WVUM’s Laura of Miami, a master’s student, DJed at Ultra in March. The Miami Hurricane chatted via email with the local musical trendsetter, whose real name is Laura Sutnick, about her experience at Ultra Music Festival.
The Miami Hurricane: What’s your favorite part about being a DJ?
Laura Sutnick: I like to compare DJing to delivering flowers or serving ice cream. It’s about making people on the other side of the DJ booth happy. I like to introduce people to new music, make them dance, and I’m really big on developing Miami’s music scene.
TMH: What’s it like performing at Ultra?
LS: It’s great! Being on a bill with such top-notch talent is an honor. You get to play on an awesome system, a cool stage, and to very enthusiastic people.
TMH: What artists do you look up to?
LS: I love Todd Terje, who I actually booked for a May show at the Electric Pickle. I’m also a huge Kraftwerk fan, so seeing them this weekend was a treat. Grace Jones is one of my all-time favorites as well.
TMH: What DJs did you check out at Ultra?
LS: I was more into the live acts at Ultra this year: Kraftwerk, New Order, Metronomy, Little Dragon, and M83.
TMH: What’s been your biggest challenge as a DJ?
LS: I tend to play very new or obscure music. Generally Miamians are very caught up in mainstream music and hip-hop and it’s difficult to find crowds to open their minds to something they’ve never heard. If you want really great paying gigs, you normally have to sell out and play top 40 stuff, which I refuse to do.
TMH: What do you hope to do after graduation?
LS: I’ll be working hard bringing more acts to Miami through my company, Nightdrive. We’re also working on launching a label and expanding our music blog nightdrivemiami.com, which is currently rated a top 100 music blog in the U.S.