By: Marcos Blanco

MB: What are you plans beyond 1015?

NZ: I want to make sure that I do a good job locally. As far as what I want to do, I just need to work on music production. There are some people helping me with my production so I can get better. I’m trying to take it more than just locally. I would love to play worldwide. It’s going to take a lot of work to get there. In order to do that, you’ve got to produce. Ultimately, I would like to mix my own songs and hopefully have people enjoy them. That’s the main goal, but I’m not going to put out anything unless that I know it’s for sure ready and that it’s amazing.

MB: That’s definitely a good goal to have. How important are the podcasts to you in terms of getting yourself out there?

NZ: I started my “Inspired Sessions” podcast about a year ago. At first it was just me on the podcast, and now every now and then I will have a guest. I’ve had John Beaver on the show and Jake DeSilva who is a really good Sacramento DJ. It’s really important because not only do people get to hear the music that I’m going to be playing live, but they also get to hear what’s new in trance and progressive (trance). They’re also going to hear whenever I have guest mix with other DJs who are playing.

A lot of the music I play on “Inspired Sessions” I do play live. It definitely is good for networking. Before you want to see someone live, you want hear what they’re all about. You want know what they’re going play, which styles, etc.

MB: Would you say promoting yourself online would be one of the best ways to get yourself out there then?

NZ: Networking yourself online is very important, but you can’t just limit yourself to just doing it all online. Granted, you can do massive amounts online, especially when it is international. It really makes a huge difference when you’re actually there at the show promoting yourself, giving out CDs, talking to people and networking. You can’t just do it all online, and you can’t just do it in person. It has to be both. It’s an ever going process of promoting, promoting and promoting. When you promote, you better be delivering when people actually check out your music.

MB: What’s your thinking process behind the kind of trance you play to set yourself apart from other artists? What do you do that’s different?

NZ: One thing that I try to do is develop my own style no matter what time, how early or how late I’m playing. I noticed a lot of DJs like to play crowd pleasers. I try to play stuff I know people haven’t heard. I try to be experimental with what I play by playing more melodic and uplifting stuff. Every now and then I’ll throw in a track that everybody loves, but I try to limit that to one track a set or maybe not even do it. I want somebody to say ‘Wow what is this track? I’ve never heard it before. This track is amazing.’ I don’t want it to be as well known, but I still want it to stick to my style which I feel  like I’m still developing, but it’s definitely coming together more and more.

MB: What would say to up and coming DJs such as yourself to try and get their name out there?

NZ: One of the ways I started was trying to put together DJ mixes and keep practicing. Make sure when you record something that it is on point. One person who’s a local DJ who plays trance, but more hard style now is Joshua G. and he said to make sure everything you’re doing is as perfect as it could be. You want to make sure you perfect your method. You want to make sure that when you put yourself out there, that you’re on top of your game, you’re promoting yourself hard, but don’t have a huge ego. Be humble.

At first, I was thinking ‘Oh, I’ll take whatever things I can get,’ but now I’m more picky with the ones I get. For any upcoming DJ who wants to do it big, you’ve got to produce. You can’t make it too far without producing. All the best DJs in the world produce. Even DJS who aren’t the best, produce. It really depends on what you want to do. That’s the best advice I can give.