Saturday, June 25, 2011

Britney Spears, Afrojack Remixes Put Moguai On The Dance Floor

'Lyve From Beta' DJ crafting another 'Beatport Essentials' sample pack.
By Adam Stewart


Sofi and Moguai
Photo: MTV News

Moguai is quickly becoming one of the hottest names in dance music. Midway through his most-recent Stateside jaunt, "Lyve From America," the German DJ and producer will hit Sin City this weekend for a set at the Palms' Rain Nightclub on Saturday, followed by the granddaddy of them all: opening the Circuit Grounds stage on the final evening of the Electric Daisy Carnival on Sunday.

But it wasn't always club tunes and chart-topping success for the Mau5trap signee, born André Tegeler, who not long ago was on a path that was more likely to put him in the courtroom than the DJ booth.

"I was in Germany, studying for my law examination," he recalled recently in Miami. "But at that same time, I hit my first official German chart, so I had to make a choice: Do I do this the serious or un-serious way? So I said, 'OK, go for the music!' "

Luckily for the EDM aficionados, he put his legal dreams aside and dove headfirst into sound production. And now, just a few years later, he's become an integral part of one of the world's hottest dance labels. Having joined forces with Sofi (as in Deadmau5's "Sofi Needs a Ladder") on "Beat of the Drum," who he first met literally minutes before our chat, Moguai hit big this year in Miami, and his infectious grooves have been spreading like wildfire ever since. With his latest solo release "Oxygen," a rework of Afrojack's club monster "Bangduck" due out July 4, and a massive remix of the new Britney Spears single "I Wanna Go" to be released shortly after, Moguai is quickly proving that he is as versatile as he is talented.

Coming off the success of "Lyve From Beta," a unique release that included all of the loops, samples and tools from his set at the renowned Denver nightclub, Moguai is busy crafting another sample-based Ableton-friendly release pack, "Beatport Elements."

"It will have parts, so you can download the full audio and you can download the separate parts of what the tracks are made of," he explained. "You can see the pitch and the bpm, and you have lots of information about the music, so you can deal with it and handle it in whichever way you like."

While in the past, bedroom producers were tasked with slicing and dicing a master track from their favorite artists, the tech-savvy can now get their hands on individual song parts and re-interpret the tracks in their own style, something Beatport is hoping to do with more artists, Moguai said. He recalled how different his upbringing to the scene was compared with the technological advantages of today. With a bourgeoning tour schedule on the horizon, he's relieved that the age of the digital DJ allows him to travel light.

"It's nice, all of this software and all of these things, but I'm from this old-school generation. I'm coming from this vinyl business. I played so many years with only vinyl, and I paid so much traveling with vinyl to all of my gigs!" he recalled, laughing.

Will you be catching Moguai on tour? Tell us in the comments below!

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