mix because, you know, you’re not a DJ unless you know how to mix records.

And I know that sounds a little bit pompous in this new day and age, but anyone that’s out there that just got a laptop for Christmas and thinks that they’re a DJ, you’re not. You have to learn, you have to earn your dues, and you gotta, you know, learn and understand how to at least mix your music. Maybe the sync button will help you if you need it, but a true DJ can do everything with his ears.

And a good DJ isn’t about how good you are, it’s how good you can recover from a fuck-up. And if you can recover from a fuck-up, that means that you’re actually doing real mixing, unless it grimes, of course, and everything just fucked up in general. But yeah, I got, you know, I got a whole bunch of records of different genres, you know, techno, house, deep house, tribal, which is a guilty pleasure of mine still today.

And I just learned how to mix. And my, I’m gonna call him a friend, even though I haven’t seen him and talked to him in many years, DJ Midas out here in New Hampshire, a legendary DJ in this area. He came to me and he said, you know, you’re a good DJ, because this is after I started doing a lot of practicing and playing out.

And he said, you’re a good DJ, but if you really want to make it, you have to start learning how to, you know, produce your own music. And I took that to heart, I listened to him. And during that time, I was already transitioning into discovering hardcore gabber music.

And it just, I didn’t know about it until I discovered it. So all this time, just learning how to mix and, you know, house music and all that stuff, I just thought that’s what was out there. And when I went to Satellite Records in Boston, and I saw this section of records that had like, you know, demons and like medieval looking graphics and skulls and just, you know, crap like that.

So what is this? So I took a few, you know, pieces of vinyl that sounded so hipster, pieces of vinyl, put them on the turntable and I’m like, oh my God, this is, I’m doing aggressive music in the punk hardcore metal band. And now I found practically the equivalent in electronic music.

Right there I was hooked. Hardcore gabber, or we call it hard dance or hardcore EDM nowadays, but gabber music was my calling. And that’s when I not only discovered and started to play out as the name Perfect Dark, because I couldn’t think of any other name at the time.

And it was like, cool. And it was easy because it was already a video game called that. So I’m like, I’ll just call myself Perfect Dark.

I started playing hardcore gabber music. And then I started to learn production as your original question is, you know, the production aspect I started using wasn’t Sony at the time, but it was Acid. It wasn’t even Acid Pro.

I started using Acid, the program. And I had to learn without much distinction. Right, I mean, I’m straight edge.

So I’ve never had a drug in my life, which is crazy. Hardcore, just EDM in general, being straight edge is a rare thing. But now you put yourself in like hardcore gabber music and you’re straight edge, it’s a rare thing.

But I don’t need drugs to, you know, enjoy this kind of music. But yeah, I just started learning how to produce and there was not much YouTube. In fact, I don’t even think there was YouTube at the time.

You had to rely on other people to help you understand software of any kind.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Queen City Hooligan]
And I just started to learn it and I start to go slow. And, you know, eventually I started to make my own tracks. And then I had like, you know, four or five tracks under my belt that, you know, I took very seriously.

I had, it was a couple of tracks before that, that, you know, they were still solid, full tracks. You always wanna finish a track. You never wanna leave a track half-assed.

You know, I may not have wanted to release it, but I finished it all the way. And then after a few of those, I realized now I have some tracks that are ready for release. And I think I did okay.

[Darran]
And the next step in that evolution of your DJ career was you approached a gentleman by the name of Rob G, correct? Yep. Tell us about how you two met.

Because we had Rob G on the show not too long ago.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Oh yeah, I watched it.

[Darran]
Yeah, I don’t know if you got that.

[Queen City Hooligan]
He gave me a shout out. You have said the words, Queen City hooligan with your own lips before you even realized it was me. It was you.

[Darran]
Tell us how you met and how in this epic mafia-like style way that he offered you your record deal.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Oh, this is great. All right, so we’ll start with how I met Rob. There was a mutual friend of ours.

His name was, well, I actually don’t remember his first name or even his last. I just remember his DJ name. It was DJ Megrum.

And he was into hardcore. In fact, I think he was a hardcore DJ. I think he was more into like speedcore terror.

He was into a little bit more aggressive than just your typical hardcore gabber music. A little more aggressive than I would wanna do. And I was speaking with him and he mentioned Rob G.

And I knew who he was because again, satellite records, looking through all these bins of hardcore tracks and I see the name Rob G. So I knew the name. I even purchased some of his music.

But I didn’t realize that I had a mutual friend that also knew him personally. And when he spoke to me about Rob and kind of giving me this hint that like I should connect with him and he would be the bridge to be able to do that. You know, I was humble but excited.

Like, all right, well, this could be the first time ever getting like an open door for something. I didn’t even know what it was. I knew I had music produced.

I knew that I was into this kind of music. I just, at that moment, Darran, I thought, okay, I’m going to be meeting someone that is of a status. And dare I say, without sounding like a fanboy, but again, this guy I consider my best friend even to this day, you know, he’s legendary status.

And I’m about to interact with him. And that’s as far as it went. Like, you know, I was just gonna speak with him.

I didn’t have any intentions of anything else. So DJ Megram, you know, got us in touch. I don’t remember if it was through the phone or just through the internet.

But we started becoming online. You’re just like long distance friends. I mean, he’s from New York, so it’s not that long distance.

But like, you know, we were, you know, connected friends. And we just had a lot in common. And one of the biggest things we had in common is Rob, he does his electronic hardcore music and integrates natural instruments within it.

So like, you’ll have like your hardcore 908, 909 distorted kick drums and your high hats and your synth lines and, you know, bass drops and stuff like that. But then all of a sudden you’re gonna hear like, you know, some metal, you know, guitar chunks and stuff like that, and maybe some metal vocals. And then, you know, I’m thinking to myself, the tracks that I’ve been producing, the ones that, you know, I said were more solid and more serious ones I finished, you know, those had the same elements.

Different kind of style, like he’s more hip hop-ish, I’m more, you know, I’m thinking like post hardcore metal type of breakdowns and, you know, just like, you know, symphonic metal, you know, euphoric type of like guitar licks and stuff like that. But ultimately our styles were the same, even though our overall personas are different, our styles of what we include, the elements and attributes of our music is the same. So when we found out that we had this similar type of way of production, you know, it got his attention.

And there was a day, actually before we even actually met, another cool thing, again, these are little wins, you know, little itty bitty achievements that, you know, at the time when it wasn’t such an oversaturated industry of like producers and DJs, like it is now, you know, just getting little wins, like, you know, maybe a shout out here or something, you know, done with your name on it there. He put, and again, I was Perfect Dark at the time. I wasn’t even, I didn’t even think of a troll yet.

I was Perfect Dark. He put, you know, in his like thank yous, in the linear notes of his Vitamin G CD, which was like his first official multi, you know, mega mix CD, he put, you know, like a shout out to Perfect Dark. So now I’m holding on to Rob G, legendary pioneer of American hardcore, and I’m seeing my name Perfect Dark in the linear notes.

And that was pretty bad-ass. So like, I knew that this friendship was like, you know, true, because you only have so much you can put into a linear note. So I was able to, you know, be part of like a coveted spot of like just a few shout outs.

And that’s when we decided to meet. And that meeting was quite epic, because it was at the legendary Limelight in New York. And I don’t know, have you ever heard of the Limelight?

You must have.

[Darran]
I’ve heard of Limelight. I’ve never got a chance to be out there and go there.

[Queen City Hooligan]
It is something that I can only vision in my head, because at least at the time I went there with the giant disco ball, with like the angels attached to it, and the angels apart have all the disco mirrors and all that, in a giant cathedral main room with nothing but bass just pounding your face. It is something that I wish I could just present to everybody. And like, you know, even if I gave them all VR systems, it still would- Like a holodeck or something.

It’s like, yeah, I wish I could put them in a holodeck and have people experience this. I mean, all the other rooms like the Giga room, you know, and all these, they’re nice smaller rooms, but this main room, whoo. So he was a resident DJ there.

He’s known as the hardest DJ to ever play the Limelight. And we decided to meet there. Neophyte Live was playing.

Got to mention here, it was Neophyte Live, not Neophyte the DJ, even though Neophyte the DJ is, you know, the main guy of Neophyte Live. We’re talking about all three members. You know, you got the guitarist, the vocalist, and you know, your programmer, your keyboardist.

So Neophyte Live was playing. I think it might’ve been their first time in America. I even still have the flyer up on my wall.

And that was our time to meet. And we, after he played his set, I met him. And you know, it was kind of like, all right, cool.

Like I’m meeting Rob G. This is great. You know, and as I’m younger, I mean, he’s a few years older than me.

I’m 47. So he’s like, you know, older than that. I’m not going to reveal his age, even though I’m sure he doesn’t, he wouldn’t mind.

But we met up, you know, I’m just a younger, just up and coming producer, meeting someone of his stature in America. And, you know, I think I gave him my music that night. I think I gave him the CD.

I believe I did. And then sometime later, this is coming to the part where like, you know, we actually truly met up away from the music venues and actually started to talk about some stuff. I went back into New Jersey sometime later, might’ve been a few weeks, maybe a couple months.

And, you know, it was me and my girlfriend at the time, you know, it was Rob and then his girlfriend at the time, Nicole, which is an amazing woman. You know, so if Nicole ever sees this interview, much love. I miss you, girl.

You know, you’re wherever you are, somewhere in New Jersey, but I miss seeing you. You’re a good chick. You know, he looked at me because I was spending the night there.

I think it was maybe a couple nights. And he looked at me and said, all right, let’s take a walk. Like, okay.

I didn’t think much of it.

[Darran]
Let’s take a walk. He’s going to stand behind you the whole time. You walk in front of me.

Right?

[Queen City Hooligan]
So like, all right, you know, and I had zero concern about this. He’s like, let’s take a walk. He already has this kind of, I don’t want to necessarily mafioso demeanor to him, but he definitely has a New Jersey demeanor to him.

Let’s just say it like he has a New Jersey demeanor. And he’s like, let’s take a walk. So we go and take a walk.

And I remember it was either at, there was a waterfront or something. We were at the docks or a pier or something like that. I don’t remember exactly where, but here I’m thinking now I’m at, you know, at a waterfront, you know, don’t put any cinder blocks on my ankles and throw me in the water, please.

But he started to ask me some questions. And he just, you know, he wanted to get a read on how serious I was to be part of, you know, the hardcore Gabber community. You know, I made some tracks, but you know, how deep does the rabbit hole go from there?

And I told him everything. I told him, you know, how serious I am, how, you know, I love this sound. He knows my background.

He knows all this stuff. And he looks at me, he’s like, all right, you want to be part of this family? You’re in this family.

You know, welcome to Adam Recordings at the time. Adam Recordings, it was, G-Thang music is how it is now. But back then it was Adam Recordings.

And that was an acronym, A-D-A-M, Aggressive Dance Music, which is perfect and describes it to a T, this genre. And he’s like, welcome to Adam Recordings. And that was, without signing anything yet, that was my introduction to having my first signage of a record label, being offered an opportunity to be on a record label and have people, other people besides myself, play this music on, at the time, you know, turntables, or, you know, I don’t even know if CDJs were around at the time, but, you know, people could go into a store and buy my music.

So, you know, he’s taking me to this pier and just kind of getting a read on me to see how serious I am. And then all of these questions to lead up to be offered to be part of this family. And, you know, it went from a friend of mine to a friend of ours, you know?

So it was a really good experience.

[Darran]
That’s awesome. That’s a very, you know, I love hearing those stories because those are the things, those are the times where there’s inspiration. I can hear the inspiration of, you know, you gotta stick it out there.

Like you were saying about DJing, any kid can go out and buy a laptop now and say, I’m a DJ, you know? I have DJ gear sitting in my house, but everyone always thinks I’m a DJ. And I’m like, no, I’m the executive producer of the show, but I play a DJ on TV.

You know, it’s a joke. But, you know, if I wanted to learn, I could learn how to DJ, you know, but you have to build that progression. I remember the first time I ever interviewed a local promoter DJ here in town, Darran Chilson.

I asked him, it was the night that I actually interviewed my first celebrity DJ, Paul Oakenfold. And I was talking to Darran, the promoter of the event. And I said, hey, are there any overnight successes in this business?

You know, can you just quickly jump up and get on decks and do this? He’s like, no, there’s no overnight successes. You gotta put in your time, you gotta put in your dues, you gotta learn the craft, and then you gotta network and do all that stuff.

And then you can start maybe booking some gigs, you know, maybe doing some house parties at first, and then maybe you’re doing some openers. And, you know, there’s a lot of people that do get, I know they get frustrated because they wanna play in other cities, they wanna play out of town, but they just start putting in the legwork to make themselves a brand that would say, why am I gonna book you? Why am I gonna take you all the way from Seattle and bring you down to San Francisco if you don’t have anyone on, I know they base it a lot on social media now, but if you’re not gonna be able to bring in a following or you can’t impress me, I got a thousand people down here in San Francisco that I can instantly drop a dime to, it’ll take a buck 50 to play an opening set in my club, and I know they’re gonna bring 50 people with them.

Right, absolutely.

[Queen City Hooligan]
And the thing is, like, you’re talking about like, you know, your first celebrity DJ you interviewed was Paul Confold and all that, we’re talking back in the day, right? So, you know, back then it was still, even though there was no overnight successes, the chances of at least getting some sort of success was at least a little bit better back then than it is now. Because things have changed so much.

Back then you had to play shows in order to have people wanna hear you and be able to wanna buy your music. The flip, the script, the flip, the script has flipped. Now you need to be known first, like you have to put out all this music first in order to even hopefully get one person to look your way and maybe you’re gonna get some sort of opportunity, whatever that may be.

And even now, like I rebranded to Queen City Hooligan. Like I chose, like this is the first time, this interview is really the first time I’ve talked about the fact that I used to be someone else and I had these opportunities back in the day. Like prior to this interview, I have been branding myself as Queen City Hooligan as literally just a name that just came out of nowhere without using any sort of stepping stones of my past.

Because number one, it’s a pompous, arrogant thing to do. Do you know who I am? You know, that sort of thing.

That’s not how I’m wired. If I’m gonna rebrand, I’m going to start from scratch, asterisk that for a second. I’m gonna start from scratch, meaning all these new people that don’t know who I am are gonna hear my music.

Do I have some names in my Rolodex, in my little black book that I can maybe get a little edge on the competition? Yes, technically, because like I can say, hey, been a while, I’ve rebranded, I’d love to, can you hear my music, blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t necessarily mean I’m gonna get signed or anything, but like me and Rob, we have a talk for some years in between when I retired from hardcore back then and coming back to it.

But like, this is a good example of like a little bit of an advantage. He’s still around and he believes in me. I believe in him and I trust in him.

And I was able to get my music out on G Thang Music, whereas there might be some people that might have a harder time connecting with him or anybody else. So I’m gonna put an asterisk on that. I’ve rebranded and I am technically starting from scratch and not trying to sway my weight or pull my weight wherever I need to be because of my past.

But luckily, there are a few names that I kept around that I still stayed in contact with to give me a bit of an edge. But yeah, to your point though, like the saturation of trying to get into this business nowadays, just getting an open-ended slot, like you mentioned is, that’s only what someone could hope that they could get nowadays in order to be able to get to the next step.

[Darran]
Now, talking about rebranding, Atroa was first, then Perfect Dark, then Drop Goblin.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Oh, flip that. Perfect Dark was first because I didn’t even understand copyright and trademarking.

[Darran]
Oh, that’s right, Perfect Dark was first.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, I just thought up a name.

[Darran]
I just thought up a name. I was gonna ask you about that. Did they send you a cease and desist from the video game company?

[Queen City Hooligan]
That’s how the whole Atroa thing happened. There’s like two stories to this. This is an interesting thing because you fast forward to this new generation.

I actually used Perfect Dark for a few tracks a couple of years ago, but I didn’t understand copyright. I didn’t understand trademarking at the time and I just needed a name. So I was like, you know, Perfect Dark, that works.

I never even played the game. I still, to this day, I’ve yet to play the game. I never even owned, Nintendo NES was as much of a Nintendo as I ever got.

I never got like a Super Nintendo or anything like that. So I never even had the means to play the game on my own. But after some time, I realized that copyright and trademarking could be an issue.

Because here I am, I’ve released a couple of records on vinyl, in record stores, in retail, in online sales and anywhere else, that the name is starting to get some buzz. And that’s when it hit me. I wish I had thought of this prior to thinking of Perfect Dark because I wouldn’t have used it.

But I’m like, maybe it would be a smart idea to change the name. So after the Here I Stand EP, which was my first EP, I talked to Rob. I’m like, listen, I think it’s time for me to change my name.

I told him, I’m getting a little bit of pressure under the idea that there’s some trademarking issues. And that’s when I thought of, and I wish I had thought of this before. Again, Another Thousand Rounds of Ammo, my old band.

You take all those letters and it actually turns into at least some sort of word or enunciation that actually makes sense, a trolla. Should have thought of that in the first place. But that’s how I ended up changing to a trolla because it was just a fear of getting a letter or some sort of legal action.

I mean, it’s not like I’m a Taylor Swift level here. I doubt they ever even knew who I was. But I mean, if you fast forward to today, you type in Perfect Dark, you’re gonna find me anywhere.

You’d have to go to 200 pages of Google to maybe find something about me. Because like Perfect Dark, the video game, Nintendo of America, Microsoft, that was all owned by all that. You’re gonna see all those in the search engine first.

And I think search presence is very important.

[Darran]
So you fast forward.

[Queen City Hooligan]
What’s up? I’m sorry, go ahead. Go ahead, fast forward.

I’m just saying, you fast forward to this new day and age. When I came out of retirement, I actually decided to bring Perfect Dark in just one more time because my first EP was called Still Standing. I wanted to make a track called, I’m sorry, my first EP was called Here I Stand.

So I wanted to make a single called Still Standing. Just to say that I haven’t gone away. I took a hiatus, but I haven’t gone away in the hardcore industry.

So I did that, and I ended up doing a couple more remixes during that time, but then I finally cut the name forever.

[Darran]
Well, then you did end up kind of retiring from hardcore and discovered Dubstep and producing the name Drop Goblin. Tell us about that transition.

[Queen City Hooligan]
God, I wish I could turn back time and never do this. I feel bad because you had me out in the ITV truck doing Dubstep. So like, here I am as a Troa just before I changed to Drop Goblin, because I realized like, all right, let me see if I can get this out in the easiest way possible.

I went to the ITV truck and I performed, how many performances in general beyond the ITV truck? How many did I do that week?

[Darran]
Two, we did one on the Ave in the U district, and we did one in front of Candy Land.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Okay, so as a Troa, I know this isn’t exactly the answer to your question, but I’m gonna lead into how things changed from a Troa to Drop Goblin. I got sent out to Seattle to play a couple of shows. We connected to do a couple DJ session, ITV truck types sessions.

And it ended up within that weekend, I go to play your truck. I go to where I’m staying, I get a good night’s sleep. The next day, it had to have been the next day, I go back, I play in front of Candy Land, which is this huge rave, like, you know, I don’t know if it still goes on.

I hope it does, but if it doesn’t, that’s too bad. The way you’re shaking your head, it sounds like there was some drama. But so I play in front of Candy Land while everyone is like in line, ready to get in.

The doors haven’t opened yet. So I have like a bit of an audience. I’m inside, you know, a glass desk, and the speakers are blasting on the outside.

And then I finished my hour-long set. Let’s do some math. To all that’s watching, let’s do some math.

I finished my hour-long set. I jump into my driver’s car and I go to one of the physical events, like, you know, in-venue events that I’m booked at. And I play another hour set.

And this one, it was like, you know, the dubstep was a little bit more like wobbly. It wasn’t so much bro stuff like I was doing, like that old school Skrillex stuff. This was, you know, they asked to do a much more, kind of more of a minimal like wobble type set.

So I’ve now played for two hours. This, again, all in one evening. I finished that set in just a couple minutes after I’m done and I’m packing up my iPads.

Someone who I don’t know, I’m in Seattle, I don’t know anyone except for you and a person I was staying with. Someone runs up to me and says, there’s a spot needed to co-headline the dubstep room at Candyland. Would you be able to fill in?

Now, keep in mind, I’ve already DJed for two hours with a little bit of a drive in between. And now I have to go back to my original spot where I played for you. And now I have to go into the venue and play another hour.

I mean, I don’t have to, but I chose to. I’m now playing for another hour. I’m co-headlining the DJ room, jam-packed.

You can feel the sweat hitting your face and it’s not even your own sweat. You’ve been to raves, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That warm air that feels damp.

So I go in there, hook up. Thank God iPads have good battery life. I hook up, play that set.

My driver is waiting outside that whole time. So third hour, I’m playing a third event that same night. Driver is now like, fuck this, I’m just gonna hang out inside.

I’m done hearing, boom, wah, boom, wah. Totally sick of hearing that shit. So the driver’s in the car waiting for a whole hour.

I get out, I finish my set. I get out, I get back to where I’m staying. And that was a long, long night.

Cause keep in mind, I don’t know what, what time did I actually play for you first? What time did it start?

[Darran]
If we were there, we probably would have been there. I always do four hours. I remember Mikey G, I think was with us cause I had a really awesome picture taken of the truck that I used for promo in front of that event.

It was with Mikey G playing in the back and then you were there. So we were probably parked out there for four hours ourselves. Probably even if we got there at eight and we went from eight till midnight.

You know, cause those events usually open around 10, you know, unless they were opening up a little bit earlier. I remember the police, they were trying to shut the event down cause they were running around with a sound meter outside the event.

[Queen City Hooligan]
I did not know that. It could have saved me an hour of like, I was already tired after the second show.

[Darran]
Yeah, I don’t think they had shut the event down, but yeah, it was fun times back in the early days of the ITV mobile studio, which now we call the DJ sessions mobile studio. We’ve kind of rebranded that a little bit. It’s a little bit more upgraded.

I think you’d love it if you were to come in it. You know, we’ve upgraded with video walls and we’ve upgraded with, you know, a house sound system that you can hear from about one city block away. Then we have the concert grade sound system brought to you by Mackie, which you can now hear us from about four city blocks away.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Shameless plug, Mackie.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Queen City Hooligan]
What are you wearing on your shirt, Darran? What’s that on your shirt? What does that say?

Can you say it for me? I don’t know, I don’t know. What does it say?

Mackie. Mackie has great sound.

[Darran]
We really love our sponsorship arrangement with them. They’ve been really supportive.

[Queen City Hooligan]
It’s great technology. Sound technology from Mackie is amazing. But yeah, so I just want to, you know, real quick, that is how the Atroa ended.

Sorry. That is how, yeah, the Atroa, it was Atroa at the time. That’s how the whole, that was the last time I ever played as Atroa.

And it sucked. And I’m going to try and make this brief because I know I’m finding that I’m chattering, you know, I’m just babbling on here. Hopefully it’s interesting to whoever’s actually watching.

But about a week or so later, I had my very first dubstep track ready to be released. And, you know, this was already produced. I might’ve even played it in my set in the ITV truck.

But Reed Speed, you know, drum and bass diva extraordinaire, you know, she was going to release my first dubstep track under Play Me Records. And when she realized that the name I was using is Atroa, she looked at me and she’s like, you might want to think about changing your name. And I didn’t understand why she asked me that.

And she showed me a link to Excision’s record label, Rotten Records. I don’t even think he even has that record label anymore. But back then, Rotten Records was like right up there with like Ozla and you know, Dim Mac and all them.

And I noticed there was a name called Atora as one of the artists on Rotten Records. And I was like, oh, you gotta be shitting me. Cause I mean, you put Atroa and Atora together.

I mean, there are already people that would mistaken my name Atroa for Atora anyway, just in general. A couple of times I was introduced on a microphone that way and I just let it slide. I’m not going to be that asshole, it’s like Atroa.

But now I have someone that’s literally using the stage name that people were mistaken me by. I was like, I can’t, that’s not cool. Not, I mean, good for him.

Like he was obviously doing dubstep way before I was, but it just wasn’t cool that I had to change my name again. So over the week, I had a weekend to decide this. And cause she wanted to release the track.

And back then we didn’t need a four week lead time for Spotify or anything like that. So I had to think up a name and I’m just thinking I’m stringing all these like a column, two columns, got this name here, this name there, a bunch of names and then I’m mixing and matching and cross-referencing and eventually dubstep has a drop, bass drop, right? So drop, what else comes after that?

And maybe it was just subconscious cause I’m really into like medieval lore and stuff like that and power metal and stuff like that. Something goblin, drop goblin, drop goblin, three syllables, nice and easy, quick, maybe not the easiest to remember, but it just rolls really nice off the tongue. And there it was, drop goblin was born.

Not that I necessarily wanted to use that name, but at least it worked. And that’s how I was for quite a few years after that, only to find out that Atora stopped producing music about a month after I changed my name. Fucking A.

[Darran]
So you released with Reed under drop goblin? Awesome. I love having her on the show.

She’s a great chick. Yeah, she’s awesome.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Reed is awesome. She gave me my first step into dubstep. And I had a few EPs after that, some singles and all that sort of thing.

But here’s the clincher, Darran. I only jumped into dubstep because it was a thing to do at the time. I miss doing electronic music of any sort.

Like I stopped doing hardcore only because I told myself, I’m not, I feel like I’m kind of regurgitating when I was already producing. And I felt like if I’m not feeling it anymore, I’m gonna walk away. And I did that.

I love hardcore techno. I love gabber, but it just for as a producer, I felt like I was burning out. And then after a few years, the dubstep thing was big.

So I just jumped on the bandwagon. I was a poser, I was a straight up poser. I’m like, I’m gonna produce dubstep because it’s cool.

Darran is the slowest, most boring shit at 140 beats per minute. And I hated every, I couldn’t. Yeah, I was still putting in my metal influences, like you would call it metal step.

But still, it was literally just like a three or four minute breakdown. That’s all dubstep is, one big breakdown. There’s no like speed to it.

It’s like boom, boom, boom. And it’s like, I was reaching for something that wasn’t there. And that was the speed of hardcore gabber.

But hey, I jumped on the bandwagon of dubstep. I grinned and bared it for quite a few years. I got Beatport charting singles and I even got a number one charting track on the Beatport mid tempo, because I was doing like the bangerang type of tempo as well, which was a little bit more fun.

I gotta say the tempo of bangerang, 110 beats per minute, a little bit more fun than 140, which doesn’t mathematically sound like it makes sense, but I enjoyed that. So yeah, I’m embarrassed. I hate dubstep.

I fucking hate it.

[Darran]
So I just have to admit, I went through in like 2012, I went through a dubstep phase where I think I downloaded like 70 dubstep tracks. I was listening to a dubstep station. Some FM out of San Francisco produces a dub.

They have a dubstep thing. So I would turn that on and listen to that station. Then when I heard a track, I’d go and download it.

Download it.

[Queen City Hooligan]
That’s actually what I did for that show. When I played the ITV truck in front of Candyland and I had to go do that more wobbly, not as intense set, I literally went on a torrent site. It must’ve had to have been a torrent site or something.

And I just downloaded more traditional dubstep and I just alphabetized them, put them in a playlist. And the night I played that event, I didn’t even know what I was playing. I was going by beats per minute.

I just found all the 140 beats per minute, put them in a clump and one after another. So I can visually see the waveform on the iPad. So I know where the downbeat starts and where the intro will eventually start turning into a build, into a drop.

So I could visually see. And this was one of the times where I had to rely on a visual aspect of DJing because I actually had no idea any of the music that I was playing on that particular set.

[Darran]
Shit.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Because that’s not really the kind of music that I was into. I was like, bro step was a little bit, at least more aggressive than traditional dubstep. But that’s what got me booked for that event.

So I had to fake the funk, grab a whole bunch of tracks. I had no idea what they were, who they were and just kind of bullshit my way through that set. Just by, like you said, downloading a bunch of tracks.

[Darran]
Yeah. So your journey going from Perfect Dark to a Troa to Drop Goblin coming back in 2022 for a brief moment as Perfect Dark but now a complete rebrand to Queen City Hooligan. Now you’re permanently Queen City Hooligan.

We heard a little bit about the history and you’re just, you’re not going to tread on your past and kind of promote, this is who I was. Who am I? Tell us about the name Queen City Hooligan.

Where did that derive from?

[Queen City Hooligan]
All right. Well, there’s a little small story to that. Well, like I said, I did come back briefly as Perfect Dark because it wouldn’t have made sense to do a track called Still Standing under a different name if my original EP was Here I Stand.

So I bit the bullet, came back. I knew it wouldn’t be that much of an issue to at least release one or two tracks off that name one more time. But as far as Queen City Hooligan, firstly, when I was talking about, like if you Googled Perfect Dark, where would I end up in the pages?

How deep in that rabbit hole would I go into the pages? Now, if you Google Queen City Hooligan and hit enter, are you doing that right now? Yeah, I’m trying.

How many pages did you have to go to to find it? I typed in Perfect Dark DJ. All right, well now you’re cheating.

[Darran]
You’re cheating because you put the word DJ right now and they have a Facebook page with 160 followers. That’s not you, is it?

[Queen City Hooligan]
No, it probably isn’t. Well, does it look like me?

[Darran]
I don’t think it. Let me check this out. Featuring a driving remix from PD Zone.

Nope, not me.

[Queen City Hooligan]
That’s all I had to hear. I kept Drop Goblin. I actually just created a page for Drop Goblin just to keep that name’s legacy alive because I do have a lot of music out there and I don’t even pay attention to it.

There might be one follower. I just kept the socials at least intact. But if you were to just type in Perfect Dark only and not cheat, Darran, and put DJ next to it, you’re gonna find nothing about me, nothing.

Now this sounds like me, me, me, me, me right now, but when you’re in this business, you want people to find you, right? So it is about you or me. So you type in Perfect Dark, you find maybe 100 pages in my stupid ugly face.

Now you type in Queen City hooligan and I’m the only one on the planet. Yeah. Literally the only one on the planet.

So internet presence, online presence is so important now. So right off the bat, even if there was no issues with trademarking and licensing for the name Perfect Dark, I still wouldn’t use it because someone already had and had so much success with it. Even though it’s not in the same, I mean, technically, technically, Darran, I could trademark my name as a musical artist.

That is something I still could do because I am not a digital software. I’m a human being. I’m a completely different category in the trademark industry, but I still have to consider online presence.

So I’m like, all right, now that I’ve done still standing, it’s time to now get serious. It’s time to, well, number one, the name Perfect Dark and me don’t match. I have a persona.

I got a personality that is kind of cranky, a little bit disgruntled. Perfect Dark is just a name. It doesn’t connect with who I am.

Queen City hooligan does. First off, I live in Manchester, New Hampshire. We are known as the Queen City.

Queen City, for those that don’t know, and there are some other people out there that might have different definitions to it, but the official definition, we’ll call it the Wikipedia definition because you can trust Wikipedia sometimes. The Wikipedia definition of a Queen City is a city or a province or some sort of region inside a state that has a bigger population than its state capital. So Concord, New Hampshire is our state capital.

That city of Concord has less people living in it than Manchester. So we’re known as the Queen City because we have more population than our state capital city, which is Concord. And hooligan, the name hooligan, it’s me.

I’m just a cranky, disgruntled, little rapscallion that essentially hates everything and everybody and doesn’t back down and has no apologeticness to anything he does or says, to obviously a legal limit. And it connects essentially with my past, like my traditional skin lifestyle. We were a bunch of hooligans.

I mean, yeah, we’re not from England. We’re not watching and causing problems at football games. Soccer, football, but the hooligan name fit more.

So Queen City hooligan, you don’t forget that. At least I don’t think you do. I mean, I’m just saying it for myself because I’ve been ingrained in that name for so long now.

If I say it to somebody, I think, honestly, Darran, I think if I said Queen City hooligan, perfect dark, a troa and drop goblin, I think Queen City hooligan would actually stick harder than any other name out there as far as my personas that I’ve had in the past. And it was a good idea. It was a great move.

I rebranded and the buzz was a little bit higher. I think it had to do with the name. The name actually, like I said, it stood out a little bit more.

It has a little bit more or a lot more aggressiveness to it. Hooligan, just that word, take away Queen City. Hooligan, who the fuck is that?

Who the hell is that guy? And I’d like to say that I’m different than any other hardcore gabber producer out there of any demographic, America or England or Netherlands or anywhere.

[Darran]
Pre-show, you’d send some notes over and you say your theme of your music is more negative in personality as opposed to the happy hand heart themes most other producers create. Tell us a little bit about that. Is that the Hooligan influence in your music?

Is that the…

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yeah, it is. But it’s also not just fake. It’s just who I am.

This bullshit, if I see someone in fucking pink furry fucking boots jumping around in their underwear at a festival doing this, I seriously curb stomp that person. That’s not how life is, kid. It’s not how life is.

Maybe in your mind it is, but you look like an anime character. It’s just don’t. Don’t, be real.

Be real with yourself because you know that those people don’t dress like that when they go to work. Maybe it’s a fantasy, I don’t know. But my music is real.

It’s very real. And that’s not a cliche thing to say. It truly is.

If anyone wants to talk about happy shit and they’re hardcore, even if it’s not happy hardcore, let them do that, but my stuff is gonna be real. Life is a beat down and I’m about to swing the first fist.

[Darran]
I like you said something about your music being real because you use natural instruments integrated with electronic elements. A lot of people, they’re in front and they’re using Reason or Logic to produce or Fruity Loops or whatever is out there now. And I always love the fact that producers, when they get that natural or that acoustic or that they’re using instruments, not just a MIDI keyboard in front of them or programming their track by going click, click, click, click, click and quantize and go, oh, look at that, that happened.

I used to work for Apple and so I used to train people on how to use Logic. Not produce, just how to use the program.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Just how to use it.

[Darran]
Just how to use it. So I always got blown away on how music, and my brothers were musicians growing up, when I was growing up. My brother was a guitar player.

My dad had furnished a studio for them and I’d get in there and play with the rack mounts and the keyboards and the Tascams and the eight tracks. I was never allowed to touch my brother’s guitar though, God forbid. Of course not.

Charlie Horses came out hardcore then.

[Queen City Hooligan]
That’s a sacred thing. Yeah. My baby.

It was my seven string sector demon. That’s my baby and that’s what has helped me through a lot.

[Darran]
How many tracks do you produce a month and how many ended up being released on average? Do you have a game plan for that or?

[Queen City Hooligan]
My game plan, number one, is to always finish a song regardless. I know I mentioned that before earlier in the interview, but that’s important. Even if it’s a song you’re not really feeling, finish it to the end because eventually something might click into your brain that you might wanna circle back and change something.

And all of a sudden that track is becoming something that you’re gonna start liking. And my frequency of releasing, and I primarily release on G Thang Music, Rob G’s label, and there has been a few that are on MegaRave out in the Netherlands. But my frequency is not like once a month or anything like that.

I do try and release once a month, but I don’t have to because the way I produce, I’m not making a song in a day. It doesn’t take three days to make one of my songs. Yeah, I am quantizing some things and snapping to the grid because it is technically electronic music.

At the end of the day, I am an EDM producer. Electronic dance music is what I do, regardless if I’m using natural instruments, a freaking set of bongos or clacking spoons. But adding the natural instrumentation keeps me grounded in true music because I can always make sure that everything is gonna snap to that grid, even if it’s still natural.

And I need that. I need to be different than everybody else. I mean, like I said, me and Rob’s music is essentially the same, and that’s why we gravitated towards each other so well.

But realistically, I am so different than anybody else. A lot of people sound the same. I’m gonna say it right now.

So many hardcore gabber producers sound the same and are using all these sample packs and using things that are found on the internet. Instead of doing the frequency of making a song once a week, make a song once a month and find people, hire people, or do your vocals yourself. Don’t use sample packs.

Use real instruments to give it your own personal flavor. Find your own sound, because if you don’t, you’re gonna find that you’re gonna sound like every other producer out there, regardless of the genre. And that’s my proclamation right there.

[Darran]
I can totally relate to that. Totally understand what you mean there. You know, you mentioned releasing on Rob G’s label.

What do you think the most important thing that record labels should be doing for their artists, and are they doing a good job with that?

[Queen City Hooligan]
The artist should always feel the love from the record label. That’s the most important thing. If the record label is just putting out your music and not doing anything other than just being that platform to put out the music, and then just moving on to the next, you’re not gonna get the love.

Quality over quantity is important. You know, Rob’s label… Funny thing is, when he originally signed me back on Adam Recordings, I mean, you remember the interview, he was mentioning it to you.

He was only using Adam Recordings as a way to release his music on his own. That was it. And then I fell into his lap.

The same thing now. There’s nobody else currently releasing on his label other than me. It’s almost like we have just come full circle after all these years, different label name, but it’s still run by him.

And all of a sudden now, Rob puts music on it, and now I’m putting music on it. And there’s never really any rush because in between all the frequency of releasing, sometimes it’s like once a month. Like I said, it’s like once a month, maybe once every other month.

I can do other stuff in between. I can keep myself busy or, you know, I hate… I have a hard time with like social media, like trying to figure out things to say because everyone says be on brand.

Well, it’s like, I’m a music guy and I have releases out. Like what else can I do in between that? Complain about shit.

Okay, that’s kind of my thing. I complain about shit and I be real about stuff and I don’t candy coat or sugar coat anything, but I can only do that for so long as well. And all of a sudden I just look like a genuine dick.

So it’s like, I’m still trying to figure out the social media thing, but as far as label love, that’s the most important thing. You gotta have quality over quantity. A label that has 30 artists, and this also goes with like agencies for booking as well.

If someone has like 30 or 40 artists, pray you are Paul Oakenfold. Pray you are Skrillex. Pray you are Denmouse.

And here I’m talking about non-hardcore. Pray you’re Angerfist. You know, I can talk about some hardcore ones.

Pray that you’re Miss Kate. Pray you’re anyone that is making like 30 grand a set because you’re gonna be at the bottom of that roster and maybe someday someone’s gonna make their way down there and maybe ask about you, but it’s not even gonna be guaranteed that you’re gonna get booked or someone’s even gonna notice your release. So work your ass off and find a label that thinks of quality over quantity.

[Darran]
Is there something you’d like to say to new and upcoming producers to watch out for when it comes to making their career successful? What’s the top thing that you think comes to mind?

[Queen City Hooligan]
You have to beat the depression. I mean, we’re all crazy, right? Everybody’s crazy.

Doesn’t care. I don’t care who you are. You have some sort of mental health issue.

And when you’re in the business that I’m in, and even you are, Darran, you might not be a DJ and you play one on TV, right? You still understand the EDM life. The depression can be real, especially as a producer, because I could make a song and I’m finishing it up and I’m feeling great about it and it’s awesome.

But now as you’re starting to put everything together and tightening it up and getting into mixing and mastering done, you’ve heard it for so long that all of a sudden it doesn’t sound as good anymore. And then you start to second guess yourself and then you start to feel a little bit depressed about it. Of course, anyone that hears it for the first time will think different if it’s a good song, because they’re hearing it for the first time.

I kind of consider it the James Cameron effect. He produced and directed Titanic and he saw what it took to make that movie happen. The green screens, all the fakery in order to make the reality show up on screen.

He will never know what it’s gonna feel like that first time watching Titanic for the first time, not knowing how it was made. As a viewer, he’ll never know that feeling because he was the one that was putting it together. Producers are the same way.

We know what it takes to put things together and eventually we do get a little desensitized about it. Like we second guess if it’s even a good song. And then when it’s released, and then when it’s released, I even made a post about that on Instagram recently.

That’s a shitty day too. You feel the depression like all this, it’s like you got this gift for Christmas and you’ve been looking at it for months for months under the tree. Who has Christmas presents for months under the tree?

For a month under the tree and you’re excited and eventually when you open it, you get excited for that second and then all of a sudden it’s an open gift. You’re gonna use it, you’re gonna enjoy it, but it’s like the anticipation, the buildup to the drop. It peaked and now it dropped and it’s like.

And I go through that and I have to advise anyone that wants to get into this business, prepare for the James Cameron effect. You’re gonna second guess yourself, you’re gonna feel depressed, you’re going to go through all the labor of making a song and then feel like, should I even make another one? Even if you’re on a good momentum, once you finish a song, you realize, oh my God, I have to start from scratch again and make another one.

These are the things that myself and everybody, and I’m looking right into the camera, you can deny it all you want. Everybody goes through these feelings. So if you wanna be a producer, expect to grind it out and hype yourself up all the time.

Find hype music to hype yourself up. You’re the best around, you know, Eye of the Tiger, you know, anything from Rocky. Listen to that music to get yourself hyped up, to give yourself the energy to do some genius.

[Darran]
Did you just suggest be the best around from Karate Kid? Yes.

[Queen City Hooligan]
You’re the best around. Around, nothing’s gonna ever bring you down. Yeah, put some hype music on.

I do that before I play a show. I play that music in my ears, and then I play a completely different genre of music than 80s, you know, arena rock, and that helps. It’s like, you know, you have to hype yourself up, because without hype, you’re nothing.

[Darran]
Well, is there anything else you’d like to let our DJ Sessions fans know before we let you get going today?

[Queen City Hooligan]
I love you all.

[Darran]
Are you being facetious or what?

[Queen City Hooligan]
No, I hate everybody, but if it wasn’t for people that enjoyed my music, I’d be doing it, you know? So, you know, I might be a cranky bastard, but, you know, I cannot be who I am without the support from other people, and it’s truly appreciative, 100% appreciative. No matter how cranky I get in life, no matter how angry or disgruntled my music content sounds, what the lyrics say, at the end of the day, you know, I wouldn’t even have this opportunity if it wasn’t for fans and supporters, you know, that keep me going.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, that’s pretty much what I’ve realized so far over the course of the years. I mean, we’ve been doing the show here for a number of years, since 2009, pretty much, and, you know, it’s the fans, it’s the appreciation, it’s the, you know, that’s what’s kind of kept me going over all this time, you know, it’s, I love what I do, I love film and television production, I’ve been doing it since I was six years old, you know, I pretty much say I’ve been doing it for 44 years of my life.

[Queen City Hooligan]
A long time, I’m 47, so, I mean, I know what it’s like to be old, it sucks.

[Darran]
Yeah, so, I mean, but, I mean, hey, I still look 30-something, so I’m all good there.

[Queen City Hooligan]
I like to think that I look young-ger.

[Darran]
Young-ger.

[Queen City Hooligan]
I just totally just quoted Hocus Pocus, a little young-ger. I, you know, as each year goes by, you know, I try and stay young-looking, but, you know, for every few steps up, I take maybe one step back, you know, or whatever that means, but I’m trying.

[Darran]
Well, where’s the best place people can find out more information about you?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Well, the umbrella of it all is queencityhooligan.com. That will have all my socials and Spotify link and all that stuff out there, but if you’re lazy and you don’t wanna do the multi-click, you can just find Queen City Hooligan literally everywhere, as the word is, Queen City Hooligan, one word. The only thing that’s different is X, but I don’t even use that.

I have it, but, you know, don’t even bother. Forget about X. Just find Queen City Hooligan anywhere else, or just go to queencityhooligan.com, and you can just see a link from there.

[Darran]
Awesome. Well, again, thanks for coming on the show. Like I said, it was awesome to catch up with you.

Long time coming, you know, almost 13 years, but, you know, we promise to try to stay in touch with everyone that comes on the show every six months, kind of follow up with you, find out what’s been going on with you. Coming up, you know, like I said, every six months to invite you back on the DJ sessions. It was a pleasure having you on the show again.

I believe you have an exclusive mix coming from you as well, don’t we?

[Queen City Hooligan]
Yes, yes, I made a mix just for DJ sessions, so whenever you upload that, you know, there’s a lot, you know, there’s, there’s some, there’s a lot, not Easter eggs, but there’s a few little mafia, you know, sections into it. Like, you know, these are real people too, not just samples. These are a real, you know, to go from one section to another of my mix, I’ve bridged it with some like true mafioso, which is really cool.

[Darran]
Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

[Queen City Hooligan]
Hey, thank you for having me, Darran.

[Darran]
You’re welcome. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Oh, it popped up over on his side, thedjsessions.com, where you can find all our social media platforms, Meta, X, TikTok, Instagram, you know, find us on the Apple iTunes store, subscribe to our podcast. All of that and more is at thedjsessions.com. We have over 600 news stories a month that get published. We got live interviews.

We got exclusive mixes. We got over 2,500 past episodes. You can type in a name, type in the search bar and pop it up.

We got a merch store. We got virtual reality nightclubs and more, but you can find that all at thedjsessions.com. I’m your host, Darran, for The Virtual Sessions, coming to you from live from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and that’s Queen City Hooligan coming in from…

Manchester, New Hampshire. I was gonna say Manchester, but I was thinking, oh my God, that’s over in England, you know? But Manchester, New Hampshire, for The DJ Sessions presents The Virtual Sessions.

And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.