1. Why Miami?
I was born here. I grew up in Kendall, lived there all my life! I finally moved in with some friends when I was about 18 - What is that place that got destroyed during Hurricane Andrew?
Homestead.
No, another neighborhood where all the houses were made out of wood, and everything just blew away.
Probably Homestead.
No. Country Walk!
2. So you moved down there. How did you end up DJing for Poplife?
Well, I had started going to Poplife when it first started, at a place called Meza in Coral Gables. A friend of mine used to do another party on another night there, so it was kind of a place to go and hang out. I remember going to Poplife once because I had another friend named Aramis, not Aramis Lorie. So I go up to the two girls at the door, who happened to be Barbie and Paula, and I asked them if Aramis was inside. Of course, they say “yeah, he should be by the DJ booth.” So I tell them I just want to say hi to Aramis and they say “ok, but come back out,” since I hadn’t paid. I see the DJ booth and go up to some guy I had never met before and say "Hey have you seen Aramis?" This guy smiles and says “I am Aramis” (in the slow monotone voice of Aramis Lorie many of us have become aquainted with by now). Needless to say, it was NOT the same party. We laughed. And that was actually the first time I ever went to Poplife.
3. Did he have a beard back then?
No no no. He was very clean shaven back then. But I would say my real introduction to Poplife and how I started to play there was maybe a year later. Before I DJ’ed there, I would just go for fun. Eventually, Alex Caso aka Cookieheadz (currently at Vagabond), who used to do the sideroom at Poplife brought me in to do guest sets occasionally. That was about seven years ago. Slowly, I started playing the side room more and more until it just became a weekly thing. I had never played the main room until Aramis and Josh Menendez started a Thursday together at The District. That was my first main room gig, and I played along side Matt Cash and Lazaro Casanova. Eventually, I joined Matt Cash as a main room DJ when Poplife moved to White Room.
4. I see you got this record collection. You were DJing Vinyl?
Well, for a very long time. When I started DJing Poplife, I played only vinyl. But the longer that went on, the harder it was to keep up with new stuff, so that was one of the reasons I started using Serato. None of the stuff that we were playing is on vinyl, and if it was it was just too expensive and came out too frequently to keep up or even afford it! Plus I had a lot of classic Poplife stuff on my computer, so when I decided to make the switch to Serato, so I would finally be able to play it all.
5. Obviously you love music. You have your record collection sorted out into different types of music, different classifications of it. Have you ever considered making music yourself?
I do! I started out just doing Hip Hop. I would just make beats all day. My first album, Cycle, was all instrumental. The second project I did, called Antennae, was a really weird, left field Hip-Hop group made up of me, Manuvers (another well known Miami DJ), and Stres. Manuvers and I co-produced everything. The MC was Stres, who used to be in a group with Bern-biz and Plex (now of MAYDAY!). I grew up with all those kids.
And my current project is kind of some Future Soul type shit. It features me singing. I’ve been singing since I was young, but usually too shy to actually record anything. Finally, it was a few friends, mainly Manuvers and Jack Splash who basically forced me to start singing. The new album is dancey and fun on some early 80’s Disco/Boogie type shit. I would say Prince, New Edition, and D’Angelo are some of my biggest influences.
I can see that with your Prince cut-out in the middle of your room watching you while you sleep. So creepy.
(Laughs)
Tell me more about this album.
It’s under the name The Wonderful Sound of Induce! I wanted the name “Induce” to still be known for Hip-Hop, so when people see an “Induce” record, you know better what it is. In order to differentiate this project from the Hip Hop stuff, I extended the name. The inspiration comes from the old 50's albums where on the cover it would read: "The Sweet Soul of Ray Charles" or “The Soothing Voice Of Dinah Washington.” So my record cover will end up looking like that as well, always paying tribute to the masters. The name of the album is “Halfway Between Me And You," and will probably be released in April. I've been working on it in secret for the last two years. None of my friends knew about it up until recently. Some still don’t, even to this day...
You’re mad secretive Induce.
Oh I'm mad secretive.
