High-profile record-spinner DJ AM is heading here to help celebrate a New Zealand company which has turned the tables on the job of playing music in clubs. He talks to Dean Campbell
Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein would rather be seen rocking parties than tabloid pages, but when you date a string of Hollywood faces including Nicole Ritchie and Mandy Moore, sometimes that can't be avoided.Goldstein has appeared everywhere from the pages of NW magazine to Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd show, but as TimeOut found out, that's all a bit of a strange spin-off sideshow to the career of this 35-year-old DJ and businessman. Ahead of our phone chat, his publicist had laid out the ground rules about personal questions. So instead the talk turns to how he has managed to become one of America's most in-demand DJs."It's been a long run," he says from his home in Southern California, "I haven't had another job since '96; 12 years and this is all I've done. I've just had a nice, slow, steady incline in the amount of work."A quick check of his current schedule and you wonder whether it is possible to increase that work rate any further. AM flies on average six times a week to get from gig to gig - that's a lot of aeroplane food.
"I'm DJing my ass off," he laughs, "I've been a very, very busy man. It varies, the cities each week - Fridays it's my residency in Vegas. The past seven days I've played Denver, Atlantic City, Tampa, New York, Detroit, and I just got home and I'm going to Hong Kong tomorrow, then Sydney, before I come and see you in New Zealand." One explanation for this high-demand situation could be that he's known for dating the stars, people read about him in celebrity gossip magazines every second week and therefore he becomes a more appealing commodity to party promoters. But the guy has been DJing professionally since 1996 and he is technically very good - famed for his quick-cut mixing and scratching and his eclectic party mash-up style. You could hear anything from Kanye to Zeppelin to the latest indie rock hit or club banger in an AM set, depending on time and area code. He also speaks confidently and knowledgeably about the art of spinning tunes. "I think a key to being a good DJ - aside from technical ability - is to be unselfish. You can show up to a gig that someone has hired you for and get there and realise, 'oh my God, these people are awful', all they want to hear is Top 40 all night long, they want the same crap they've been hearing on the radio all day. And to be able to be unselfish and say 'stuff it, I'm going to give them what they want' and not go 'God, don't you people know about good music' and try to educate them, that's a key part of it. "In saying that, I love throwing people curve balls. Although sometimes that backfires and people are like 'Are you really playing this God-awful song?', then I'll do something to it, like add drums to it, or start scratching it up to make it sound better."
