Toronto native Danny Nagels (born Daniel Shafro) has exploded onto the electronic dance music scene in the past two years. He has played at just about every major venue in Toronto as well as some international gigs. I would best describe his style as Dirty Tech-House / Techno. He has DJ’ed alongside big name DJ’s such as Global Deejays, DJ Yahel, Jaimie Fanatic, MC Flipside, and more. I have personally heard him play live a few times and can say that he is definitely worth checking out.

Although Dan has amazing talent when it comes to throwing down sets, he is probably best known for his productions, which have topped Beatports charts and have received international play by big name DJ’s such as Deep Dish, Tocadisco, Tommy Lee & DJ Aero, Erick Morillo, Bad Boy Bill, Tiga, and many others. I can attest to this fact from personal experience. Just last summer (May 2008) I was at the Gate Crasher Summer Sound System (3-day electronic music festival/rave) in the U.K., and to my surprise Tiga dropped Dan’s track ‘Just The Tip’ for a crowd of 10,000 rowdy Britts that were jumping off their asses.

Danny has produced tracks in collaboration with Toronto local Joey Seminara as well as Mc Flipside and Hatiras to name a few. ‘Just The Tip’, ‘200 Milligrams’, ‘The Rubdown’, and ‘Proximity’ are just a few of the Dan’s collaborations that you may have heard, or may want to check out. All his tracks can be found on Beatport.

 I had the opportunity to sit down with Danny and ask him some questions. Here's how it all went down.

Q: So how did the alias 'Danny Nagels' come about? 

A:  Well, back in my freshman year of university (York), whenever my buddy would want to smoke a joint he would always call me Danny Nagels.  Now, for anyone who went to Northland, people used to use the word "houfnagel" when they were gonna smoke.  At first, I just thought it sounded like a good name for a DJ.  But, now it has seemed to really catch on and more people know me by that name than even my real name.   

Q: When did you first get into DJ'ing and what were you spinning at that time? (if you didnt start out with tech/house when did you get into it) 

A: When I first got into DJing, I was spinning a lot of vocal and electro house.  To be honest, I really did not like techno when I started DJing, mainly because it was very minimal.  In the last year or so I have become a lot more focused on techno and tech house, probably because the beats have evolved into harder and more powerful grooves. 

Q: When did you begin producing?

A:  I have been producing for about 2 years now.  I started about the beginning of summer time back in 2007 thanks to a good friend of mine who was already a pretty prominent producer on the tech house scene. 

Q: How would you self describe your musical style, both for your productions as well as your sets?

A:  While my productions are pretty diverse in how they sound, I would say that they are all united by hard kickdrums, deep basslines, and lots of rising synths and long buildups.  Lately, I try to incorporate different samples.  For example, in "This is a recording" (Teggno Records), we sampled the sound of the operator talking when you dial a number that doesn't work, aka "we're sorry your call cannot be completed as dialed, please check the number and dial again".  Needless to say, it has been getting a great response in the clubs and it's nice to mess with people's heads sometimes :)

Q: What has been your personal favorite, as far as tracks that you have produced (or co-produced)?

A: My favorite track would probably be "200 Milligrams", co-produced with Joey Seminara.  There's nothing beautiful about this track...it's raw and powerful.  It is pretty much non-stop buildups for about seven minutes, driven by a powerful sub-bass and a rising synth that gives you goosebumps. 

Q: What has been your most successful (in terms of club play, reach, and sales) track? 

A:  Just the tip, which features myself, Joey Seminara, and MC Flipside, was hugely successful thanks to the Hatiras remix, which landed on the Beatport top 100 chart at #3, as well as #1 on the electro chart; recently it has been signed onto Roger Sanchez's latest compilation, and has been supported by Eric Morillo, Bad Boy Bill, Tommy Lee & DJ Aero, Tiga, and many more artists since it was released last year before Miami's Winter Music Conference. 

Q: For a man that's both DJ'ed and Partied outside of Toronto, How would you rate Toronto's Electronic Dance Music (E.D.M.) Scene compared to other cities in the world? 

A:  I think Toronto is doing great and we're very lucky to have clubs like guvernment, this is london, circa, and footwork consistently bringing quality artists to perform for us on a weekly basis.  While I have loved conferences like WMC and the BPM conference in Mexico, some events like Labour of Love a few years back were truly epic...Steve Lawler & Dubfire on Canada day...Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso rocking the guvernment...these were absolutely amazing parties.  However, we still cannot compare to the parties of Europe & South America where 40,000-50,000 people are the types of crowds you will usually find at the bigger parties and outdoor festivals. 

Q: What do you think seperates Toronto's E.D.M. scene from other cities? 

A:  I think our local DJs are probably better than most cities.  While you will hear great headliners in other cities, the opening talent doesn't stack up well compared to a lot of the resident DJs in Toronto. 

Q: Have you noticed any major changes in Toronto's E.D.M. scene in the past years?

A:  A profound transition from vocal and electro house, except in the Hipster scene where electro is still going strong...most clubs now you will only hear techno or tech house being played all night. 

Q: If there was one beef you have with Toronto's E.D.M. scene what would it be? 

A: I think we are still very much behind the rest of the world - in Europe, as strange as it sounds, a lot of jazz is being incorporated into the house music they are producing and spinning in the clubs...countries like Germany especially, where deep house has been exploding all over the scene. 

Q: What is your favorite venue that you have played in Toronto? And Why?

A: Guvernment in the mainroom for a special event where DJ Yahel was brought down.  Simply put, it has the best soundsystem and it is truly a remarkable feeling to play there for any DJ. 

Q: Tell us the most f#$%ed up story you have, either from partying or dj'ing or both?

A:  I was partying @ CIRCA for Carl Cox a few months back.  When I came into the parking lot where I had parked my SUV around 5 am (across from Inside Nightclub), there were cops everywhere with flashlights and guns.  I asked the cop if I could get to my car, and he said no there had been a bad shooting, some cars were hit...then he asked me why I was at a nightclub till 5 am lol.  I came back around 11 am to get my car and then I saw a small dent in the back of my trunk where a stray bullet had hit.  Ultimately, there was not much damage and pretty cheap to fix, but it's pretty scary to imagine if that bullet would have gone higher and someone was sitting in the backseat.

Q: To this point, what has been the highlight of your DJ'ing/Producing career? 

A: For me, seeing DJ's whose music I love and respect immensely play tracks I have produced has been the greatest highlight of my career as a producer. 

Q: What are your aspirations? 

A: To continue to make quality house music for many years to come.

Q: Any final thoughts or words of wisdom for other DJ's, Producers, and Party Goers? 

A:  If you like the music artists produce, don't just steal it from the Internet lol...buy it on websites like Beatport.com so you can help support the artist and let him/her continue making music.

Dan is definitely producing some QUALITY tracks, and is well on his way to breaking into the international scene. It’s artist like Dan that are helping to put Toronto on the map in the electronic dance music scene. I wish Dan all the best in the future and look forward to hearing more of his work bumping threw speakers everywhere.  

For more info on Danny check out:

Label: http://www.rapidfirerecords.com

Booking info: steve@fmonday.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dannynagels

Beatport: http://www.beatport.com/artists/danny+nagels

Aaron

“Getting down to business, so you can get to the business of getting down”

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