SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – DJ Faze speaks with ArkLaTex Artistry’s Brittney Hazelton about how they managed to get the Yellow Brick Road Tour to come to the area. Additionally, DJ Faze speaks about the state of the EDM scene in the area.
Electronic Dance Music, otherwise known as EDM, once drove a scene of music and expression in the Shreveport-Bossier area, giving many a place to enjoy free-spirited enviroments. Many attendees and performers, who are all adults now, used to attend these randomly placed raves in their high school years. Those days have slowly seemed to fade, but DJ Faze, a well-known EDM DJ in the Shreveport-Bossier area, wants the scene to undergo a rival and the area certainly doesn’t lack the talent for it.
Dancefestopia is a massive well-known music festival that focuses on electronic music across the world. The best electronic dance music (EDM) artists perform on its stages. In 2025, two DJs will be selected in two separate shows for the Yellow Brick Road Tour in Shreveport. Those winners will be able to perform on the big stages of the dance festival on September 1-7, 2025.
The Yellow Brick Road Tour is coming to Shreveport thanks to DJ Faze, who managed to become the representative of Louisiana after winning in New Orleans in a previous year.
“Its a branch off of the big festival, Dancefestopia, that they hold in Lacygne, Kansas. Which is about an hour from Kansas City. So, what they do is they go to all the big cities in the country and they host essentially like an EDM DJ competition. And, it’s more vote-based. We have about seven to eight DJs perform 30 minutes at a time, back-to-back. They kinda just run it festival-style,” explains Faze. “You come in, you enjoy the show, you pick your favorite DJ and you vote for them at the end of the day. Whoever wins the vote from that night, they are able to perform at the actual festival.”
“Its free of charge, The only thing you have to pay for is to get there,” says Faze. “You’re on the bill, you’re on the poster,” explains Faze. “Board of Productions is the company that hosts Dancefestopia, and they host CRAZY amounts of different events with super huge celebrities.”
This gives EDM artists from our area a chance to have a break out in their career and the valuable experience of performing at a big festival.
“The networking out there is insane. Um, you know, if you play your cards right, you may be able to meet some of those big producers and DJs out there, some of the production people. The photographers, just everyone is out there all at once. Its a dry camping festival too by the way. You come out and pitch a tent and kinda survive for seven days out there,” says Faze.
Yellow Brick Road Tour Date:
Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m.
Location:
Strange Brew, 235 Wall Street, Shreveport, La.
Performing artists:
- Bangsta
- Edgar Blue
- Eye10
- Fabrikatr
- ITSJUSTFARRIS
- Namaa
- Snayx
- Xpozur Therapy
For more about Dancefestopia, visit the website at https://www.dancefestopia.com/.
About DJ Faze
“I’m essentially an open format DJ, I play everything. I play all types of events, including themed parties. I, um, you know, love bringing musical experiences to whatever event it may be. And, I have a specialty for EDM,” explains DJ Faze. ” I’ve been kinda making my rounds here as far as bringing more awareness to the talent that we have here in northwest Louisiana. I’m also a producer as well, I do make some instrumentals here so far. I got a couple of releases out.”
Not only is Faze an EDM artist, but they are also a drummer and have knowledge of music theory.
” It all ties together in this nice little present of DJ Faze, the music genius, I don’t know, the music obsession,” says DJ Faze.
DJ Faze has been passionate about EDM music and DJing since they were in high school. Faze was already experienced with music, having been in a high school band, but their love for electronic music started when decided to do their senior project on DJing.
Faze spent much of their time bedroom DJing until finally breaking out into the scene in 2019. DJ Faze has since played many events, including the Red River Revel and Artini.
Where did it all start?
EDM is older than most assume. According to Faze, it all began with disco in the 70,s and in the early 80s the scene was there.
“EDM was just underground at that time. Kinda like hip-hop was in the 90s. So, it was like if you knew, you knew. You know, you may get like a text, er well text nowadays, or like a note or a word of mouth at that time, like, ‘hey, go to this address at like 10 at night. And, its like a warehouse that seems abandoned and nothing is going on. You go in the doors and its all this crazy stuff. That was kinda the atmosphere of it at one point,” says Faze.
According to Faze, there was a place but the crowd wanted more hip-hop mixed in and slowly EDM was weeded out and only hip-hop was requested to be played. So, the EDM scene has dwindled to little to none.
“I want people to know that not that there is a scene, because there is nowhere to really go yet. But, there is the ability for us to have that out here. We have the talent. We have the people that know how those things go, those types of events or themes. OGs in the community that would probably love to see the kids flourish,” says Faze. “I don’t want to be the savior for the EDM scene here. I just want people to see that its possible and if we all collaborate and work hard, we can have whatever we want here.”
Faze’s advice for saving the scene is for the older DJs to stop gatekeeping the art. DJ Faze themselves mentors someone and mentorship itself is important to help more artists grow and support the community. Additionally, more locations for EDM artists to perform and shows specifically for EDM would be helpful. Faze also asks for people who have never tried EDM to give it a chance.
“Having an open mind, you know, you never know that you don’t like something until you try it out. EDM, a lot of people’s first thought is they think, techno. Techno is only this much of what EDM actually is,” Faze shows a small pinch with their finger to express an inch.
Advice for new EDM artists
“Even if it’s not like you have a club or bar to DJ at. Even if you are just DJing around your friends, cause that’s what I did. I didn’t have anywhere to go, but I would bring my little board and my laptop to my friend’s house while we were hanging out. And, even if they aren’t paying total attention, I’m back there just spinning, just mixing and experimenting, you know what I mean? and eventually they listen in and are like ‘Ahh! Yea, that’s good!’ there we go. I’m getting feedback,” suggests DJ Faze.
With a lack of venues or the openness of existing places to let in new emerging artists, some may feel discouraged.
“Well, if you can’t get in on something that is already there, create your own,” suggests DJ Faze.
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