Producer. Remixer. Dj. Paul Antoni slips and slides through Seoul’s burgeoning electronic music scene bent on banging beats to make the body move. A Chicagoan by birth he’s traveled the world and landed here in Seoul, South Korea.
For folks not familiar with your music, how would you describe it?
Good question Brian. I produce mainly House, Electro House, and Tech-Deep House for EMW. Privately, I produce more conventional styles for films, commercials, etc.
Tell me about your craft. When did you first start mixing music? Do you mix as well as create your own beats?
I am forever indebted to Sony for having developed a simple machine called “My First Sony Cassette Player TCM 400” that changed my life forever. At 6 years old I found unending amusement and joy from capturing ANY sound by way of a simple microphone and then “cutting” or “mixing” sounds on cassette tapes. Thus started my love affair with sound and later music.
And YES! I do indeed love to make my own beats. Actually percussion is my forte. I do not use drum samples, it is fun for me to play the drums. I do not want someone else to have all the fun! No offense to other artists who use samples, just for me it feels good to do it myself.
What inspires you as an artist?
Everything. Usually people or other producers. Sometimes animals. Sometimes funny children. Sometimes children are like funny animals. Often the mere exploration of naturally occurring phenomenen of noises and voices. When lucky, supernatural events.
One example, last week I woke up to the sound of rain. I sat alone in my apt in total bliss, all day, looking at and listening to rain then I started work on my new track.
Has living in South Korea affected your creative process? What are the highs and lows of working in a foreign land as an artist?
For creativity, no change. However, the English-Korean language barrier is substantial and I am forever grateful to Max Jang at EMW and my DJ team KAI for helping me in this linguistic jungle in which I so often find myself lost. The high side includes the absence of a drug/gang/violent culture. Which I enjoy very much.
What is it like when you’re up on stage and the crowds’ moving to your music?
When people are REALLY moving, I mean eyes closed with hands in the air and truly in the “T” as I call it, intoxicated or not, is a feeling of indescribable happiness and gratitude. The “T” stands for time. When people are in the “T”. There ain’t no better place to be than in the “T”.
What’s been your most fulfilling gig so far?
There was one time I played in a tiny town outside Boston where a little girl maybe 8 years old had come to eat pizza with her dad. Her father told me she had never heard live music before. I will never forget the look in her eyes. I felt the same way when I saw Aerosmith, or when I went to my first rave. Just the sheer sonic quality equalled seeing light for the first time, or tasting my first taco. There are few things in the world so pure and beautiful. When I play, I never know all the people listening so I always perform as best I can.
How can people discover your past work and what projects are you working on currently?
Well how far do we want to go back and how much can people tolerate? LOL Also, I would rather people didn’t go back! We are talking open mic nights when I was 13? Or how about my first “talent show” where my amplifier went crazy with negative feedback and I nearly cried like a baby! Or perhaps when I painted my face white and bloody with a horror punk rock band, The Dishwashers from Kentucky! Or better yet, the indie dance group The Dance-tigators in which we all wore neon nylon exercise suits purchased from the local thrift shop! I was seriously promiscuous when it came to joining bands and collaborating. My answer to join in groups was always, “Yeah! Let’s do it!” Then as time went by and I met new groups, I would tell the old groups, “Hey, this isn’t working out.” Such is life!
These days I am still musically promiscuous, but I keep my adventures private and remain anonymous. I realized that the “public” appreciates conventional tastes, so I keep my public profiles consistent, mainly EDM these days. I am involved in numerous projects doing remixes for other artists and bands. Also, I am the main producer for my DJ team KAI based in Seoul where I mostly help to make edits and mash-ups of other artists tracks to give people in clubs variation in DJ sets.
Finally, what would I find on your MP3 player?
Nothing. I keep no music on my iPhone. I almost never listen to music outside. Instead, a better question would be “Who am I loading into my Rekordbox?” For most DJs, Rekordbox is the standard computer program used to analyze and organize music for use on top clubs’ mixers and turntables (common ones being the Pioneer CDJ 2000 and Pioneer CDM 800) By the time anyone reads this, the songs or artists I am talking about here could be “old” because things move so quickly. However, a good place to start is on the charts, check out www.beatport.com to get an idea of who is producing quality tracks for multiple genres.
OK so I didn’t’ answer the question to your liking? LOL
I will give you the names of some up and coming artists and DJs I really enjoy! M3xline from Slovenia. Bass Farmers from Canada. SONNI from Spain. Kaffee McManna from Sweden. Corey Romero from Spain. And I always keep an ear to ground for locals like Steve Wu, Schedule 1 & Entrap Crew, FreakHouse, Shut Da Mouth, Soundfuze, Heeju Lee, Ferry, Justin Oh, Yann Cavaille, Julian Quintart, Aeglus, Massive Ditto, Mascota Blue, Koo, G-Tech, Beejay, and so many more in Korea.
