Harrison Willis, aka Big Mouth [7], wants to scare you.
That's why he wears a plastic alien mask during his DJ sets in the hot, sweaty and crowded basements around Syracuse. With an industrial-age sound bent on pounding rythmic beats, Big Mouth brings an authentic dark euro-club DJ style.
Willis calls the mask a kind of mythos, and says he was inspired by Daft Punk [8] and their robotic disguises. In concert, however, Willis says once the mask goes on, he becomes Big Mouth and all the insanity the music represents.
Although Big Mouth played some shows in Prague during his semester abroad, he's still a work in progress.
To Willis, a real DJ spins his music live and doesn't rely on pre-produced mixes and pressing the "play button." That's what he's been working on lately, mastering live mixing skills, and once he starts to seriously tour and play more parties on campus, look out.
In the meantime, Willis has been working with former SU DJ A-ko [9], playing music and figuring out the nuances of being a great DJ.
Overall, Willis feels the Syracuse music scene is getting exciting, and that he can't wait to start playing more shows in the upcoming spring semester. In Willis' words, no one parties harder than Syracuse kids.
The Playlist
Influences: Diplo [10], DJ Krush [11] and DJ Venom [12]
Mixing Program: Reason
Label: O,Morning Records [13]
Random Fact: Willis' dad played with George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic [14].
DJ Big Mouth on the Remix: "I start by making a foundation track in Reason that's completely generated and then fit that to the samples from the source track, as well as other microsamples and synth layers I also generate myself. Then I use a few different platforms (Reason, Fruityloops, Ableton, even Garageband in a pinch) to effect/sequence/layer/beatmatch parts of the track to get ready for the final master, where I level everything and make sure there's no gaps or f-----ups."
Meet DJ BLinn [15] | Meet DJ Devon James [16] | Back to "The Scene" [17]
