Scott James didn’t always know he wanted to make dance music. A Calgary native who spent more of his youth on a lacrosse field than on a dance floor, Scott’s journey to the studio has taken many twists and turns along the way. Since discovering the art of DJ’ing in 2006, James has been honing his skills as a resident of Montreal’s famous Circus afterhours, an institution that he is quick to credit as one of the driving forces behind his personal development as an artist. In 2013, James is spending most of his time in the studio, developing a signature sound that he describes as dark, but progressive.
When I ask about how James originally got into dance music, he talks about his year of NCAA lacrosse at Limestone College, which left him looking for a greater academic challenge. Exploring other options for his University education led Scott to Montreal.
So I called my best friend and said ‘where do you go?’ He said McGill, and when I look
ed into it I sa e 1 w they had a lacrosse team. I spok
decks, I remember they were so expensive at the time. I think my little garbage set was lik
0 minutes. So a few months later in January ’0 e $1
or anything, it was insanely difficult to learn on, but I had a blast. T
of that and I was doing all the house parties at McGill. Come January 2009, I had no idea where this was going, but I knew that my parties were getting bigger
out 200-250 people. So after about 6 months of these parties I met my first manager named Patrick who work
ribe Hyperclub. W e work ed together
got to play with Mark Knight. As a fresh kid, only 22 years old I was so ex I may ha
for a bit, and my first real breakthrough gig was at T ve played a little too hard in retrospect, but ha
, I got pick
ribe in Montreal, where I cited.
ving no experience
ever opening for an international DJ yet getting to open for one of the guys you look up to, was a big deal. Just by chance, on that night the whole Circus afterhours staff was there. So one thing led to another
ed up by Circus
and they adopted me into their club. And Circus has really been the club that has facilitated by g
rowth as a DJ because they’ve put me through the system, from
playing small rooms, to warm up to closing to headlining, and they’ve really developed me over the last 3 years by giving me the opportunity to play with tremendous artists lik Funkagenda, Michael W
e Benny Benassi, Mark Knight, most of the T oods.
oolroom guys, e to the coach and he got
me into McGill. So I got there in the fall of ’06… and a kid on my lacrosse team had turntables. W
beat up vinyls, Dad’s records type stuff… but man, 3 hours went by and it felt lik
e had a house party one night and I just started playing on 7 I bought my first S
tanton
500, with little blue screens, no beat matching or pitch faders wo years
. Eventually I started renting out clubs because my parties were bringing ed for T