Super Soul Shakedown DJs Interview: SXSW 2010

It began between the stacks of records at the KRTU radio studio in San Antonio, Texas. Three disc jockeys with a penchant for soul music decided to come together to form a troupe of live soul super power.

Together as the Super Soul Shakedown DJs for over two years now, Scuba Gooding Sr. (Steve Balser), Donnie Dee (Dontia Twine), and JJ Lopez have been spinning tracks at festivals and clubs with sets that will even get Grandma bumpin' on the dancefloor. Spinner caught up with Donnie Dee as the trio gear up for their DJ sets at SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.
Our sound live is more of the older soul -- we go from the late '60s up to the early '80s. But on air we go with a more modern soul kind of vibe.

How did your band form?
I actually had the radio show first, then Steve came along after I started and we formed Super Soul Saturday. That ended up being the name of the show. JJ came along, I think maybe a year later, and the station gave him his own show -- a daytime show, called Diggin Deep Soul Shakedown. We collaborated and formed our own live show, and called it the Super Soul Shakedown.

What are your musical influences?
From a DJ standpoint, my influences are J Rocc (Beat Junkies) out of California, DJ Mel from Austin, Texas, and DJ Dish 1 from San Antonio. I studied them without them knowing I was studying them and just took it from there.

How did you come up with the band name?
With both of our radio shows, we just collaborated on the names. We got rid of the Diggin Deep Soul part of JJ's show, and we got rid of the Saturday from our show.

What's your biggest vice?
I guess it's the soul music. One of the other reasons why we stuck to this form of music is because the soul music is something that we can learn from. With soul music you keep on learning and learning -- there is so much of it that a lot of people have forgotten about.

What's in your festival survival kit?
A lot of water, business cards, and a lot of energy.

We were supposed to get some product and CDs going on, but business cards have all of the information for the website. I want to physically give people something, but at this point we're running on short time.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?
Out of the three of us, I'm more of a turntable kind of guy. I mix soul music how I would mix in a regular club. It's more high-energy and I have a weird style of mixing. Rather than just give you the song, I'm going to tease you with the song, make you hear it, then take it back. I'm a real energy based kind of dude.

Steve's vibe is more about playing the music, but playing the right music. And JJ has so much soul music it's ridiculous. He has so much soul music it scares me.

Beatles or Stones?

I'm a Beatles fan, but I would have to say the Rolling Stones. I would actually play the Stones at a soul event.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced on tour?
Somebody asked me for an autograph and that really scared the hell out of me. We're not super crazy huge, and it kind of tripped me out. It made me feel like, 'Okay we're obviously doing something right,' but it scared me because I can remember going to shows and asking people for their autographs.