Discover the story behind Cody Chase, one of the most sought-after DJs in the electronic dance music scene. Read our exclusive interview to learn about his journey to success and what drives him behind the decks
Cody Chase’s innate talent and powerful sound are set to reach new heights for the talented artist. His highly-energetic live performances and live mixing skills are proof of why his name deserves to be on the list of DJs to follow.
With impressive releases on the pipeline, Cody Chase getting ready to conquer new dance floors all over the world. This time, we invited him to talk about his experience behind the mixing decks, his memories of the first gigs he played at, and the biggest lessons he’s learned while performing live.
HI CODY CHASE! HOW ARE YOU?
Hey guys! I’m doing fantastic. I’m writing to you from an unusually cold beach in sunny South Florida!
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE? WHERE WAS IT AND HOW DID IT GO?
My first live performance was in 2007 for a friend’s younger sister’s sweet 16 after-parties. And ooh boy did it not go well... In fact, I think that gig may have proven Murphy’s Law exists. I’ve always played Dance music, and my friend and his sister loved it. However, her obnoxious high school friends did not. Nor did they have any qualms about letting me know they would much prefer to listen to Hip Hop or whatever Top 40 bullshit was out on the radio at the time. To compound that nightmare, I blew the speakers about 30 minutes into the performance. Those speakers belonged to a brand new and very expensive surround sound system my friend’s parents had just bought. I would have been livid myself. Lesson learned, only play parties that actually want to listen to the type of music that you play, and don’t use the brand new stereo system if you don’t know about pushing levels yet.
The year was 2009. My first real gig was playing the basement at Pacha in NYC. I was insanely nervous. It was my first time DJing in front of people and it was on the biggest stage I could have played at the time. It was the equivalent of getting drafted in baseball and going straight into playing AAA ball. I was given the prime time slot, 12-130 and I did my best to take full advantage.
I brought in my own CDJ900s because they were superior to the CDJ1000mk2’s that only played CDs. With my own musical weapons at hand, I started off slow with Progressive House and built up the vibe to Electro House (two of the popular genres at the time). By about 1 AM the room was buzzing. I had the basement totally packed full of people. My manager at the time even came down to tell me he was hearing that the basement DJ was slaying and that people were leaving the main floor to come down and listen. I was on a complete and total high. I look up and see the crowd make space for a dance circle. These people were getting down. And then boom, in a matter of an instant, my vibe was totally killed. Some guy had danced so hard he collapsed. He was on the ground, out like a light. He may have suffered from over-indulgence. I would say that the vibe was totally gone when the FDNY rolled out of the elevator with a stretcher and wheeled his ass out.
The TLDR, I slayed so hard, I broke someone who was dancing and it killed my party. That is a memory I will never forget.
WHAT’S THE USUAL ROUTINE YOU FOLLOW TO GET READY FOR A LIVE SHOW?
I take two alphabrain nootropics from Onnit. I drink a Redbull for the sugar, the taurine and caffeine, but mainly because I love how it tastes. I will likely take a puff of the vitamins T, H & C. With 5 minutes to show time I try and close my eyes, feel the party going on around me and hone in. On more than one occasion, I did puke within like 5 minutes before getting on stage.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A TRACK TO ADD IT TO A LIVE SET?
Motherfucking basslines.
HOW DO YOU READ AN AUDIENCE AND HOW DID YOU LEARN TO DO IT?
Vibes become palpable at scale. Are the parties heads up and looking at you? Are their eyes closed? Most importantly are they dancing and moving? Are they whistling and cat calling? Or are they talking to friends, not paying attention? Read the audience right and you can take them into a collective trance, one with the rave.Reading an audience is one part staying in the moment and another part, preparation. You must take notice of the above. At a certain point, you feel them feeling you and your vibe. The other side is preparation. You can’t come with just heat, you must also come with the correct heat. Don’t play Dubstep at a Deep House party. You must also be adaptable. In the rare circumstance that your night’s playlist doesn’t hit, you better have an arsenal of different vibes you can mix into to find the right vibe.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT MIXING LIVE?
Besides my wife and my soon-to-be-born son, mixing live is my favorite thing to do on the planet. I LIVE FOR IT.
When I mix, I play with 4 decks. I’ve spent many years and countless hours honing my skills to be able to balance 4 tracks at once. Doing so allows me to create in-the-moment unique mixes that I, nor likely anyone else would ever play or hear again. The kick bass from one track, the tops from a second, a synth or melody from a third and vocals over top from a fourth decks allows me to mix and match tracks with ultimate freedom.
But most of all, I love when I can take the audience away and transport them into another dimension, where time changes pace, and you get lost in the lights and sounds for tensions and drops that make you want to get the fuck down.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IT’S THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED IN YOUR TIME PERFORMING LIVE?
They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Do everything in your power to be as prepared for your show as you can. Find the newest unheard heaters and get ready to slay. However, always be fluid and read the crowd. Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Be prepared to throw all of your preparation out the window and go off the cuff.
WHAT’S THE FUNNIEST OR MOST EXCITING STORY YOU HAVE INVOLVING A LIVE SHOW?
The wildest party I have ever been a part of was one that took place in New Brunswick, NJ at Rutgers University, when a friend (and the president of the fraternity) said ‘we want you to come in, partner with us and throw a party as wild as you can make it’. He also happened to say that I would have a $2500 budget to play with and anything we made over that would be mine to keep. He told me to go nuts and do what I wanted. So we set the pricing at $20 per guy, and women entered for free.
So what would any 20-year-old college student do? I rented the biggest sound system I could find, and talked the rental company into giving us lighting for free, and set it up on a stage at the front of the main room. We moved all the furniture out of the house’s main room (which was probably 80’x40’) creating a giant dance floor and room for 4-500 people.
We built a bar that served beer & tequila shots. We also made a super large batch of jungle juice featuring ‘rave vitamins’. And of course once the partiers learned of this, the beer and tequila were quickly forgotten.
By about 10 PM, the house was packed with 500 people. By 11 PM, the party was really getting going. By 12 AM, I took my shirt off while DJing, which was soon followed by the partiers, guys and girls. Sometime around 12:30 AM, I went crowd surfing. By 1 AM as we were approaching the start of a “Project X” situation, people were spilling out onto the front lawn, and the cops came in and shut us down. All in all, we took over that college town that night, made about $5K, and had one of the wildest nights ever.
WHICH NEW SKILLS OR GEAR WOULD YOU LIKE TO INCORPORATE IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
I recently acquired a Roland TR-8S to use in conjunction with my Pioneer DJS1000 and my Roland TB-3 for more use in live performances during my DJ sets. With all of the midi and audio routing figured out, now I just need to spend time practicing and getting my playing chops sharp enough to do it in front of people. Cody Chase shows about to get wild.
WHAT PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A DJ THAT’S STARTING THEIR LIVE PERFORMANCE JOURNEY?
Be prepared but be flexible. Not everything is going to go your way all the time. Sometimes, early on, your music selection sucks, so be prepared to switch it up. Don’t sweat the small stuff either. You will f*ck up your transitions, but like any good musician, don’t wear the mistake on your face. Correct it as best you can and move on. Most won’t notice until you tell them, too.