August 28, 2025 ⢠33 mins
On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with DJ, producer, and cultural curator Jeremy Avalon to explore how parties can become platforms. Jeremy shares the story behind The Groove, the R&B experience that has lasted nearly a decade, and why building community around music is just as important as the music itself. From filling cultural gaps in Atlanta to securing sponsorships and turning nightlife into a business, Jeremy breaks down what it takes to transform creativity into sustainability.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a lot of dope people sitting at home. You know,
you can be the greatest DJ in the world, but
if you don't know how to communicate with venues, you
don't know how to write emails, you know, just simple
things like that, to network with other creatives, to network
with other corporate entities, or just be in the same
room as people, to meet these people who can provide
(00:23):
these kinds of opportunities. You know, we would just be
dope at home.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Than Hey, everybody, welcome to an episode of Butter Now.
It's I'm the host, Brandon Butler found the CEO of
Butter at LL and today got somebody special in the building,
the one, the only, mister Jeremy Avalon. Jeremy, How you doing, bro?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm great? How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Man? That was any better after you? Brother?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What do they say if I had your heart your hands,
I cut my one off.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Or something like that. Look, man, it's all good man,
Thank you for pulling up all us.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thank you, Thank you man. This is fun.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So, you know, for a lot of folks, man, you
know a lot of podcasts, a lot of folk you know,
you like to do the whole Tell me about yourself
and all that kind of stuff. We do a little
bit different here on Buttonmics. You know what I'm saying,
Business of Culture podcast. One thing we always do is
we always ask chat cheapyt to write a short bio
about our guest. So I'm gonna read what GBT says
about you, and I want you to tell me, is
it is it on? Does it all? You gotta We
(01:18):
gotta make a couple of phone calls, got some emails
to type this thing up. Okay, let me know, Let's
do it all right, all right. Jeremy Avalon is an
Atlanta based artist who wears several hats, DJ, producer, and guitarists.
He's a member of the work Crew collective and plays
guitar for Heavy Mojo, a local stable in Atlanta. His
musical roots traced back to a massive vinyl collection from
his dad, which inspired him early on. He's known for
(01:39):
blending global sounds from Afro Latino, Caribbean hip hop, funk,
indie dance, and deep house into his sets. He shares
stages with a range of artists like Fishbone, Cowboy Mouth
and DJs and hip hop figures like Jazzy, jeff Ty,
Lib Kwali, Pete Rock, Brian Michael Cox, and many others. Locally,
he's a fixture at Major vic in Atlanta. You may
(02:01):
have seen him on the stage DJ one Music Fest,
a three c afro punker, at clubs like MJQ, hosting
this high key disco party. He's taking his knowledge to
academic spaces, teaching panel discussions at Emory University. The one
the only mister Jeremy Avalon So was that accurate? Was
it awful? Was a missing name? Man?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
The robots are kind of on. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I gotta say tell you, man, look, I don't know
what you're putting into this thing. This was putting back
out Yo.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's wild. Yeah, pretty much, Yeah, pretty much that on.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Dope, man, Dope. Well, I mean it's talk about all
this stuff. Man. One of the things you're probably most
known for out here is the groove, right, and I
got a big anniversary coming up.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Well we just had a big anniversary. We had nine years.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We started back in twenty fifteen at the Basement, okay
in the East Atlanta village and well actually before that
at the at the the a loft hotel in the Lobby.
Went from there to the Basement of East Atlanta, village
and it just grew and then we started doing the
Masquerade and other bigger venues.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I remember what what brought that on.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, for one back nine ten years ago, there wasn't
really a party dedicated to strictly R and B. But
like strictly strictly R and B, like no rap segments
to appease people, know, like hardcore R and B, deep cuts,
you know, familiars, you know, the old basement, you know,
(03:24):
get down, you know kind of feeling. We didn't have
that in the city at the time, so we just
saw a need. We feel the need that was that
was missing, and we're all really passionate about R and B.
My first concert was new addition the Heartbreak Tour. I'm
aging myself a bit, but you know, the first person
I saw in life on stage was I'll be sure.
So it's like, you know, I've been going to R
(03:46):
and B shows my whole life. I saw seeing Janet
Rhythm Nation tour as a kid. Yeah, yeah, that was
one of the first shows I went to when I
moved to Atlanta as a young as a young guy,
and yeah, man, just going to show my parents have
cool parents. Thankfully they drug us to Luther and Anita
(04:06):
and all kinds of shows. So that sparked my my
R and B interests, you know, as a child, and hey, man,
I just want to represent that in a public space now.
And it's just something that was missing and we wanted
to bring that to the forefront.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, man, I mean you kind of mentioned I mean,
you're not originally from Atlanta, you got New York roots,
but you know you represent Atlanta hard, Like what is that?
What does that influence mean on your music and just
all the stuff you've been building.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, I have a unique situation, like a lot of people,
kind of from the early nineties, having family in two
cities and frequently frequenting both of them. My father, even
though he grew up in Brooklyn, was born at Grady,
you know, randomly, Like my dad was probably the last
of his siblings born and born down south before the
(04:54):
migration up to New York. So I'm heavily influenced by
a lot out of the southern soul from Otis Redding,
James Brown, you know that kind of that's big in
my my musical vocabulary and history as well as you know,
New York City and the funk and disco and the
boogie from New York City like Kashif and you know,
(05:17):
all these all these artists that kind of were the
soundtrack to my early years.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, man, So you know, I love and that's one
thing I've always loved. Me And I've been to the
Groove many times, and I think again, like it's easy
to kind of fall in too, just like the straight
up hip hop, the party stuff, right, but it takes
something special to kind of put together a whole event
around just R and B and kind of creating a
whole different vibe. And that's needed Atlanta. Like what kind
of people typically come out and enjoy that experience.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, fortunately, a lot of ladies.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, okay, you know, and we.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
We love we love our audience. So yeah, a lot
of ladies come through. It's a great safe space. You know.
It's not a lot of weirdos, you know, it's you know,
it's a lot of well mannered people who really like music.
And so that's that's what we love about the Groove. Man,
It's people that come to enjoy the music. They that
aren't just surface level you know, I want to hear
(06:05):
I'm not gonna well, I'm not gonna give An examples,
but you know, just do want to hear basic R
and B. You know, people that like deep cuts in
real music.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So yeah, man for sure. Man, again, you've seen Atlanta
like evolve both culturally and musically, Like what do you
remember about those early days, like you know, the Face
Records in that kind of time period in Atlanta to
what it is now?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Man, I just remember going to record stores in Atlanta
growing up. Some of my favorite artists like that were
on the Face, like Damien Dame, reci peace to both
of them. That's really Atlanta to me. Like when I
think of moving to Atlanta, I think of Babyface Tender
Lover album and Damien Dame early TLC. That's the Atlanta
(06:48):
that I was, you know, came up in. So that's
Atlanta in a nutshell for me.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And is that kind of like that kind of continues
to influence all the stuff you do, because a lot
of stuff kind of has that same vibe to it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Right, absolutely, absolutely a big New Jack swing nerd. Yeah,
you know, so I like all the music from that era,
you know, So the Face Records was a huge impact
on me just musically and just like you know, for
the city of Atlanta, too. I mean, we Atlanta was
like a baby New York in a lot of ways
that every artist passed through here, you know, growing up,
(07:20):
So it was kind of it was it was very
interesting to have that dynamic of both cities kind of
coexisting with each other. There wasn't this whole North South
divide that people perpetuate. It was kind of like, you know,
everybody was kind of exchanging ideas and influencing each other musically.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do you think it's important that,
you know, people really recognize Atlanta's kind of like deep
roots in music and history and like who were some
of the folks come to mind? Because a lot of times, yeah,
like you know, people think about Atlanta from a music standpoint,
but they kind of instantly kind of go to the
rap and hip hop stuff and they're like, oh, yeah,
La Face was doing all this thing. It's like, yeah,
all kind of stuff has happened. But we talked about
the SOS band and all these other groups, like, you know,
(08:01):
why is it important to remember kind of that deep
history and who those some of those folks you think
are kind of the architects to kind of help even
open the doors up for the faces to the social
depths to kind of where we are now.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, I had to give props to my mother and
her side family. My mom is from making Georgia, Okay,
so I have that half of half that Georgia and
me and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Yeah, that's that's
the genesis for me of music from Atlanta to me,
So Gladys Knight and the Pips, the SOS band that
Jam and Lewis Influent influence sound, that's the Atlanta kind
(08:35):
of funk sound to me, you know, So that is
what I think of first when I think of Atlanta
and music, and of course you know all the hip
hop that came, but even the pre outcast hip hop,
you know, like Kilo Ali's and Shout Out the Mojo
and like some of these early hip hop influencers. You know,
that kind of shaped the whole Atlanta kind of sound
for me in my head.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a lot more, you know, soulf.
I mean, I'm not gonna be one of my old guys.
It's like, you know, it was better than I think
every I think, every decade, in every every moment you know,
it has. It has reasons why it's like, you know,
popular and has things. I mean again, I have a
young daughter, you know what I'm saying, and like I
wanted to let me listen to stuff all the time.
I want to hear what's hot in these streets. So
I don't want to be an old head be like
you know, I'm hating on whatever kind of came before, right,
(09:18):
But to your point, like there's a lot of stuff
that's kind of you know, built the foundation. Now. You
also an event called high Key Disco. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So hig Key Disco is kind of a tribute to
that specifically. So I was born in nineteen eighty two,
so I think that that is like the funkiest year
of all times. So there's a really funky time period
of music post Disco, before New Jacks Wing. You got
everyone from the Sos band to Kashif like I said earlier,
(09:46):
to the Whispers, and you know this whole kind of
early eighties boogie funk that was faster than the R
and B at the time, but slower than the disco.
You know, it's a good pocket in between. You know,
think of like Michael Jackson rock with you kind of
tempo vibe you know that is the kind of essence
of high key disco to me, because it's high key disco. Yeah,
(10:06):
but you know it's really funky too, you know what I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Saying, No, I feel you man. Like one of the
things you talk about too sometimes is like activism you
know through music, Like what exactly do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well, I like to play music that doesn't like I'm
losing the word here.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
People people don't get shot.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah yeah, well people don't get shot. Like I like
to play music that you know, that is uplifting and
it's not talking about you know, negative things about us
as people. You know, I want to I want to
hear our music and our art forms elevated, you know.
So that's that's what that's what my activism is as
far as the R and B thing goes. I want
it to be on the same level as a classical
(10:47):
music or or any kind of music that we think
but that we deem as high art or whatever. Like
we make high art to do, you know, it's just
we you know, we have to have we have to
you know, push our art and spaces too.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
What do you think is the secret to kind of
building an event that lasts that long, because there's not
a lot of events, especially in Atlanta just in general
that go on for that long and still kind of
find ways to stay fresh. I mean, they're not making
any new old school music, you know what I'm saying,
But y'all find new ways to put together and new
you know, venues to do it. But like, what do
you think kind of helps drive the stay in power
for that event?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, I think to just the love for the music
first of all, is the is the drive for the
for our event. And then you know, also with R
and B in particular, like you said, you know, there
isn't any newer old school music, but as we age,
there are things that you know, become classic. You know,
so things from the early two thousands when we were
(11:51):
in college. You know that that's music that people grew
up on. Now, so sometimes we have to remember this
Ashanti record is old school to them. But then that's
this whole generation of people that that that a Shaunte
record would be the equivalent of a Bobby Brown record toss,
you know what I'm saying. So it's just the way
music keeps on evolving. We still will will always have
(12:12):
classics of some sort. So that's what I love about,
you know, doing the R and B thing.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
No, that's a good point, man. You know I always
always trip and listen to some of the you know,
the old school stations now, and like some of my
songs are coming on. I'm like, wait a minute minute,
am I to hold it? Am I the old head?
And that hold up? You know? Yeah, yeah, but that's
a good point though, man. You're right, like even though
they're not making any like new old old school, like
you know, my mom used to listen to growing up,
and you know, I have to clean the house up
on Saturdays, right, A lot of those things that you know,
(12:38):
we grew up on in kind of our you know,
teenage years and early twenty years Like I mean, yeah,
stuff was twenty years ago, years ago, and so the
ability to kind of mix that in and kind of
have that I think that's interesting too. Like I always
talk about kind of like juxtaposition absolutely, and so I
always think about, you know, like what's your I'm always like,
what's the process, Like when you even make these sets,
like how to explain to me like you know, okay,
the groove is coming up or events coming up up?
(13:00):
Like how do you even start to sit down and
figure out all right, like I'm gonna do this set,
this is the vibe I want to do. I'm gonna
conect these different albums. Like, what's kind of your process
for even putting that together?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, I think for me, there's usually a song or
two that I want to get to mm hm and
that you know, either as a personal deep cut of
mind or something that I just haven't played in a
long time that I just want to put out there,
you know. So that's part of it. But my strategy
is really I like to take the year away from
things because there's a lot of agism and year discrimination,
(13:31):
I guess, especially in Black music. You know, we kind
of have a tendency to say, oh, well, you know,
this person's old or this person's whatever. But I like
to take the year out of music because there's not
really a difference, in a large difference in like the
music we grew up in and like Katrinata or like
somebody like that. You know, it's it's really a tempo thing.
(13:52):
So as long as music is in similar keys and
similar tempos, you can dance to it. You can play
jo Toasy and Brent Fires and XYZ person all at
the same time, because it's really it's really the same music.
You think about classical music, right, Yeah, something could have
been five hundred years old or something could have been
made yesterday, but it's both classical music. You don't know
(14:14):
the difference of when it came out, you know. So
I would like R and B to be more like
that in a way, you know, like that we could
play everything from multiple eras and everybody's just with it.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Okay. So that's how you kind of start, you say,
you know what, like I'm gonna do this set. I
have a couple of different songs I want to make
sure that I get to, Yeah, but I'm going to
kind of based on those, I'm going to kind of
almost like build around and build up to that and
train and that's how you kind of approach it.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Absolutely, and then a lot of it is just freestyle. Yeah,
Like I like, like I said, I'll plan like maybe
two or three songs that I'm like, Okay, I want
to get to these at this type of tempo. But
then everything else, I'm just feeding off the audience, you know,
and seeing you know, if I see a certain person
come in that I did, I know a song that
they like just in the back of my head, I'm like, yeah,
(14:57):
I'm gonna get them. So you know, it's just kind
of like that, that's what I would do it.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay, Now, look, I was a DJ for a hot minute, man,
a hot minute, you know what I'm saying. So I
got to ask you, you a vinyl guy, you a
serato guy, like, how do you feel about the whole
digital element? Because again, I know some people, you know,
they're very they're very sensitive about this stuff, But how
do you feel about the whole like vinyl versus digital
element when it comes to just DJ and events and
all this.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Right, So I definitely started in the vinyl era. You know,
I'm a big If you follow me on any social media,
I'm vinyling people to death.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I love vinyl. I love the touching the records and
manipulating and all that. But also I do embrace technology.
Even if you look at a turntable, it's not meant
to use it's not meant to be used that way. Yeah,
you know, it's meant to be played at his normal
pitch and normal tempo. But you know it had these
have a pitch control and we're manipulating. That's technology advanced, man.
(15:47):
You know. Then I remember when CD tds came out
and me and my friends we were like, man, that's
so whack man, you DJing with CD? That's so corny, right,
But then it's like, Okay, now I'm able to have
multiple genres of music on one disc or multiple music
on several discs and not have to bring a whole
(16:09):
bunch of records with me. So my back is definitely grateful,
you know what I mean? From that, And then I
embrace the technology. Man. Hey, it's here to it's here
to use, you know, so as long as you just
stay true to it. I think my biggest advice to
DJs really is just like, learn how to do everything.
Some people get offended by that, though, can you tell them,
(16:32):
you know, you know, if they Okay, if you know
how to DJ on the controller, that's great. Now what
if you're in a situation where they have c DJs
or you're gonna just be like, well, I can't do
it now. What if there's a turntables there? Oh, I
can't do it? Now? I say, learn everything, educate yourself, educate.
There is a famous DJ rec inpece to one of
(16:52):
the greatest disco DJ's Larry Levan. He said that people
don't understand how the music gets from the vinyl to
the speaker, so how they're going to understand how to
play it, you know what I mean. So, like I
always say, some people don't know an RCA from a
hole in their head sometimes, you know, So educate yourself
on equipment, on music, how how the music even gets
(17:14):
out of the speaker, you know. So that's that's my
biggest advice. Learn everything you can.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Sure for sure. Now, when did you start seeing the
opportunity to kind of start building a business around this?
You know, you have a pastor of music, you're doing DJ,
doing events. When did you say, like, you know what
this could be like a real sustainable thing.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Well, honestly it was forced upon me, that makes sense.
So I've been DJing since I was probably fifteen years old, right,
so this is the mid nineties, been collecting records since then.
That's you know, I'm kind of like the youngest. I
was always like the youngest person in the room, you know,
with all this DJ stuff. So you know, I did
what everybody's parents wanted them to do, you know, you know,
(17:52):
get decent grades in high school, go to college, get
get your degree. I got my degree in digital media,
So I have a television background, and I was always
DJing on the side, and I was always playing music
on the side. I've been playing guitar ears even before
I've been DJing, so I always had that passion to
do that. But you know, I wanted to do the
(18:13):
straight and narrow corporate America thing, and it was a
hard balance, you know. I would I would work all day.
I would gig at nights. Sometimes when I was with
Heavy Mojo. Sometimes I would take my Pto PTO to
go on tour, you know, just stuff like that. But
I had that foundation of an education and another adjacent
(18:35):
like field similar, you know. So you know I got
that you know, that job that you're supposed to get
after college, you know that you work hard for. I've
worked for Turner Broadcasting Cartoon Network for many years and then,
as you know, Turner massive layoffs, you know. So I
was kind of thrust into it because it was like, Okay,
(18:55):
my DJ's thing is starting to take off a little bit.
But you know, but I'm glad I still got this
corporate thing. But when that corporate thing didn't have me anymore.
It was kind of like, Okay, now I could either
look for you know, I could either keep this charade
of trying to do both right or put my put
my efforts into this into actually you know, doing this
(19:16):
DJ thing. And that's how that's how it kind of
happened for me. Like it wasn't a choice. It was
just kind of like, hey, pushed off the deep end,
go swim you know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
No, no, got to jump out there, and you have
to respond to it. Now when it comes to you know, DJ,
and this is a business, these vents or business and
a lot of folks that the creatives kind of sometimes
struggle to monetize, you know, their work. How did you
start to really kind of bring in that element to
make sure you weren't just known as like, you know,
a dope DJ, but like dope DJ need to get
it paid too.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Absolutely, well, you know there's a lot of dope people
sitting at home. You know, there's somebody better than Michael Jordan,
who you know was just dope at the playground but
never you know, never took off. But I say, you know,
it's really educating yourself about the business of eventvs. You know,
because events are a business. You can be the greatest
(20:04):
DJ in the world. But if you don't know how
to communicate with venues, you don't know how to you know,
even write emails, you know, just simple things like that,
to to network with other creatives, to network with other uh,
you know, entities, you know, corporate entities. You know, we've
we've we've been blessed to have a couple of good
sponsorships along the way. But if we didn't like research
(20:27):
how to go about those or or just be in
the same room as people to meet these people who
can provide these kinds of opportunities, you know, we would
just be dope at home.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know. Yeah, yeah, how do you what advice would
you give to like, you know, somebody wants to get
in the space because I think again, a lot of
times when you do service based stuff and creative work,
there's even a struggle to kind of figure out, like
where's my value in the market, and like what's the
right number of my asking for too much and not enough?
Like how'd you kind of figure out, you know, what
they actually charge for your services and what value to
put on top of them.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, it's research, you know, you I always say to people,
especially like, for example, if you're a musician artist, if
if I was buying buying Brandon's album in the record store,
like what other artists story around would be? What section
would you be in? And who are the other artists
that I had to thumb through to get to you?
You know, same thing with yourself as a DJ, and
(21:20):
as as as event products. Excuse me as an event producer.
You know there there's there's you in every city, you know,
so you have to research. You have to relentlessly research,
see what works for other people, but don't copy. Use
it as inspiration to do what you know, to to
do what you want to do, you know. So I
(21:41):
would say definitely research, research, research, we I mean the
whole We have plenty of tools to research. Go outside,
you know. That's another thing. A lot of us artists
are very introverted. I know I am, you know, but
you have to talk to people, you know, and closed
mouth don't get fed, you know. So that's that that's
the main thing, you know, being able to not only
(22:04):
be good, be a good artist, but to be able
to actually function in those spaces and talk to people,
and you know, those opportunities come when you just sometimes
just be in somewhere, opportunities come. But if you're not there, Yeah,
you got to be in the room, man. You gotta
be like they say in the Hamilton, you got to
be in the room man. Now, you know, another one
(22:35):
of the things you were focusing on, we were kind of
talking those around.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
The idea of like productivity for creatives. You talking about
you have like a lot of different kind of practices
and systems and tools you used, and one of them
you mentioned was called morning pages, right, Like, tell me
about that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So it's just a it's a thing where you just
your first thing in the morning, right. I use one
of those old composition notebooks, right, And it's just like
an ex hel you know, you write whatever comes to mind,
just a page of that, you know, and it's just
kind of a stream of consciousness kind of thing. It
could just be like I ete tacos, I ate tacos,
(23:09):
you know what I mean. It could be anything, you know,
But that's just a strategy that I use just to
get my creative kind of flow going, you know, and
any kind of other things that are on my mind
that might be stressing me or whatever. At least I
see them on a piece of paper, and I'm like, ah, okay,
at least it's out of me and on this paper,
you know. So that's just a like kind of a
mental tool that I kind of use, you know, every
(23:30):
day to kind of just help help myself creatively.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It kind of just helps you kind of like kickstart,
just get start things going. Have you kind of seen
the improvements as you start doing that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Absolutely? Absolutely, you know, because they're you know, you wake
up sometimes you have a lot on your mind and
just to write it all out sometimes it's just a
relief in itself.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah. Yeah. What are some of the other things you
use to kind of keep yourself organized and productive?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well, usually outside of just the morning pages thing I
do recent you know, I do research on similar artists
to myself, on similar events to myself. I take notes.
I see there's value in almost everything. You know. It's
everything is food, I say, you know, you just you
(24:13):
have like I said, every everything is food. You eat
the nutrients and you get rid of the rest, you
know what I'm saying. So, yeah, I do a lot
of research daily, you know, on on events, on music,
on just you know, what's working for other people, what's
working internationally, not just in the city of Atlanta or
(24:33):
what you know, on the East coast or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, what about so for people that might be having
you know, challenges with just you know, being productive or
kind of staying on track, like what's like some of
your best tactical advice or just you know habits, you
would kind of tell them to start adopting to kind
of you know, get kickstarted, kind of like you do
with the Morning Pages.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah. Well outside of the outside of the the Morning Pages,
you have to I would say being being healthy too,
you know, just right and you know, just making because
in this in this uh, in this arena right in
the nightlighte for arena or whatever we're in. You know,
it's a lot of it's stressed. It's hard on your body,
(25:12):
you know what I'm saying, it's a lot of stress.
You know, So having having stress coping mechanisms, exercise, water, meditation,
you know, all these type of things are helpful as
well as, like I said, doing research daily, you know,
comparing notes with others, you know, talking to fellow creatives.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
The daily basis making making a point to meet up
with people and talk sometimes just to have meetings just
to have coffee. Hey, this is why I'm coming up.
What are some suggestions, what have what's helped you in
the past, you know, and that's helped me a lot,
just talking to friends for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize just
you know, because they they only consume events, they don't
necessarily produce events and do stuff. And then yeah, you're
throwing the night life element, you're throwing you know again,
it's late, you're getting there, you're getting home late. Like,
just you got to take carry yourself in. Mental health
is probably a big part of that process too, right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Absolutely, I think it's the biggest, the biggest part of
it for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
What kind of stuff do you do to kind of
help make sure again that you're staying balanced and know
you talked about like working out, but again like like
what are some of the things you're doing, especially again
as a creative in your nighttime and night life you know,
I know we had a lot of people that we've
lost over the years and different things, like what are
some of the things you're doing to kind of leaning
on that side.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, like I said, I'm an avid you know, workout person.
I'm a kamba gym rat you know, which only really
happened in the last couple of years. You know, because
of that fact, there's been a lot of people not
only in slightly older than me and my age group,
but people younger than me who have who have had
problems with all kinds of things and have passed unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So it's just like it was just kind of shocked.
It was a shock to my system. Like, yo, you
need to get on them. You know, this could be
you if you were to go down either one of
these paths. You know, so stay on top of it,
you know, eat right, drink your water, you know, call
your mom.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Right, got to got to you know, No, man, look
what are some of the other things you do as
far as like, you know, just stay in balanced. Especially
with the audience coming in. I'm sure you probably get
all kinds of people in perspectives, people coming up from
requests of songs, just you know, weird people around the
booth and everything, Like how do you kind of manage
and kind of build a good relationship while also staying professional.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Oh yeah, well, I think for like the groove, for example,
people kind of know what time it is, you know,
and then then they're there for what we do, you
know what I mean when I do high key disco.
Sometimes it's new people who maybe are new to Atlanta
or you know, not used to what we do. What
(27:40):
I do there m j Q for example, there's a
sign above my head that says another question right. And
sometimes people don't you know, can't read you know what
I'm saying. So you got to remind them of you
know what you know, they're they're reading lessons from elementary school.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, no requests, you're working, hanging out.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You know, hanging out. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the thing.
But people are generally respectful.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Sometimes you know, you have to kind of be a
little moressertive and you know, but people are generally generally respectful,
you know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
To you that's cool. That's cool. As you kind of
look back, are there any kind of like key moments
or just like pivotal book experiences and kind of shape
how you just approach you know, the business side of
what you do and even the art side as well.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, man, I've had I've had a lot of cool opportunities.
I have a shout out to my cousin Scales from
Nappy Roots he's he's been like a good source of
like kind of just navigating the industry, you know, locally
and just being on the road, you know. So I've
had an opportunity to travel with them and see a
(28:43):
lot of see a lot of places and just DJing
for different crowds of people that I would you know,
never run into normally, you know what I mean. So
that's been that's been like super super helpful for me,
just navigating especially in this city.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
You know, what's what's one thing after everything you've built within,
What's one thing you wish you kind of would have
known sooner.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Mm hm that the event production is not for the
fan of art, you know what I mean. I've been
I've been also privileged to work with art beats and
lyrics for the past ten years. Shout out to Jabbari
and Doug Union, the whole team over there, and yeah,
that that's really helped me get into different markets that
(29:27):
I would never get into normally. You know, I've never
been I would have no other reason to go to
Saint Louis, you know, but we've except for that tour
and now, like I've been able to network with people
in every all these cities you know that are similar
to me and similar to us, and just keeping that,
keeping that going. I was able to you know when
(29:49):
I when we were in New York, I was able
to build a good relationship with Serado. You know that
I can just go in and and you know, talk
about equipment. They can put me onto new technologies. Just
I would also say, like, you know, there are there
are companies that that like Serato. You know, I'm a DJ,
so y'all use Serato, you know, so build a relationship
(30:11):
with these products that you're using, you know, whatever the
feel is you're you know, if you're a graphic designer,
you know, maybe try to meet somebody at Adobe or
something like that. You know, build those relationships too with
the corporate entities you know, of what you do in
the art world, because you know they can really help you,
you know, either it's just hire you for something, sign
(30:33):
a check, or just you know, help you with equipment
or advice or whatever like So I would definitely, like say,
find the professional organizations around what you do, and you know,
definitely build relationships with them as you know, as soon
as possible.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, relationships are one of the most
important things. I had a friend of mine tell me
a long time ago, and it sank in a little
bit later. He was like, Yeah, you just can't do
anything without people, right, you know. And so at the
end of the day, man, relationships what kind of brings
everybody around and get and open up new doors for
you and I value and I'm sure you meet all
kinds of people in all the different events you're doing.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Man.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So again, like leveraging those things helps goes a long way.
This is dope, man. Look before we get out of here, man,
Like what's coming up next? Like, what are you excited about?
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well, we do have another season of our Beasts and
Lyrics coming up, and I'm excited about that. Have High
Ki Disco coming up and on August twenty ninth, that
album Allow. So yeah, I'm just looking forward to traveling
and taking it to other cities, looking at taking it
to Tampa, potentially to New York and you know, just
(31:37):
a couple of other cities around the country. Like that's
that's really what I want to do. I want to
play that funk all over the world, you know what
I mean, Like, that's what I wanted to do. I
kind of after the pandemic. You know, I was just
kind of like, you know, I don't want to like
have to know what the new little Whoever song is,
you know what I mean? If I can just be
king of the old people, let me be king of
(31:57):
the old people, you know, and really lock in, you know.
So I've been blessed to kind of find that niche
and you know, it's something that I excel at. So
I'm glad I'm being able to, you know, to really
put that part of my talent out there and show, hey,
this is what I can do, you.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Know, absolutely absolutely. Man, Look, this has been a dope conversation.
Before we get out of here. How can somebody get
in contact with you? How can they support you? Like
give them all the things?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
All right? Cool? So you can check me out on
Instagram and I have all the socials at Jeremy Avalon.
My website is Jeremyavalon dot com work crew. You can
check us out on Instagram and all the socials there.
I am on let's see SoundCloud. You can check my
mixes band camp. I have original music. I have several
(32:41):
projects coming out on band camp soon, so check for those.
It's at Jeremy Avalon and yeah, I just did a
Cadilect Chronicles episode which is really dope. You know, Shout
out to Brian and that's really if you want to
know what I do watch that, you know saying is
that that's the music I love, and that's what That's
what Ikeydisco is.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Sure man, Man, congratulations on everything. Congratulations for you and
the whole work crew on nine years of the groove
and all the other stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Shout out our Glass, Josh Jay and Xavier Black and
the whole team.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
The whole team. Man. With that said, out y'all, that's
the pod. Peace. You've been listening to button Nomics and
im your hosts Brandon Butler, got comments, feedback? Want to
be on the show. Send us an email today at
hello at butternomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta,
Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ksey Pegram, with marketing support Fromqueen
and Nikki. Music provided by mister Hanky. If you haven't already,
(33:36):
hit that subscribe button and never missed an episode, and
be sure to follow us on all our social platforms
at butter dot a t L. Listen to button Nomics
on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
There's a lot of dope people sitting at home. You know,
you can be the greatest DJ in the world, but
if you don't know how to communicate with venues, you
don't know how to write emails, you know, just simple
things like that, to network with other creatives, to network
with other corporate entities, or just be in the same
room as people, to meet these people who can provide
(00:23):
these kinds of opportunities. You know, we would just be
dope at home.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Than Hey, everybody, welcome to an episode of Butter Now.
It's I'm the host, Brandon Butler found the CEO of
Butter at LL and today got somebody special in the building,
the one, the only, mister Jeremy Avalon. Jeremy, How you doing, bro?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm great? How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Man? That was any better after you? Brother?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What do they say if I had your heart your hands,
I cut my one off.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Or something like that. Look, man, it's all good man,
Thank you for pulling up all us.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thank you, Thank you man. This is fun.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So, you know, for a lot of folks, man, you
know a lot of podcasts, a lot of folk you know,
you like to do the whole Tell me about yourself
and all that kind of stuff. We do a little
bit different here on Buttonmics. You know what I'm saying,
Business of Culture podcast. One thing we always do is
we always ask chat cheapyt to write a short bio
about our guest. So I'm gonna read what GBT says
about you, and I want you to tell me, is
it is it on? Does it all? You gotta We
(01:18):
gotta make a couple of phone calls, got some emails
to type this thing up. Okay, let me know, Let's
do it all right, all right. Jeremy Avalon is an
Atlanta based artist who wears several hats, DJ, producer, and guitarists.
He's a member of the work Crew collective and plays
guitar for Heavy Mojo, a local stable in Atlanta. His
musical roots traced back to a massive vinyl collection from
his dad, which inspired him early on. He's known for
(01:39):
blending global sounds from Afro Latino, Caribbean hip hop, funk,
indie dance, and deep house into his sets. He shares
stages with a range of artists like Fishbone, Cowboy Mouth
and DJs and hip hop figures like Jazzy, jeff Ty,
Lib Kwali, Pete Rock, Brian Michael Cox, and many others. Locally,
he's a fixture at Major vic in Atlanta. You may
(02:01):
have seen him on the stage DJ one Music Fest,
a three c afro punker, at clubs like MJQ, hosting
this high key disco party. He's taking his knowledge to
academic spaces, teaching panel discussions at Emory University. The one
the only mister Jeremy Avalon So was that accurate? Was
it awful? Was a missing name? Man?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
The robots are kind of on. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I gotta say tell you, man, look, I don't know
what you're putting into this thing. This was putting back
out Yo.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's wild. Yeah, pretty much, Yeah, pretty much that on.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Dope, man, Dope. Well, I mean it's talk about all
this stuff. Man. One of the things you're probably most
known for out here is the groove, right, and I
got a big anniversary coming up.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Well we just had a big anniversary. We had nine years.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We started back in twenty fifteen at the Basement, okay
in the East Atlanta village and well actually before that
at the at the the a loft hotel in the Lobby.
Went from there to the Basement of East Atlanta, village
and it just grew and then we started doing the
Masquerade and other bigger venues.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I remember what what brought that on.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, for one back nine ten years ago, there wasn't
really a party dedicated to strictly R and B. But
like strictly strictly R and B, like no rap segments
to appease people, know, like hardcore R and B, deep cuts,
you know, familiars, you know, the old basement, you know,
(03:24):
get down, you know kind of feeling. We didn't have
that in the city at the time, so we just
saw a need. We feel the need that was that
was missing, and we're all really passionate about R and B.
My first concert was new addition the Heartbreak Tour. I'm
aging myself a bit, but you know, the first person
I saw in life on stage was I'll be sure.
So it's like, you know, I've been going to R
(03:46):
and B shows my whole life. I saw seeing Janet
Rhythm Nation tour as a kid. Yeah, yeah, that was
one of the first shows I went to when I
moved to Atlanta as a young as a young guy,
and yeah, man, just going to show my parents have
cool parents. Thankfully they drug us to Luther and Anita
(04:06):
and all kinds of shows. So that sparked my my
R and B interests, you know, as a child, and hey, man,
I just want to represent that in a public space now.
And it's just something that was missing and we wanted
to bring that to the forefront.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, man, I mean you kind of mentioned I mean,
you're not originally from Atlanta, you got New York roots,
but you know you represent Atlanta hard, Like what is that?
What does that influence mean on your music and just
all the stuff you've been building.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, I have a unique situation, like a lot of people,
kind of from the early nineties, having family in two
cities and frequently frequenting both of them. My father, even
though he grew up in Brooklyn, was born at Grady,
you know, randomly, Like my dad was probably the last
of his siblings born and born down south before the
(04:54):
migration up to New York. So I'm heavily influenced by
a lot out of the southern soul from Otis Redding,
James Brown, you know that kind of that's big in
my my musical vocabulary and history as well as you know,
New York City and the funk and disco and the
boogie from New York City like Kashif and you know,
(05:17):
all these all these artists that kind of were the
soundtrack to my early years.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
No, man, So you know, I love and that's one
thing I've always loved. Me And I've been to the
Groove many times, and I think again, like it's easy
to kind of fall in too, just like the straight
up hip hop, the party stuff, right, but it takes
something special to kind of put together a whole event
around just R and B and kind of creating a
whole different vibe. And that's needed Atlanta. Like what kind
of people typically come out and enjoy that experience.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, fortunately, a lot of ladies.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, okay, you know, and we.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
We love we love our audience. So yeah, a lot
of ladies come through. It's a great safe space. You know.
It's not a lot of weirdos, you know, it's you know,
it's a lot of well mannered people who really like music.
And so that's that's what we love about the Groove. Man,
It's people that come to enjoy the music. They that
aren't just surface level you know, I want to hear
(06:05):
I'm not gonna well, I'm not gonna give An examples,
but you know, just do want to hear basic R
and B. You know, people that like deep cuts in
real music.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So yeah, man for sure. Man, again, you've seen Atlanta
like evolve both culturally and musically, Like what do you
remember about those early days, like you know, the Face
Records in that kind of time period in Atlanta to
what it is now?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Man, I just remember going to record stores in Atlanta
growing up. Some of my favorite artists like that were
on the Face, like Damien Dame, reci peace to both
of them. That's really Atlanta to me. Like when I
think of moving to Atlanta, I think of Babyface Tender
Lover album and Damien Dame early TLC. That's the Atlanta
(06:48):
that I was, you know, came up in. So that's
Atlanta in a nutshell for me.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And is that kind of like that kind of continues
to influence all the stuff you do, because a lot
of stuff kind of has that same vibe to it.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Right, absolutely, absolutely a big New Jack swing nerd. Yeah,
you know, so I like all the music from that era,
you know, So the Face Records was a huge impact
on me just musically and just like you know, for
the city of Atlanta, too. I mean, we Atlanta was
like a baby New York in a lot of ways
that every artist passed through here, you know, growing up,
(07:20):
So it was kind of it was it was very
interesting to have that dynamic of both cities kind of
coexisting with each other. There wasn't this whole North South
divide that people perpetuate. It was kind of like, you know,
everybody was kind of exchanging ideas and influencing each other musically.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do you think it's important that,
you know, people really recognize Atlanta's kind of like deep
roots in music and history and like who were some
of the folks come to mind? Because a lot of times, yeah,
like you know, people think about Atlanta from a music standpoint,
but they kind of instantly kind of go to the
rap and hip hop stuff and they're like, oh, yeah,
La Face was doing all this thing. It's like, yeah,
all kind of stuff has happened. But we talked about
the SOS band and all these other groups, like, you know,
(08:01):
why is it important to remember kind of that deep
history and who those some of those folks you think
are kind of the architects to kind of help even
open the doors up for the faces to the social
depths to kind of where we are now.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Well, I had to give props to my mother and
her side family. My mom is from making Georgia, Okay,
so I have that half of half that Georgia and
me and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Yeah, that's that's
the genesis for me of music from Atlanta to me,
So Gladys Knight and the Pips, the SOS band that
Jam and Lewis Influent influence sound, that's the Atlanta kind
(08:35):
of funk sound to me, you know, So that is
what I think of first when I think of Atlanta
and music, and of course you know all the hip
hop that came, but even the pre outcast hip hop,
you know, like Kilo Ali's and Shout Out the Mojo
and like some of these early hip hop influencers. You know,
that kind of shaped the whole Atlanta kind of sound
for me in my head.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a lot more, you know, soulf.
I mean, I'm not gonna be one of my old guys.
It's like, you know, it was better than I think
every I think, every decade, in every every moment you know,
it has. It has reasons why it's like, you know,
popular and has things. I mean again, I have a
young daughter, you know what I'm saying, and like I
wanted to let me listen to stuff all the time.
I want to hear what's hot in these streets. So
I don't want to be an old head be like
you know, I'm hating on whatever kind of came before, right,
(09:18):
But to your point, like there's a lot of stuff
that's kind of you know, built the foundation. Now. You
also an event called high Key Disco. Tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So hig Key Disco is kind of a tribute to
that specifically. So I was born in nineteen eighty two,
so I think that that is like the funkiest year
of all times. So there's a really funky time period
of music post Disco, before New Jacks Wing. You got
everyone from the Sos band to Kashif like I said earlier,
(09:46):
to the Whispers, and you know this whole kind of
early eighties boogie funk that was faster than the R
and B at the time, but slower than the disco.
You know, it's a good pocket in between. You know,
think of like Michael Jackson rock with you kind of
tempo vibe you know that is the kind of essence
of high key disco to me, because it's high key disco. Yeah,
(10:06):
but you know it's really funky too, you know what I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Saying, No, I feel you man. Like one of the
things you talk about too sometimes is like activism you
know through music, Like what exactly do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well, I like to play music that doesn't like I'm
losing the word here.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
People people don't get shot.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah yeah, well people don't get shot. Like I like
to play music that you know, that is uplifting and
it's not talking about you know, negative things about us
as people. You know, I want to I want to
hear our music and our art forms elevated, you know.
So that's that's what that's what my activism is as
far as the R and B thing goes. I want
it to be on the same level as a classical
(10:47):
music or or any kind of music that we think
but that we deem as high art or whatever. Like
we make high art to do, you know, it's just
we you know, we have to have we have to
you know, push our art and spaces too.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
What do you think is the secret to kind of
building an event that lasts that long, because there's not
a lot of events, especially in Atlanta just in general
that go on for that long and still kind of
find ways to stay fresh. I mean, they're not making
any new old school music, you know what I'm saying,
But y'all find new ways to put together and new
you know, venues to do it. But like, what do
you think kind of helps drive the stay in power
for that event?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, I think to just the love for the music
first of all, is the is the drive for the
for our event. And then you know, also with R
and B in particular, like you said, you know, there
isn't any newer old school music, but as we age,
there are things that you know, become classic. You know,
so things from the early two thousands when we were
(11:51):
in college. You know that that's music that people grew
up on. Now, so sometimes we have to remember this
Ashanti record is old school to them. But then that's
this whole generation of people that that that a Shaunte
record would be the equivalent of a Bobby Brown record toss,
you know what I'm saying. So it's just the way
music keeps on evolving. We still will will always have
(12:12):
classics of some sort. So that's what I love about,
you know, doing the R and B thing.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
No, that's a good point, man. You know I always
always trip and listen to some of the you know,
the old school stations now, and like some of my
songs are coming on. I'm like, wait a minute minute,
am I to hold it? Am I the old head?
And that hold up? You know? Yeah, yeah, but that's
a good point though, man. You're right, like even though
they're not making any like new old old school, like
you know, my mom used to listen to growing up,
and you know, I have to clean the house up
on Saturdays, right, A lot of those things that you know,
(12:38):
we grew up on in kind of our you know,
teenage years and early twenty years Like I mean, yeah,
stuff was twenty years ago, years ago, and so the
ability to kind of mix that in and kind of
have that I think that's interesting too. Like I always
talk about kind of like juxtaposition absolutely, and so I
always think about, you know, like what's your I'm always like,
what's the process, Like when you even make these sets,
like how to explain to me like you know, okay,
the groove is coming up or events coming up up?
(13:00):
Like how do you even start to sit down and
figure out all right, like I'm gonna do this set,
this is the vibe I want to do. I'm gonna
conect these different albums. Like, what's kind of your process
for even putting that together?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Well, I think for me, there's usually a song or
two that I want to get to mm hm and
that you know, either as a personal deep cut of
mind or something that I just haven't played in a
long time that I just want to put out there,
you know. So that's part of it. But my strategy
is really I like to take the year away from
things because there's a lot of agism and year discrimination,
(13:31):
I guess, especially in Black music. You know, we kind
of have a tendency to say, oh, well, you know,
this person's old or this person's whatever. But I like
to take the year out of music because there's not
really a difference, in a large difference in like the
music we grew up in and like Katrinata or like
somebody like that. You know, it's it's really a tempo thing.
(13:52):
So as long as music is in similar keys and
similar tempos, you can dance to it. You can play
jo Toasy and Brent Fires and XYZ person all at
the same time, because it's really it's really the same music.
You think about classical music, right, Yeah, something could have
been five hundred years old or something could have been
made yesterday, but it's both classical music. You don't know
(14:14):
the difference of when it came out, you know. So
I would like R and B to be more like
that in a way, you know, like that we could
play everything from multiple eras and everybody's just with it.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Okay. So that's how you kind of start, you say,
you know what, like I'm gonna do this set. I
have a couple of different songs I want to make
sure that I get to, Yeah, but I'm going to
kind of based on those, I'm going to kind of
almost like build around and build up to that and
train and that's how you kind of approach it.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Absolutely, and then a lot of it is just freestyle. Yeah,
Like I like, like I said, I'll plan like maybe
two or three songs that I'm like, Okay, I want
to get to these at this type of tempo. But
then everything else, I'm just feeding off the audience, you know,
and seeing you know, if I see a certain person
come in that I did, I know a song that
they like just in the back of my head, I'm like, yeah,
(14:57):
I'm gonna get them. So you know, it's just kind
of like that, that's what I would do it.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay, Now, look, I was a DJ for a hot minute, man,
a hot minute, you know what I'm saying. So I
got to ask you, you a vinyl guy, you a
serato guy, like, how do you feel about the whole
digital element? Because again, I know some people, you know,
they're very they're very sensitive about this stuff, But how
do you feel about the whole like vinyl versus digital
element when it comes to just DJ and events and
all this.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Right, So I definitely started in the vinyl era. You know,
I'm a big If you follow me on any social media,
I'm vinyling people to death.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I love vinyl. I love the touching the records and
manipulating and all that. But also I do embrace technology.
Even if you look at a turntable, it's not meant
to use it's not meant to be used that way. Yeah,
you know, it's meant to be played at his normal
pitch and normal tempo. But you know it had these
have a pitch control and we're manipulating. That's technology advanced, man.
(15:47):
You know. Then I remember when CD tds came out
and me and my friends we were like, man, that's
so whack man, you DJing with CD? That's so corny, right,
But then it's like, Okay, now I'm able to have
multiple genres of music on one disc or multiple music
on several discs and not have to bring a whole
(16:09):
bunch of records with me. So my back is definitely grateful,
you know what I mean? From that, And then I
embrace the technology. Man. Hey, it's here to it's here
to use, you know, so as long as you just
stay true to it. I think my biggest advice to
DJs really is just like, learn how to do everything.
Some people get offended by that, though, can you tell them,
(16:32):
you know, you know, if they Okay, if you know
how to DJ on the controller, that's great. Now what
if you're in a situation where they have c DJs
or you're gonna just be like, well, I can't do
it now. What if there's a turntables there? Oh, I
can't do it? Now? I say, learn everything, educate yourself, educate.
There is a famous DJ rec inpece to one of
(16:52):
the greatest disco DJ's Larry Levan. He said that people
don't understand how the music gets from the vinyl to
the speaker, so how they're going to understand how to
play it, you know what I mean. So, like I
always say, some people don't know an RCA from a
hole in their head sometimes, you know, So educate yourself
on equipment, on music, how how the music even gets
(17:14):
out of the speaker, you know. So that's that's my
biggest advice. Learn everything you can.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Sure for sure. Now, when did you start seeing the
opportunity to kind of start building a business around this?
You know, you have a pastor of music, you're doing DJ,
doing events. When did you say, like, you know what
this could be like a real sustainable thing.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Well, honestly it was forced upon me, that makes sense.
So I've been DJing since I was probably fifteen years old, right,
so this is the mid nineties, been collecting records since then.
That's you know, I'm kind of like the youngest. I
was always like the youngest person in the room, you know,
with all this DJ stuff. So you know, I did
what everybody's parents wanted them to do, you know, you know,
(17:52):
get decent grades in high school, go to college, get
get your degree. I got my degree in digital media,
So I have a television background, and I was always
DJing on the side, and I was always playing music
on the side. I've been playing guitar ears even before
I've been DJing, so I always had that passion to
do that. But you know, I wanted to do the
(18:13):
straight and narrow corporate America thing, and it was a
hard balance, you know. I would I would work all day.
I would gig at nights. Sometimes when I was with
Heavy Mojo. Sometimes I would take my Pto PTO to
go on tour, you know, just stuff like that. But
I had that foundation of an education and another adjacent
(18:35):
like field similar, you know. So you know I got
that you know, that job that you're supposed to get
after college, you know that you work hard for. I've
worked for Turner Broadcasting Cartoon Network for many years and then,
as you know, Turner massive layoffs, you know. So I
was kind of thrust into it because it was like, Okay,
(18:55):
my DJ's thing is starting to take off a little bit.
But you know, but I'm glad I still got this
corporate thing. But when that corporate thing didn't have me anymore.
It was kind of like, Okay, now I could either
look for you know, I could either keep this charade
of trying to do both right or put my put
my efforts into this into actually you know, doing this
(19:16):
DJ thing. And that's how that's how it kind of
happened for me. Like it wasn't a choice. It was
just kind of like, hey, pushed off the deep end,
go swim you know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
No, no, got to jump out there, and you have
to respond to it. Now when it comes to you know, DJ,
and this is a business, these vents or business and
a lot of folks that the creatives kind of sometimes
struggle to monetize, you know, their work. How did you
start to really kind of bring in that element to
make sure you weren't just known as like, you know,
a dope DJ, but like dope DJ need to get
it paid too.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Absolutely, well, you know there's a lot of dope people
sitting at home. You know, there's somebody better than Michael Jordan,
who you know was just dope at the playground but
never you know, never took off. But I say, you know,
it's really educating yourself about the business of eventvs. You know,
because events are a business. You can be the greatest
(20:04):
DJ in the world. But if you don't know how
to communicate with venues, you don't know how to you know,
even write emails, you know, just simple things like that,
to to network with other creatives, to network with other uh,
you know, entities, you know, corporate entities. You know, we've
we've we've been blessed to have a couple of good
sponsorships along the way. But if we didn't like research
(20:27):
how to go about those or or just be in
the same room as people to meet these people who
can provide these kinds of opportunities, you know, we would
just be dope at home.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know. Yeah, yeah, how do you what advice would
you give to like, you know, somebody wants to get
in the space because I think again, a lot of
times when you do service based stuff and creative work,
there's even a struggle to kind of figure out, like
where's my value in the market, and like what's the
right number of my asking for too much and not enough?
Like how'd you kind of figure out, you know, what
they actually charge for your services and what value to
put on top of them.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, it's research, you know, you I always say to people,
especially like, for example, if you're a musician artist, if
if I was buying buying Brandon's album in the record store,
like what other artists story around would be? What section
would you be in? And who are the other artists
that I had to thumb through to get to you?
You know, same thing with yourself as a DJ, and
(21:20):
as as as event products. Excuse me as an event producer.
You know there there's there's you in every city, you know,
so you have to research. You have to relentlessly research,
see what works for other people, but don't copy. Use
it as inspiration to do what you know, to to
do what you want to do, you know. So I
(21:41):
would say definitely research, research, research, we I mean the
whole We have plenty of tools to research. Go outside,
you know. That's another thing. A lot of us artists
are very introverted. I know I am, you know, but
you have to talk to people, you know, and closed
mouth don't get fed, you know. So that's that that's
the main thing, you know, being able to not only
(22:04):
be good, be a good artist, but to be able
to actually function in those spaces and talk to people,
and you know, those opportunities come when you just sometimes
just be in somewhere, opportunities come. But if you're not there, Yeah,
you got to be in the room, man. You gotta
be like they say in the Hamilton, you got to
be in the room man. Now, you know, another one
(22:35):
of the things you were focusing on, we were kind of
talking those around.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
The idea of like productivity for creatives. You talking about
you have like a lot of different kind of practices
and systems and tools you used, and one of them
you mentioned was called morning pages, right, Like, tell me
about that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
So it's just a it's a thing where you just
your first thing in the morning, right. I use one
of those old composition notebooks, right, And it's just like
an ex hel you know, you write whatever comes to mind,
just a page of that, you know, and it's just
kind of a stream of consciousness kind of thing. It
could just be like I ete tacos, I ate tacos,
(23:09):
you know what I mean. It could be anything, you know,
But that's just a strategy that I use just to
get my creative kind of flow going, you know, and
any kind of other things that are on my mind
that might be stressing me or whatever. At least I
see them on a piece of paper, and I'm like, ah, okay,
at least it's out of me and on this paper,
you know. So that's just a like kind of a
mental tool that I kind of use, you know, every
(23:30):
day to kind of just help help myself creatively.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It kind of just helps you kind of like kickstart,
just get start things going. Have you kind of seen
the improvements as you start doing that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Absolutely? Absolutely, you know, because they're you know, you wake
up sometimes you have a lot on your mind and
just to write it all out sometimes it's just a
relief in itself.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah. Yeah. What are some of the other things you
use to kind of keep yourself organized and productive?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well, usually outside of just the morning pages thing I
do recent you know, I do research on similar artists
to myself, on similar events to myself. I take notes.
I see there's value in almost everything. You know. It's
everything is food, I say, you know, you just you
(24:13):
have like I said, every everything is food. You eat
the nutrients and you get rid of the rest, you
know what I'm saying. So, yeah, I do a lot
of research daily, you know, on on events, on music,
on just you know, what's working for other people, what's
working internationally, not just in the city of Atlanta or
(24:33):
what you know, on the East coast or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, what about so for people that might be having
you know, challenges with just you know, being productive or
kind of staying on track, like what's like some of
your best tactical advice or just you know habits, you
would kind of tell them to start adopting to kind
of you know, get kickstarted, kind of like you do
with the Morning Pages.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah. Well outside of the outside of the the Morning Pages,
you have to I would say being being healthy too,
you know, just right and you know, just making because
in this in this uh, in this arena right in
the nightlighte for arena or whatever we're in. You know,
it's a lot of it's stressed. It's hard on your body,
(25:12):
you know what I'm saying, it's a lot of stress.
You know, So having having stress coping mechanisms, exercise, water, meditation,
you know, all these type of things are helpful as
well as, like I said, doing research daily, you know,
comparing notes with others, you know, talking to fellow creatives.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
The daily basis making making a point to meet up
with people and talk sometimes just to have meetings just
to have coffee. Hey, this is why I'm coming up.
What are some suggestions, what have what's helped you in
the past, you know, and that's helped me a lot,
just talking to friends for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize just
you know, because they they only consume events, they don't
necessarily produce events and do stuff. And then yeah, you're
throwing the night life element, you're throwing you know again,
it's late, you're getting there, you're getting home late. Like,
just you got to take carry yourself in. Mental health
is probably a big part of that process too, right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Absolutely, I think it's the biggest, the biggest part of
it for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
What kind of stuff do you do to kind of
help make sure again that you're staying balanced and know
you talked about like working out, but again like like
what are some of the things you're doing, especially again
as a creative in your nighttime and night life you know,
I know we had a lot of people that we've
lost over the years and different things, like what are
some of the things you're doing to kind of leaning
on that side.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, like I said, I'm an avid you know, workout person.
I'm a kamba gym rat you know, which only really
happened in the last couple of years. You know, because
of that fact, there's been a lot of people not
only in slightly older than me and my age group,
but people younger than me who have who have had
problems with all kinds of things and have passed unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
So it's just like it was just kind of shocked.
It was a shock to my system. Like, yo, you
need to get on them. You know, this could be
you if you were to go down either one of
these paths. You know, so stay on top of it,
you know, eat right, drink your water, you know, call
your mom.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Right, got to got to you know, No, man, look
what are some of the other things you do as
far as like, you know, just stay in balanced. Especially
with the audience coming in. I'm sure you probably get
all kinds of people in perspectives, people coming up from
requests of songs, just you know, weird people around the
booth and everything, Like how do you kind of manage
and kind of build a good relationship while also staying professional.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Oh yeah, well, I think for like the groove, for example,
people kind of know what time it is, you know,
and then then they're there for what we do, you
know what I mean when I do high key disco.
Sometimes it's new people who maybe are new to Atlanta
or you know, not used to what we do. What
(27:40):
I do there m j Q for example, there's a
sign above my head that says another question right. And
sometimes people don't you know, can't read you know what
I'm saying. So you got to remind them of you
know what you know, they're they're reading lessons from elementary school.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, no requests, you're working, hanging out.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You know, hanging out. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the thing.
But people are generally respectful.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Sometimes you know, you have to kind of be a
little moressertive and you know, but people are generally generally respectful,
you know.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
To you that's cool. That's cool. As you kind of
look back, are there any kind of like key moments
or just like pivotal book experiences and kind of shape
how you just approach you know, the business side of
what you do and even the art side as well.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, man, I've had I've had a lot of cool opportunities.
I have a shout out to my cousin Scales from
Nappy Roots he's he's been like a good source of
like kind of just navigating the industry, you know, locally
and just being on the road, you know. So I've
had an opportunity to travel with them and see a
(28:43):
lot of see a lot of places and just DJing
for different crowds of people that I would you know,
never run into normally, you know what I mean. So
that's been that's been like super super helpful for me,
just navigating especially in this city.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
You know, what's what's one thing after everything you've built within,
What's one thing you wish you kind of would have
known sooner.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Mm hm that the event production is not for the
fan of art, you know what I mean. I've been
I've been also privileged to work with art beats and
lyrics for the past ten years. Shout out to Jabbari
and Doug Union, the whole team over there, and yeah,
that that's really helped me get into different markets that
(29:27):
I would never get into normally. You know, I've never
been I would have no other reason to go to
Saint Louis, you know, but we've except for that tour
and now, like I've been able to network with people
in every all these cities you know that are similar
to me and similar to us, and just keeping that,
keeping that going. I was able to you know when
(29:49):
I when we were in New York, I was able
to build a good relationship with Serado. You know that
I can just go in and and you know, talk
about equipment. They can put me onto new technologies. Just
I would also say, like, you know, there are there
are companies that that like Serato. You know, I'm a DJ,
so y'all use Serato, you know, so build a relationship
(30:11):
with these products that you're using, you know, whatever the
feel is you're you know, if you're a graphic designer,
you know, maybe try to meet somebody at Adobe or
something like that. You know, build those relationships too with
the corporate entities you know, of what you do in
the art world, because you know they can really help you,
you know, either it's just hire you for something, sign
(30:33):
a check, or just you know, help you with equipment
or advice or whatever like So I would definitely, like say,
find the professional organizations around what you do, and you know,
definitely build relationships with them as you know, as soon
as possible.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, relationships are one of the most
important things. I had a friend of mine tell me
a long time ago, and it sank in a little
bit later. He was like, Yeah, you just can't do
anything without people, right, you know. And so at the
end of the day, man, relationships what kind of brings
everybody around and get and open up new doors for
you and I value and I'm sure you meet all
kinds of people in all the different events you're doing.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Man.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So again, like leveraging those things helps goes a long way.
This is dope, man. Look before we get out of here, man,
Like what's coming up next? Like, what are you excited about?
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well, we do have another season of our Beasts and
Lyrics coming up, and I'm excited about that. Have High
Ki Disco coming up and on August twenty ninth, that
album Allow. So yeah, I'm just looking forward to traveling
and taking it to other cities, looking at taking it
to Tampa, potentially to New York and you know, just
(31:37):
a couple of other cities around the country. Like that's
that's really what I want to do. I want to
play that funk all over the world, you know what
I mean, Like, that's what I wanted to do. I
kind of after the pandemic. You know, I was just
kind of like, you know, I don't want to like
have to know what the new little Whoever song is,
you know what I mean? If I can just be
king of the old people, let me be king of
(31:57):
the old people, you know, and really lock in, you know.
So I've been blessed to kind of find that niche
and you know, it's something that I excel at. So
I'm glad I'm being able to, you know, to really
put that part of my talent out there and show, hey,
this is what I can do, you.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Know, absolutely absolutely. Man, Look, this has been a dope conversation.
Before we get out of here. How can somebody get
in contact with you? How can they support you? Like
give them all the things?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
All right? Cool? So you can check me out on
Instagram and I have all the socials at Jeremy Avalon.
My website is Jeremyavalon dot com work crew. You can
check us out on Instagram and all the socials there.
I am on let's see SoundCloud. You can check my
mixes band camp. I have original music. I have several
(32:41):
projects coming out on band camp soon, so check for those.
It's at Jeremy Avalon and yeah, I just did a
Cadilect Chronicles episode which is really dope. You know, Shout
out to Brian and that's really if you want to
know what I do watch that, you know saying is
that that's the music I love, and that's what That's
what Ikeydisco is.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Sure man, Man, congratulations on everything. Congratulations for you and
the whole work crew on nine years of the groove
and all the other stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Shout out our Glass, Josh Jay and Xavier Black and
the whole team.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
The whole team. Man. With that said, out y'all, that's
the pod. Peace. You've been listening to button Nomics and
im your hosts Brandon Butler, got comments, feedback? Want to
be on the show. Send us an email today at
hello at butternomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta,
Georgia at iHeartMedia by Ksey Pegram, with marketing support Fromqueen
and Nikki. Music provided by mister Hanky. If you haven't already,
(33:36):
hit that subscribe button and never missed an episode, and
be sure to follow us on all our social platforms
at butter dot a t L. Listen to button Nomics
on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts
Host
Brandon Butler
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