In less than one year, DJ Luis Perez, 29, Puerto Rican native and recent San Diego transplant, has become one of the most sought after DJs in the Hillcrest club scene, playing monthly, if not weekly, at Rich’s, Universal and Spin. His style is high-energy, his mixes are top 40 and his influences range from deep house to reggaeton (a form of Latin American urban music). In less than two weeks, Perez will be on television DJing on stage at the Miss California USA 2010 Pageant.

Gay & Lesbian Times Staff Reporter Rick Braatz met with Perez at his home in Bankers Hill on a recent afternoon to discuss how he got into DJing, his first gig, the difference between playing straight and gay events, how the crowd influences what he plays, his most rewarding and worst DJ experiences so far, his thoughts on his upcoming TV appearance and what he thinks about the current club scene.

Gay & Lesbian Times: So tell me about yourself? Where did you grow up? Are you from San Diego? How long have you lived here?

Luis Perez: I was born in Puerto Rico. I was raised in Washington, D.C., and then I went to Atlanta for college. My family and I left Puerto Rico and moved to D.C. when I was five years old. When I was in my second year of high school, we moved back to Puerto Rico so I could learn Spanish because, while I knew how to speak it – my mother spoke Spanish in the house – if you asked me to spell a word or write, there was no way. It was only for two years, and then we came back to D.C. for my last year of high school. After high school, I then left to Atlanta for college. I came to San Diego for work after I graduated. That was about 2007.

GLT: How did you get into DJing?

LP: I started DJing in high school when my family and I moved back to Puerto Rico. There was this new thing there coming out called underground music, what is now known as reggaeton. I’d have my friends, and we’d have records, and we’d just play. I never rapped. I just spinned and got the beat down and started dropping beats for them. And I had a bunch of equipment, you know, turn tables and carrying records and stuff. And so when I moved back to the states for my last year of high school, I brought some of it with me to D.C., and it was just a pain, carrying all that shit. So I kind of got out of it for a while, and then I went to Atlanta. I was about 18 by then. So I gave it up for a while, but I kept the music thing going. I kept listening to music. I was always in it. I was somehow always going out to the clubs.

Then once I graduated and moved out here to work, I started having all this free time. So I started slowly buying equipment again and now that all these new programs have come out like Tractor and Serato, it’s a lot easier. They’re all digital. You use to have to carry CDs or records. So its kind of like, ‘Oh, this is easy. All my music is already on my computer.’ With Serato, you control it like a CD, but its just played out of your computer instead of an actual CD player. So then I was like, ‘This is great. I don’t have to buy CDs. I don’t have to burn CDs.’ So I just started doing it again. My first gig here in San Diego was at Hula’s when it first opened. It’s not open anymore.

GLT: What was it like doing Hula’s?

LP: That was about two years ago, and it was every Friday night. I mean it was Hula’s. You know, it wasn’t the most happening place in San Diego. But it gave me good experience playing out again. I had never really played out in front of a crowd. And I had a lot of friends in L.A., and I started doing gigs there, private parties and a lot of pool parties. It was all kind of really quick. It just kind of moved on and, here, once Hula’s closed, Rich’s called me for a Friday night, and I did a Friday night at Rich’s. That was earlier this year. I want to say March, maybe April.

GLT: How did your first gig at Rich’s go?

LP: It was nice. It was a Friday night. They wanted me to do hip-hop, and it was in their front room, and I told them, ‘I have hip-hop music, [but] I’m not a hip-hop DJ, but I’ll do the best I can.’ And I ended up pulling it off that night. I did really good. You know they asked me to come back and do a Wednesday night. I did a couple of Wednesday nights. But I work, so being there till 2 a.m. on a Wednesday night just wasn’t working. So I told them, ‘I’d just like to bring it down to once a month were I can manage to do it.’ And now I do it once a month.

GLT: So you’re doing hip-hop now?

LP: No, I haven’t done hip-hop at Rich’s since that first time.

GLT: What would you call the music you spin?

LP: I would call it top 40 tribal. I like a lot of top 40, were a lot of it is anthems, and they’re always infused with some tribal sound.

GLT: Why do you choose to spin that type of music?

LP: I think it’s because of my Latin background, and if you listen to a lot of the reggaeton, the beat has a lot of African, Jamaican aspects to it.

GLT: Do you have a signature to your DJing style?

LP: I think of myself as being high energy. The energy is constantly building, building, building, building and then I’ll stop it and then I’ll bring it right back up really fast. They’re horns and drums. There’s always something really loud, always.

GLT: Do you have any specific influences?

LP: I would say that I have three influences. I’ve always liked Eddie X. He’s was kind of a big DJ in L.A. back in the day. He’s still doing things here and there, but he’s not as out as he used to be. I would say him, Tony Moran and Brett Henrichsen.

GLT: What type of music do they spin?

LP: They are all circuit. Eddie X does more of the underground deep house, while Tony Moran, I think, brings in that pop element and tribal beats, and Brett Henrichsen brings a type of progressive dance with high energy vocals to his sets.

GLT: Do you do mostly gay gigs and if so, why?

LP: Yes, because its more comfortable and the taste of music. I’ve done straight parties. I did one at Spin not long ago. But the style of music is different. I think the gays like a lot of vocal, and that’s what I like, and I don’t mean to generalize every gay person, but it’s kind of what I like, and what I feel that they’re going to like. So with the straight crowd they want more of the electro sound, and I’m gay.

GLT: Do you do any straight gigs?

LP: Yes I have. I do Universal, which is very quasi straight, and I usually do Fridays where you get a lot of the bachelorette parties. So its pretty much girls, and its kind of tough because you know, what they want to hear is what they will probably gonna listen to at their wedding. So they’re constantly coming up to request, pretty old, like “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey [laughs].

GLT: So does the crowd influence what you play?

LP: We’ll, you know, there are certain songs you have to play that, you know, will get the crowd going. Like, if you don’t play a Lady Gaga or Britney song nowadays, the crowd will hate you. There are just songs that you have to play. But you got to know when to play them, when the crowd is begging for it.

GLT: How do you feel the crowd?

LP: Well you can see it. It’s like, when you put a song on and everyone has their hands in the air. It’s funny because at Universal I’ve played the “Destination Calabria” song. You know what song I’m talking about, right? It goes D e s t i n a t i o n u n k n o w n duh duh du du duh duh. If you could hear it, you would know it. Everybody knows that song. So you play that song there and soon as the crowd hears the horn, you hear the whole crowd just go, Whooo! and that’s like when you know [you got the crowd]. And that song to me is a little cheesy now. But sometimes when I’m struggling and the crowd is not reacting to anything, I’m like, ‘OK, I know what will get them going.’ I play that song, and there it goes.

GLT: You do podcasts. How long have you been doing them?

LP: About three years now. House Boi was burning them onto CDs and handing them out for a while. They would burn tons of copies and distribute them at their various events.

GLT: What are you currently listening to?

LP: I listen to a lot of Agnes. She does that song “Release Me”. I’m liking her a lot. Of course I keep up with the Lady Gaga and Britney to make sure. I’ve been listening to a lot of deep house. I mean I haven’t really been playing any of it, but I listen to it. They’re kind of no words to it. It’s just a lot of random beats. And I’ve kind of worked some of those tracks into my set. I’ll mix it with another track and keep it short and then get some vocals in.

GLT: What’s been your most rewarding experience?

LP: My best experience was doing Rich’s during Pride last summer because it was kind of my first time doing a big event in San Diego. And while it was just a club on a Friday night, it was packed and the energy was high. I also had a lot of friends from out of town from L.A., Atlanta and from D.C. They were all here. So it was kind of like nostalgic in a way. So it felt really good. So far that’s been my best experience.

GLT: What has been your worst experience?

LP: It was a Wednesday night at Rich’s, and I was booked to spin. I show up and I have my equipment and I’m setting up and DJ MP comes up to me and rudely says, ‘Umm I’m DJing tonight.’ And I was just like, ‘Well where’s Ryan? Where’s the manager?’ So then Ryan the manager comes over. And he was like, ‘Well Luis is on the schedule.’ And MP was like, ‘But I called you and had the schedule changed so I could DJ tonight.’ He was giving attitude. Then they both looked at me, and I’m like, ‘Well you know, I’m already set up.’ And then MP says, ‘I’m the resident DJ.’ And I was like, ‘OK, you know what? You can have it.’ I was just like, ‘Obviously, someone is more hard up for the money than I am.’ And he was just kind of an ass to me. And I’m really not a mean person unless your mean to me. And I was just like, ‘You know what? Fuck him.’ It just kind of gave me a bad taste in my mouth. He just rubbed me the wrong way.

GLT: So tell me about the USA CA pageant. How did you get the gig and what are you going to specifically do?

LP: OK, the way I got it is through a friend of mine, David Rae. He is pretty big in the charity community in LA. He does the AIDS Life Cycle and I’ve DJed for it for three years now. David gave my information to Dana Miller, who is producing the show. Danna then contacted me and said, ‘OK, we’re trying to revamp the Miss California USA.’ They’re trying to make it more like the Victoria Secrete fashion show. They will have a DJ on stage, and the music will be very upbeat. So Danna tells me, ‘We are looking for a DJ to be on stage and control the music for the show.’ And I was like, ‘We’ll I can DJ, but I’m not sure exactly what you want.’ And he’s like, ‘You’ll do it. You’ll do a good job. I trust David Rae.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ They then put me in contact with some music producers in L.A. that have given me music that I have to play for the show. I’ve kind of been very involved in it as far as how the whole show is going to be. I guess its just for the look. It’s really not like I would be DJing like at a club because everything will be just preset. I’ll have all my equipment, and I will control all the music, but its not like I will be picking [the music].

GLT: What do you think about that?

LP: When Danna first asked me, I was like, ‘You know, this is kind of chessy.’ But the more I thought about it, the people I’ve met through it. I mean I’ve met Keith Lewis, he’s the director of Miss California USA and he’s closely associated with Donald Trump. So I’ve met some cool people like Danna. He’s worked with some pretty big people like Elton John. So on that aspect of it, I thought, ‘Well this could be a good thing.’ You know, the connections that might come out of it and future gigs. So while it might be seen as chessy on one end, it’s a good experience and something that I think will be great to do [on the other end]. It will be televised live on Nov. 22 on the CW.

GLT: What do you think about the current club scene?

LP: Actually it’s kind of funny. When I first started going out in Atlanta – and this is like in the early 2000s – you’d go to a club any Friday or Saturday night and it would be packed. Even when I’d come out to San Diego to visit, the clubs like Montage would be packed. And then in 2004 and 2005, everywhere, even in New York, I’m mean, you’d go out, and everything was kind of dying. A lot of clubs were closing, a lot of major clubs. Like in Atlanta, one of the big clubs was Backstreet, which was a 24 hour club, and it was always packed and then that closed. Here you had Montage and it closed. It was like everywhere. In New York, you had The Roxy close. Everywhere you went. You’d go to Rich’s on a Sunday night and it was dead. No one was going out. And then now its starting to slowly pick up again. Even in Atlanta. I was there this past weekend.

GLT: You would think the economy would keep people from going out to the clubs.

LP: You would think but no. People are starting to go out again. It’s an evolution. It’s a process. I remember, it was the warehouse clubs that use to be the big thing in the early 2000s, then slowly it kind of turned into lounge. Everyone was going to lounges and bars. It was like no one was dancing. All these lounges were opening. Everything was a lounge. Here, it was Lei Lounge. And the same thing happened in Atlanta. A wet bar would open and it was a lounge. Red Chair opened and it was a lounge. Nothing was a dance night club. And I think its just a phase, and now its coming back. If you notice, the Roxy in New York is about to open again. And in Atlanta they had the Jungle and when that phase went through it closed, but now its back again. Now, here, you have Spin coming back. For a while there was nothing. Now its getting pretty busy. Michael Mack just did a reunion thing, and it was crazy packed. They have DJs there now every week. Like, I’ll be there on the 28th of this month. So it’s starting to come back around.

GLT: Thank you.

LP: Thank you.