We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bo Scott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bo below.

Hi Bo, thanks for joining us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I’m not 100% certain this is the kindest thing anyone has EVER done for me, but it is definitely up there and I feel like a story worth sharing.

In 2014 I moved to LA. I often heard stories about LA people being fake or shitty or what have you, but I rarely heard about how good they can be.

In my first day moving to LA, someone backed into me and crushed the front end of my car. I had zero extra dollars so I was pretty stressed out. The person who backed into me apologized, called a tow truck and had my car towed. He paid for the tow, paid for my car to be fixed, and drove me to the rental car spot, and paid for my rental car. Wow. What a champ.

The next day I drove my rental car to the Hollywood Comedy Store and parked out front. It was after 12am so I did not think the meters were still running but when I got back to my car I had a ticket for $78 and realized the meters ran till 2am.

No!

But there was a random woman sitting there that witnessed my disappointment from the Comedy Store Patio and she jumped up, ran over and snatched it out of my hand and said ” I hate these meters here, I’m so sorry this happened to you, I’m going to pay for this ticket.” Wow, I couldn’t believe it. A total stranger.

Now, I will agree there are no shortage of disgusting people in Hollywood, but there are plenty of good souls too. And you can choose who to associate yourself with.

Bo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a kid growing up I thought it would be cool to be in the CIA. I would imagine myself as a CIA officer going on covert missions in Europe like James Bond. In all these missions, I was always imagining myself listening to Techno Music. Later, I came to realize that I was more interested in the Techno Music than doing the missions.

Techno was new at the time and I felt like I had stumbled across this special thing that not many people knew about. The music could teleport my mind to whatever emotion I wanted to experience. It made me feel cool. It gave me drive and purpose. I fell in love and began to explore more electronic genres.

I had quite an outgoing personality and quickly discovered I was a natural at DJing. After practicing for about a year I got pretty good and began playing out live and making money. I landed a residency at a club and then became a full time DJ. It was great!

To graduate to bigger and better gigs I needed to learn to produce the music myself. I quickly found out that this was very difficult and expensive. In 2002 traveled to Miami for the WMC conference to soak up as much knowledge as I could. That conference taught me that it would be at least 8 years before I was going to be able to be proficient at making good electronic music.

When I got back home I had to ask myself, was it going to be worth the 8 year investment of time and money to learn to become a good music producer? The answer was yes. Though, it actually ended up taking me about 15 years to get good! It was a grind, but now I am here. A seasoned DJ vet and producer signed to about 10 electronic labels and counting.

Technology has made it easier to produce music and now I sit in a crowded sea of DJs, producers, wanabe producers, and rich people that pay others to ghost produce for them. Ai will very soon be able to create good quality music indistinguishable from humans. This is just an unfortunate wave that I am going to have to surf. My love for the craft is so deep that the wave will not wipe me out. So what will set me a part from the congested sea of electronic music grammy nominated Ai bots?

Well, blockchain and live events is my answer. That is where I am at now. In 2020 I was introduced to a blockchain called Cardano. Cardano is the bridge that will lead us all to a better world. Cardano now, is right where Techno music was back when I first discovered it. Underground and full of life. And it gives me that same feeling of purpose that electronic music does. Cardano is a tool for any and everyone. For small communities, and large, to make the world work better. I am using it to build a community focused on live music events. It will be the first of its kind and I couldn’t be more excited!

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Excellent Question. I am very passionate about NFTs. But not in the usual sense.

I am not one to buy and flip. I do not care for all these collections of NFTs that people are buying and selling just to try and turn profit. I am not for the “Clout” of holding a particular NFT. However, no shade to those who play in that arena.

I believe the technology behind NFTs is invaluable.

Think it would be cool to see a world where Pioneer CDJs only play a particular file format. With NFTs an artist could mint a select number of tracks that could not be copied or shared. This would benefit the DJ industry in 2 major ways:

1) Djs could set their own prices on their own tracks and designate how many tracks were up for sale.
2) This would make djs a bit more unique. Like the vinyl days where djs all had unique record collections.

Djs could transfer their NFT songs to other djs for a premium price, and the original creator could also gain a commission for this trade.

Do I think the industry would ever move to something like this? MMMMM no probably not anytime soon. But it sure would help DJs maintain their own identity.

NFTs can also help drive down the cost of ticket fees. Don’t you hate giving $30 in fees to ticketmaster or whoever just for selling the ticket? That is one of my pet peeves.

With NFTs, event promoters can sell tickets with no middle man and virtually no fees attached.

I am actually in the process of creating such a platform, on Cardano.

I have a Cardano tattoo on my arm. You should get one too;)

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I got into DJing because of the feeling that the music gives me. Cliche I know. I also recognized that I love being around people and good energy. So being able to create the energy I wanted whilst being around people at the same time made DJing the obvious choice.

There is also an element of technology that goes into DJing. And I love that element just the same.

Most people would say that the most rewarding aspect of being a dj is to see all the smiling faces and immediate feedback from the crowd. And while that is definitely rewarding, I wouldn’t say it is my favorite part.

For me, I love prepping my sets. Often times while djing, I have to think about what I am doing; Mixing, adjusting levels, thinking about what to play next, worrying about any problems with gear that may have popped up. But while prepping a set, I can sit back in my chair and visualize the crowd and the feeling I will experience in the booth with the music bumping and the crowd jumping.

This is especially rewarding for the larger gigs that I play, because they are typically shorter and easier.

For example, I once opened for Steve Aoki at a relatively small venue. I knew the show was sold out and I knew the crowd would respond well to my songs. So I could sit there in my studio prepping my set, feeling the music, closing my eyes and feeling the feeling of the music and the crowd all together just vibing. No stress, No worry, just listening and feeling with no time limit. For me, that is one of the greatest privileges as a DJ.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thisiseverybody.live
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bo_Scott
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/bassmachina
• Twitter: https://x.com/bo_Scott
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bassmachina
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bo_Scott
• Other: I am Bass Machina and Bo Scott on Spotify. Bass Machina for Drum & Bass music, Bo Scott for House and Techno.

Image Credits

Fabeaux
Jeremy Wing