Meet Team Dirtybird

What kind of musical background do you have?

I played the cello for 14 years, piano for a long time when I was a kid.

I also was into electronic music probably way before anybody would be into it. Maybe not now, but back then, for sure. I bought my first sampler when I was 13 and it was $2,000 and I had to work for a year to afford it. I mowed a lot of lawns.

But it was terrible! New, they were $5,000 and this one was a used unit. But I was that dedicated.

What did you hope would happen when you first came up with the concept of Dirtybird?

I really just wanted to get DJ gigs and have fun. I didn’t love my job and I wanted it to be a real thing.

I was always positive. I thought we could be as good as everyone else and I knew what I was doing. There was a little bit of naivety, but you have to be like that when you first start out.

DJing, producing, running the label, throwing events… Amongst all the things that you do now, do you have a favorite role?

Music producer is the most inspiring. There was a point when I really enjoyed the business end of it, but every year, that gets less and less. It’s so annoying!

I realized that if I could stay in the studio, that all the business stuff would just take care of itself. I try not to get too wrapped up in the business stuff because I’m too meticulous about all the details.

It sounds like you’ve figured out a good team to help handle that portion, at least.

I definitely do. Especially our Label Manager! Deron has made my life much easier and helped me a lot. For 10 years, I couldn’t get it all off my plate, and even though he’s pretty new, he’s taken it all off my shoulders.

What’s the process like bringing new members onto the team?

There are two different levels.

The employee level is pretty straightforward. We hire like anyone else would - you either qualify or you don’t.

The musician side is a bit weirder. It’s not only having good tracks, but also being able to get along with everybody and caring about the right things. You have to fit into our little group, and that matters in Dirtybird.

I do say that I’ll sign any track as long as it’s a great track, and that’s true – but I won’t sign the next track by you if I don’t like you. (Laughs.) It takes a little bit of time to figure out what people are all about and who they really are.

Do you have any traditions for officially bringing people onto the team?

We used to have a bit of a boot camp in Miami… but no one can ever get through it, so we just stopped doing it.

What was it?

If you could last with Justin and me for the weekend, and no one ever can.

We’ve conditioned our bodies to take brutal amounts of staying up all-night and partying.

Speaking of partying, let's talk BBQs and Campout. What’s your favorite part about the events?

There’s just no other reason why they would be there besides liking Dirtybird or one of us. It’s not a festival put on by someone else, there’s no guests that are outside the label. It’s a benchmark to see where we are and to see all our friends and fans.

We hang out in the crowd most of the time. We might have the only festival where the artists don’t hang out in the VIP area, they just walk around the entire time.

What’s new this time around?

There’s a bunch of new games for Campout! A few things will get beefed up a bit, but in general, it’ll be the same vibe. We had such a great time last year that we’re not really monkeying with it.

For the BBQs, we never really went past having a concert and some free hamburgers. So this year, the BBQs are different. They have real BBQ food, Dirtybird is coming out with a BBQ sauce that we made with this shop in Lower Haight called Memphis Minnie’s, we have games, a “fashion show” called ‘Best In Show’ for creative outfits or self-made merch.

We learned what was possible from Campout. We didn’t know if anyone would play any games or go to the comedy show, but everybody participated in everything, so we decided to integrate the ideas into all of the parties.

What’s the craziest thing you remember from Campout last year?

The talent show was the most shocking!

Shocking?

Not in a bad way. I couldn’t believe how talented people were! I thought the talent show was going to be funny and made up of people who had no talent. It was the exact opposite! It was hilarious and people were insanely talented. I was surprised!