EDM : Tommie Sunshine kicked off decks: “Everyone is now an expert of this music”

In amongst all the great parties going on out there, 2012 has had its share of stories involving DJs unceremoniously booted from the booth (followed by said DJ venting in a Tweet/blog post/interview). The most-quoted reason: the set wasn’t working for the bottle-service crowd. The latest incident happened to New York club stalwart Tommie Sunshine, who recounted his story to Vibe.com. Tommie was kicked off the decks at NYC’s W.i.P last Saturday 8 December for playing “too hard” – even though, as he told Vibe, his set included “Swedish House Mafia, a Ke$ha remix, the Pitbull track in the new Bud Light commercial, Avicii [and] some fun bootlegs.”

“A bit past halfway into my set I was informed that I was being taken off the decks while standing with Askay from MTV & my booking agent Cody from AM Only,” Tommie recounted. “We all had a good laugh about it because everyone is now an expert of this music, especially the ones who pay BIG $ to consume it. Not to mention the clowns who supposedly ‘run’ clubs.”

Later in the story, he added: “Basically their #1 priority is their ‘clients’ who spend money in bottle service & what they say dictates the music direction. The DJs who have to play to people who act this way don’t deserve this kind of abuse. Not only will I never play there again but they have a huge mountain to climb for pissing off AM Only who sent them both Skrillex & Wolfgang Gartner for shows there & now they pretty much spit in my & my agent’s faces.” You can head to Vibe for the full story from Tommie, and the response from a representative for W.i.P’s owner.

Moderating the panel ‘United States Of EDM’ at the 2012 Amsterdam Dance Event, which inthemix covered in-depth, Tommie Sunshine was positive about the current Stateside boom. “I’m excited about some kid in Middle America hearing a David Guetta record and going, ‘Oh god, fuck this’,” he told the room. “And then buying a synthesiser in a punk reaction, and deciding they’re gonna make music instead. That’s the music I want to hear. That’s how this is going to evolve.

“I came into this as a kid from Chicago who loved music; I never thought I’d be in Holland pontificating on where I thought the music was going. But anyone who loves this music is all already on the best side of culture, because we actually know how to have a good time. The rest of the world is trying to figure out what we already know.”