Vibesquad performed at the Fox Theatre Sept. 18. (CU Independent/ Ilana Finer)
Splitting time between heavy electronic beats and driving the kids to school is just another day in the life for electronic DJ Aaron Holstein, commonly known as Vibesquad.
Holstein’s music experience began in Chicago where he grew up playing piano, pounding on drums and strumming guitar. He played guitar, bass and vocals in jazz and funk bands for about 20 years before he crossed into the electronic world of womp-womp.
Having gone to music school Holstein studied a wide array of musical genres and puts a little bit of everything into his live show. Holstein goes in depth with the CU Independent about his writing process.
“It’s sounds from every possible thing that I’ve gotten with microphones,” Holstein said. “From synthesizers to instruments to taking a digital microphone to home depot and recording up and down the aisles of the spring drawer, and the screws and the broom scraping on the ground.”
Coupled with a passion for party music is his dedication to family life. Holstein throws down a highly energetic dance party on the weekends, but makes sure to get home by Sunday to tuck in his two boys at their home in Erie.
“I get to the airport every Friday and get home on Sunday,” Holstein said. “I’m super dad, driving a mini van, carpool the kids to school, taking them to Karate lessons, T-ball games and all that stuff.”
After taking care of the kids he spends the rest of his time in the studio creating beats.
“I just rock out during the day, every day during the week.”
Holstein started off his weekend with his CD release party at the Fox theatre; the first 300 people at the door received a free copy of “Joyful Noise.” “Joyful Noise” was first released on Sept. 9 at http://vibesquad.addictech.com.
The venue was packed with people rocking out to S.P.E.C.T.R.E. hours before the headliner took stage.
During the interview, the walls inside the basement of the Fox were vibrating with the heavy bass from above. Holstein said he has played at the Fox many times with other bands as Vibesquad, but that this is the first time he’s here without another promoter.
The most recent band he’s played with is Zilla, featuring Jamie Janover and Michael Travis from popular jam band, The String Cheese Incident. The group played close to 400 shows, traveling internationally to places like Japan and Canada.
He’s enjoyed playing with other instrumental bands, but electronic is where his heart is.
“Electronic is the closest thing to plugging a cable into my head and into the sound system,” Holstein said. “With the computer I can absolutely dial so close to what I’m trying to do inside my head musically.”
After S.P.E.C.T.R.E, EPROM came on stage and kept the party hopping before Vibesquad started his set. EPROM got a positive reaction from the audience and he threw out a handful of free CDs before leaving the stage.
After a brief intermission, the lights went out and Holstein took the stage as Vibesquad. He hopped behind the DJ booth and started by spinning some upbeat electronic and made the crowd go wild. Shortly after the music started, a group of break-dancers enter the stage. Some girls in the audience watched the stage in awe as the attractive dancers did their thing.
Holstein mentioned break dancing as a kid and participated in gymnastics for close to 13 years. If he weren’t performing, he would have been on-stage strutting his stuff alongside his dancers.
The dancers were a hit with most of the audience. Freshman pre-journalism major Alex Abel said she enjoyed the show and loved watching the break dancers.
“I wish I was them,” Abel said. “They were sick, they rocked it.”
Abel said she plans on seeing Vibesquad the next time he comes through town.
Break-dancing is not usually featured in electronic shows and added a unique, but distracting, touch to the show. Despite being entertaining, having the dancers was almost too much. The audience would slow their own dancing to watch the professionals at work.
In addition to break-dancers, Vibesquad let some kids from the audience hop on stage and dance alongside him and the dancers. Eventually, too many people started climbing onstage and overcrowding. The bouncers had to step in, meaning most of the guys had to go.
“At times it added to the show and at times it took away from it. The moment they took away from it was when there was a massive amount of girls on stage,” said Irene Lee, a senior MCD major.
Courtney Hanson, a 21-year-old sociology major, had a stronger opinion of the dancers’ distraction.
“The break-dancers at the end ruined any appreciation of music he had,” said Hanson of Vibesquad. “Worst show I have ever seen at The Fox.”
Sam Sommers was among the men kicked offstage, but the sophomore environmental engineering major
wasn’t bitter.
“I thought they [the break-dancers] were awesome, I want to get on the team!” said Sommers.
Sommers said he has seen many DJs before, and thought Vibesquad rocked it.
Holstein’s stage presence is a clear indicator of how much he loves what he does. The crowded stage made it difficult to see.
”They [the dancers] were alright, they were a little distracting,” said Nichole Lorentz, a senior integrated physiology major.
Lorentz said that being from Los Angeles she is used to a lot of creative break-dancing, and that the dancers weren’t up to par with LA’s break-dancers.
Lorentz and Lee said they had never seen Vibesquad before but that they had a great time dancing at the show.
The show ended much like it begun: with a lot of heavy bass and the break-dancers getting down once again. It ended close to 2 a.m. and the crowd was still hungry for more.
Holstein ended the show with a gracious “Thank you,” and was able to play an additional ten minutes because of the crowd’s frantic energy.
When asked about what inspires him to create music, during the interview Holstein’s answer was very straightforward.
“The reason behind all of this is really, really simple, plain and simple,” he said. “I just really want to make people feel good, that’s it. I want to make them feel really good.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Amanda Dovel at Amanda.Dovel@colorado.edu.
