DJ Profiles

Alyson Calagna

2011-10-28T16:05:34+00:00

When you listen to Alyson Calagna, whether on a dance floor in New York, Rome, or Bangkok; at the gym through your iPod playing her latest podcast; or as you walk down the street streaming one of her songs through her new mobile app, you can’t help but move. Her beats are infectious, her sounds sensual, and her mixes sublime. This East Coast DJ with a West Coast soul travels the world connecting people through her music and building an ever-growing tribe of followers.

Calagna recently headlined at the Gay Village, a summer festival in Rome complete with bars, restaurants, crepe stands and gelato booths, as well as two huge stages. Alyson found herself right at home onstage in front…

Francesco Pagano

2011-08-01T13:00:57+00:00

Circuit parties are about music. They’re about dancing. They’re about eyeballing gorgeous men with sweaty torsos. They’re about doing many other things with gorgeous men with sweaty torsos. But they’re also about building a global community. Witness the unique, amazing and inspiring sense of connectivity that is formed when hundreds of men celebrate the universal language of a beat, and put their hands in the air in simultaneous salute to the party gods.

Once upon a time, DJ Pagano longed to feel that kind of community that only music brings.
“Sicily is a beautiful place,” says Pagano, who grew up on the southern Italian island. Though he cherishes memories of growing…

Randy Bettis

2011-04-29T03:55:04+00:00

This NYC master mixer’s evolving style keeps him relevant — in the DJ booth and the recording studio.

They say if you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere. That’s doubly true for creative types, who must compete with the best and brightest. Even more impressive are those rare and exceptional individuals who manage to accomplish their goals in multiple genres. Meet Randy Bettis. This Renaissance man’s dancing, acrobatic, and DJ skills have brought him renown in all those disciplines. Now focusing on music production and remixing, he’s gearing up to conquer yet another field.
His personal odyssey began in 1985, when he moved from Nashville, where he…

The Perry Twins

2011-02-15T07:54:08+00:00

Doug and Derek Perry are perfectly comfortable finishing each other’s sentences. It’s a twin thing. The way they work in tandem helps mesh their DJ sets into an organic flow, even though there are two at the controls. Where most brothers would be squabbling over what to play next, the Perry Twins are effortlessly passing the tables to one another — and blowing away crowds across the globe with their signature sound.

“We had actually seen each other every day of our lives until we were 20 years old, which is really weird,” Derek explains. It’s the kind of “weird” that people are increasingly learning to love about these two stars from Los Angeles. With huge hits under…

Moto Blanco

2010-11-02T07:28:20+00:00

Ask any DJ/producers if they crave some form of mainstream success, and many will scoff at you, claiming to prefer the grind of struggling in the underground. This is most likely a lie; every artist wants to be recognized for his or her achievements — along with all the critical attention and economic rewards. Most of them never get there, which is why the idealized “underground” is such a popular answer to the question.

Danny Harrison and Arthur Smith — the two men behind the British power production team Moto Blanco — have seen both sides of this equation. For almost two decades, they haven’t had any problem playing huge venues as major draws, while enjoying huge success…

Twisted DEE AND Phil B

2010-07-29T13:36:29+00:00

With August here, you can look forward to one of the month’s big events — the party that you have been waiting for since last August. Now in its fifth year, Fire Island Pines’ “Ascension” has grown from a single beach party to an entire weekend of parties, performances and events with something for everyone. Of course, the main attraction remains the main beach party, which starts at noon on Sunday, Aug. 15. But the night before, at 6 p.m., the tradition of High Tea will take on a new life with the addition of two faces already familiar to the Circuit.

DJ Twisted Dee and DJ Phil B will take their positions at the turntables and turn the traditional Tea into a four-hour…

DJ Chus

2010-04-27T03:39:25+00:00

Fiercely proud of their Spanish roots, Chus + Ceballos have capitalized on a sound derived from their native land that has become their trademark. The native Madrileños are more than willing to bring their unique Iberian flair to dance floors and Circuit parties around the world.

“Our sound is infectious and very contagious,” Chus says in a recent interview. “You can’t stop dancing for hours. The rhythm takes over your body and you enjoy yourself until the end. We love to see people enjoying themselves.”

Chus + Ceballos define “Iberian Sound” as a “delicious blend of hypnotizing, warm, inviting tribal soundscapes laced with a brilliant use of modern tech elements.”…

Freemasons

2010-02-13T16:35:24+00:00

“Why the Freemasons?” asks Jeffrey Sanker, rhetorically. Why a British duo sought after for their melodic and musically rich sound by the biggest names in the music industry to headline the White Party? We’ll let him explain it: “After last year’s 20th anniversary of the party, I wanted to break out of the same mold, take a different angle, get internationally known DJs. Everyone 25 and under kept saying, ‘Freemasons! Freemasons! Freemasons!’”

Thusly does Sanker explain a decision that has rocked the Circuit world. By booking the hottest DJs/producers/remixers in the world right now, he has refashioned what defines a major American dance event. The British duo is at…

Ana Paula

2009-11-01T01:14:10+00:00

Like a fireworks display during Carnaval in her native Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian Ana Paula has exploded on the U.S. gay party scene. In this, her first English-language profile, the gorgeous groovemistress gives it up for noiZe.

Usually, DJs work their way slowly, ever so slowly, up the greasy pole, from local bars to small parties, to larger parties. Eventually, if they’re ambitious, creative and talented enough, they attract a following. Once in a while, however, a DJ seems to burst on the scene like a supernova. Two years ago, if you told someone Ana Paula was spinning a party, you’d get a blank stare.
No more.

From her gigs with Brett Henrichsen in Los Angeles…

Mark Anthony

2009-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

He’s best known as the DJ who helped build up Black & Blue from a tiny gathering of friends into the super-event that it is today. But Mark Anthony has long been a mover and shaker on the Montreal club scene. There’s no irony in a straight DJ being the impresario who has helped make this Canadian city the gay nightlife capital of North America: He readily and happily confesses to enjoying playing to a gay crowd.
“It’s the gay crowd that made me who I am today,” he says. “That is the crowd I prefer to play. I prefer gay because I get to be more me. In a straight venue, they want it a little harder. It’s a whole different vibe. I’ve always been more comfortable in the…