Photo courtesy of Verboten
A Florida native now settled in New York City, DJ Three is an artist who knows no boundaries in the realm of house and techno. With impressive residencies over the years at NYC’s Twilo, Cielo (Robots) and Blk Market Membership, as well as Florida’s once legendary Simons and his current 9 years running Snatch night he has kept going in Tampa, his eclectic style has been well received across the country and around the world at Fabric, Panorama Bar, Japan’s Labrynthe Festival and beyond.
We caught up with Three to hear more about his label, Hallucination Limited, and tonight’s party.
Three will be making an appearance tonight at the Electric Pickle in Miami as Blkmarket Membership presents their Miami Residency Launch. He will be playing along with Heartthrob, Ryan Elliott, Taimur & Fahad, Michael Christopher, Alejandro Sab and Will Renuart.
Find out more about Three’s label, Hallucination Limited here.
Why the name Three?
The short version is I simply wanted a moniker to separate the person from the artist. It was something a lot of people did. We’ll skip why I picked “Three”.
You have been DJing for quite some time and your style is so unique. How has it evolved over the years?
Thanks! I’m not sure it’s really changed much in the grand scheme of things. The musical focus surely changes over the years — more organic for a few years, much less organic like during the minimal era, but generally the aesthetic has stayed the same all along. It’s a bit of house, a bit of techno and I’m not afraid to drop something unfashionable. Recently I’ve archived some live DJ mixes from the late 90s and — short of the sound quality coming off old cassettes — there’s more than a few places around the world I could play these sets and I don’t think anyone would be the wiser. It’s all music I still play or would play. I’m going to make the mixes public as a series of podcasts under a mix tape theme. There will be probably about three or four of them starting with the first one around the New Year.
Your sets tend to be very original and one of a kind. Do you play what you’re in the mood for or do you gear your sets towards your audience?
I certainly am aware of who I’m playing to, or at least I try to be. Regardless, I never have much planned. I usually have a general idea, but my music is anything but organized! It’s all about instinct — a give and take of knowing what to do.
Your record label Hallucination Limited has such a diverse group of talented artists. What do you look for when choosing an artist to sign?
I tend to only work with people there is some sort of connection with whether directly or indirectly. It has to be something I think is exceptional regardless of style. It’s always been that way. In the mid 2000s, being that eclectic on one label wasn’t always so welcomed. Shops would complain the records were hard to categorize if there was a variety of styles on it. Thankfully that’s a thing of the past now. It’s great to see guys like Visionquest dropping a lot of variation on their new label. Nobody is afraid of not following the herd anymore — mostly.
You’ve played at Electric Pickle before. What do you like most about the venue and what are you looking forward to when you head back this Saturday?
It’s just great there’s so much to do in terms of underground parties in Miami. For years prior, what happened during WMC was pretty much it. I was a huge fan of (and lucky to play a few) of Tomas’ Aquabooty parties in the past, and what he’s done with his partners since opening the Pickle has been such a leap forward for Miami’s house and techno scene. It’s opened a lot of doors down the line. Haven’t been there since March and it’ll be exciting to be back and with so many friends on the bill.
Get a taste of what DJ Three is all about with his track ‘Lovefix’ below
