DJ REPORT
Danny Torrence
By: Miss Raquel & Jay Samsair
“Let her go. Let her go, man. Another Quaalude, she gonna love me again. What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of fuckin' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That the bad guy." So...what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide--how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Betta get outta his way!” Scarface
Scarface is one of Montreal’s eclectic DJs, Danny Torrence’s favourite flicks saying it’s, “one of the most entertaining movies of all time.” On his list are also Top Gun and Rainman. And he also reads Men’s Health and FHM much like he reads a crowd when playing. “I just like watching people dance. I like to get into people’s heads”.
And that Torrence has done, he has beat down his dancefloors for the past several years. He caught the DJ bug after visiting Ibiza. In 2004 he became resident at the infamous Stereo Nightclub in Montreal playing alongside beat masters, David Morales, Victor Calderone, Hector Romero and DJ Vibe. This is the venue where his bi-monthly Climaxxx takes place.
Climaxxx, which is one of Montreal’s most successful nights, and it has had Scenester writer, Jung Park penetrating it is Torrence’s baby. As you can tell from the name the underlying theme is sex with a sexy and dirty sound.
Danny has played at Montreal’s Bal en Blanc 2006 (White Party) and in Ibiza, Miami and Sicily, where he played alongside Paul Oakenfold, now he’s about to embark on Montreal Pride 2008 playing at the Tea Dance to 50, 000 people.
Amongst Danny’s inspirations is Grammy award winner David Morales. “He can play a track from 10-years ago and it’ll sound brand new. I love the quality of his work. He’s accomplished almost everything there is to as a DJ”.
Everyone always compares the Toronto and Montreal scenes and when asked Danny says, “I don’t think there’s much of a difference. The crowd here, at Fly is very receptive.” Yet he goes on to say that there’s, “not very many places left in Canada that play House”. How right he is and this is one major issue affecting our scene, the lack of venues and the support for it.
We asked Danny what he doesn’t like about the Canadian EMS; he took a breath and replied, “It’s not that I want to be politically correct. There’s not enough of a market, very competitive. When I started everyone went to the parties.”
As a DJ it comes a time when if staying in the music industry is the thing to do then producing is the next step and this is the plan for Danny. And with all the advancements which has come on strong within the industry such as using a laptop while playing, if you can afford it that is. Danny’s Mac is new so it still has a lot of life in her.
When playing he uses a laptop, “not to mix though,” he uses Tracker. Danny describes it by saying, “It takes a track and encodes it in a split second onto CD and plays it. For me the art of the turntable is gone. I used to spend a minimum of three to four hours burning and labeling CDs, instead of burning CDs, Tracker does it for you”.
And with all DJ Reports we have to ask what’s been the most interesting and/or bizarre thing that has happened while playing. For Danny it was, “This girl who wanted in the booth and asks, ‘can I stay?’ Not wanting to be rude I said, “yes.” Then she asks, ‘is this your headphones? I said yes and turned away. I turned back and she’s got my headphones on and is playing my vinyl! I told her to get out.
www.dannytorrence.com |
