Q&A: Seth Troxler

Do you think you can take more chances with what you play now?

I do. I get this thing now though where people will criticise me online without ever having really heard me play. Right now, I'm playing some really out-there stuff but I get this "oh, he's just another commercial house DJ playing vocal house records." I don't play that music! Someone came up to me the other day and was like, "You're that guy who's an internet meme", so I guess it's finding a balance between being lighthearted and funny and being taken seriously.

Are you starting to hold your tongue a bit more because of experiences you've had?

I am. Journalists will often take things out of context and mix your words up and really make you look like an asshole. I'm a really open guy and if you get talking to me for long enough I'll say whatever's on my mind. I'll say some shit in between the questions being asked and that will be the headline. I'm dating a girl right now and I had to meet her parents the other day and they only knew me from videos they'd seen online. They were terrified I was dating their daughter! I'm nearly thirty now and that was one of the first times I realised that while it's all a joke for us, when people in their sixties see it, they're terrified for their life! Nothing goes away on the internet.

You won them over though, right?

Oh yeah, I killed it! They loved me in person.

A little while ago, you spoke out against ketamine use and called it "the heroin of our time". Do you feel a responsibility to talk about some of the dangers that might come with going out?

I think I do. Drug culture and dance music are intrinsically linked so I think, as promoters of nightlife, it is our responsibility to point out some of the possible dangers of our culture. I got in trouble with people in Detroit when I said that because they were like, "Seth, we're still dealing with a massive heroin problem here!" But I remember a few years ago we were losing a lot of people to ketamine. People would just completely lose the plot and you'd have a club full of zombies.

You've been really outspoken on the whole EDM explosion in the US. What's your take on where that scene is now?

I spoke out about this stuff for so long but it seems my predictions are coming true. Other people, like Digweed, have come out and said "Enough's enough!" Disclosure are really big over there now and I think they're a gateway for a lot of people. It's a bit deeper, they're coming into our world. People are getting into more underground stuff. My girlfriend in America was into some quite questionable stuff to start with, and now she's dating me!

Seth Troxler's Acid Future takes place at London's Tobacco Dock on August 8