We Know The Feeling: Scott Paradis (Beatport Denver)

We Know The Feeling: Scott Paradis (Beatport Denver)

27 September, 2010 | 2.52AM

• Written by: Sean Lewis
• Filed under: Music News: we know the feeling

As “We Know the Feeling” continues to bring you a rotation of ladies and gentlemen that slave over the well-oiled gears and springs of the Beatport machine, we also seek to show you the human side of our collective. The people who have passions and obsessions that would otherwise hinder one’s devotional employment elsewhere, serves as the springboard to a successful and gratifying career here. But if it wasn’t for Beatport, where would they go and what would they do?

To investigate a little further, we journey into the heart of our Denver HQ to meet Scott Paradis, one of our leading UI developers, who talks about juggling career with his musical passions — and recounts how he once saved a soundsystem from drowning.

Where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in Montrose, Colorado. It’s the near the ski town of Telluride.

What was the first album you purchased?

The first piece of music I ever purchased was Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out at Night.” It was a single on cassette. But my first full album purchase was the Beastie Boys’ Ill Communication.

What were some of your earliest musical influences?

I definitely was exposed to a lot of contemporary jazz while growing up. My dad would listen to jazz nearly every night. Early hip-hop was some of the first music I was exploring on my own. Beastie Boys and Trent Reznor were definitely influential. Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine was one of favorite albums for a long time. Being a child of the ‘80s, I was also heavily influenced by pop music and culture of the era. From video games to “Video Killed the Radio Star,” I always loved warm, analog synthesized sounds, especially basses. And 8-bit, gritty sounds are some of my favorite to this day. When I first started listening to DJs, Beatport’s own Little Mike and Wyatt Earp were big influences to me within the local scene.

When and how did you get into Electronic music?

I think Orbital’s Green Album may have been the first electronic music I had ever purchased. Shortly thereafter came Kraftwerk, Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Dieselboy and many others. A number of the Moonshine artists were also influential when I first getting interested in electronic music. DJ Micro headlined the first big party I went to back in 1999. I had only been DJing a little while at that point, but I was definitely inspired to play music. I remember getting a laptop for college that immediately turned into a mobile disc jockey business. I played at all sorts of bar and fraternity parties in Boulder, where I was going to school. But DJing has been a huge factor and continues to fuel my passion for electronic music.

Have your tastes evolved since then?

Absolutely. But the music has evolved as well. In fact, that’s one of the greatest things about electronic music. It’s always changing, always interesting. I mean, we have genres today that did not exist two years ago. It will be the same thing two years from now. But my palette has changed over time as well. I went through a big electro house phase. I remember begging to get the genre added to Beatport at one point. When electro started to get a little stale, I gravitated more towards tech-house and minimal records. My after-hours residency with Wyatt Earp and DJ Foxx was significant catalyst in that shift. Little Mike also taught me a lot about music and DJing and I naturally absorbed. Today, my tastes are harder to define. They seem to be on a shorter evolution cycle than the music itself. 

What’s the best thing about living in Denver?

There are so many reasons… the people, the music, the art, the food, the mountains, and some of the tastiest tap water in the country.

What do you do here at Beatport and how long have you been with the company?

Over the nearly six years I’ve been at Beatport, I’ve had many roles, from college intern to content manager to part of a research & design team, to a software engineer. But for the past two years, my official title has been User Interface (UI) Developer.

In layman’s terms, what does that mean?

We write code that controls the things you click on and interact with on websites. But user interface developers are a slightly different breed than your normal software engineer.

In what way has Beatport changed your life?

Beatport is a part of who I am. It has literally been a life-changing experience in so many ways, it’s hard to collect them all. Without a doubt, the musician inside of me has flourished as a result of Beatport—but so too have the futurist, entrepreneur and mad-scientist inside of me. My experiences at here have helped me discover and shape who I am today. It’s hard to imagine sometimes, but I’ve spent the better part of my twenties eating, sleeping and breathing Beatport. I wake up every day excited to go to work. And as many of my colleagues know, it’s sometimes hard to get me to go home at night. But the greatest impact this experience has had is the feeling of being part of something that bigger than you. My friends, coworkers, our customers, the fans, the parties, the music, the highs and the lows. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

Do you produce or perform?

I’ve been DJing for about 11 years. I’ve several residencies and played at hundreds of parties over the years. The last year or so, I’ve been focusing more on writing music. It’s a ton of work to keep up with of these younger DJs. There’s tons of self-promotion, wheeling and dealing, time and energy involved. That’s not to say I don’t love DJing, because it’s still one of my greatest passions. But I feel like the next step for me is to refine my skills writing music. I’ve been learning how to produce for at least seven or eight years. I have hundreds, if not thousands, of short, unfinished tracks that no one has ever heard. I’ve put a couple tracks out in the past, some under aliases. But it’s only been within the last year or so I’ve started to get a little more committed to releasing some of my own work. At the moment, I’m collaborating with a couple of my friends on a new project. We’ve been writing some pretty good tracks and it’s been a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll see some stuff hit the site before the end of the year.

What’s your production set up like?

Ableton 8, Logic 8, Novation Supernova, Oxygen 8 MIDI keyboard, M-Audio BX-8 studio monitors. Lots of AU plug-ins, samples.

Preferred method of mixing?

In key, using Traktor Scratch and control CDs.

Can you tell us more about where you’ve performed in the past? Do you have any upcoming releases or appearances?

I’ve played at a lot of the big Colorado festivals, Skylab, Electric Daisy Carnival, etc. I held residencies at a number of the Denver clubs—Vinyl, The Church, TwoAM, and my favorite, Beta. There’ve been gigs in NYC at Love and all sorts of one-offs in Miami during WMC. I’ve even played as far away as El Salvador.

Favorite Denver eatery?

Cherry Creek Grill, for their legendary jalapeno cornbread and grilled artichoke hearts.

If you could resurrect one known celebrity, who would it be?

Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a celebrity at one time, right?

When and why was the last time you went 24 hours without sleep?

It happens to me several times a year when I hit a creative streak and stay up all night trying to get some new invention or gizmo to work.

Top three producers/ DJs?

Reset Robot
Zodiac Cartel
Format:B

Top three tracks you’ve heard in the past 3 months?

Reset Robot ‘La Porte (Original Mix)’

Tube & Berger ‘Kreidler Flory (Tapesh Remix)’

LYS & Lake - La Tromba (Riva Starr Remix)

I’ll Never Forget the Time I _________

I’ll never forget the time I went hang gliding from the cliffs of Rio De Janero.

I hope to someday forget the time I ___________

I hope to someday forget about the time I put my car into a ditch filled with water on my way to DJ at a friends house party. I was probably 17 at that time. We were on a country road outside my hometown. It was night and I wasn’t wearing my contacts. I went too fast into a sharp corner and slid into a ditch about three feet deep with water. My friends realized I was no longer behind them and returned to see me on top of my car, now in the ditch, hoisting speakers and amps up onto the roof. We were able to tow my car out, which I steered, draining water, the whole way back to the party. We rolled up to this crowd of people and everyone froze. I opened my car door, and water came pouring out. I was soaking wet, covered in mud and smelled like cow shit…

If I could be a _____ I would be a ______ because _______

If I could be a gadget I would be a Rube Goldberg machine because even making toast can be an adventure.

I would rather _______ than _______

I would rather be water-boarded than listen to Glenn Beck.

Ableton Live

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