Marshall Jones' Journey Through the Music Scene

In this episode of the Behind the Deck podcast, Tony Technique and Tim Piner welcome a special guest, Marshall Jones, an OG of the DJ scene. Marshall shares his fascinating journey into DJing, starting from his early exposure to music growing up in Durham, through his influential experiences in North Carolina, Orlando, and Chicago. He talks about significant events like the start of Sound Cartel, hosting iconic parties, and his involvement with Dance Gruv Radio. Marshall also offers valuable advice for new DJs and recounts memorable moments and venues that have shaped his illustrious career. Tune in for an inspiring conversation filled with history, insights, and passion for music.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:37 Introducing Marshall Jones
02:52 Marshall's Early Influences
04:34 Discovering the Club Scene
10:16 Starting as a DJ
16:59 Moving to Orlando
34:03 Chicago: The Learning Ground
36:57 Influences and Mentors
38:33 The Birth of Sound Cartel
39:27 Building the Scene in Chapel Hill
41:37 Durham's Gritty Music Scene
48:04 The Rise of Dance Groove Radio
55:48 Wave Parties and Future Plans
01:04:23 The Importance of Community and Humility

Creators and Guests

Host

Tim Piner

Host of the Vinyl Underground Podcast

Host

Tony Rivera

Built from the streets Specializing in Crowd Control

Guest

Marshall Jones

Marshall Jones began his journey in the electronic music scene in 1999, driven by a passion for dancing and nightlife. His deepening interest in electronic music led him to seek guidance from Hotwax Harley. Marshall and his BBoy/B-Girl dance crew promoted the Wednesday event Radiance, sparking his desire to become a DJ. His dedication and hard work earned him an internship at Ovum Recordings under Josh Wink and King Britt.

What is The Vinyl Underground?

Welcome to The Vinyl Underground, a podcast created by fans, for fans of electronic music in North Carolina. Hosted by Crowd Control, this show dives deep into the local and regional scenes across Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington.

Our first series, Behind the Decks, showcases the hottest emerging DJs—sharing their stories, musical styles, inspirations, and favorite dancefloor moments. Whether you're Gen Z discovering the scene or a seasoned Gen X raver revisiting your roots, The Vinyl Underground is where beats meet community.

Tune in, get inspired, and stay connected to the movement.

006 Vinyl Underground Marshall
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Tony: [00:00:00] Welcome back Party people to the Behind the Deck podcast.

Where Beats Meet community. My name is Tony Technique here, my man, Tim Pen. Up, up. And today we have a very special guest. Sure

Tim: do.

Tony: OG of the scene to us.

Tim: I mean, he sure is, man. It's an honor to have Marshall Jones with us. Uh, I've known him for a minute. Um, wish I knew him sooner. 'cause he is, he's been doing cool shit for a long time.

Tony: Oh yeah. He's so we're grateful to have him, man, about town. Right. Indeed. He's things going on. Indeed. He's the

Tim: hardest working guy, man. That I know,

Tony: knows all the history about the scene. He

Tim: [00:01:00] does. He does. He's, uh, I mean his, his resume, um, all the things he's done locally. Before I knew him. Yeah. Uh, all over the country, man.

He's, he is a special talent and brings a lot of great, yeah. Great acts here.

Tony: Well, I'm, I'm anxious to, to see what he got to say, man. Me too. Me too. So without that, guys, let's get right into the show.

Thank you Marshall Jones for joining us today on our podcast. You know. It's been a while since we wanted to really get you here. Yeah. And I know we had some, uh, back and forth.

We were like, ah, maybe next month. All right, I'll come back to you finally had a reel in and shit. I'm be like, I'm get my man in here. Like, yeah, I'll [00:02:00] be there.

Marshall: Yeah. I mean, you know, it, it's, it's life, you know, work gigs, all that stuff, you know, it's, everything gets in the way. Exactly. Yeah. Life indeed.

Tony: Life happens.

Life happens. That's what I tell people. I say, I might not, you know, reply to you like today or tomorrow, maybe even the day after, but I'll get back.

Marshall: Yeah. Things are doing the things and life is life, and so that's, I'm like, concur, you see me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tony: And that's, that's the thing, man. You know, we're all, you know, grown men and I know that you've been.

Doing your thing for quite a while, while right now and, um, you know, things happen. People get busy, you know? Mm-hmm. And, um, I know you've been doing your thing for quite a while. I know. Shoot, as far as I can remember, Tim has mentioned, um, you were doing parties back in Mosaic. Yeah. In the Raleigh scene.

Good era. And, uh, but what, what, um, hey, let's, let's know a little bit about Marshall, man. Well, how do you even got into DJing then?

Marshall: Um, so, you know, growing up in Durham, you know what I'm saying, and, [00:03:00] you know, going up top during the summers, coming back down, like I was always exposed to music, right? My parents, you know.

They, they always had big music collections. Um, I distinctively remember being young and like my dad, my mom, they had their like adult like hangout rooms. So it's like, you know, the little bar? Mm-hmm. And it was like the car tables and it was like, you know, everybody goes there and hang out like we do now.

Right? Yeah. Yep. And I just remember they would play music. My dad and my mom had like. All these vinyl records and all these tapes and all these eight tracks. And I would just sit there and I remember covers of albums. Like I definitely distinctly remember Rick James. Mm-hmm. You know, like standing under that light post.

I remember that. And um, so I just always was music head. Um, as I grew up, my sister and brother and my brother worked for Def Jam for a while. Um, so he was into hip hop real heavy. And also me, obviously, um, my sister, she was kind of like, you know, whatever was clever. Mm-hmm. Um, [00:04:00] but I distinctively remember her watching, um, club MTV all the time.

Mm-hmm. So downtown Judy Brown. So y'all know what that is, you know, for these, you know, young kids shout out to the Gen X crowd. Yeah. Right. Hurry reality shows. Yeah. Right. Um, so there was always this like. You know, in, in, in the streets, you know, hip hop, you gotta be tough, yada yada, yada. But I always knew all the music and like club music was kind of like, I saw videos, you know, because video vibrational, BET mm-hmm.

Club, MTV, um, you know, so I would see these things. Um, I remember when I first saw Jamiroquai, um, space Cowboy David Morales remix on the video, and I was like, oh. And then as I got older, like into my later teens, I remember MTV Grind and the first season of that was David Morales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, before Scribbles Whack Self got on there.

But that's a whole thing. So anyway, David Morales, I just remember him playing bucket heads and I was like, what is that? Mm-hmm. But [00:05:00] again, I didn't understand, but all of a sudden, you know, you, you're late teens doing knucklehead things and I wanna stop doing knucklehead things with knucklehead people. So I was like, all right, well, you know, let me figure this out.

So I was working at Durham Pizza. This guy, he worked there for one week. His name is DJ Nugs. And shout out to my man, nugg n Love that guy. Shout out to my man. Nugs. What a special guy. Um, he gave me a flyer and he was like, yo, I think this will change your life. You should probably check it out one day. Oh.

I was like, whatever. You know what I mean? Like, all right, cool. I'll take it. Whatever you're that you're that dude that's kind of like a little weird in back, but whatever. Right. Well, sure enough, I'm graduating, you know, 'cause I had to like do some extra classes. I had to go to night school 'cause I was, you know, messing around and one taking thing serious.

And finally night of graduating from high school, we was at the Marriott and it was like project grad. And I'm like, I hate all these people in here. Why? Why am I in [00:06:00] here? Mm-hmm. So I was like, I'm gonna go to the car. So I went to the car and you know, I opened up the glove compartment and this thing just falls out.

It was the flyer.

Tony: Nice.

Marshall: And I was like, oh, radiance Wednesday night, Gotham. Chapel Hill. All right, let's go. What else I wanna do? That was the start. Wow. And so I went there, it was packed. Um, nobody cared who you were. Mm-hmm. Right. Music thumping. I'm like, Hmm, okay. So I was comfortable with that. A lot of that stuff I was hearing, I was like, yo, why do I recognize some of this stuff?

And it was like, oh, I'm hearing the things that my friend showed me on MTV's Amp. Hmm. Yep. Oh, okay. Maybe I should check this out more. So then every Wednesday I was there religiously. Wow. $4, boom. It's packed on a Wednesday night every week. Mm-hmm. And when I say every week, I'm talking every week. Wow. Damn.

Chapel Hill packed. [00:07:00] 250 people to the brim. Holy shit. That was that year

Tim: again.

Marshall: That was like 99. Damn. Late 99. And it was packed to the brim. Oh, I wish

Tim: I have

Marshall: known about that back then. Like I was here. It was wild. And um. You know, so then there was like the L-G-B-T-Q night. Um, and so the main DJ who was the, the, like the guy who organized a lot of stuff, hot wax Harley, he had like the L-G-B-T-Q night.

So I started going to that because it was like they still playing club music. Mm-hmm. Is still banging. Yep. Right. Playing like Bobs and CL edits and I'm like, yo. Mm-hmm. Nice. So I'm like, okay, something about this. Something's going on. Well I used to be a B-boy, so I was like, all right, well I'm gonna start hanging out Wednesday night.

So I started break dancing, hanging out. So I know it, I made a group 'cause that's how it goes, you know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. And next thing you know, like it is B boys and B girls. And next thing you know that main DJ was like, I want you guys to promote for the club. We, we will pay [00:08:00] your expenses to go and give out flyers.

Okay. For the record people, this is not Instagram days. We're not doing the whole and just put it online. No, this was like, right. You got a box of 300. It's too easy nowadays. Way too easy stick. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Hit the road and get a

Tony: routine. Yo,

Marshall: you got to get that box of 3000 flyers. Yeah.

You go hit every record store, every spot that sold, rape, clothes, whatever. You know my man,

Tony: my man who, who's like, I'm gonna shout out my man shampoo. I don't know if he's gonna wash this, but my man shampoo, he works with Jam. That's cool already. He's like, yo, he's the street team guy for Def Jam and up in New York for the hip hop.

But that, that's how they

Marshall: used to do it. That's it. That's how you, you shout out to DMC on Def Jam. I mean, yo, you know what I'm saying? Because that's what you did. You got in that parking lot and there was a big rave where it's like a thousand people you got in that parking lot. You, you flyer bombed.

Let's go. Yep. Yep. You two take this wing. We take this wing. That's awesome. We meet back in the front mm-hmm. To divide and conquer. So that's what we did. But we also were all very good at like break dancing. Right. So people started [00:09:00] recognizing us because of the recognition of that club. And that night they had ties to one of the biggest promoters in the southeast region called Liquified Universe.

So we would go to Tabernacle in Atlanta, we would go to the Nike training center, we would go down to, um, the Charlotte Hornets training center when they were doing these parties called Flavor. Um, it, it was just massive. Mm-hmm. And then we started going to Buzz, which was at Nations in dc. It's no longer there, but it was on half street.

And then from there we would like, you know, we'd be up all night. So we would leave nations at like five, and then we're going over to Baltimore for the honeycomb parties. And that was Charles Feelgood. And so Scott Henry knew Charles. So we would get in for free. Whole thing. Whole chaotic thing. Right. But from there I was like, starting to get that itch.

Mm. And I'm like, yeah, this, this ain't doing it like it was. Yeah. Like I want to, I wanna start seeing what's the, what's the magic here? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I understand turntable is, and [00:10:00] DJing, because I grew up hip hop scene, I understand how prominent the DJ is, understand who he is, you know, the significance of him or her understand that the selector.

Exactly. So I'm like, all right, let's do it. So I went to the guy and I was like, Hey, I wanna learn. He was like, okay, stick around. So started coming there, cleaning up the club before it starts. You gotta pay your dues, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. So I would help clean the club. I didn't have a record bag. I bought a couple of records.

I would carry them riding the bus, you know what I mean? And like that was it. They made you drag around the records, around the, I mean, well, no, it was just like, you know, I had my own right, my own records and I didn't have a bag, so I had like a stack and that was it. You know, vinyls when you had to carry the vinyl.

Yeah. When you had vinyl, you didn't leave in the sun, you know? Um, but through that next thing you know, I started like getting the skills down packed. Started working with different people in the area that were a [00:11:00] part of the crew. And then, um, lo and behold, one night there was this DJ that was booked and his name was Nooks.

Wow. So, wow. This is like a year later. Circle back. No. What? And then like, he walks in and I'm like. And I was like, yo. And he's like, you made it. Tell, I been waiting for, you know, nugs. Yeah, man. And this, when he was playing breaks, man, he was, he was like the king around of Florida breaks, like you couldn't touch nugs Holy Florida breaks.

Yeah. And so, um, yeah. And after that I started learning from him. And then, uh, slipstream, who is like one of the best atmospheric drummer, bass DJs, I would say for me in the state. He taught me some stuff. So I was learning how to figure out the beat matching, but I didn't know what I was going to play background though.

I was feeling this like just four to the floor. Mm-hmm. Like, house is familiar, but I was like, I like that heart edge. And I [00:12:00] was like, this's, this guy I listen to named Frankie Bones, you know what I'm saying? Representing the bk. Mm-hmm. That's honing me. Right. So I was like, all right, that, that's, that's where I'm at.

Mm-hmm. So I started like getting techno records, but then how Harley was like, I'm playing in Atlanta. So this is around about 2000, this is probably like mid 2000. He was like, we got tickets to go. I'm playing at Liquefy University in Atlanta. You know, here's a flyer. So I tell all my friends, I'm like, oh my God, look, Josh Wink is playing.

Mm-hmm. And that's my other dude. Mm-hmm. And I was like, we, we gotta go. It's Josh Wink. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, so I go, lo and behold, I didn't know what was being set up. So Harley and them in Hypersonic, they love what I was doing. And Liquefy Universe, I knew some of them as I was doing some like small time promotions for them, I didn't know that they were setting me up to meet Josh Wink, because oum at that time was talking about building a street team.

[00:13:00] Right? Right. So we get to the venue, things are popping off, and they're like, all right, yo, like Harley's doing with his set, let's go over here. So I'm like, all right, bet. So we go over there. Main stage Josh Winks playing. It's about a thousand people up in. Like, they were like, yeah, just go over here. Just go over here.

So I was like over there and I'm like right by the stage, and like, Josh, this is when profound sounds, volume one was just like mm-hmm. Just coming out and boing. Yeah. And like, I never forget, like he was playing one of the tracks on there, it was DJ Dozi, um, God, what was that? DJ do the pop culture. And, um, just the way he was doing it.

And then like, he looks up and he is like, and I'm like talking to me and he's like, so then he's like, and so I like got a little closer and then like the person security was like, stand on the stair. He, he wants you to on the stair. And I was like, and he's like pointing and he's pointing out there and he's like, and I'm just like, dude, [00:14:00] this is surreal right now.

Wow. So after that, we go in the back, we're talking and like. You know, everybody's in there and like we're behind stage and like, there he is. And they all knew him from back and I'm like, freaking out. You know what I mean? Yeah. And he's like, Hey. And he, and I was like, uh, hey. And he was like, what's your name?

And I was like, I'm Marshall. He was like, I'm Josh, you know? And he just starts talking and he was like, Hey, well, um, I'm gonna have my friend Mike reach out to you. Uh, we're putting together a street team with like interns and you know, we want to try to get some music and flyers down in this area. Get records to people.

Is that something you wanna be a part of? And I was like, wow. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And that propelled me to like start DJing and practicing more. And then that took off to me, start playing gigs around town. Wow. Um, and start building my name. So like, that was ultimately the North Carolina start. And you know, just playing in like Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Greensboro, Charlotte.

That [00:15:00] was a start. Yeah.

Tony: And you were down in Orlando too. Did you get to play out, out there for, so yeah.

Marshall: Um, so. Round about 2002, I was like, okay, the RA vac had already passed. Um, if you don't know what the RA vac is, do your homework. Mm-hmm. Do your homework. Like I think there's a big problem with people get you, you straight, right?

Yeah. Get it, get it right. Yeah. Like, I think there's a lot of people who just don't understand the history of why it's important to like study this music and study where it's been. But RA Act passed, if you don't know, Raach was a Cinderella act that started in a lot of major Metropolis cities because, you know, at that time, 20, 20 and 60 minutes and Oh, your kids are ravers.

Yeah. And like everybody was like, you know, XCG, hb. And people were dying. Yeah. People were

Tony: dying.

Marshall: So next thing you know, there was like this big crackdown and all the major like clubs, Twilight, limelight, tunnel. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. You, they went in,

Tony: I mean, to, I, I mean I've been to Twilight a couple times, but I remember like not too far after they like raided it.

Yeah. I was like, I think I had left New York around that time, but

Marshall: mm-hmm. [00:16:00] Yeah. And so like. I was reading, like reading the magazines. 'cause again, we're talking predate social media. So there was magazines or magazine, accelerator, you name it. Mm-hmm. Mixed Mag. That's where Mixed Mag started. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I was like starting to see it happen here.

And the thing about North Carolina is there's a lot of farmland. So people, when they threw raves that weren't in clubs, it was somebody's granddad or grandparents or parents farmland, a couple acres. And we getting down, well, part of that rave act, the best parties

Tim: really,

Marshall: there was, and I, you know, in a weird way.

So the, the, the situation with that was all of a sudden, like if you did that and you got popped with a raid, like you are responsible for every single drug there. Yeah. So who's gonna risk their parents' land? Nobody. So scenes started drying up and I was like, you know what? I wanna take this further. I was like, I'm gonna go to school.

I, I'm, I'm tired of it here. I need to go and grow up, you know? Mm-hmm. So I was like, all right. Told my mom. [00:17:00] I was like, Hey, I'm moving to Orlando. She was like, I'm hanging. And I was like, yeah, I'm out in six months. Wow. Pretty independent already. I mean, yeah. Yeah. So I packed up my pet scorpions, packed up my turntables and my records.

My Always the pet Scorpion, sir. Yeah. That's a whole, we'll, we'll talk about that offline. Yeah. That's awesome. So, and I drove down to Orlando, um, and I went to Full Sail and that Orlando was where I was able to apply what I've learned. Um, the cool thing about Orlando was at that time, house music was still kind of like under the radar because breaks was really big.

Yeah. If you like breaks, you know, icy and Baby Ann. I see. Yeah. They ran Orlando and then you had the trans people who was like Sandra Collins, Kimball, Collins, Campbell. Oh, that, yeah. Man, that's Orlando, you know, and we're talking peak time, 2001. 2002. So it's, you know, it's, it's going on like this. So house was still kind underground.

Mm-hmm. [00:18:00] Um, so when I like was finding spots, people are like, oh yeah, there's house music here. And I'm like, oh, okay. And I go in and play breaks. I'm like, this is the house man. Yeah, this is, I'm like, okay, where's like the techno? Oh, there's techno here. And it's like, ber. And I'm like, yeah. Right. Heart of TRA and whatnot.

Yeah. 52 beats a minute, I dunno. Like that is, so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just stay indoors until I graduate and then we'll figure it out from there. So I would just like practice and, you know, and then I would just do my homework, you know? Mm-hmm. Once I graduated though, um, I found a spot called AKA lounge and um, I went in there and they were like playing like Miguel migs Cascade back.

Yeah. Old school Cascade. Right, right. Not this, whatever, right. But like San Francisco, like West coast house, um, they were playing like some Jack in, um, and it was just like,

Tony: mm-hmm. Oh, that's

Marshall: nice. Yeah.

Tony: Something different. Okay.

Marshall: This is what I know.

Tony: Yeah. Yeah. So I

Marshall: got in good with the crew there, kismet crew, and um, so they were like, oh, you play.

And so they were like, [00:19:00] oh, we have a radio station and we'll have you come play on there. I was like, okay, cool. So I go and play and they're like, what is this? Because. I'm coming from the north. Yeah. I'm bringing Chicago. I'm bringing that Philly. I'm we banging. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But we grooving and they were like, you're different.

Come run with us. And so that was my entrance Wow. Into Orlando. Um, and then just started playing gigs all over. And next thing you know, oum stopped their street team internship. They were like, but we don't want you to stop doing what you're doing, so we're gonna sign you to a company that we know out in Chicago and you know, we'll, we'll have them reach out to you.

So I was like, oh. So I, you know, kind of got down on myself. 'cause I was like, Ooh.

Tim: But when you say down, do you mean you were questioning your confidence or, um, what was the Well,

Marshall: I mean, when you have that big backing right? You're like, am I really living this good or am I that good [00:20:00] or am has this all been a dream?

Like now the internship's going away? That's all I've known. It's a healthy modesty though, right? So you stay humble in the game You do. Well, sure enough, I got an email. And it was like the CEO of large music, which is outta Chicago. And if you know large music, that's Roy Davis Jr. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's Mark Farina.

Miguel migs. Yeah. Mark Farina. That's like Far Grant. Dennis Ferre. Oh yeah. You name it. And, um, they were like legends right there. Hey, really?

Tim: Yeah.

Marshall: Uh, so Mike from OUM reached out to us, uh, you want to do this? And I'm like, absolutely. I'm playing your, so they were like, great, well, we're gonna send you some records and then, uh, we need you to meet us at Winter Music Conference in a couple of months because you're gonna help us put on our big party down there.

And I'm like, what? So I became the CEO's like right hand man when it came to like Miami stuff, but I didn't understand like, why. And then all of a sudden we were doing these parties at [00:21:00] Crooked Bayou, um, in Orlando, which was like the spot. And one night we had Mr. V. And there was a table that was kind of in the back because the place was small and there was this guy like sitting back there and everybody was crying around talking to him and like kind of, you know, pardoned, I'm kind of like looking and it's the guy he is like, that was Jas.

Mm-hmm. Ja runs Tampa, Hyde Park. So Ja is like, you know, jazz Ja is the man. Yeah. I didn't know that. He lived that close. Mm-hmm. So then we started talking. He was like, come to Hyde Park on Fridays and come hang out. Wow. So I would drive an hour to go to Tampa 'cause he would have like Andy Caldwell, he'll have Miguel Mix, Lisa Shaw, like any and everybody, Frankie Boise, like all these people.

And he was like, what? And I mean, it was like all the beautiful people. Right. You know what I mean? It was like one of those parties. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean that, that propelled me to start going to Miami and I started like getting any good there and I started doing shows down there too. And like even the off [00:22:00] season.

So it was, it was one of those times where things kind of lined up and being humble and doing the homework. Mm-hmm. Paid off. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Tim: So, so being the dishwasher at a kitchen and then you work up to manage when you, but you know, you, you really did though, you know, work, man.

Marshall: You know, it's, it, that's what I try to tell people, like, you gotta, like this whole, I don't know what's up with, with what's going on, on now Sometimes isn't enough.

It's not, not in the beginning at least. You gotta have that knowledge. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Read the manuscripts, pick the game. Like, I don't understand a lot of these DJs now, you know, they, they. Have like six months under their belt and they wanna be headlining your, your events. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Right. Like

Tony: it's weird and you gotta put some time in and get to know, get to read the room, get to know the crowd, get to get fine tune, fine tune yourself. But yeah, man, speak about that. I mean, what, what do you, what would you give new DJs? What kind of advice would you give new DJs? DJs coming out scene right now.

Hot Jones. Well, you know, I mean, hey, don't be fucking entitled. How about that out the gate? Pardon my French. I mean

Marshall: like, like bing bong. Let's get into it. Right? Let's, let's have a real conversation [00:23:00] about that. Um, here's one thing. If you have been playing less than six months, sit down and shut the fuck up.

Period. Don't have to. You're still pledging

Tim: the frat.

Marshall: Yeah. Like you, you what You're telling me that you play right now. You're not gonna sound like that a year and a half from now. That's true. Trust me. I guarantee you. Because you're just getting your feet wet. And the fact of the matter that these cats are coming out now thinking because they play on their twitch, your twitch crowd is not an in-person crowd.

Mm-hmm. You got to learn how to read a room. If you cannot handle an hour set without like, you know, playing at 140 BPMs and don't understand how to play from one 19 to 1 22, you got a problem. Mm-hmm. Because the thing is, you're so hyped up on, I'm gonna be a headliner. You forgot the most important set of the entire night is opening.

Mm-hmm. That is the most important set. You set the tone. Yep. That's chill. When people walk in, they're like, okay, walking around, gossiping, [00:24:00] this is chill. This is how's everybody, they want, you know, grab their first drink, say, what's up today? People talk about the week. Yep. So you've got all of that to work around.

Yeah. Then on top of that, you got the bartenders who's trying to stretch out 'cause they know it's gonna be a busy night. Mm-hmm. You gotta get their attention. Mm-hmm. So now you've got to build this room with layers. So how the hell you gonna make a cake without flour? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's important. Right.

And that's the problem. And then on top of that. Before you even get to that point, how the hell you gonna play this music and don't know the history of this music? Mm-hmm. Like, that's a problem to me. Mm-hmm. Like, you got people out here right now in North Carolina, in the triangle, you know who you are and they are tell, you know, oh yeah, well, you know I, I know a lot about music.

And then you look at their, like, their history of their catalog and it only goes back to like 2015. I'm like, dude, do you even get what? I'm like, have you [00:25:00] ever realized what disco is? Right. I wasn't around, you know, I wasn't a thought when Mass production came out with Cosmic Lust, that was 1976. My parents were still getting down.

Mm-hmm. But guess what? I could play that right now and blow up the room. Yeah,

Tim: yeah.

Marshall: Right. Because I'd done the homework. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like I try to tell people, do you even know why we even have this music? Right. They'll tell you, oh yeah, well, like wasn't there like a a, a disco demolition? Oh yeah. But do you even know why that happened?

That was part of it, really. It was a whole thing of that radio DJ actually being slightly racist and people were blowing up records and they were like, we don't wanna hear those black people said soul music. So let me get this straight. You're trying to tell me you're doing this and don't understand that this all came out of people not being able to afford.

Why do you think Boiler Room has its name? Why do you think people throw parties in basements? Because that's [00:26:00] where people, people couldn't go to Manhattan. Yeah.

Tony: If you were poor,

Marshall: it didn't matter what color you were. You can't get

Tony: in sudo 54 all the time. You, you had, you had to go do your own

Marshall: thing.

Exactly. Block parties, you wanna know why block parties happen. Yep. That's why they happened. Mm-hmm. Because people were impoverished. And guess what? They had what they call rent parties. That's where the block party came from. That's what Cool hurt came from. Yeah,

Tony: that's right. And I remember those things too.

Back in the days, man, we would have block parties. Somebody's house party, you know what I'm trying to say? And just crowded hot, you know, uh, uh, no ac all that stuff. It was the best it had to be.

Marshall: Yeah. So you, you can't tell me that you want to do this and don't have that type of knowledge. Like it helps.

Tony: Yeah. I mean, it does help with, with getting to understand what makes people want to party. Right. I mean, because, you know, you, you, you kind of have, all right, I'm just gonna go and play music, but you gotta read the B room. Right. And you gotta get the people moving.

Marshall: Yeah. Yeah.

Tony: Right. I mean, that's what it comes down to, no matter what you're gonna play.

I mean, if you start playing something, you switch it up. [00:27:00] Yeah. If it's not gonna be, you know what I'm saying? And most of that works, you go with that formula. Right. what do you do to prepare your sets?

Marshall: So, for me to prepare my sets, usually I, unbeknownst to some people, I'll go to the venue if it's, if I've never been to that venue and I don't go when it's a club night, if it's a bar or something like that, I go on a regular, regular night, a scouting mission.

Yep. Pat the lady in the car, let's go. We're gonna go grab a drink. Mm-hmm. She don't even know why we're going there.

Tim: Yeah.

Marshall: I just heard about the place. That's cool. And then what I do is I go in there, I look around, I'm like, okay. Alright. Check out that sound system if there's one that's, I can see. If there's not one that means somebody's bringing one.

Okay, great. Alright. But let me get the acoustics 'cause [00:28:00] I got my degree in sound engineer and recording arts. Mm-hmm. So let me get the acoustics in here. How, what, what's happening? How are these drinks? Mm-hmm. What is a bartender's attitude? How is a door person's attitude? Mm. How are these people feeling in here?

Because all of that will play into how I'm going to play. Hmm. Because you've got to, like, if your bartender is a nasty bartender, rude all the time, guess what? Ain't nobody gonna go no drinks. So guess what? Ain't nobody gonna be really feeling the buzzy

Tony: and chilling. Right. Ain't nobody gonna be trying to let loose.

Yeah. Let loose and everybody gonna be

Marshall: stiff. Right. Right. So now I gotta, I gotta work through that.

Tim: Yeah. So yeah, there's layers, like you said, there's, there's a fuck ton in your brain, which is amazing. I'm very analytical, very educational, very.

Marshall: And then I go back and then it's like, okay, now I pull up all these tracks and I'm like, all right, what time slot am I playing?

All right, bet. Okay. Who's playing before me? And that person playing before me. I study them. Yeah. I listen to their mixes online. I study them because I'm going after them. Yeah. I need to make sure like, you know, they gonna leave me in the right spot. I going [00:29:00] Right, right. Transition. Well, you know what what I'm saying?

Yeah. Who's playing after me if there's somebody playing after me? Yes. You know?

Tony: Right.

Marshall: So that's what I do. Right. That's and just dig in.

Tony: Then after that, you go home and you just. Become a mad scientist and be like, all right, this is it. Bam. Do you, do you like just get a pool of records and say, all right, this is what I'm gonna play, and then just go in?

Or you just,

Marshall: ever since I've been DJing, I never know what I was gonna be playing, and I'm about to be DJing for 24 years. Mm-hmm. I know the first maybe two, three songs where you gonna start after you gonna start? Mm. After that, like the vibe

Tony: you probably wanna set, right? Yeah.

Marshall: Kind of. Yeah. It's like, you know, if I'm headlining, like there's already a vibe that's set.

Yeah. Yes. If the opening DJ does their job. Right. Right. Again, opening sets are important, right? Yeah. So it's like you kind of already know, but it's like at the same time, now I'm taking over at a high energy time, right? Yeah. I just, you gotta go in, so I know this, so what I do is I'm like, okay, I get. A bunch of tracks and I try to make sure [00:30:00] there's a flow and then there's a way that I can take it where I want to go.

Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? And so this, this could be various things, you know, but also I'm a type of person, like, you know, I can play across the board different ways. Mm-hmm. So, um, it just allows me to have that mobility, um, to do that, you know? So I just try not to go in and be like, this is the set I'm gonna play because it sounds programmed.

Tony: Any, any notable like parties in the past that you say, yeah, that was, that was, that was notable in my mind. You know, ever. Geez, I'm an old man. Is that tough for you? Got three here, man. Um, I would say venues and stuff that you prefer and whatnot or, oh God.

Marshall: Um, I can give you two. Um, first one was when I played, um, when I was touring with on West Coast Weekender.

And the first time I played in San Diego, um, I played at Club Spin. I was, Jas was upstairs, Justin Martin, me and him was playing at the same time. So I already knew like he's [00:31:00] downstairs, main room, I'm in the middle. Like it ain't, it ain't gonna be like everybody's gonna be down there for Dirty Birds. Like guess this ain't right.

Well, sure enough, word got out. I like, I'm probably like, it was a two hour set and I'm probably like 45 minutes in and I'm looking up and this room is packed. Yeah, I mean Sen Laday was over in the corner. Oh God. Like Jesus. It was like some major, major headliners was up in there like, and I'm just like, let's just go.

Yeah. Drinking Patron, like let's just go that. And it was just kind of one of those things where it was like my introduction to playing like in San Diego in California, because I've always played in Mexico at that time a lot. But like I never played in California. So to play in SoCal and to be like.

People were like, what going on? Wow. I was like, okay. The second gig that stood out to me, um, more home, it was the first time that me and Nugs as Sound [00:32:00] Cartel played like we were playing in Chapel Hill, but we broke in as guests at Mosaic and there was one particular night where DJ Feinberg and Keith Ward were like, we are gonna take the inside.

You guys take the patio. And we were like, be, and when I tell you I never seen a night like that and Mosaic, I was literally one person in, one person out starting at nine 30. Wow. Until like 3:00 AM. It was like 2011, maybe 2009. This was probably about like 2011. Yeah. Yeah. Because you remember that was when like, I mean,

Tim: I wasn't there for that, and I don't think it's, it sounds so memorable, but I think you were around.

You were definitely around. Yeah.

Tony: Yeah, I was around. I remember going to Mosaic one. I really meet you

Tim: right away. But I mean, I just remember that you and Nugs come always. What a tandem. And then, uh, you know, Keith, of course, and so many great. Uh, and shout out to Samad man. Yeah. Samad. Yeah. That's my employer.

[00:33:00] You, he is chilling in Italy. But, uh, thank you Samad for, for making raw scene. I mean, you were at Epicenter and then you were, you

Tony: been Mosaic. Yeah,

Tim: yeah. Yeah. I mean, um, it was a special time, but that, no, I don't wanna interrupt your story. That sounds No, no. Awesome. Yeah, that

Marshall: night, I mean, it was, it was just, you couldn't, people just wouldn't stop.

Mm. I mean, it was just like the music was that real. So we got

Tony: 2011 mm-hmm. Around that timeframe because yeah, we, we were. Mosaic. Mm-hmm. Downtown Raleigh. Kk, you didn't know Mosaic is not there anymore, but downtown. That was one of the probably few spots.

Marshall: Yeah. Yeah.

Tony: Down in downtown Raleigh. Right. So you guys were there.

Tear it up. I remember going in there once or twice. I remember I left my wallet in there one time. I went, Charlene. Yeah. And I went, I went and left my credit card. I left my, not my wallet, my credit card at the bar Uhhuh next day. I'm like, yo, I forgot my credit card at the bar. They just overcharged me, whatever I was buying.

I was like, whatever, man. Just gimme my card back. Yeah. But, um, yeah, I remember that. So, so tell us, tell [00:34:00] us more about Yeah. What, what, what, what happened, you know, around those years?

Marshall: Oh, man. So I had just moved back from Chicago with 2009. Um, I told Nugs and, um, you know, slipstream Chris, and I was like, I'm, I'm coming home.

And they were like, oh. I was like, hmm. You gotta understand though, like I've been to Chicago. Chicago was where I learned how to play.

Tony: Mm. Tell us about

Marshall: that. Chicago. Chicago. Man. If somebody had called me, I've never been to Chicago, dude. If somebody called me right now and was like, yo, we'll we'll buy you a house, Chicago, I, I would be like, yo, this, this is over.

I gotta go pack. Yeah. Because Chicago, when I got there, the first thing was it broke me down to the amoeba. Right. Like, I thought I was gonna be able to come play that housey stuff that I was playing in Orlando. Mm. No. I learned real quick. Real quick. Wow. This is Chicago. Wow. This is Chicago. This is, this is Chicago.

Tony: Stay in Orlando. Yeah. This is, this ain't

Marshall: that pretty Boyness. Yeah. And the thing was like short, you can do it [00:35:00] all though, man. Bermuda, short.

Tony: Bermuda. Yeah. Like this was

Marshall: like, I'm not better get that, that blood back. And so being under large music and having like people that was like leaders for me and teachers like Roy Davis Jr.

You know, like, Hmm. It was like, oh, okay, this is where we at. So Chicago like being there working at large music, like just my job alone, there's the CEO's desk, here's my desk. Wow. My job alone was just to convert all the catalog from 93 to 2000. At that time it was 2007. Mm-hmm. To avert all that stuff from DAT to MP three and to send it out to track source.

Wow. Whoa. So that's how I know the people who own track source. Brian Tapper, ju John Julius Knight. Shout out to show Prince. Yeah. Shout out to track source. That's massive all

Tim: day. Yep. Um, and the F forces you to learn history too. Your gig, your jo up to speak. Yeah.

Tony: Transfer everything. The DA that is like when he used to one of those tapes and stuff like that, [00:36:00] I had those.

That's neat, man. And

Marshall: I mean, I was hearing tracks that never seen the light of day. Like that's the crazy part about it. Like, wow, that's a cheat code for you. And I was like, just sitting on the office floor, I'm like, Carrie Chandler put this out. Like Mm. Like just losing my mind. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And being able to have access to that music and then like taking it home and playing it and then getting gigs in Chicago, it was a whole different thing.

Like North Side plays way different than South Side. Wow. South Side is South side's gritty. Yeah. The first gig I played in South Side bombed. Bombed. Really?

Tony: Yeah. To go home and do your homework after that. Be like, I gotta, I'll be back. Shout

Marshall: out to the Dayton game. If anybody in Chicago's listening to this, they know exactly the Dayton game, bro.

That was a whole beast. And I bombed and I didn't understand why. And I think what it was was like I didn't understand how to play disco that well. That's what they won. They won Jack tracks and disco jack tracks. That's right. Back house. Like next thing you know, [00:37:00] you know. Um, Mark Grant. Um, Andre Harris, God bless your soul.

Um, and DJ Heather and Colette and them, they were like talking to me about it and they were like, yeah, you gotta, you gotta learn how to, yeah. How to get up in there and like how to, you know? And, and can

Tim: I briefly inter Well, you do. Where, you know, one thing I, I wanna say, you always have had, to me the most charismatic, fun, all plugged in.

He moves so fluid. Yeah. It's like watching, you know what professional break dancer like, but, but it's 'cause you're into it. Mm-hmm. It comes naturally. But is that, was that a catalyst to that? Or were you already being al with your passion on the decks kind of thing? I mean,

Marshall: in, in Orlando I was like myself, you know what I'm, you know what I mean?

Dancing, like the guy, I

Tim: always see the love who's look at man because like,

Marshall: I knew how the tracks made me feel when I bought it. Chicago didn't

Tim: do it per

Marshall: se.

Tim: It's more Chicago, you or you definitely

Marshall: enhanced it. It enhanced it. Fair enough. It was like, there was a spark there in Florida, but Chicago was definitely in like the barrels of gasoline.

Got it. Because. Like I said, like when you started seeing what you're doing and understanding that when you are able to, [00:38:00] you know, you just walking around the city and then lo and behold you look up and you're at the doors of where the warehouse was. Oh yeah. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Like I am literally standing at the door of a furniture place where the warehouse was.

That's right. Mm-hmm. When I was Landmark. Landmark,

Tony: bro. Yeah.

Marshall: I mean, you know, being able to, to go to boom, boom room on Thanksgiving, and actually two times in my life, the only two times in my life to catch Frankie Knuckles. To hear Frankie Knuckles live all night. Wow. Seven hours. Yeah. Like when they had long sets.

That's amazing. So I was coming back to North Carolina with all of that and I told them, I was like, what are we going to do? Mm-hmm. Because if y'all ain't got, if y'all ain't got nothing, yeah. We gonna make something. Right? Mm-hmm. And they were like, sail us. And so we sat down and that was how Sound Cartel was made.

And we started trying to do these parties at ULAs in Chapel Hill. Shout out to ULAs all day. Go get some food there all day. That place to love that place. [00:39:00] Um, and we, I remember the first six months, me and Ns had like, each show is like three or four people. Yeah. And I'll never forget this is when I smoked cigarettes, me and Uggs, we were sitting in the car one night and I was like, dude, this is something, we're not doing this right.

It was cold. Mm. And he had a 5 25, I think it was a 2001 5 25 Beamer. And we would smoke cigarette, we would talk about it. And he was like, by the time I cranked this car, we're gonna say less. This conversation's over. After that. Next thing you know, we redialed and programmed the way we're doing things and that's when we started packing out Tall LULAs.

Mm-hmm. And that's when Raleigh people were coming to Chapel Hill 'cause they started hearing about it. And then that's when it was like these people were already going to Mosaic and that was like, you know, like Michelle and that crew. Yeah. And they were like, yo, great crew. You guys should come over here and play at Mosaic, meet Fineberg and Keith War.

And then that's how that started. Yes. And then before you know it, we had that night we were guessing, like spotting there, we stopped Tallulah's and we started this night called Sultry. Mm-hmm. And that was one of the biggest deep house nights in the [00:40:00] triangle for like. Probably about like five years. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. And there you go. This is some

Tony: Raleigh history for you guys know? Yes. Because nobody's gonna know this. This is documented right here. Document.

Marshall: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so where was Sochi located? It was at Mosaic. It was every third project, the kind of name of Got it. Yeah. Said we would turn the lights down this low as possible and light candles on each table.

Lady was sick there, by the way. It was, uh, it was a nice vibe. It would be up to date anywhere, even though the lounge,

Tim: all the Moroccan pillow. It was perfect. Oh God. It was so great. And it was us

Marshall: outside and Yeah. And um, yeah, we would just play like deep house and like, just like we are playing like all the gems, you know what I mean?

Like from Dennis Ferre to Carrie Chandler to, you know, uh, Margaret Grace to, I mean Joey Negro, like we're doing it all. Who is now Dave Lee. So, um, we were just doing it all. I mean from Afro when like black coffee was not [00:41:00] who he was. Right. We were getting these tracks, um, you know, Ian Friday, stuff like that.

Yeah. And I mean, it was packed. I mean, that was the sound of the triangle. Right. You know, deep house, you know, and then down the road, shout outs to Bass Bunny. You know Robin, they been out that that long. Mm-hmm. Robin was that black flower. So that was Glenwood. You had your harder stuff over here. Yeah. You go down here and you had us.

Yes. Right. Hey,

Tim: I wanna give a shout out to Five Star too. I mean five star. Yo. Look at Smile. Five star. I mean,

Marshall: yo. Ninth

Tim: Wonder Benders.

Marshall: Thank you. Shout out to Ninth Wonder all day. Yo little brother. Yeah. Oh my God. That, that was hit too. Nice window, right? Yeah, bro. So you had this whole thing that was going on in Raleigh and then meanwhile in Durham, I always kept my roots there.

Mm-hmm. Durham was, Durham is always gritty. And so you had like shut up and dance, which was like shut up and, and dance. Yeah. Shut up. And dance was the pre pre era of the floor.

Tony: Yes.

Marshall: So that was, you were just talking

Tony: to uh, Adam about that last week. Yeah. He gave us a little rundown. Tell us some more about that.

Man. I

Marshall: know. [00:42:00] So the Durham scene, Durham has always been Durham, right? The reason why people love Durham is, 'cause Durham has been DIY. It's always, we was always the bad kids of the triangle. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. You gonna get shot, you gonna Durham, you're like, yeah, you probably, if you get outta line, that's just what it is, right?

Mm-hmm. But the art. Because like everything was abandoned. Mm-hmm. You know, and so like, you could do graffiti anywhere. Mm-hmm. People were not downtown. Downtown life was Brightleaf Square. Mm-hmm. So that was all the like, you know what was going on there, but like, you know, graffiti music. It's true. You had the power company, you had, um, what's it Power Company?

You had, um, uh, the Palace Power Company. You had, uh, that's the one

Tony: that, uh, Adam, you had the power company. That Palace. Yeah. Power

Marshall: Company, which is now teasers. Mm-hmm. Um, you had the Palace, you had Wonderland, um, you had the Armory. I saw Gold at the Armory. Mm-hmm. Oh, dude. Um, yeah. So you had parties like that that was going on.

Mm-hmm. Um, but like, that was always [00:43:00] Durham and so shut up and dance. They were like doing their thing and then the floor spawning out of that. Mm-hmm. So right as Mosaic was ending, because Feinberg, you know, he was having a kid, he moved out west and so. I was always still in Mond. I would go back and, and like hang out at the floor.

The floor was always visiting Mosaic every once in a while, so they knew me. So they were like, come guess, you know, play. So I would just go there, play, but I would play, you know, I was playing Charlotte and Borough stuff because Mosaic's done, right? Mm-hmm. Well, it just so happened like packing out the floor with them and then all of a sudden they were like, you know, they wanna have a meeting with me.

And I'm like, something wrong. Like, what did I do? You know? And they were like, no, we want you to join us. So that's when I became part of the floor. Right. So that was, you know, Durham. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we were doing things at Arcana. There was not the fruit until mm-hmm. Didn't existed until like, yeah. So Arana, what happened was we were packing that place [00:44:00] out and so, you know, we kind of were like, okay, Morgan was like, um, well that's Strider.

So he was like, yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, um. I'm helping out somewhere at this place, and I'm gonna try to see if we can do some shows there. I was like, cool. And everybody's like, oh, what you talking about? He was like, yes, it's Warehouse called The Fruit. We're like, oh, it is an art space. So we're going try to see if we could do Fruit was still like the top main floor was full of like just art and furniture.

Yeah. So you had to move things to one side of the whole place in the theater. Mm-hmm. To make sure you had space. So we decided we were gonna start doing shows there. What year was this about this? Just a room Was was like 2015. This was, this was about 20 15, 20 16. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Um, and so we started doing shows there and we um, we did a Halloween show.

So there was no DJ booth. The scaffolding was the DJ booth. Okay. So the yellow scaffolding, we put the qsc weight limit on top of the, [00:45:00] the poles. So that was like, oh wow. Marick up. And we got subs from CLS and we had, yeah, I mean that was, that was the DJ booth. Mm-hmm. Then we set it, we had to put a paint blanket down because we didn't wanna get equipment messed up.

Mm-hmm. That was it. And that was the main room. And that was already

Tony: fruit stages? Uh, yeah, very

Marshall: much. Yeah. Um, so we did some Halloween parties. The first one we did, there was a Duke party private party the night before. Um, and we, they had left all this alcohol and we did a whole community thing too. We were just like, all right, well if you want to come, like we have a keg and some alcohol, please just refill it for the next people.

We didn't know what was gonna happen. And then there all these people started coming and it was like, people were just bringing alcohol and it was like all this stuff going on. 'cause it was an art space and it was private party. So it was like all these people, we were like, okay. So, um, then once again, Strider gets a wild hair of his butt and he's like.

Yeah, we should probably do something in the basement. [00:46:00] Mm, yeah. And I was like, well, basement

Tony: was iconic.

Marshall: And he was like, yeah, let's, and we were all like, all right. So, you know, talked to the owner, and owner was like, long as you clean it up. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And that was the fruit basement was not what you see now?

Yep. No, no. Right. It was wide open. Yeah. Uh, shout out to River. She had the water station. She created our own water station. Even wide

Tony: open. Like wide open. How

Marshall: wide? So when you go downstairs, right? Mm-hmm. So you go downstairs and if you came down from the side stairs, like in mm-hmm. When you're the main room from, from

Tony: the main room, right?

Yeah.

Marshall: So those like doors that was not there. Oh yeah. That was not there. Little segment. It was wide open.

Tony: So those doors that, that go into those little rooms.

Marshall: Yeah,

Tony: I got it.

Marshall: Got, that was

Tony: wide open. They put that, those put those walls up?

Marshall: Yeah.

Tony: Oh, I thought those. And so

Marshall: we had a water station that river

Tony: made.

Um, and that was still, that's still there. The water station. I think it's by the bathroom. Is it? Mm-hmm. Not, no, that's different. Okay.

Marshall: When I tell you nothing was there. Mm. [00:47:00] Nothing. We had a water station. It was literally a table with a tablecloth, plastic cups, and one of those, like straight up and whatnot with water.

You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. There you go. Wow. Construction site cooler. We built a, we built a DJ booth like we did with Moog. Built it out center blocks and wood. Mm-hmm. Old doors painted them. Yeah. And that was it. And that was, that was the, the reason there was something. That was the reason. The fruit is what it is.

The basement. And if you doubt me, you can add me and I'll tell you about it. Like

Tony: there's a lot of iconic parties. I know. But that happened down to Fruit Man. I mean, I remember just going down there one time when I first discovered the fruit and there was something, there was, I was in the main room upstairs, I forgot what it was, but I went downstairs and first time like really exploring the place, like come down.

I'm like, this is crazy. It's like a freaking dungeon. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but shout out to the fruit because they're still doing their thing, man. And, uh, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's, um, that's an iconic spitely for Durham. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. What I mean, Durham is, you know, they've got [00:48:00] now, thankfully they have other stuff popping up.

Yeah. Very grateful for tons. You, and I know that you, did you get the dance group radio started in Durham?

Marshall: So dance group radio started actually when I was in Orlando pretty much. Mm-hmm. And I just moved to Chicago, so I was in that transition phase. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, so SiriusXM, they had a station called the Movement.

Mm-hmm. They played nothing but real house music. It was amazing. Right. Um, so you're hearing like live in Ministry of Sound, Roger Sanchez. Yeah. You know, when Roger was Roger. Right. And you had, um, it'll be like, you know, we live in Ibiza and, and you know, it be like, you know, Miguel migs and like Yeah. So it was just real house music.

Yeah. And like, you know, it's masters at work with Barbara Tucker live and you're just like in New York City and you're like, ah. You know, so like you are making it a mission to be at home with your peoples. Yeah. You know, cracking people. Were really tuning in there. Yeah. Cracking in your tall boys and, you know, you listen or you pre-game it before you go out.

Um, well, one day like [00:49:00] normal, you tune in and was not there. Mm. Next thing you know, you're hearing like this, like, like this whole fancy top 40 day, you're like. What is this? And so like you start, that was the

Tim: new pop music variant that was gonna come online and now it's, there you go, that stockings at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Ladies, you look lovely, but, oh, well yo,

Marshall: that's a whole, that's a whole

Tim: thing in itself. Hey, subjective people. Yeah. That's

Marshall: a whole thing. Do you boo? Do you? Yeah, dude. So, yeah. And so. On the forums. Mm-hmm. So again, this is kind of when Forms was still, this was no Reddit, but it was kind of the Reddit for the Ravens.

People are like, what is this like deep house page? And people were like, this is bull. So me and my homie Marco, shout out to Marco. He was an IT and he DJ'ed. And you know, I had all the Connects and I'm dj. So we were just kind of like, we can keep complaining and bitching. Yeah. Or we could do something.

And that's always been my motto in life. Like, yo, you, if there's nothing you can make it. [00:50:00] You know what I mean? So we did it, and this was pre-internet, so we had to use Winamp and Real Player. So shout outs to the PC days. Mm-hmm. Winamp and

Tony: Real Player on the, on a Windows. What? Windows? Uh, windows thing.

That would be Windows. Windows 95 Machine Days. Millennials on the, what's that like? Oh, windows. Windows 2K.

Marshall: Yeah. Two I seven. I think that was Millennium. Like me, was it me or xp? One of those two Cover

Tony: shit. Think it was me or

Marshall: xp. One of them. Xp, yeah. Um, give or take one. But, uh, yeah. And so we did, we were like, what's, what's the worst gonna happen?

Right? So we called up a bunch of our friends who were like, you know, respectful in their areas. They had names. And, um, so then we started doing this thing, and like people started tuning in. Mm-hmm. And we were like, oh. This is cool. It's our friends, you know? Yeah. So we had a guy that we knew that lived in Japan and um, so things were taking off, you know, and he was DJing with us, so he started spreading the war.

So we started getting this like [00:51:00] little international kind of thing going on. Um, then winter music conference, 2010, I got a wild idea and I was like, yo, Marco, do you know any, like, I don't know real estate people down there? He was like, yeah, I know a few. I was like, Hey, find out if they do like any rentals and we can all like rent a big house for the weekend.

He is like, well, I live here. I was like, I understand what I'm talking about for everybody's coming out. Yeah, sure enough, we got this big house right on the water, the causeway water. Um, and yeah, we were like, it was five bedrooms, three baths, pool, hot tub, pool table, damn. And a whole bar. Wow. So all my people was in Orlando.

I flew into Orlando and the catering company I used to work for, I told him, I was like, well, we're gonna have a big barbecue. He was like, all right, well just tell me what you need and I'll get it all ordered for you. So we ordered like probably [00:52:00] like $400 worth of food and like we're just like, we're just gonna throw a party.

So we was like dance group. The original.

Tony: Yeah. Oh, that's what it was. That's what it was. We were like, we're

Marshall: gonna do a dance group party. Yeah, we, I called Jas xl, we had Pablo, um, so it was a bunch of like major headliners, then major people that came through and next thing you know, we had this massive party and like Nugs, 'cause he's from Miami.

He was like, yo, me and my peoples are gonna roll up. We're pulling up in a yacht and I was like, whatever. Sure enough, leave it to nos. They pulled up in a yacht. Oh, nice. And it was just, that's amazing. A massive party. And that really put us on the map. Mm-hmm. People started telling other people, people started seeing like, you know, early, this is kind of like still like late MySpace days and like early, so people started seeing things.

Plus we were doing like all the stuff we already done in Orlando. So things started getting out. And then the guy in Japan, that's [00:53:00] when the earthquakes happened. Mm. So we decided to do a fundraiser event and we ended up raising about, I think we raised close to like $5,000, but we talked to all our friends in the industry doing an hour mix.

Mm-hmm. And then we, like, we had bti, sva, he, um, had some people and he actually reached out to this guy in South Africa. Mm-hmm. And he was like coming out with a name for seven that was black coffee. Jesus. Whoa,

Tony: nice.

Marshall: We were like, yeah, my goodness. Right at that time, that was turned me on. When Booie just came out, we were like, absolutely.

Mm-hmm. Boom. So next thing you know, like all these people and that that's what happened. Now at this point, we are three years in and then all of a sudden Marco had to like, his IT company kind of took off and that server we were on. Oh, we can't use it. Data breach laws.

Tony: Yeah.

Marshall: So we had to shut it down over again and so shut it down.[00:54:00]

And everybody was like, sad. That is a sad time. But we did, we did our, we served our purpose. Mm-hmm. We proved to ourselves and to others. Good point. Make something happen. You can make something outta nothing. Shut up and make it happen. Yeah, that's right. So time goes on. All the lesson people start hitting me up, man, I remember the night train, dude, I remember your show every Thursday, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, yeah, it's good times. So then I was like getting nostalgic and I was like, when the Internet's changed, now I need make a list. So I made a list of everything we need. And then we relaunched. I took it over and relaunched in 2015, the rebirth. And we've been, that was a rebirth. And now you were here, you were here in North Carolina at that time, right?

Yeah, I was in Raleigh living. And um, now, uh, we are pretty much 45 DJs from all over the world. 45. We're out of, uh, France, Italy, um, uk, Mexico. Um, I've got God, man, I got Australia. Um, Canada. Yeah. Univers. So [00:55:00] we're about six, seven different countries. Are these,

Tony: uh, these are prerecorded scene, uh, sets. So

Marshall: like some of 'em are prerecorded, some of 'em are live.

Okay. Um, you know, obviously because of just time zone differences, but, um, a lot of it is a lot of like major up and coming DJs and a lot of major artists. Right. Um, and so we pretty much just develop it that way and, um, it's just. It's playing 24 7. There's always music. We always like post up the live shows Yeah.

When they come out. But like, there's always music playing, so if there's not a live show, there's still music playing, you know? Yeah. And it'll play like previous episodes of people's shows and it's always in rotation. Wow. Right. Um, and so then it was like, you know, we started doing the parties here, um, transmissions.

That's when I was moving back to Durham did it in surf club. Um, and those were massive. Those were like 300 people day parties. That was just, yeah. Yeah. It was stupid. Turned out. Um, and then, you know, started this whole thing called Wave. And that's just recently, that started like, pretty much late last year.

Right? Right.

Tony: Is that, is that the party that you throwing down at the, uh, two, the, the hotel, the bank vault? Yeah, the bank [00:56:00] vault. Yeah. Yeah.

Marshall: So we are doing parties inside an actual bank vault. That's yeah, that's, that's crazy. Seen images up. Yeah. That's talking

Tony: there too. Like dark. Yeah. I mean it's just like, like you're in a.

Marshall: Yeah. Yeah. You're in a vault. Like it's in a vault. These walls are, people had deposit money and stuff like that. And, um, we haven't checked

Tony: out my, my Man Wave's party. Yeah, yeah. Check out

Marshall: Wave. Wave is dope. Uh, we got another one coming up probably late September, mid-October, so I'll be on the lookout, like, um, but yeah, those are great.

Um, 21 C is a great, great staff. Um, shout outs to my man, John, like, love that guy. Like he, he, he gets it. He, he really does. He really gets the whole thing and mm-hmm. And to be able to like our whole vapor wave look. Yeah. And it's a whole art deco museum. Like we just,

Tony: yeah. Yeah. It's a nice museum. I've, it really is been.

Some corporate events up in there, but yeah, pretty nice spot. And um, yeah, you got, you got a lot of, a couple, few things happening around town. I mean, I know you've got, uh, other wave, you got Neptunes coming up, I think. Yeah. So

Marshall: tomorrow, [00:57:00] um, I'll be in, I don't wanna say is Nomad and, uh, Raleigh. Yeah. Nomad and Raleigh with I'm glad y'all are

Tim: pumping that, that's, that kind of should enhance.

Marshall: Yeah. Shout out to Kinetic audio man. Like, you know, KA Johan are figuring that life out tomorrow. That's no man's great. Not tomorrow, but I mean, I like that

Tim: y'all are gonna be there. That just kind of elevates certain things in, in my. Brain anyway.

Marshall: Yeah. So it's, it's, yeah. Shout out to them that it's just gonna be the first one and, um, it, I, you know, wanna make sure that it's successful.

Yeah. Because they're, they're really good people, what they're doing. Yeah. Um, the next event, so that's gonna be Friday night. So Friday is the floor. We're at Pony Source in Raleigh. Mm-hmm. We're the official, uh, morning choir pre-party. Yep. For their event. I heard about that. Adam was telling That's a great idea.

Walk over 22nd of

Tony: this guys is pre, pre 22nd. Just

Tim: cool little ambiance too. It's big. Oh yeah. Inside, outside, yeah. Oh yeah. Big things. And then Saturday. Neptunes, I think we'll see you there that night with Germania and then Ms. Ashley. I know. That's awesome, man. Three of y'all shit. Yeah. Are y'all doing a certain sound that [00:58:00] night or is it a, um, because I kind of know generally.

I mean, are you, is there a goal? Is it more, I mean, I think disco driven or is it more getting

Marshall: down

Tim: collective,

Marshall: whatever, just getting

Tim: down. Yeah.

Marshall: You know.

Tim: Good

Marshall: is good. Good is good. Yeah. I mean, it's a dance groove, radio

Tim: takeover. '

Marshall: cause all of us are,

Tim: shout out to Martin Wheeler Yurt. He's got a, I'm glad he reopened that place.

Marshall: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, and then I've got what, let's see, then we got Ruby, the floor that's on the 29th of August.

Tony: Got some come up September as well. Right. 19 September.

Marshall: I'm playing for Space Camp with um playing with the boss lady. Um, move, move tone. She's great too. I haven't seen her in a while. Special guest is Gene Ferris, which I haven't seen Gene, I've known Gene for a long time.

Yeah. Uh, Chicago. So it's gonna be an honor to, um, play with Gene, uh. Little fact Gene played basketball for St. Augustine here in Raleigh. No, he did. Yes. Yes. Right on man. There you go. Also known for

Tim: stellar

Marshall: track athletes.

Tim: Yeah, there you go. And coaches. There you go. [00:59:00]

Marshall: So, uh, yeah, and then, um, we got another IKI sessions, which we do at Dashi.

The floor and that, that's neat too. Yeah, that's dope. I was telling Adam how cool I

Tim: liked your image. You posted. That's badass, dude. That's whole dope. That's a poster.

Marshall: Thanks, man. Yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's such a great vibe to be able to do that. That's on the 19th as well, so that'll be before Gene. So we'll be.

Party in September. Hop to the next one. Dang, you're busy man. Yeah, so, um, but that's September 19th as well, so, yeah. Yeah. We were

Tony: speaking to Adam too. Last, last heap was here last and stuff. Just, you know, how you guys came about with the, the floor and everything, what you guys are doing, Ana and the new now the new, the new place at there.

Bahi is called a,

Marshall: uh, dashi.

Tony: Dashi, yeah. Dashi. Right? Dashi, um, out in Durham. And uh, yeah, that's what's up, man. I seen that's, you know, that's setting a good vibe. Yeah. A little chill chillness and whatnot. Yeah. Sophistication, you know. Exactly. Places need

Tim: that. That's, that's, that's true. That's true. Man.

European way. And we got, doesn't always have to be, you

Tony: know, driving and hard

Marshall: and stuff like that. Background, you know, background. Mm-hmm. Like, we just, like, we do, we play a lot of like, [01:00:00] chill stuff. We, we are probably like in the one 17 to one 18 range. Yeah. Yeah. The highest we go is like one 20, so we're playing more like broken beats.

We kind of grew more to that too. Yeah. I was speaking

Tony: of Kennedy about that too long ago. It's like, back in the day, you know, when you heard like some of that old school house music, it was up there down, you know, one 19. Yeah. One 18 people actually could dance and stuff like that. So now it's just gotten too fast sometimes.

Correct, man. Correct. It's so aggressive, you know what I mean? Like, and I ain't nothing wrong with that. Like again, I used, it has its place. It has

Marshall: it place. It does. That's true. Everything ain't gotta be that way, so Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, like we're, we're doing stuff like that. And then also, like I said, arcana is just great to be back at arcana.

You know, shout out to arcana. Like Ana's a nice space arcana. If you have not gone there, like Con and Durham, check out, go down there, get Ancho, queen Arcana. And Durham is like the only underground bar. Like seriously. It's underground. Underground, yeah. Um, yeah, that, that place. Shout out to them, man. I love them.

So yeah. I mean, that's pretty much where we're at.

Tim: Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's what we're doing. That's amazing. All this, everything you said is just, is so cool. Yeah. [01:01:00] Yeah. Man. Ruby stuff too. Every now and then, I think, yeah. I'm still doing Ruby.

Marshall: Like Yeah. I mean, we're all over the place, you know, and it's, it is an honor and it is a blessing and it's, you know, it's humbling at the same time to be in a situation where people really want to like, hear your sound and appreciate the hard work you're doing.

And for us it's, it's about that. Yeah. You know, because it, it's. It's never been about us behind the decks, you know? Yeah. Like, it's cool. Yeah. But like, it's all about y'all getting down. You know what I mean? Like, we spent this hard time experience. It's about an experience. Yeah. It is an experience. You know, like, it's not about like, oh, I gotta, it is like, yo, you worked all week.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Your hair down, your hair down, you're in the customer service business. Sweat it out. You know? Because they got that

Tony: frustration.

Marshall: Yeah. Because again, like, I don't know if that girl is celebrating like her, her boyfriend just told her she's got, they're getting engaged. I don't know if this dude just lost his job.

I don't know if this person, you know, is about to move. I don't know what's going [01:02:00] on. But what I do know is that for five hours, however long the party is, my job and the people that's behind the desk, we need to make you forget about what's happening outdoors. Mm. It's just us right now. Mm-hmm. So whatever you want to do, as long as you ain't hurt nobody.

Get down. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, and make sure you tip your bartenders. Like

Tony: Yeah.

Marshall: They, they, they, they gotta pay bills. You know what I mean? Right,

Tony: right, right. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a, that's an important note tip. Your bartenders, tip your

Tim: bartenders and 20 percent's been the new baseline.

So like for you, fuckers that are telling, like, no excuse, that's just the baseline. Right. Friends, but in America, don't count. Not 15 anymore. This is just 20, 25. Yeah. Yeah. 20 plus. Especially if they're just mid, like, it's, it's fucking simple, man, bro, I kind of get defensive about that stuff. No, no, it's okay.

You should be, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. You should be, you know, that's how you keep their lights. You're curating their little mini two hour vacation. You're doing the same thing with your vacation. Making our butts move. Um, that is the same kind of therapy as traveling

Marshall: in a way. [01:03:00] I mean, the thing is, is that you, you gotta keep the lights on at the venue, right.

It's all the above. Like, stop every layer if you can't. Tip, your bartenders like don't go out, right? Ain't nothing, ain't, you can catch us on the next one, right? It's fine. Right? But you know, whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like I said, if you got an issue with that, you can at me. Can add me, it's fine.

And they can add you where? Yeah, they can add me at Disco Sapien on Instagram. I name too Disco Sapien. You can find me on Facebook. Marshall Jones. Um, yeah, there you go. You know, and you can go to dance groove.net. So there you go. Got

Tony: dance groove.net for all your latest. Yes. The most, you know, iconic, you know, music DJ sets that my man legend on Legend.

Yeah, legend.

Tim: The final boss is, uh, was a cat that said that. Oh yeah. Audio shout out to we, I'll put it out next week. But

Tony: funny, you know, we're talking, we're talking to KA and stuff like that. Like Yeah. Mean we had Marshall, he's like the final boss that's pretty gangster meet in the Donkey Kong game. You go through all these levels and whatnot.

Comes get, get them on the [01:04:00] 21st. Yeah. They had like what? Yeah, that was that. Just put a picture in my mind. That's a great analogy. You just

Marshall: put a picture in my mind now. I'm like, it's like streets of rage too. Like Genesis. Exactly.

Tony: You know what I'm saying? And that's, uh, that was quite a, quite a description.

I was like, all right. That's what's up man. You know,

Marshall: I'll take it. I'll take it. I appreciate it. Shout out to, uh, kinetic shout outs to them. Like I said, man was my peeps. You know, I guess the last thing to say is just. You know, just stay humble out there. People, if you're gonna come up in this scene, like, you know, just realize like you're coming up in a scene, but ultimately you need to be focused on making a carbon footprint in the movement.

Mm-hmm. It's bigger than you. It's always gonna be bigger than you. It's gonna be bigger than me when I'm in a retirement home, I'll be eating mush and telling people these stories because there'll be some other kid who's be like, yeah, uh, apparently uncle, like Uncle Marshall has like some stories, like, yeah.

Um, so just always realize that work hard, um, you know, and just get over yourself like. Just [01:05:00] stop. You don't need to be the center of attention is, you know, like you don't have to do it for the gram. Mm-hmm. Just like do it for the movement and you will get far, really far, you know? That's it. That's all I can really tell people.

Other than that, I mean, you know, Hey man, I brush your teeth. Yeah. Pretty well for sure. Don't be on the

Tony: dance floor. Musty clean hijack. But yeah, that, that's a good point. You say, you know, uh, you just, you know, people wanna look back at the story and say, yo, they can come right to the show, man. They could see your story and be like, yeah.

When you're in the, in the home, in the, in the senior citizen home eating mush mm-hmm. He can come back to this episode, be like, yeah, that's my man right there. Correct. Did this thing, he did his thing. But thank you for coming for the show, man. Thank you guys. Having us an honor man. You know what, it's, you know, we got you here and you know, we, um, chatted and I'm glad that you gave us a brief history of I know, I learned so much more.

Of course. Is we're sure the audience is gonna, is gonna really enjoy, you know Yeah. What they're hearing and you know, the history of the. The sound of [01:06:00] Raleigh with, yes. With Mosaic and all these spots that you mentioned, man, I know. Yeah.

Tim: It's done a lot, man. Yes. Been part of a golden era. It's, man, it's still going, getting better.

It's still going. It's thriving more and more. Yeah. I'm shocked. And so it's growing so much. You're still a kid too. Shit. You crammed in a lot early, so God, yeah. Maybe it's easy for me to say, 'cause I'm older, but I'd say Yeah. No, no, no. I don't mean that. But, but yeah, dude, you're fucking, you've done a lot and, uh,

Marshall: we're grateful.

Yeah, thank you. I'm grateful too, and I appreciate everybody who's supported me over the years and all my teachers, you know, you know who you are. Like there's a list. Mm-hmm. Long list and, um, can't shout 'em all

Tony: out, but yeah. Can't shout 'em

Marshall: all out. But you know who you are and, um, yeah, definitely. Thanks mom and dad.

'cause without you like, you know, foundation Yeah. Without you guys just humming music around like. That's a ultimate cheat

Tim: code. Having family that's into it seems to just grow better musically talented kids almost without fail. That's

Marshall: it. You, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So see y'all soon. Do your thing.

We out here.

Tony: Thank you. Thank you [01:07:00] again my brother. Thank

Marshall: you.

Tony: Appreciate it. Alright, well with that guys, we'll end it off and uh, Hey Joe, bring that beat back.