The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

UVM DJ heading toward the big league

Sophomore and DJ Pierce Fulton has gained international recognition for his skillful fusion of house and electronic.The Vermont native spent last summer spinning for Yacht Week in southern Croatia. During the Mediterranean festival, yachts are rented out to sail around Spain, Croatia or Greece for the week and pull up to floating electronic venues.Fulton is determined, however, not to let his musical career interfere with his time at UVM.”I want to separate school and my production career … I’ve had to turn down a lot of jobs because of that,” Fulton said. “I would just get distracted, do badly and end up staying here longer.” Fulton furthermore made it clear that the trips he has taken to play shows in Ibiza, Spain and the Dominican Republic are separate from the what he is doing now and his musical beginnings.If he has an idea for his music now, chances are it is mapped out in one of three Moleskin notebooks. Though Fulton cannot remember how to formally write out his music, he comes from years of classical training, he said.A musical prodigy in a family of athletes, Fulton grew up listening to who his parents did: the Rolling Stones, the Doors – anything classic rock.”They would just sit there and be like ‘ Oh, play it again,'” Fulton said.”[I was] this little midget kid with a guitar, and they loved it.”It was years later, after metal, reggae and blues bands in high school when a Venezuelan exchange student introduced Pierce to the raging sounds of electronic and house music. The severity of difference between electronic and what he traditionally composed intrigued Fulton, and the new style of music resonated equally with him musically.In the summer of 2009, he began producing.With an official release in 2010, his presence on Beatport – the iTunes for DJs – grew.”When I pick up a guitar, it is like I am talking to you. I can play it – I know where everything is,” he said. “That is also what electronic has done. It was like another instrument … another language.”In Fulton’s music, there are no dramatic dubstep elements like lengthy womp solos – features of a style popularly associated with recreational drug use. When Fulton creates tracks, he approaches them as a musician and lover of music, not a spun-out partygoer.Fulton expressed his opinion that musicians and producers should not rely on such sound gimmicks and the influence on drug culture.”If [your music] can’t do anything on its own, you shouldn’t be there,” Fulton said on the matter. Instead, he sources from organic sounds. In a YouTube video, Fulton mixed his latest three-track EP “Pardon My French” from the convenience of a desk chair. Utilizing recorded Budweiser burps and ‘80s-inspired synths, Fulton demonstrates that less is often more interesting.It is this innovation and ambition to create, not reproduce, which led CR2, a powerhouse in the European electronic world, to sign Fulton.His first tracks did not impress labels of influence or clubs until his sound stood alone as both original and danceable. “At first it was cool, really chill, but it wasn’t exciting because I would go at electronic from a musician’s standpoint [rather] than that of a club,” Fulton said. Though he still produces mellow house tracks for his personal collection, Fulton is eager to progress.This winter break he will tour Brazil.What awaits Fulton after UVM – when he can focus on music full-time – is perhaps the most exciting but it is also unknown territory. “You have to be the biggest in this industry to succeed, and [right now] I am just rolling with what happens,” he said.

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UVM DJ heading toward the big league