LA CANVAS got the ultimate VIP experience hanging out and getting down at Desert Hearts ’15. Not only were the vibes and love on point all weekend long, but we got the chance to catch up with two of our favorite artists who played this year, Atish & Deep Jesus, who gave us the low down their fave moments and sets from this years festival.
LA CANVAS: What were some of the most uplifting moments of the fest for you?
ATISH: Getting that chance to play sunrise Sunday morning was something really special for me. Every DJ has their own take on how to play a sunrise and the moments leading up to it. I personally like to play gorgeous, emotional, melodic, hopefully not cheesy music that speaks to the soul. Music that makes people feel good. I was smiling the whole time during me set, I saw lots of smiles on the dance floor, and the crowd and I were just vibing off each other’s energy, which was really uplifting to me and everyone else who stuck it through to 7am. In a word, we felt synchronicity, which is really my ultimate goal as a DJ.
LAC: Three favorite sets?
A: Rodriguez Jr absolutely blew me away. He was already one of my top 3 favorite producers in the world, so I had high hopes going in, and he just knocked it out of the park with his live act. I think he may have played best set I’ve heard in the last 12 months.Ben Annand was totally on point with his Saturday daytime set. Ben’s a veteran DJ so he was busting out these old school west-coast house records that most of us newer generation DJs don’t have access to or know where to begin. Those records he played were from an era where it wasn’t out of bounds for house music to make you feel good in that way, which couldn’t have been any better for his daytime timeslot. I was inspired to go home and dig.I have a tie for third, between Justin Campbell and Bells + Whistles. I’d been wanting to catch Justin for quite some time now and he was totally on point. Bells + Whistles have just been on fire as of late, and they were slotted after Rodriguez Jr. Rodriguez Jr is a tough act to follow, but they nailed it so with class and style.
LAC: What elements if any gave you a note of growth with the fest?
A: The obvious one is the dance floor was fuller the entire time, perhaps too full at points. But from a DJ perspective, it means no matter what your timeslot, you don’t have to stress about playing to an empty floor, which is really nice. For a bunch of acts, it was impossible to get in the DJ booth backstage due to overcrowding. This is by no means a complaint – I actually think this is a good thing since it’s a subtle reminder to why we’re here. We are part of this scene because we love music, so we should spend most of our time hanging out where the music is designed to be heard: on the floor.
LAC: What do you have going on next, and will you play again at DH?
