San Diego Pride is here, and there is no shortage of rallies, parties and events for everyone to take part in.
One of the parties is Circuit Daze Saturday, July 21. Beginning at 10 p.m. and finishing at 6 a.m. it is the only all-night event in the city. Circuit Daze takes place at 4th & B, 345 B Street in San Diego, and features Italian DJ Danny Verde, who has the distinction of being one of Lady Gaga’s official remixers.
Verde has made prior stops this year in both Los Angeles, at My House, and in San Francisco, at the famed Ruby Skye. He will be making his San Diego debut at 4th & B, and is looking forward to rounding out his California experience with this event.
His manager, George Dellinger, is responsible for his involvement in this year’s San Diego Pride because of his association with party producer Bill Hardt.
“Shortly after Pride last year, Bill called George and asked him if he had someone ‘new and fresh’ to change up Pride for 2012,” Verde said. “George told Bill all about me; what I was working on production-wise [and] sent Bill some of my podcasts, and all my most recent productions. I guess Bill loved what he heard. So really, I owe it to George and his great long relationship with Bill. Now I have to prove to him that he made the right choice!”
Verde was born and raised in Italy and has loved music from as early on as he can remember.
“I’ve always had a fascination for the history of music – rock and roll, music from the ‘60s and ‘70s – even though I was born much later in 1977,” he said. “I studied piano and singing, and in my teens I wanted to produce music. So I saved up my money, and started producing music at a rented studio in Milan. Eventually, I saved up enough working several different jobs [so] that I could afford to build my own home-studio. Long before I was spinning music, I was producing it for Italian dance labels.”
Verde admits that he loves seeing a huge response from his crowd and it’s what he strives for. “That response,” he said, “lets me know I’m doing a good job.”
He often plays mash-ups that he creates in his studio along with his own productions, giving the audience something he knows they have never heard before.
“If the crowd goes wild,” Verde said, “they’re doing it to material that is new to them. That’s what I love, an audience that is not afraid to express themselves at hearing new stuff. An audience that’s willing to go to an unfamiliar level and really love it. That is success.”
One of the things Verde never does is pick a playlist in advance. Everything he does is “on-the-spot”, and while he admits that he will think forever about what he will be opening with, at the last second he will always change his mind and do something unexpected. “It never fails,” Verde confessed, “I never open with what I’ve been thinking to open with.”
While Verde loves to DJ everywhere, he is very enthusiastic about one place in particular.
“Brazil, Brazil,” he said. “The crowd there is very sophisticated and progressive when it comes to music. They let their hair down and go wild. And the audience is often mixed – gay/straight – which I love. It makes for a wonderful vibe when everyone mixes together like that. Brazilians know how to party. Hello … carnival, samba!”
Verde’s plate is pretty full right now, and while he’s not too forthcoming about what projects he is working next he will admit that two of them are amazing artists and about as different from each other as one can get.
It also seems that Verde likes a challenge, and tries to not peg himself in any one particular hole by producing artists that have a wide range of musical styles. Much like Cyndi Lauper’s “Sex is in the Heels” and The Wanted’s “Chasing the Sun,” which are both big summer hits.
“Cyndi’s song came out in June,” Verde added. “Just in time for Pride, and seems to be really favored by the crowds. My manager, George, told me that he heard it played several times at Toronto Pride only one week after I played it at New York’s Alegria.”
While music is Verde’s life, he feels if he weren’t a musician he’d be a stand-up comic. He freely admits to being a cut-up and he loves to laugh and joke around; he’s not shy in the least.
“You know the image of a little angel on one shoulder, and devil on the other. I think that’s me.”
When asked what he’d like his audiences to take away with them Verde isn’t joking around, he speaks from his heart.
“I want them to feel that they are experiencing something for the first time,” he said. “I want them to leave joyful, and to feel that they’ve discovered something new and to look forward to our next time together. It’s wonderful making new friends with the crowd. That lasts forever, and it’s a gift that I don’t take for granted. Every time I play is an entirely different experience for me; that, I’m grateful for.”
