Sunday, September 16, 2007

A plus D

A plus D

A + D is Adrian & the Mysterious D, a mashup team from California, known equally as well for their popular mashup night, Bootie. Since its inception in 2003, Bootie has grown to include events in Los Angeles, New York and Paris.

Adrian is also the lead singer for a band, called Smash-up Derby, which does live cover versions of popular bastard pop songs, along with mashups of their own creation. It was of course bound to happen, and for the time being at least, they bear the distinction of being the world's only live mashup rock band.

They've hosted DJs from all over the world and are consisently spinning at events beyond their wildly successful Bootie night, which was voted "Best Dance Club" in the Readers Poll of the San Francisco Bay Guardian's BEST OF THE BAY 2006, and included in Spin Magazine's "101 Best Nights Out This Month" (July 2006). Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with A plus D...


*Name: We are DJs Adrian & The Mysterious D. We produce mashups under our bootlegger moniker A plus D, and we're the creators of Bootie, America's first, and now the world's biggest mashup bootleg party. Our first Bootie party started in San Francisco in 2003, and we have a sister party, Bootie LA, in Los Angeles started in 2005, and this year, brand new Bootie parties in New York (run by us) and in Paris (run by our bootlegger pal ComaR and his posse).

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: "Poster children of the American mashup scene!" We always loved that one.

*Do you use a pseudonym? Adrian doesn't. Deidre does. (Whoops! We just revealed the mystery behind the "Mysterious D"!)

*Members: Just us ... two (Adrian Roberts, Deidre Roberts). However, Bootie wouldn't be what it is today without the international bootleg community and a tight group of fellow bootlegger friends.

*Founding Members: Us: Adrian & the Mysterious D.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Of those three descriptors, definitely "digital deconstructions." Although, it's more like we're RE-contructors -- we take songs and instead of just taking them apart, we put them back together in new and interesting ways. We're mashup producers/DJs.

*Another genre descriptor: Are we the last ones left who don't think that the term "mashup" is a bad word? ;-)

*Why you use this descriptor: ... 'cuz we "mash" up songs. :-) The name of our club Bootie is actually short for “bootleg,” another word for mashup made popular in the UK. However, if you say you play "bootlegs" in San Francisco, people think it means you spin songs from old Bob Dylan or Grateful Dead live concert bootleg recordings! So the word mashup explains what we do a bit better.

*Location: San Francisco is our home base, although we've got "offices" (ha ha - actually, our friends' apartments) in LA and NYC, where we stay at one weekend a month, almost every month -- to do the LA and NYC Bootie parties.

*Original Location: A is originally from Ohio. D is originally from Texas.

*What is your creative/artistic background: We've both been intimately involved with music since our early teens. In college, Adrian studied art and theatre, while programming the college radio station. After college, he started a rock band, where he was the singer for nine years. D has been an avid music collector and maker of popular "mixtapes" since the word mixtape still meant assorted musical gems mixed together on a cassette. :-) Both of us have a voracious love of music from all kinds of genres and eras.

*History: We've been working together as a DJ team since 2002.

*Born: Adrian was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, in 1968. D was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1972.

*Motivations: We love music of so many different styles, genres, and eras. And we love to bring it all together. We love looking around at our club Bootie and seeing such a truly diverse crowd of people -- ages, styles, sexualities, you name it -- all smiles and hands in the air, dancing together to the music that we love. We love how our mashup club's music inspires connection between groups of people that might normally not share a dance floor, and how it lends itself to an unpretentious good time.

*Philosophy: To bring disparate musical genres together in an effort to make statements about music and pop culture ... and for the pure pleasure of hearing old and new favorites in a fresh way.

*How would you like to be remembered: As the couple who were instrumental in bringing a wider awareness and acceptance of mashup bootleg culture to the world ... and who threw a great party doing it!

*Web address:
http://www.AplusD.net
http://www.BootieUSA.com
http://www.smashupderby.com


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