DJ Ron Slomowicz: I heard you were on CNN yesterday.
Desyn Masiello: Oh probably, I don't know. John and I did a quick five minute thing and it was over before it was even started. It was so fast, we had three questions fired at us, boom, boom, boom, and it was over. I haven't seen it personally, don't really want to either.
RS: It's really cool that CNN, a mainstream news station here in the US, is covering you and talking to dance artists.
Desyn: That's pretty mental actually. To be honest, John and I both thought that the questions would be really bad because they're coming from CNN who probably don't have a clue about dance music, but the questions were actually really good. They were proper and actually made me think before I answered them. Yes, it was cool.
RS: How did you like the US tour?
Desyn: I loved it, I thought it was brilliant. I had great times and met lots of people. It was great because I'd done a tour of the US before which wasn't that great because I was touring with another guy who, like myself, wasn't a known name, so we weren't playing for that many people. We played this place in Chicago and we had like ten people there. We had some bad experiences and because we weren't very well-known, we weren't treated that well by a few of the clubs as well. One club didn't have any CD players and we only played off CDs at that time, so they ran across to the club on the other side, nicked their CD players and just threw them on the table so we had to set them up. So I'd had some bad experiences in the past in the US, but this time it was amazing because all the clubs were basically full. Obviously, they're there to see John but it's still good to see that there's that many people that are really into underground dance music and come out. I was doing the warm-up for John and playing all sorts of weird shit to begin, opening up the rooms because it was early and people were being really receptive. It was really good to see that everyone was really open-minded.
RS: Do you think you played any differently in the US than you play in other countries?
Desyn: I changed my set slightly. Some places in Asia they like it very progressive and hard, and then in the UK, they like really just funky, funky house - the more funky slower stuff. In the US, I they're really open-minded, just like they are over here, they want to hear good music and it doesn't matter what it is.
RS: You play such a variety of music, how do you choose which records to play from the different genres?
Desyn: Basically I just listen to a track, and there's nothing in particular I'm listening for. The beats are always very important because the beats are what really hold peoples' attention on the dance floor and keep your bum shaking. You can have an amazing piece of music that's ruined by putting really rubbish beats put on it. So I guess I look for strong beats that have a really good rhythm. But as in style, I don't look for anything particular. Every type of music can make you feel good, whether its a Brazilian or Latino record, some really dark hard techno record or just a really funky soulful vocal track. They can all make you feel good inside, so I don't really say this type of music is what I'm going to play for two hours. I think it's interesting for people to hear the different sounds as well, different influences from different parts of the world and not just a two-hour set of one type of music made by a group of producers who make one style of music and live in certain areas of the world. I like to play music which has influences from everything dub reggae, Brazilian and all types.
