DJ-producer building on vibrant music foundation
A few weeks ago, Deniz Koyu posted a Twitter photo of women pouring champagne on each other. Quiz: Do you think that was: A) A fun day? B) A sad day?
“That was a fun day!” says Koyu, who performs Saturday (and Dec. 28) at XS during his Wynn-Encore residency.
That Twitter photo came from a German video shoot while Koyu was creating visuals for his upcoming concerts.
“I invited a couple of very nice girls,” he says. “We’ve been recording stuff like champagne showers in super slow-motion. It’s going to look really sick. It’s really cool.”
Koyu started in this world as a classically trained pianist. The Turkish-German musician could have grown up and set his sights on becoming a symphonic player.
Instead, he became one of the world’s top DJ-producers, writing his dance bangers “Bong,” “Tung!” and “Hertz,” which I’ve listened to 100 times this year.
Fans buy his T-shirts (“I know who you Bonged last summer”) and wear them to shows.
So I tell him that it seems like he’s found more enjoyment in the DJ booth than perhaps he would have found in a symphony.
“Yes, absolutely!” he says and laughs. “This is definitely way more fun.”
But make no mistake about Koyu’s musical skills. They are for real, and they are fulfilling his musical destiny.
“I think it’s important to have some roots as a real musician,” Koyu, 27, says.
“You don’t have to be an expert on the piano or the guitar. But to have some roots – that you know a bit of what you’re actually doing – is a good thing.”
And the piano (with its great octave range in melody and percussion) gives Koyu a more vibrant musical foundation than other instruments might have.
“The piano is the instrument where you can express the biggest amount of emotions,” Koyu says.
“You can express anything on the piano, from very sad to very happy, and everything in between.”
Like many classically trained musicians, Koyu always has been into the best electronic musicians, especially Daft Punk, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk.
He calls his own dance songs “bangers.”
For weeks, he’s been recording/collaborating with a more emotionally melodic producer, Dirty South. They have a new track coming out in January.
“Basically, I’ve been working on the beat. He’s been working on the melody. And that’s worked out very well. It’s an emotional banger,” Koyu says.
If you want to see Koyu, he plays Las Vegas once or twice a month.
“I love to come to Vegas. It’s so much fun. Every time, there’s at least one crazy story happening,” he says. (But he won’t tell me any of those stories, so booo.)
If you want to taste his music online for free, Koyu posts live sets and new tracks on Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/denizkoyu).
Koyu is also one of the more entertaining DJs to follow on Twitter (@DenizKoyu), not just for his champagne showers, but for his volleys with DJ friends.
He recently got into a Twitter game with Zedd over the question: Which is better, pancakes or bacon? Koyu got the last word with this nugget:
“You can do a pancakes sandwich with bacon, but bacon can’t hold pancakes. It’s like rock-paper-scissors.”
Koyu was proud of that insight.
“I think I won this game,” he says.
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
