July 23, 2024 • 41 mins
This episode escalates pretty quickly! Welcome to another thrilling episode of; "Barguments the Podcast"! Join hosts Dan "Bass" Levy and Joe Kelly as they welcome Chicago legend DJ White Shadow for an exclusive interview about his upcoming event, the first-ever Will Ferrell Ultimate DJ House Party. Get ready for lively discussions as they 'bargue' about the greatest Will Ferrell movie of all time, debate the most annoying fan behaviors at concerts, and dive into much more fun and debatable topics. Tune in for an episode filled with laughs, insights, and heated arguments!
Once again, please continue to share the Barguments the Podcast with neighbors and friends, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of the show. And while you are at it, please give us a 5-star rating and share your feelings about Bargumentst by leaving a review on whatever platform you listen to the show.
Once again, please continue to share the Barguments the Podcast with neighbors and friends, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of the show. And while you are at it, please give us a 5-star rating and share your feelings about Bargumentst by leaving a review on whatever platform you listen to the show.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Arguments is recorded in front of alive studio audience. What's up, everybody,
greeting his fellow barguerers, Welcome toanother exciting edition of Argument. So
I'm your host, Dan Levy,along with my loud and Bombasted and co
host Joe Kelly. What up,Joe? Oh, You're too kind?
Thank you. I appreciate that.This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Arguments,
(00:20):
the podcast where we argue about thesilliest, most pointless topics imaginable,
just like you would at your favoritebar, barbecue, or barber shop.
Our guest today has done a lot. Not only is he a nationally renowned
DJ who's based in Chicago, he'salso a musician, songwriter, producer co
written some of Lady Gott's biggest hits. He's also written music for the twenty
(00:41):
fifteen Super Bowl commercial, plus winninga Grammy in twenty twenty for his work
on the Star Is Born soundtrack,And on Saturday, October twenty six,
he is Jordy Force's with superstar WillFerrell for the first ever Will Ferrell's Ultimate
DJ House Party that's going to bein Chicago's wind Trust Arena instaur on sale
now, Ladies, and gentlemen.DJ White Shadow, what's up, sir,
(01:04):
hey Man, how you doing?Thanks for having me Dan, I
appreciate it. Hey Joe, thanksfor the enthusiasm. I appreciate that as
well. First and foremost, wherein Chicago are you from? So?
I was born in Ohio, justslowly migrating my way across the country.
I grew up in Detroit and I'vebeen in Chicago since two thousand. North
(01:27):
North North Chicago. Started in Uptown, worked my way to Evanston. Nice.
You're right by where my mom is. I'm in I'm in Orland.
Joe is also kind of not toofar from for me as well. So
we're at southwestern borders. But weknow exactly where you are. Yep.
So that we got to ask youthe Chicago questions and we're going to knock
it out. Number one, areyou cub socks? Oh man? Okay,
(01:51):
So, so here's my feeling onthat. I feel like an any
city who has the fortunate the fortuneto have two sports teams to celebrate both
of them. I don't understand therift, but but but I think that
that probably comes with not originally beingfrom Chicago. You know what, myself
(02:13):
and Joe. We're not originally fromChicago either, so I'm from the East
Coast and so is he. SoI'm a Mets fan at heart. He's
a Phillies fan of heart. Butmy son, my wife, is a
hardcore White Sox fan. She's onthe South Side. It's more I mean,
it's more of a it's more ofa region thing that is a team
thing, because she'll get all workedup, she want to go to Wrigley.
She's not a cumbs fan, butshe probably couldn't name two baseball players
(02:37):
in the White Sox right now wherethey're other man. I honestly, anyway,
it's a proud thing about your partof town, your city, whatever.
But like my thing is, likeI don't know any of these guys
anyway, you know what I mean? Do you know somebody? When I
do know somebody, I'm a fanof their team, you know what I
mean. The funniest part is Igot a nine year old and it's one
of those things where every team thatwe're trying to press on to him,
(03:00):
he's going the opposite on me.So I hope at my real feelings.
I mean, I'm a guy inChicago, I've worked in Chicago radio and
sports. So of course I dolove the Bulls. I do love the
Bears, but because I'm not fromhere, I like other teams. So
my real favorite basketball team is theLakers. And I tried to press it
on him. I got him intobasketball, and what team does he pick?
The Boston Celtics. There you go, he's a bit of tribute for
(03:23):
you. I was the first firstDJ to play inside, uh, the
Socks Park. It was not what'swhat's it called now? I don't even
know what it's called? Radio?So it was what was it was called?
It was called it might have beencalled comisky at that point, I
don't remember, but first DJ toplay there, and first DJ to play
(03:45):
inside Wrigley Field. So that isamazing. That is amazing. And that's
the other The other side of thecoin is that my wife has crushed my
son. That's it's a white Soxhouse, White Sox house. And then
in the car it was just heand I. He's like, Dad,
we need to have a talk.I'm like already and he's like, I'm
not a I like the you're gonnasay Cubs, aren't. She's like yeah,
(04:08):
but I know how to tell mom. But like, oh, I
don't how to tell her this.I'll take care of this for you.
Don't worries. This has great,It's tough. You got to be a
real fan to love the socks thisyear. I think that they're they're not
they're not exactly achieving their their marksthis year. No, no, no,
(04:29):
If you're okay, So let's getdown to some brass tacks with you
as a DJ, your guy who'sbeen a pioneer of a lot of stuff.
You worded with a lot of coolartists. You've worked at the Rage
against the Machine, You've worked withLady Gaga first and foremost. Whenever you're
collabing on stuff, how does thatwork. Is it more about the part
where you're creating beats and all thatkind of stuff and then saying, Hey,
(04:49):
this person would be really cool onthis, or is it kind of
one of those Hey, I wantto work with that person. Let me
make some cool stuff for that personthat they would want to jump on it.
So so I guess that every everykind of like every kind of race,
if you will, doesn't doesn't exactlystart by walking out the same door.
(05:09):
So it just depends on like it'sa little bit fluid, right,
So it's not like you're going to, uh, it's not like you're going
to perform a mathematical equation to launcha rocket ship where there's like a certain
set of parameters that you need toachieve in order to lift the ship off
the ground. It's it's more like, you know, there's been times where
I've come with an idea that islyrical or melodic, and there's been times
(05:33):
where I've come in with the track. It kind of depends on on you
know, what the situation is,and and I guess, like that's the
beauty of art, right. Likeit's like I suppose cops like their job
because every day it's a different dayat the office, and that's kind of
the same thing. Like for me, every time I go in, I
don't really know exactly what's going on. But yeah, it's it's like it
(05:58):
took me, actually took me along time to like trying to figure it
out. But like, at theend of the day, you just want
to be able to bear your souland commit to contributing the best way that
you can and understanding when you're doingsomething great and when you're doing something it's
shit. So are terrible, youknow. So it's like it's like,
uh, I understand being an artist, yeah, because I, like I
said, I am not to bragwhen I'm an award winning production guy myself
(06:23):
just radio stuff, to be honest. But when I whenever I make like
a promo or when somebody sends melike lines, I gotta you know,
making stuff, I will I literallyjust start with a script and then I
will lay that out and then Iwould just mess with the audio of the
voice, and then after that.Maybe there's times so I will have it
in my head like here's exactly whereI'm gonna go with this. I know
exactly what to do. But thereare times I'm like, you just have
(06:45):
different liners, you know, likeall the basic stuff, and You're like,
all right, what else can Ido with this? And then and
then for the most part, ninetypercent of my job is trying to find
the exact you know, you know, all these different libraries I have for
beats and sound effects, and thatpart takes the longest one for me be
like, oh that's kind of cool, uh sound if I had to throw
my voice, so that's a prettycool uh you know, reverb or whatever.
(07:08):
Then when it comes to like,you know the music, You're like,
that's gonna be a while. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean
you're an artist too many. Youknow, whatever's in the bag, try
to pull it out and stick ittogether and hopefully other people like it,
you know, when it comes tomaking beats and all that kind of stuff.
I guess the question is always I'malways impressed, Like I'll love a
song and I'm like, I've neverheard this song before, and I love
it, and then all of asudden you realize somebody you know in some
(07:30):
radio station I check, like anoldie station, like, oh, there's
the original song. I never realizedeight none of but a g Thing was
a song before Dodtor Dre took it. I literally thought he was just playing
on his own. So I wantto do something freaky to you, but
by Leon Heywood. Like I grewup in the nineties. I was a
high school kid in the nineties,so I had no idea that ninety percent
(07:50):
of those songs were taking by somethingelse. How does that? How does
that work? Do you are youlooking for songs like that to kind of
go with or do you just havea song in your head or maybe something
comes on You're like, ooh,I could throw a beat on that and
probably do something different with that,or is it Is it one of those
things where you're not even looking forthat kind of stuff. Sometimes it just
it'll hit you. So so therules of the game change a lot.
(08:11):
I mean music is always like pushtechnology and music a kind of hand in
hand. So the rules of thegame changed a ton. So when I
was a kid, people were like, I love music, like that,
name that tune thing, or likehaving somebody go in and ask you,
like a history of like music,or what things are related or who did
what? Like I've been paying attentionto that since I was two years old,
(08:33):
because, like I'm a nerd.I would get a record and figure
out who played bass on it andwhere they came from, and like what
they what they did before, andtry and listen to that and do the
same thing and rinse and repeated itall over again. But like when I
was a kid, people were sampling, sampling, sampling, taking old songs,
taking old songs, and then theychanged the rules about how you could
do that, so like if youdid take the song, then you ended
up giving up all your money tothe original artists. So like when I
(08:56):
got into my career where I wasactually taking it seriously. The number one
rule from every record label was neversample anything, never interpolate anything. All
your ideas have to be original,because nobody wanted to go through the rigorm
moreau of either clearing it or losingall the money if they couldn't clear it.
So, like I grew up on, everything has to be original.
(09:18):
Don't take inspiration from anybody if youcan help it, right, So when
I make records, if like youcall me Dan said I want to make
a record, I would go blankfor six months of listening to any music
at all in order to try andnot make something that already exists. Everybody's
got a different formula for how theydo stuff. But now nowadays sampling is
(09:45):
more back in vogue. Like theprices have come down for what you can
get older songs for because songs areworthwhile older catalogs want to generate money.
So you understand what I'm saying bythat, they don't not trying to hold
the entire for it down. Soit just depends on what the market is.
(10:05):
It's like it's like real estate almost, you know what I mean.
Like it's like if you're able tolease rather than buy and it's a better
deal, it's like you you dothat when the market's right. So now
sampling has got a little bit morein folks. So you know, I
think you hear a lot more songsthat are HARKing back to like an older
an older age as it were.But I think that's cool because it gives
(10:28):
people they care to look like,a lesson on what past music is,
which I think is a neat thing. Now. I've always been of the
comment of, ever since I've gottento the age of thirty three, I
feel like I can't enjoy newer musicas much as I used to. I
feel like there's that spot in mylife where everything just paused and I was
(10:48):
like, nothing's ever going to soundbetter than the nineties or the early two
thousands. And has gotten that side. But you are somebody who has to
keep rejuvenating and keep reinventing himself healthand keep being in that in that in
that mind frame of I got totake it to a next level? Do
you ever have some of that?We're like, man, I really just
like this stuff from before, orare you constantly like what is the next?
(11:11):
What is the next, how doI get to that next? I
think when you try and do that, you're not doing yourself any favors,
right, because the wheel goes aroundand around and around, so it's like
it's not it's not a linear thing. So if there's a point of time
in music where you don't necessarily likeit or don't necessarily feel it, and
you're trying to do it, thenyou're not doing anyone a favor, yourself,
(11:35):
the people that are listening to yourstuff. It just doesn't work.
So if you're a hip hop guyand all of a sudden, hip hop's
not cool anymore, what do yougo? You're going to go make edm
all of a sudden, like it'slike because it's popular that then you're not
really an artist. You should stickto what you are great at and do
that. So like, for me, the reason why I like like for
(11:58):
instance, it's people like they're like, oh my god, like this,
you know Tupac and Biggie and andthe music is never going to be like
that again, And that's not true. It will be like that again.
And maybe to you, Travis Scottor somebody isn't as good as at whatever,
but he is good to people.So it's if you're not finding out
(12:20):
why he's good to people, thenbecause there's a reason. If you're not
figuring that out and you're just lookingon the surface and saying, well,
this guy's not Biggiere Tupac, sohe must be terrible, then you're also
doing yourself with disservice by not beingable to connect with the art. So
anybody who loved rock and roll andsaid the sex Piths over are you know
(12:43):
the Misfits were terrible music because theywere punk? You know they're they're not
They're not on the right side ofhistory because you know, thirty years later,
the sex Pistols are great, Theviolence films are great. The transid
yeah, they transcend time. Soyou know, you just got to take
(13:03):
a couple of steps back and startlooking at stuff at a thirty thousand foot
view. Not you're not supposed tolike all music, but people do.
And finding out what they do likeabout that music and integrating it into your
music, no matter what the genreis, is probably the best way to
approach it. It's the way Iapproach it. I don't know if it's
the best way, but it's theway I approach it that makes a lot
(13:24):
of sense. And being that youand I and Joe we're creative people.
We're definitely in an area where creativityis where we you know, make our
bones. Question for you is says, how do you go from I'm going
to DJ into making music to holycow, I just network with somebody to
start doing Grammy Award, you know, music for movies and superstars and all
that kind of stuff. How doyou how do you network yourself into going
(13:46):
up to that notch where people arethen finding you and going you're that guy?
Because that's that's the hardest part isI'm a radio guy, I'm a
voiceover guy trying to market myself toall these kinds of people. What is
the key? What has been thekeys of you being able to get there's
something to that next level? Generallyspeaking, I think I care more about
music than anybody I've ever met inmy whole life. So and like I
(14:09):
I show up on time, andI'm I'm pretty nice, so and I
and I and I don't I'm notlike full of crap, you know.
So it's like if somebody brings mea song and they say, what do
you think of this? I'm notgoing to say, oh my god,
that's great. I'm gonna say,hey, this is how I feel about
it. And so it's like tryingto be honest, trying to be consistent,
trying to be articulate about like whatyou know things are, and be
(14:35):
able to communicate that with somebody tomake their their art better. I think
it's been kind of like the baselinefor for me to be able to work
with with people that I admire andpeople that I think are way more talented
than I am. So yeah,my dad told me when I was little,
like, you know, to toif you're not working three jobs,
(14:58):
you're not working, you know.And also you show me your friends and
I'll show you your future. Soyou try and surround yourself with people that
you admire and that you respect,and and just work as hard as humanly
possible. You know. I don'tthink there's any secret sauce to it.
It's just it's just you know,maintaining a level head and continuing to There's
(15:22):
ups and downs that are just completelyinsane, you know what I mean,
completely insane, and it's like youjust got to stay above it and recognize
it for what it is and continueto stay on your path. Don't let
your ethos slip. Give me somedifferences and similarities between what it's like to
work with Rage Against the Machine andLady Gaya. Nothing, nothing's different,
(15:45):
it's the same. It's the samething. We're you know, I work
with people that have never ever putout a record in their whole life,
you know what I mean. AndI've and I've worked with, you know,
some of the biggest people in theuniverse. And and and there's no
difference. Everybody wants the same thing. They want to be artistic, they
want to have their their what theyhave in their head reach people. They
(16:07):
want to help people. A lotof times they want their message to to
go out and they want to bea conduit for change or or for you
know, good And and that's thebeauty about this job, right, It's
like you get a chance to participatein somebody else's you know, desire to
(16:29):
have a meaningful exchange with the withthe world. And and like, you
know, I'm not a forward facingguy. I don't I don't do a
ton of like, hey, I'mgoing to go out and sing a song
or play a guitar, play playa piano. It's not it makes me
feel weird. So you know,part of my gift is that I'm able
to help other people that that that'stheir gift, you know. So so
(16:49):
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matterif you're a if you just started yesterday,
you've been doing it since the RollingStones were doing it. It's like
everybody wants the same thing. Doestechnology now playing more of a part with
that kind of stuff where you don'thave to be in the same room with
these people, Like you'll make abeat or you'll they'll they'll ask you,
you know, hey, can youmake something for us? Is one of
those things where you would then youknow, just email them the sample and
(17:11):
they write, then they you know, they give it to you back.
Or is it one of those whereyou have to like go to a studio,
sit down with the artist, playit for them, and if they're
down with it, then you kindof go from there. So you know,
there's there's fifty five thousand ways toget from New York to California,
right Like if you ask one personthey like driving, one person likes flying,
(17:33):
one person you know wants to ridetheir bike, one person wants to
forest Gump, but I don't knowwhatever it is. Yeah, that's me.
Yeah, I'm doing it that way. Yeah, a thousand ways.
So it's like personally for me,I get probably one hundred requests a month
to like send beats in for X'salbum, some person's album, And my
(17:55):
answer is a flatino every time,Like if we don't, if we can't,
if we can't sit together and commiserateover what this idea is, then
I'm not interested. So I needto be I need to be connected.
I want to be connected with theart. I want to be accusing.
Like what happens, right, whathappens if I send you something that I'm
(18:18):
super passionate about. I make thistrack, I'm super passionate about it.
I write a hook about being inlove, right, and I send it
to you and I said, thisis a great song. And then two
months later you send it back tome and it said about being in love
with your lamp. You know,Like, how did you know? How
did you know that? That's notthe song that I wrote. That's not
(18:41):
the community, that's not what Iwant to do. I got into this
job not to make money. Igot this job to be weird and to
feel things and to create art andand I'm not here to make money.
I'm here to hang out with peoplethat are like me and find a community
of people that I enjoy and canbuild things with. And so me just
(19:04):
sending you the five ingredients for youknow, my favorite recipe is not going
to turn out the recipe that Iwant to have turned out, And it's
not going to turn out the recipethat you and I can turn out together,
given being in the same place atthe same time. No chef from
Chicago, since somebody a big bagof oysters and some spices and says,
(19:26):
hey, this is my recipe,have at it right, like you have
a communication about it, so thatcomes out correctly, comes out, different,
comes out new, comes out usual. You make sometime that people will
enjoy and you agree on it.You're a partner. So make making tracks
and sending them over the internet,making tracks and posting them up on some
(19:47):
kind of service. People do thatand I and sometimes really good music comes
out of that. But for mepersonally, like I don't follow those I
don't follow that protocol. And ifthe rules came down, that's the way
you have to do it forever andforever, and that's the way music is
going to work now and you're nevergoing to meet anybody. I would quit
doing music. I would stop.I'm not interested in that. It's that's
(20:10):
a person. It's such a personalconnection thing like you can't like you need
to feel this the same I don'tlike the same vibe with the person that
you're with. Or it's yeah,there's nothing more personal than music. I
don't really have don't think, yeah, what happened? You know. I
don't want to be seventy five yearsold and be walking my grandkids around a
supermarket and hear some song that Iquote unquote made over there. That's that
(20:34):
hey, you know what I mean? Because it didn't come out right like
or it didn't it didn't serve thepurpose of whatever it was. Like,
I've turned down a lot of opportunitiesthat I just did not you know,
part of being good at what youdo is knowing what not to do,
knowing what not to do right.So it's like part of my thing is
when I turned seventy five and Iam picking out those moments. I don't
(20:56):
want to be proud of what Idid. I want to be proud of
things that you know, I've accomplishedand and want one, you know,
DM from somebody else saying this isour wedding song, or this song helped
me get through this, or youknow, I was able to talk to
my parents about this because of thissong is worth one hundred thousand awards that
they give you, you know whatI mean? Like, So, yeah,
(21:18):
I just I just feel like myjob is a special job, and
it's an important job, and itshould remain important not only to myself,
but people should see that for yearsand years to come. Like I want
songs that I make to have longevityand have that feeling and that emotion that
(21:42):
I that's the intent, right,So can you tell me about the actual
process kind of was with Lady Guyerbecause I'm assuming you were there with her
kind of like going through things withher. The process of her is it
more of a like you have topresent her beats or she says sound says,
here's what we're thinking, here's whatwe're looking at. Can you go
(22:03):
with this? Yeah, It's wassuper It was super collaborative. I mean
like we met through a mutual friendbefore, Like she kind of got you
know, off the launchpad, likeofficially, I mean she was already in
the sky. I guess when wemet or when we met, she wasn't
off the launch pad, but whenwe started working together, she was definitely
in the sky. But you know, it's back kind of like to what
(22:30):
I was saying before, Like Ithink it's a respecting It's like I'm a
wardo, she's a weirdo. Wehave a really good line of communication and
open way to constructively argue about thingswhere degree but agree and and and she
can say, hey, I havethis idea about X, and I can
(22:52):
say, oh my god, that'samazing. Let's flush that out. Or
I can say, oh my god, that's the dumbest idea of all time.
And she's not going to be like, go go, go pick rocks,
you know what I mean? Likeso and the same thing, same
thing. Like for every good ideaI have, I have one hundred bad
ones. Right. So it's likeyou, you know, gold doesn't find
(23:12):
itself in a river. Somebody's gotto come in there and put some sand
and dirt and sip it, youknow what I mean. You can't be
offended when somebody tells you it's abad idea, because if every idea that
you had was a piece of gold, you know, I definitely would be
talking to you. I'd be ina helicopter with Elon Musk somewhere playing my
latest record. I'd like to thinkyou'd come down to Earth. That's just
(23:33):
for one event for this podcast.I'd like to think that. I'd like
to think that. So you gofrom doing all these kinds of stuff and
then all of a sudden, you'renow going to be in this really cool
event with Will Ferrell. Tell mehow that even comes about, and tell
me what this event is going tobecause it sounds like it's a pretty monster
event of you. If you're behindit, there's there's well there's credibility to
(23:55):
it because he's going to be there. But for you, it's a real
people are going to come to listento more and just Will Ferrell. They're
going to be like, are theresome real DJs? You will be there?
So tell me about the event.Yeah, So like this is back
to it again. Like Will isone of the most incredibly passionate people that
I've ever met about like what hedoes right, like committed to the franchise
(24:18):
right like this, commits so hardto what he wants to do and how
he wants to do it, andso and so, and I mean it
shows he's like one of the mostrecognizable comedians in the history of all comedy,
right, if not, if notthe king of the whole thing.
Right, he's definitely in the stratosphere, yes, sir, yeah, so.
(24:40):
So my thing is that like thatcommitment level, on that commitment quote
and honesty and openness and collaboration,this is what we're still talking about,
like with the music that I have, and like what he does in comedy,
I can't do. So when wewere talking about music a couple of
years back and his charity, Iwas trying to help him out with some
(25:02):
things and I helped organize a coupleof couple like here's and theirs, and
I think that probably he keeps allmy commitment to the franchise and was like,
hey, you know, like whatcan we do here? And I
gave him open and honest dancers.And last year at the charity, we
ended up doing a live version ofBoats and Hoes mixed with Gin and Juice
and Snoop Dogg came out and Johnc Riley came out, and you know,
(25:26):
I made the mix and we didthis whole live performance in front of
like seven thousand people in LA andit went completely bananas. So we had
this conversation. You know, Ithink that he finds DJing. I don't
want to speak for him, butI think that he finds DJing to be
an interesting culture. It is aninteresting culture. DJs, to me,
(25:47):
are some of the most interesting peoplein the whole world. Real DJs that
care about their craft are so committedto their craft, right, And so
I think he finds that interesting.Maybe it's the same kind of interesting like
somebody who cares about NASCAR, somebodycares about ice skating, or somebody cares
about newscasting. You know, thoseare all things that people get really committed
about. So we were talking aboutit as a genre and he was like,
(26:11):
man, you know, like let'slet's try and do something with DJs,
Like how would you do that?And I said, man, I
just feel like there's a lot ofreally good DJs out there, and people
kind of segment things off and fromEDM, it hip hop and this and
that genre and whatever. And Isaid, when I was younger, you
know, people just went to aparty, and you know, it didn't
(26:32):
have to be an EDM party ora yacht rock party or a disco party
or a house party. It wasjust like a party. So I was
like, why don't we just tryand throw a party? And he was
like, oh my god, thatsounds amazing, Like let's let's let's do
this. So we started assembling peopleof like minds that I thought were talented,
and he thought we're talented, andyou know, started crafting this narrative
(26:55):
about this this house party. Andyou know, I don't want to say
it's the bull Durham uh theory,you know, but you know when you
start the the snowball rolling down thehill and it starts gathering up more snow,
it's like, oh man, thepeople are really we could really pull
this off, Like this could thiscould work. So it's for cancer for
(27:18):
college. All you know, Will'sroommated in in college had got dinosed with
cancer. I had to choose betweentreatment and finish a college out even on
the gives kids an opportunity to thestudy treatment. This last scholarships given out.
(27:38):
It's like a really noble cost.So we're just gonna throw you know,
what better way to raise money thanbring a bunch of people together and
have the most fun of all time. So Swedish house Mafia, d Nice
a track, Terry Hunter, Felixa house cat. I got some really
big Chicago guys in there that Ithink are you know, monumental to the
(27:59):
genre. There's a ton of peoplethat we haven't even announced yet. There's
a lot of people that are notmusicians that are going to show up and
and do their thing like I have. You know, I once hired a
drone operator to fly Missiletill across theparty over over a Christmas party. I've
done a lot of I had aI had a petting zoo outside of a
(28:22):
club in Chicago once before a partythat I threwd just because I wanted people
in line to make sure that theywere they were happy. And uh,
I could could wait a little bitand see you see a go or two
while they were waiting in line forto get in the club. And uh,
I think you can expect that levelof uh uh times one hundred of
uh of wildness to be going onat this place. And uh, we
(28:44):
just want everybody to have a reallygood time and raise some money for a
really good cost. So I'm notsure, I'm not sure who also these
surprised we were coming, but insome person that likes to throw cakes and
random people at the party. Justknow that I will be that bullseye.
I would love to see if someonelight me up with a k girl pie.
That's a dream. That's a dream. Well, I'm telling you right
(29:07):
now, uh well, talking toyou about this, like I'm like,
wait a minute. What like theamount of times I've said, wait a
minute, what we're what we're goingthrough? This has been uh you know,
more than I ever thought I would. So yeah, man, ticket
tickets are up, I think,and I think we're ready to rock and
right even now, I mean likeit's like the most amazing show on Earth
(29:29):
right now. So uh yeah,all right, So for those for those
out there, Will Ferrell's Ultimate DJHouse Party, it's gonna be in Chicago's
wind Trust Arena. That is wherethe sky play and that's where we have
a lot of cool things here inChicago. And that'll be the sight of
Will Ferrell. And also I gotDJ White Shadow and a bunch of other
and Swedish house Mafia and a bunchof other cool people. Maybe somebody will
(29:52):
throw some sort of food at mebecause I plan on being there. Okay,
let's throw some bargament satch you,because that is the name of the
game, first and foremost. Aswe dip into the argument, since you're
working with Will Ferrell, what isthe greatest Will Ferrell movie of all time?
Oh? Man, that's that's toughone. I'm good. I'm gonna
(30:14):
say Anchorman probably. I mean,I can't even imagine how many times that
is an amazing movie. An amazingmovie. Yes, Joey Jojo, which
one is yours? Yeah, ithas to be Anchorman. Just that kind
of just changed, I mean everything. So yeah, I will say Anchorman
is something that I probably quote almoston a daily basis, which is kind
(30:37):
of scary. But for me,there's it's hard because there's two For me
that I would go with. Numberone would always be elf during the Christmas
holiday because my son was I waslike a good segue and like, this
guy's funny. Let's watch at leastone full you know, Will Ferrell movie
during the season. But for me, I love Step Brothers the most.
I feel like, even though asit's as big as it's still an underrated
(30:59):
movie. It didn't have any bizazzto him. It was just ridiculous humor
from two guys and John c Ridley'sthe Chicago guy. He went to high
school right where, like ten feetfrom where I used to live, so
and I've met him a bunch oftimes. He's one of the nicest guys
I've ever met. And I canwatch that movie over and over and over
again and picking up something I hadn'tseen before on another time that I've watched
(31:21):
it, So I can do stepBrothers every day of the week. Great
movie. All right, Since youare a DJ, what is the most
annoying fan habit somebody could do ata concert? Oh? Man, you
know, people chuck and this isnew to me, but like people chucking
(31:41):
stuff at the artists are jumping onstage. Yes, Like I have no
sympathy at all for how those peopleare handled by security. Like when somebody
runs up on stage and gets whackedin the face or thrown off the stage.
Like I'm just like, good foryou, And I'm a pretty sympathetic.
But that's insane to me. Youdeserve to be Yeah, because I
(32:07):
actually feel bad because you see alot of artists they're performing, and I've
seen a bunch of social media videoslike this where an artist is performing.
Also, something get clogged in thenose of the phone. Somebody clowed me
in the nose of the phone.Even if I wasn't working, I would
be one angry person in real life. Yeah, what do you what are
you even doing there? What areyou doing there? If you're checking the
phone? If the person that's singing, somebody drag you along and all of
(32:29):
a sudden you don't like the songsyou're hearing, Like just leave. I
agree, mine my number one thing. And it's it'll never go away,
and it's only getting worse. Thecell phones people need to record and like
there should not be And he's like, like, what comedians, the big
enough comedians, you should have toput your cell phone in something. Nobody
(32:52):
online wants to see your videos.Nobody's sitting there going ooh, let me
hear seven seconds of you know ofyou know me a river from justin Timberlake.
Nobody needs to do that. Like, just enjoy the concert. You're
there, you're paid for the tickets. Stop filming it. Nobody wants to
see unless you're the actual person hiredby an artist to record the concert and
(33:15):
put it on YouTube or do whateverit is to to to generate something.
If it's just some person getting eightseconds of Elton John. I want no
part of it. Yeah, you'rejust hearing people scream WU the whole time.
Yes, can you hear the song? But a lad? I mean
for me, it's like I mean, because sometimes you're blocked by really tall
people and there's there's nothing you cando about that. Sometimes there's there's a
(33:37):
seven foot in front of you.But it's even worse. Well that seven
footer has got his nine foot armstretched out with a phone going stare with
Heaven at the side of that song, you know what I mean, Like,
dude, you're already too tall,but I got to look through the
uprights of your arms. I don'tlike that. I'm not a fan of
that. Yeah, I hear youall right? And socially sendible to eat
(34:00):
food once a concert starts or doyou have to? Is that something you
should be doing before or after ashow? Once when the show starts?
Should you be eating? Oh?Man, I don't know. I don't
ever. I would never eat ata concert, you know what I mean?
(34:21):
Like I personally, Like personally,I would never eat like at a
show. I'm too I'm too ifI go to a show, like I'm
too invested in like what's happening inthe show to like want to grab a
bite of a hot dog. However, if I see somebody eating a hot
dog, I wouldn't be like superupset about it, because sometimes people need
(34:43):
a hot dog and you can't timeit out right, So I wouldn't be.
I wouldn't be. I wouldn't beupset with somebody else doing it,
but like I wouldn't do it myself, just because that's just whatever, what
that's just give you a non answer, that's okay post show post concert for
even there are this or the fangoers out there post huge show, You're
you're having a great time. What'sthe food? What's your number one food
(35:07):
to go for afterwards? We're allhungry? Where are we going? Oh
man, what is the best?What is the best food to eat after
a show? Post to post ashow, post show grub session? What
are we eating? I guess Iguess, like, no, you're like
digging into my head here and Iguess that, like maybe I just don't
(35:29):
eat when I go to a concert. Like I'm trying to really think in
my head, like if I ifI like eat before, I like probably
go to the dinner before and thenjust don't eat the rest of the night.
My my, that's how you're soskinny. That's how you're so skinny.
That's never seen you as I maybeI was gonna say my first reaction
was what baka soda? Like thatwould be my first reaction of what to
(35:50):
eat after a concert? That's evenbetter? What's the what's the best post
drink after you've done a set?I mean anything? I feel like I
feel like a good concert when you'redone with it, Like you're just like
relishing in the in the in thewonder of like what just happened? You
know what I mean, you're talkingabout it? So anything anywhere you can
(36:12):
go and commissary. But I don'tthink I go eat after a show either.
Usually go to a bar. Maybemaybe grab a Tomali off of a
cart like on the Wows. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't.
I don't eat a ton. Well, if you're if you're looking for the
car, if you're looking for thecorrect answer, it is a burrito.
By the way, I was lookingfor a real answer. And if you're
(36:35):
gonna do it, burrito has neverI've never got home after a show,
a concert and the ball game andwent the burrito is a mistake, But
there's a correct answer. Yeah,that one is. Because sometimes I'll be
like, the burrito is the bestpart of that show. That was not
a good show, and I reallyenjoyed that burrito guy was hammering those things
out so fast it could have beenthe great show. That was the best
part of it though. All Right, DG, what shadow question? Is
(37:00):
there a white Whale? Is therean artist that you've always wanted to work
with? Is there a Shaquille O'Nealon the Rising? Is there other celebrity
DJs that you want to work with? Is there a person you want to
mark off before you say, youknow what, I'm done with this whole
kind of DJing stuff. I wantto kind of enjoy myself. Man,
some days I wake up every morningand say I'm done with this DJ stuff.
(37:22):
I want to enjoy myself. ButI kind of other days I enjoy
myself every day. Anyway, There'snot really like a list that they like
to check off. There's certain peoplethat like. The people that I like
that I would like to work withare probably like my heroes when I was
a kid, you know what Imean. Like it's like more like I
would love to sit down with craftwork and figure out what they were talking
(37:45):
about, or like sit down withlike you know, I don't know whoever
and just be like, hey,what were you thinking when you made this?
Like how did this work? Igot to eat lunch with Giorgio or
Moroder once and uh, that's cool. It was like something that was supposed
to last an hour, and Ithink we sat there for like six hours,
(38:05):
like just talking about like music andwhat music was like then and like
how that was. And I think, like that's like the that's the dream
for me is to figure out howto have an intelligent conversation with people that
I respect and admire and trying tosoak up some of that game, if
you will, and and and youknow, kind of apply it to what
(38:28):
I do on a daily basis.So it's not so much people to work
with. I want to work withanybody who I like. I feel like
we can have some sort of jointyou know, experience in putting something out.
You gotta give it, you gottagive you, you gotta give you
one name, one name of aperson, like like you know what this
(38:49):
will be my my, my,my, uh my, holy grail of
a person, even dead or alive. Is there one person like this would
be amazing to make one track sittingroom with this person? Who is that
person? Honestly, I think that, like if I had to like pick
somebody like right now today, thefirst person that came to my mind was
like the guys from Justice, theband Justice. I think I think that
(39:13):
they do some really cool stuff andthey're always innovating and and their sound is
like pretty permanent, and they stickto it and they're able to do it
over and over again and that doesn'treally get old, which I think is
admirable. So yeah, but Imean a lot of guys that I wanted
to work with, you know,too Short or Big Daddy Kane or are
(39:34):
like guys that I loved when Iwas a kid, Like I have had
a chance. And let me tellyou, it doesn't disappoint when you meet
people that you that you admire andyou admire their music, it's never disappointing.
Very cool. Well, Joe Jattle, I can talk to you forever.
Man. You're you're seeing the reallycool guy and I'm just happy to
meet you and I'm glad you cameon the podcast. Thanks for taking some
time out. Oh no worries.Dan, thank you guys for having me,
(39:58):
Thanks Joe for having me, andyeah, make get out there and
get these tickets. Man it fora good cause. I really appreciate you
guys pumping that up. It's goingto be a super fun party and Will
such a great guy, and everybody'sgonna laugh and have fun, walk out
of their smile and get in aburrito or whatever they're doing where it's correct
answer. He is DJ White Shadowif you want to follow him, he's
(40:20):
a great follow on Instagram, adat DJWS and once again the event Will
Ferrell. It is going to behis ultimate DJ house party benefiting Cancer for
College at the wind Trust Arena Octobertwenty six, twenty twenty four. Go
to ticketmaster dot com and purchase thosetickets. They are on sale right now.
Once again for Joe Kelly. Myname is Dan Levy. You've been
listening to Arguments and if you're outand about and you having to hear this
(40:44):
podcast, love it. Please giveit a five star. I will let
it and write a review to thatactually helps all right tunes by the way,
and please share it to whomever youthink would be a like minded person.
And if you have a bargament youwant to share with us or want
to jump in on some we havea Facebook group called Bargament's Podcast and that's
where we get a lot of thisstuff. And if you have any of
you want to submit, to dothis over there once again. For Joe
(41:04):
Kelly, my name is Dan Levy. This is arguments. We'll do it
against him. Take care, everybody,
Arguments is recorded in front of alive studio audience. What's up, everybody,
greeting his fellow barguerers, Welcome toanother exciting edition of Argument. So
I'm your host, Dan Levy,along with my loud and Bombasted and co
host Joe Kelly. What up,Joe? Oh, You're too kind?
Thank you. I appreciate that.This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Arguments,
(00:20):
the podcast where we argue about thesilliest, most pointless topics imaginable,
just like you would at your favoritebar, barbecue, or barber shop.
Our guest today has done a lot. Not only is he a nationally renowned
DJ who's based in Chicago, he'salso a musician, songwriter, producer co
written some of Lady Gott's biggest hits. He's also written music for the twenty
(00:41):
fifteen Super Bowl commercial, plus winninga Grammy in twenty twenty for his work
on the Star Is Born soundtrack,And on Saturday, October twenty six,
he is Jordy Force's with superstar WillFerrell for the first ever Will Ferrell's Ultimate
DJ House Party that's going to bein Chicago's wind Trust Arena instaur on sale
now, Ladies, and gentlemen.DJ White Shadow, what's up, sir,
(01:04):
hey Man, how you doing?Thanks for having me Dan, I
appreciate it. Hey Joe, thanksfor the enthusiasm. I appreciate that as
well. First and foremost, wherein Chicago are you from? So?
I was born in Ohio, justslowly migrating my way across the country.
I grew up in Detroit and I'vebeen in Chicago since two thousand. North
(01:27):
North North Chicago. Started in Uptown, worked my way to Evanston. Nice.
You're right by where my mom is. I'm in I'm in Orland.
Joe is also kind of not toofar from for me as well. So
we're at southwestern borders. But weknow exactly where you are. Yep.
So that we got to ask youthe Chicago questions and we're going to knock
it out. Number one, areyou cub socks? Oh man? Okay,
(01:51):
So, so here's my feeling onthat. I feel like an any
city who has the fortunate the fortuneto have two sports teams to celebrate both
of them. I don't understand therift, but but but I think that
that probably comes with not originally beingfrom Chicago. You know what, myself
(02:13):
and Joe. We're not originally fromChicago either, so I'm from the East
Coast and so is he. SoI'm a Mets fan at heart. He's
a Phillies fan of heart. Butmy son, my wife, is a
hardcore White Sox fan. She's onthe South Side. It's more I mean,
it's more of a it's more ofa region thing that is a team
thing, because she'll get all workedup, she want to go to Wrigley.
She's not a cumbs fan, butshe probably couldn't name two baseball players
(02:37):
in the White Sox right now wherethey're other man. I honestly, anyway,
it's a proud thing about your partof town, your city, whatever.
But like my thing is, likeI don't know any of these guys
anyway, you know what I mean? Do you know somebody? When I
do know somebody, I'm a fanof their team, you know what I
mean. The funniest part is Igot a nine year old and it's one
of those things where every team thatwe're trying to press on to him,
(03:00):
he's going the opposite on me.So I hope at my real feelings.
I mean, I'm a guy inChicago, I've worked in Chicago radio and
sports. So of course I dolove the Bulls. I do love the
Bears, but because I'm not fromhere, I like other teams. So
my real favorite basketball team is theLakers. And I tried to press it
on him. I got him intobasketball, and what team does he pick?
The Boston Celtics. There you go, he's a bit of tribute for
(03:23):
you. I was the first firstDJ to play inside, uh, the
Socks Park. It was not what'swhat's it called now? I don't even
know what it's called? Radio?So it was what was it was called?
It was called it might have beencalled comisky at that point, I
don't remember, but first DJ toplay there, and first DJ to play
(03:45):
inside Wrigley Field. So that isamazing. That is amazing. And that's
the other The other side of thecoin is that my wife has crushed my
son. That's it's a white Soxhouse, White Sox house. And then
in the car it was just heand I. He's like, Dad,
we need to have a talk.I'm like already and he's like, I'm
not a I like the you're gonnasay Cubs, aren't. She's like yeah,
(04:08):
but I know how to tell mom. But like, oh, I
don't how to tell her this.I'll take care of this for you.
Don't worries. This has great,It's tough. You got to be a
real fan to love the socks thisyear. I think that they're they're not
they're not exactly achieving their their marksthis year. No, no, no,
(04:29):
If you're okay, So let's getdown to some brass tacks with you
as a DJ, your guy who'sbeen a pioneer of a lot of stuff.
You worded with a lot of coolartists. You've worked at the Rage
against the Machine, You've worked withLady Gaga first and foremost. Whenever you're
collabing on stuff, how does thatwork. Is it more about the part
where you're creating beats and all thatkind of stuff and then saying, Hey,
(04:49):
this person would be really cool onthis, or is it kind of
one of those Hey, I wantto work with that person. Let me
make some cool stuff for that personthat they would want to jump on it.
So so I guess that every everykind of like every kind of race,
if you will, doesn't doesn't exactlystart by walking out the same door.
(05:09):
So it just depends on like it'sa little bit fluid, right,
So it's not like you're going to, uh, it's not like you're going
to perform a mathematical equation to launcha rocket ship where there's like a certain
set of parameters that you need toachieve in order to lift the ship off
the ground. It's it's more like, you know, there's been times where
I've come with an idea that islyrical or melodic, and there's been times
(05:33):
where I've come in with the track. It kind of depends on on you
know, what the situation is,and and I guess, like that's the
beauty of art, right. Likeit's like I suppose cops like their job
because every day it's a different dayat the office, and that's kind of
the same thing. Like for me, every time I go in, I
don't really know exactly what's going on. But yeah, it's it's like it
(05:58):
took me, actually took me along time to like trying to figure it
out. But like, at theend of the day, you just want
to be able to bear your souland commit to contributing the best way that
you can and understanding when you're doingsomething great and when you're doing something it's
shit. So are terrible, youknow. So it's like it's like,
uh, I understand being an artist, yeah, because I, like I
said, I am not to bragwhen I'm an award winning production guy myself
(06:23):
just radio stuff, to be honest. But when I whenever I make like
a promo or when somebody sends melike lines, I gotta you know,
making stuff, I will I literallyjust start with a script and then I
will lay that out and then Iwould just mess with the audio of the
voice, and then after that.Maybe there's times so I will have it
in my head like here's exactly whereI'm gonna go with this. I know
exactly what to do. But thereare times I'm like, you just have
(06:45):
different liners, you know, likeall the basic stuff, and You're like,
all right, what else can Ido with this? And then and
then for the most part, ninetypercent of my job is trying to find
the exact you know, you know, all these different libraries I have for
beats and sound effects, and thatpart takes the longest one for me be
like, oh that's kind of cool, uh sound if I had to throw
my voice, so that's a prettycool uh you know, reverb or whatever.
(07:08):
Then when it comes to like,you know the music, You're like,
that's gonna be a while. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean
you're an artist too many. Youknow, whatever's in the bag, try
to pull it out and stick ittogether and hopefully other people like it,
you know, when it comes tomaking beats and all that kind of stuff.
I guess the question is always I'malways impressed, Like I'll love a
song and I'm like, I've neverheard this song before, and I love
it, and then all of asudden you realize somebody you know in some
(07:30):
radio station I check, like anoldie station, like, oh, there's
the original song. I never realizedeight none of but a g Thing was
a song before Dodtor Dre took it. I literally thought he was just playing
on his own. So I wantto do something freaky to you, but
by Leon Heywood. Like I grewup in the nineties. I was a
high school kid in the nineties,so I had no idea that ninety percent
(07:50):
of those songs were taking by somethingelse. How does that? How does
that work? Do you are youlooking for songs like that to kind of
go with or do you just havea song in your head or maybe something
comes on You're like, ooh,I could throw a beat on that and
probably do something different with that,or is it Is it one of those
things where you're not even looking forthat kind of stuff. Sometimes it just
it'll hit you. So so therules of the game change a lot.
(08:11):
I mean music is always like pushtechnology and music a kind of hand in
hand. So the rules of thegame changed a ton. So when I
was a kid, people were like, I love music, like that,
name that tune thing, or likehaving somebody go in and ask you,
like a history of like music,or what things are related or who did
what? Like I've been paying attentionto that since I was two years old,
(08:33):
because, like I'm a nerd.I would get a record and figure
out who played bass on it andwhere they came from, and like what
they what they did before, andtry and listen to that and do the
same thing and rinse and repeated itall over again. But like when I
was a kid, people were sampling, sampling, sampling, taking old songs,
taking old songs, and then theychanged the rules about how you could
do that, so like if youdid take the song, then you ended
up giving up all your money tothe original artists. So like when I
(08:56):
got into my career where I wasactually taking it seriously. The number one
rule from every record label was neversample anything, never interpolate anything. All
your ideas have to be original,because nobody wanted to go through the rigorm
moreau of either clearing it or losingall the money if they couldn't clear it.
So, like I grew up on, everything has to be original.
(09:18):
Don't take inspiration from anybody if youcan help it, right, So when
I make records, if like youcall me Dan said I want to make
a record, I would go blankfor six months of listening to any music
at all in order to try andnot make something that already exists. Everybody's
got a different formula for how theydo stuff. But now nowadays sampling is
(09:45):
more back in vogue. Like theprices have come down for what you can
get older songs for because songs areworthwhile older catalogs want to generate money.
So you understand what I'm saying bythat, they don't not trying to hold
the entire for it down. Soit just depends on what the market is.
(10:05):
It's like it's like real estate almost, you know what I mean.
Like it's like if you're able tolease rather than buy and it's a better
deal, it's like you you dothat when the market's right. So now
sampling has got a little bit morein folks. So you know, I
think you hear a lot more songsthat are HARKing back to like an older
an older age as it were.But I think that's cool because it gives
(10:28):
people they care to look like,a lesson on what past music is,
which I think is a neat thing. Now. I've always been of the
comment of, ever since I've gottento the age of thirty three, I
feel like I can't enjoy newer musicas much as I used to. I
feel like there's that spot in mylife where everything just paused and I was
(10:48):
like, nothing's ever going to soundbetter than the nineties or the early two
thousands. And has gotten that side. But you are somebody who has to
keep rejuvenating and keep reinventing himself healthand keep being in that in that in
that mind frame of I got totake it to a next level? Do
you ever have some of that?We're like, man, I really just
like this stuff from before, orare you constantly like what is the next?
(11:11):
What is the next, how doI get to that next? I
think when you try and do that, you're not doing yourself any favors,
right, because the wheel goes aroundand around and around, so it's like
it's not it's not a linear thing. So if there's a point of time
in music where you don't necessarily likeit or don't necessarily feel it, and
you're trying to do it, thenyou're not doing anyone a favor, yourself,
(11:35):
the people that are listening to yourstuff. It just doesn't work.
So if you're a hip hop guyand all of a sudden, hip hop's
not cool anymore, what do yougo? You're going to go make edm
all of a sudden, like it'slike because it's popular that then you're not
really an artist. You should stickto what you are great at and do
that. So like, for me, the reason why I like like for
(11:58):
instance, it's people like they're like, oh my god, like this,
you know Tupac and Biggie and andthe music is never going to be like
that again, And that's not true. It will be like that again.
And maybe to you, Travis Scottor somebody isn't as good as at whatever,
but he is good to people.So it's if you're not finding out
(12:20):
why he's good to people, thenbecause there's a reason. If you're not
figuring that out and you're just lookingon the surface and saying, well,
this guy's not Biggiere Tupac, sohe must be terrible, then you're also
doing yourself with disservice by not beingable to connect with the art. So
anybody who loved rock and roll andsaid the sex Piths over are you know
(12:43):
the Misfits were terrible music because theywere punk? You know they're they're not
They're not on the right side ofhistory because you know, thirty years later,
the sex Pistols are great, Theviolence films are great. The transid
yeah, they transcend time. Soyou know, you just got to take
(13:03):
a couple of steps back and startlooking at stuff at a thirty thousand foot
view. Not you're not supposed tolike all music, but people do.
And finding out what they do likeabout that music and integrating it into your
music, no matter what the genreis, is probably the best way to
approach it. It's the way Iapproach it. I don't know if it's
the best way, but it's theway I approach it that makes a lot
(13:24):
of sense. And being that youand I and Joe we're creative people.
We're definitely in an area where creativityis where we you know, make our
bones. Question for you is says, how do you go from I'm going
to DJ into making music to holycow, I just network with somebody to
start doing Grammy Award, you know, music for movies and superstars and all
that kind of stuff. How doyou how do you network yourself into going
(13:46):
up to that notch where people arethen finding you and going you're that guy?
Because that's that's the hardest part isI'm a radio guy, I'm a
voiceover guy trying to market myself toall these kinds of people. What is
the key? What has been thekeys of you being able to get there's
something to that next level? Generallyspeaking, I think I care more about
music than anybody I've ever met inmy whole life. So and like I
(14:09):
I show up on time, andI'm I'm pretty nice, so and I
and I and I don't I'm notlike full of crap, you know.
So it's like if somebody brings mea song and they say, what do
you think of this? I'm notgoing to say, oh my god,
that's great. I'm gonna say,hey, this is how I feel about
it. And so it's like tryingto be honest, trying to be consistent,
trying to be articulate about like whatyou know things are, and be
(14:35):
able to communicate that with somebody tomake their their art better. I think
it's been kind of like the baselinefor for me to be able to work
with with people that I admire andpeople that I think are way more talented
than I am. So yeah,my dad told me when I was little,
like, you know, to toif you're not working three jobs,
(14:58):
you're not working, you know.And also you show me your friends and
I'll show you your future. Soyou try and surround yourself with people that
you admire and that you respect,and and just work as hard as humanly
possible. You know. I don'tthink there's any secret sauce to it.
It's just it's just you know,maintaining a level head and continuing to There's
(15:22):
ups and downs that are just completelyinsane, you know what I mean,
completely insane, and it's like youjust got to stay above it and recognize
it for what it is and continueto stay on your path. Don't let
your ethos slip. Give me somedifferences and similarities between what it's like to
work with Rage Against the Machine andLady Gaya. Nothing, nothing's different,
(15:45):
it's the same. It's the samething. We're you know, I work
with people that have never ever putout a record in their whole life,
you know what I mean. AndI've and I've worked with, you know,
some of the biggest people in theuniverse. And and and there's no
difference. Everybody wants the same thing. They want to be artistic, they
want to have their their what theyhave in their head reach people. They
(16:07):
want to help people. A lotof times they want their message to to
go out and they want to bea conduit for change or or for you
know, good And and that's thebeauty about this job, right, It's
like you get a chance to participatein somebody else's you know, desire to
(16:29):
have a meaningful exchange with the withthe world. And and like, you
know, I'm not a forward facingguy. I don't I don't do a
ton of like, hey, I'mgoing to go out and sing a song
or play a guitar, play playa piano. It's not it makes me
feel weird. So you know,part of my gift is that I'm able
to help other people that that that'stheir gift, you know. So so
(16:49):
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matterif you're a if you just started yesterday,
you've been doing it since the RollingStones were doing it. It's like
everybody wants the same thing. Doestechnology now playing more of a part with
that kind of stuff where you don'thave to be in the same room with
these people, Like you'll make abeat or you'll they'll they'll ask you,
you know, hey, can youmake something for us? Is one of
those things where you would then youknow, just email them the sample and
(17:11):
they write, then they you know, they give it to you back.
Or is it one of those whereyou have to like go to a studio,
sit down with the artist, playit for them, and if they're
down with it, then you kindof go from there. So you know,
there's there's fifty five thousand ways toget from New York to California,
right Like if you ask one personthey like driving, one person likes flying,
(17:33):
one person you know wants to ridetheir bike, one person wants to
forest Gump, but I don't knowwhatever it is. Yeah, that's me.
Yeah, I'm doing it that way. Yeah, a thousand ways.
So it's like personally for me,I get probably one hundred requests a month
to like send beats in for X'salbum, some person's album, And my
(17:55):
answer is a flatino every time,Like if we don't, if we can't,
if we can't sit together and commiserateover what this idea is, then
I'm not interested. So I needto be I need to be connected.
I want to be connected with theart. I want to be accusing.
Like what happens, right, whathappens if I send you something that I'm
(18:18):
super passionate about. I make thistrack, I'm super passionate about it.
I write a hook about being inlove, right, and I send it
to you and I said, thisis a great song. And then two
months later you send it back tome and it said about being in love
with your lamp. You know,Like, how did you know? How
did you know that? That's notthe song that I wrote. That's not
(18:41):
the community, that's not what Iwant to do. I got into this
job not to make money. Igot this job to be weird and to
feel things and to create art andand I'm not here to make money.
I'm here to hang out with peoplethat are like me and find a community
of people that I enjoy and canbuild things with. And so me just
(19:04):
sending you the five ingredients for youknow, my favorite recipe is not going
to turn out the recipe that Iwant to have turned out, And it's
not going to turn out the recipethat you and I can turn out together,
given being in the same place atthe same time. No chef from
Chicago, since somebody a big bagof oysters and some spices and says,
(19:26):
hey, this is my recipe,have at it right, like you have
a communication about it, so thatcomes out correctly, comes out, different,
comes out new, comes out usual. You make sometime that people will
enjoy and you agree on it.You're a partner. So make making tracks
and sending them over the internet,making tracks and posting them up on some
(19:47):
kind of service. People do thatand I and sometimes really good music comes
out of that. But for mepersonally, like I don't follow those I
don't follow that protocol. And ifthe rules came down, that's the way
you have to do it forever andforever, and that's the way music is
going to work now and you're nevergoing to meet anybody. I would quit
doing music. I would stop.I'm not interested in that. It's that's
(20:10):
a person. It's such a personalconnection thing like you can't like you need
to feel this the same I don'tlike the same vibe with the person that
you're with. Or it's yeah,there's nothing more personal than music. I
don't really have don't think, yeah, what happened? You know. I
don't want to be seventy five yearsold and be walking my grandkids around a
supermarket and hear some song that Iquote unquote made over there. That's that
(20:34):
hey, you know what I mean? Because it didn't come out right like
or it didn't it didn't serve thepurpose of whatever it was. Like,
I've turned down a lot of opportunitiesthat I just did not you know,
part of being good at what youdo is knowing what not to do,
knowing what not to do right.So it's like part of my thing is
when I turned seventy five and Iam picking out those moments. I don't
(20:56):
want to be proud of what Idid. I want to be proud of
things that you know, I've accomplishedand and want one, you know,
DM from somebody else saying this isour wedding song, or this song helped
me get through this, or youknow, I was able to talk to
my parents about this because of thissong is worth one hundred thousand awards that
they give you, you know whatI mean? Like, So, yeah,
(21:18):
I just I just feel like myjob is a special job, and
it's an important job, and itshould remain important not only to myself,
but people should see that for yearsand years to come. Like I want
songs that I make to have longevityand have that feeling and that emotion that
(21:42):
I that's the intent, right,So can you tell me about the actual
process kind of was with Lady Guyerbecause I'm assuming you were there with her
kind of like going through things withher. The process of her is it
more of a like you have topresent her beats or she says sound says,
here's what we're thinking, here's whatwe're looking at. Can you go
(22:03):
with this? Yeah, It's wassuper It was super collaborative. I mean
like we met through a mutual friendbefore, Like she kind of got you
know, off the launchpad, likeofficially, I mean she was already in
the sky. I guess when wemet or when we met, she wasn't
off the launch pad, but whenwe started working together, she was definitely
in the sky. But you know, it's back kind of like to what
(22:30):
I was saying before, Like Ithink it's a respecting It's like I'm a
wardo, she's a weirdo. Wehave a really good line of communication and
open way to constructively argue about thingswhere degree but agree and and and she
can say, hey, I havethis idea about X, and I can
(22:52):
say, oh my god, that'samazing. Let's flush that out. Or
I can say, oh my god, that's the dumbest idea of all time.
And she's not going to be like, go go, go pick rocks,
you know what I mean? Likeso and the same thing, same
thing. Like for every good ideaI have, I have one hundred bad
ones. Right. So it's likeyou, you know, gold doesn't find
(23:12):
itself in a river. Somebody's gotto come in there and put some sand
and dirt and sip it, youknow what I mean. You can't be
offended when somebody tells you it's abad idea, because if every idea that
you had was a piece of gold, you know, I definitely would be
talking to you. I'd be ina helicopter with Elon Musk somewhere playing my
latest record. I'd like to thinkyou'd come down to Earth. That's just
(23:33):
for one event for this podcast.I'd like to think that. I'd like
to think that. So you gofrom doing all these kinds of stuff and
then all of a sudden, you'renow going to be in this really cool
event with Will Ferrell. Tell mehow that even comes about, and tell
me what this event is going tobecause it sounds like it's a pretty monster
event of you. If you're behindit, there's there's well there's credibility to
(23:55):
it because he's going to be there. But for you, it's a real
people are going to come to listento more and just Will Ferrell. They're
going to be like, are theresome real DJs? You will be there?
So tell me about the event.Yeah, So like this is back
to it again. Like Will isone of the most incredibly passionate people that
I've ever met about like what hedoes right, like committed to the franchise
(24:18):
right like this, commits so hardto what he wants to do and how
he wants to do it, andso and so, and I mean it
shows he's like one of the mostrecognizable comedians in the history of all comedy,
right, if not, if notthe king of the whole thing.
Right, he's definitely in the stratosphere, yes, sir, yeah, so.
(24:40):
So my thing is that like thatcommitment level, on that commitment quote
and honesty and openness and collaboration,this is what we're still talking about,
like with the music that I have, and like what he does in comedy,
I can't do. So when wewere talking about music a couple of
years back and his charity, Iwas trying to help him out with some
(25:02):
things and I helped organize a coupleof couple like here's and theirs, and
I think that probably he keeps allmy commitment to the franchise and was like,
hey, you know, like whatcan we do here? And I
gave him open and honest dancers.And last year at the charity, we
ended up doing a live version ofBoats and Hoes mixed with Gin and Juice
and Snoop Dogg came out and Johnc Riley came out, and you know,
(25:26):
I made the mix and we didthis whole live performance in front of
like seven thousand people in LA andit went completely bananas. So we had
this conversation. You know, Ithink that he finds DJing. I don't
want to speak for him, butI think that he finds DJing to be
an interesting culture. It is aninteresting culture. DJs, to me,
(25:47):
are some of the most interesting peoplein the whole world. Real DJs that
care about their craft are so committedto their craft, right, And so
I think he finds that interesting.Maybe it's the same kind of interesting like
somebody who cares about NASCAR, somebodycares about ice skating, or somebody cares
about newscasting. You know, thoseare all things that people get really committed
about. So we were talking aboutit as a genre and he was like,
(26:11):
man, you know, like let'slet's try and do something with DJs,
Like how would you do that?And I said, man, I
just feel like there's a lot ofreally good DJs out there, and people
kind of segment things off and fromEDM, it hip hop and this and
that genre and whatever. And Isaid, when I was younger, you
know, people just went to aparty, and you know, it didn't
(26:32):
have to be an EDM party ora yacht rock party or a disco party
or a house party. It wasjust like a party. So I was
like, why don't we just tryand throw a party? And he was
like, oh my god, thatsounds amazing, Like let's let's let's do
this. So we started assembling peopleof like minds that I thought were talented,
and he thought we're talented, andyou know, started crafting this narrative
(26:55):
about this this house party. Andyou know, I don't want to say
it's the bull Durham uh theory,you know, but you know when you
start the the snowball rolling down thehill and it starts gathering up more snow,
it's like, oh man, thepeople are really we could really pull
this off, Like this could thiscould work. So it's for cancer for
(27:18):
college. All you know, Will'sroommated in in college had got dinosed with
cancer. I had to choose betweentreatment and finish a college out even on
the gives kids an opportunity to thestudy treatment. This last scholarships given out.
(27:38):
It's like a really noble cost.So we're just gonna throw you know,
what better way to raise money thanbring a bunch of people together and
have the most fun of all time. So Swedish house Mafia, d Nice
a track, Terry Hunter, Felixa house cat. I got some really
big Chicago guys in there that Ithink are you know, monumental to the
(27:59):
genre. There's a ton of peoplethat we haven't even announced yet. There's
a lot of people that are notmusicians that are going to show up and
and do their thing like I have. You know, I once hired a
drone operator to fly Missiletill across theparty over over a Christmas party. I've
done a lot of I had aI had a petting zoo outside of a
(28:22):
club in Chicago once before a partythat I threwd just because I wanted people
in line to make sure that theywere they were happy. And uh,
I could could wait a little bitand see you see a go or two
while they were waiting in line forto get in the club. And uh,
I think you can expect that levelof uh uh times one hundred of
uh of wildness to be going onat this place. And uh, we
(28:44):
just want everybody to have a reallygood time and raise some money for a
really good cost. So I'm notsure, I'm not sure who also these
surprised we were coming, but insome person that likes to throw cakes and
random people at the party. Justknow that I will be that bullseye.
I would love to see if someonelight me up with a k girl pie.
That's a dream. That's a dream. Well, I'm telling you right
(29:07):
now, uh well, talking toyou about this, like I'm like,
wait a minute. What like theamount of times I've said, wait a
minute, what we're what we're goingthrough? This has been uh you know,
more than I ever thought I would. So yeah, man, ticket
tickets are up, I think,and I think we're ready to rock and
right even now, I mean likeit's like the most amazing show on Earth
(29:29):
right now. So uh yeah,all right, So for those for those
out there, Will Ferrell's Ultimate DJHouse Party, it's gonna be in Chicago's
wind Trust Arena. That is wherethe sky play and that's where we have
a lot of cool things here inChicago. And that'll be the sight of
Will Ferrell. And also I gotDJ White Shadow and a bunch of other
and Swedish house Mafia and a bunchof other cool people. Maybe somebody will
(29:52):
throw some sort of food at mebecause I plan on being there. Okay,
let's throw some bargament satch you,because that is the name of the
game, first and foremost. Aswe dip into the argument, since you're
working with Will Ferrell, what isthe greatest Will Ferrell movie of all time?
Oh? Man, that's that's toughone. I'm good. I'm gonna
(30:14):
say Anchorman probably. I mean,I can't even imagine how many times that
is an amazing movie. An amazingmovie. Yes, Joey Jojo, which
one is yours? Yeah, ithas to be Anchorman. Just that kind
of just changed, I mean everything. So yeah, I will say Anchorman
is something that I probably quote almoston a daily basis, which is kind
(30:37):
of scary. But for me,there's it's hard because there's two For me
that I would go with. Numberone would always be elf during the Christmas
holiday because my son was I waslike a good segue and like, this
guy's funny. Let's watch at leastone full you know, Will Ferrell movie
during the season. But for me, I love Step Brothers the most.
I feel like, even though asit's as big as it's still an underrated
(30:59):
movie. It didn't have any bizazzto him. It was just ridiculous humor
from two guys and John c Ridley'sthe Chicago guy. He went to high
school right where, like ten feetfrom where I used to live, so
and I've met him a bunch oftimes. He's one of the nicest guys
I've ever met. And I canwatch that movie over and over and over
again and picking up something I hadn'tseen before on another time that I've watched
(31:21):
it, So I can do stepBrothers every day of the week. Great
movie. All right, Since youare a DJ, what is the most
annoying fan habit somebody could do ata concert? Oh? Man, you
know, people chuck and this isnew to me, but like people chucking
(31:41):
stuff at the artists are jumping onstage. Yes, Like I have no
sympathy at all for how those peopleare handled by security. Like when somebody
runs up on stage and gets whackedin the face or thrown off the stage.
Like I'm just like, good foryou, And I'm a pretty sympathetic.
But that's insane to me. Youdeserve to be Yeah, because I
(32:07):
actually feel bad because you see alot of artists they're performing, and I've
seen a bunch of social media videoslike this where an artist is performing.
Also, something get clogged in thenose of the phone. Somebody clowed me
in the nose of the phone.Even if I wasn't working, I would
be one angry person in real life. Yeah, what do you what are
you even doing there? What areyou doing there? If you're checking the
phone? If the person that's singing, somebody drag you along and all of
(32:29):
a sudden you don't like the songsyou're hearing, Like just leave. I
agree, mine my number one thing. And it's it'll never go away,
and it's only getting worse. Thecell phones people need to record and like
there should not be And he's like, like, what comedians, the big
enough comedians, you should have toput your cell phone in something. Nobody
(32:52):
online wants to see your videos.Nobody's sitting there going ooh, let me
hear seven seconds of you know ofyou know me a river from justin Timberlake.
Nobody needs to do that. Like, just enjoy the concert. You're
there, you're paid for the tickets. Stop filming it. Nobody wants to
see unless you're the actual person hiredby an artist to record the concert and
(33:15):
put it on YouTube or do whateverit is to to to generate something.
If it's just some person getting eightseconds of Elton John. I want no
part of it. Yeah, you'rejust hearing people scream WU the whole time.
Yes, can you hear the song? But a lad? I mean
for me, it's like I mean, because sometimes you're blocked by really tall
people and there's there's nothing you cando about that. Sometimes there's there's a
(33:37):
seven foot in front of you.But it's even worse. Well that seven
footer has got his nine foot armstretched out with a phone going stare with
Heaven at the side of that song, you know what I mean, Like,
dude, you're already too tall,but I got to look through the
uprights of your arms. I don'tlike that. I'm not a fan of
that. Yeah, I hear youall right? And socially sendible to eat
(34:00):
food once a concert starts or doyou have to? Is that something you
should be doing before or after ashow? Once when the show starts?
Should you be eating? Oh?Man, I don't know. I don't
ever. I would never eat ata concert, you know what I mean?
(34:21):
Like I personally, Like personally,I would never eat like at a
show. I'm too I'm too ifI go to a show, like I'm
too invested in like what's happening inthe show to like want to grab a
bite of a hot dog. However, if I see somebody eating a hot
dog, I wouldn't be like superupset about it, because sometimes people need
(34:43):
a hot dog and you can't timeit out right, So I wouldn't be.
I wouldn't be. I wouldn't beupset with somebody else doing it,
but like I wouldn't do it myself, just because that's just whatever, what
that's just give you a non answer, that's okay post show post concert for
even there are this or the fangoers out there post huge show, You're
you're having a great time. What'sthe food? What's your number one food
(35:07):
to go for afterwards? We're allhungry? Where are we going? Oh
man, what is the best?What is the best food to eat after
a show? Post to post ashow, post show grub session? What
are we eating? I guess Iguess, like, no, you're like
digging into my head here and Iguess that, like maybe I just don't
(35:29):
eat when I go to a concert. Like I'm trying to really think in
my head, like if I ifI like eat before, I like probably
go to the dinner before and thenjust don't eat the rest of the night.
My my, that's how you're soskinny. That's how you're so skinny.
That's never seen you as I maybeI was gonna say my first reaction
was what baka soda? Like thatwould be my first reaction of what to
(35:50):
eat after a concert? That's evenbetter? What's the what's the best post
drink after you've done a set?I mean anything? I feel like I
feel like a good concert when you'redone with it, Like you're just like
relishing in the in the in thewonder of like what just happened? You
know what I mean, you're talkingabout it? So anything anywhere you can
(36:12):
go and commissary. But I don'tthink I go eat after a show either.
Usually go to a bar. Maybemaybe grab a Tomali off of a
cart like on the Wows. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't.
I don't eat a ton. Well, if you're if you're looking for the
car, if you're looking for thecorrect answer, it is a burrito.
By the way, I was lookingfor a real answer. And if you're
(36:35):
gonna do it, burrito has neverI've never got home after a show,
a concert and the ball game andwent the burrito is a mistake, But
there's a correct answer. Yeah,that one is. Because sometimes I'll be
like, the burrito is the bestpart of that show. That was not
a good show, and I reallyenjoyed that burrito guy was hammering those things
out so fast it could have beenthe great show. That was the best
part of it though. All Right, DG, what shadow question? Is
(37:00):
there a white Whale? Is therean artist that you've always wanted to work
with? Is there a Shaquille O'Nealon the Rising? Is there other celebrity
DJs that you want to work with? Is there a person you want to
mark off before you say, youknow what, I'm done with this whole
kind of DJing stuff. I wantto kind of enjoy myself. Man,
some days I wake up every morningand say I'm done with this DJ stuff.
(37:22):
I want to enjoy myself. ButI kind of other days I enjoy
myself every day. Anyway, There'snot really like a list that they like
to check off. There's certain peoplethat like. The people that I like
that I would like to work withare probably like my heroes when I was
a kid, you know what Imean. Like it's like more like I
would love to sit down with craftwork and figure out what they were talking
(37:45):
about, or like sit down withlike you know, I don't know whoever
and just be like, hey,what were you thinking when you made this?
Like how did this work? Igot to eat lunch with Giorgio or
Moroder once and uh, that's cool. It was like something that was supposed
to last an hour, and Ithink we sat there for like six hours,
(38:05):
like just talking about like music andwhat music was like then and like
how that was. And I think, like that's like the that's the dream
for me is to figure out howto have an intelligent conversation with people that
I respect and admire and trying tosoak up some of that game, if
you will, and and and youknow, kind of apply it to what
(38:28):
I do on a daily basis.So it's not so much people to work
with. I want to work withanybody who I like. I feel like
we can have some sort of jointyou know, experience in putting something out.
You gotta give it, you gottagive you, you gotta give you
one name, one name of aperson, like like you know what this
(38:49):
will be my my, my,my, uh my, holy grail of
a person, even dead or alive. Is there one person like this would
be amazing to make one track sittingroom with this person? Who is that
person? Honestly, I think that, like if I had to like pick
somebody like right now today, thefirst person that came to my mind was
like the guys from Justice, theband Justice. I think I think that
(39:13):
they do some really cool stuff andthey're always innovating and and their sound is
like pretty permanent, and they stickto it and they're able to do it
over and over again and that doesn'treally get old, which I think is
admirable. So yeah, but Imean a lot of guys that I wanted
to work with, you know,too Short or Big Daddy Kane or are
(39:34):
like guys that I loved when Iwas a kid, Like I have had
a chance. And let me tellyou, it doesn't disappoint when you meet
people that you that you admire andyou admire their music, it's never disappointing.
Very cool. Well, Joe Jattle, I can talk to you forever.
Man. You're you're seeing the reallycool guy and I'm just happy to
meet you and I'm glad you cameon the podcast. Thanks for taking some
time out. Oh no worries.Dan, thank you guys for having me,
(39:58):
Thanks Joe for having me, andyeah, make get out there and
get these tickets. Man it fora good cause. I really appreciate you
guys pumping that up. It's goingto be a super fun party and Will
such a great guy, and everybody'sgonna laugh and have fun, walk out
of their smile and get in aburrito or whatever they're doing where it's correct
answer. He is DJ White Shadowif you want to follow him, he's
(40:20):
a great follow on Instagram, adat DJWS and once again the event Will
Ferrell. It is going to behis ultimate DJ house party benefiting Cancer for
College at the wind Trust Arena Octobertwenty six, twenty twenty four. Go
to ticketmaster dot com and purchase thosetickets. They are on sale right now.
Once again for Joe Kelly. Myname is Dan Levy. You've been
listening to Arguments and if you're outand about and you having to hear this
(40:44):
podcast, love it. Please giveit a five star. I will let
it and write a review to thatactually helps all right tunes by the way,
and please share it to whomever youthink would be a like minded person.
And if you have a bargament youwant to share with us or want
to jump in on some we havea Facebook group called Bargament's Podcast and that's
where we get a lot of thisstuff. And if you have any of
you want to submit, to dothis over there once again. For Joe
(41:04):
Kelly, my name is Dan Levy. This is arguments. We'll do it
against him. Take care, everybody,
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