Tommy Trash AMA
When Tommy Trash joined us for an AMA in our Discord a few weeks back, we knew we were in for a good time — what we didn’t expect was just how inspiring and insightful it was going to be. Tommy Trash’s story is one of perseverance and determination.
Faced with two options: a safe, regular life in a boring nine to five. Or as a musician, under any circumstances. Tommy chose the latter.
The Australian DJ and producer has now been performing for the better part of fourteen years, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Laid Back Luke, Swedish House Mafia and Tiesto.
Throwing himself head first into a world he was so eager to become a part of — learning a lot of valuable lessons along the way.
Getting Started — Experimenting
Tommy got started with ‘computer music’ while in high school during the nineties, using notation software like Sibelius to create electronic music.
“I was programming drums with a bass and treble clef. No samplers, just super basic stuff.”
For any producers familiar with notation software, you’ll know just how intimidating those programs could be, let alone for a novice musician trying to write house music.
It wasn’t until starting university that Tommy started to study music that his parents bought him a copy of Logic Audio, which was owned by E-Logic at the time, before it was bought by Apple. As he began to experiment with the software, Tommy discovered clubbing, often heading out to nightclubs on his own to listen to new music and get involved with his local scene — using those nights as inspiration for his own tracks.
Speaking of these early days, in small sweat boxes throughout Sydney, Tommy remembered throwing one of his earliest tracks, burnt onto a CD, into the DJ booth at a Tiesto show:
“One time I threw my CD over the top of the perspex barrier. The CD landed in Tiesto’s wallet. Then when I was touring with him in 2014 I told him that story. I don’t think he ever listened to the song”.
“Even though there’s all of these tools available, I still think coming up with the ideas is still a challenge. You can make something sound amazing, but is the core idea a strong idea or not? Or is it just a really nice sounding idea?”
Ministry of Sound & Becoming a DJ
As the budding producing continued to hone his craft, becoming more proficient, he began sending his music to Ministry of Sound, a dance label in Australia.
“I’d send some stuff in and they’d say ‘this isn’t bad, what else do you have? I was sending them records non-stop for six months.”
Then eventually, they asked for his artist name. Tommy didn’t have one at the time and quickly came up with Tommy Trash on the spot, and the name has stuck ever since. That moment came after six years of producing and months of sending in tracks.
With his new stage name, Tommy started DJ-ing in Sydney’s Kings Cross with the help of his friend Tom Piper, another regular attendee of the Sydney club scene.
Without enough money to buy his own turn-tables, Tommy practiced DJ-ing with one turn-table and an iPod.
I’d play a song on the iPod and mix the vinyl into the iPod tune. I never had two turntables. My first club gig was the first time I had two turntables together, as you can imagine it was a bit of a rough start. I look back now and think “fuck there’s no way I’d go into a situation so unprepared. But you’re so desperate to make it work.”
It’s this kind of self belief and determination that has been the theme of Tommy’s entire career.
That first gig was very unglamorous, playing to a maximum of ten people..
“Just the software we have built into programmes now like Logic and Ableton is incredible. Back then things were so basic. I was using Logic before there was even a soft synth in Logic… That was mind blowing, what is ADSR, what’s a filter? Now you can go on YouTube and find thousands of tutorials explaining stuff to you. Before YouTube things were such a mystery for years”
Party In the USA — The New GoldRush
“It went pretty quickly from my first song dropping on Ministry of Sound. Then I started remixing a heap of records. That’s when Ministry asked me to do their ‘Electro House Series 1 CD’, which was a bit of a religion in Australia at the time. Then I got a residency at OneLove in Melbourne, playing once a month — that was at the time one of the best parties in the country.”
“I remember playing those parties and I always felt like a bit of an imposter. Like everyone was too cool for me, which is really funny to look back on now.”
“Around 2011, we were touring regional places and I felt like there had to be more out there. We had to mix things up a little bit, so I moved to London. I released a record that year, ‘The End’. It didn’t chart on Beatport, I called it ‘The End’ because it was indicative of a new chapter. That record took months and months and months after it was released to do anything. Then Tiesto DM’d me, people were coming to me asking me to work with them. Then Swedish House Mafia started playing it, that’s when things started to get crazy.”
“This was at the time when the USA was just getting on board with EDM, previously being dominated by hip-hop. The early EDM fans were rabid for EDM, they could not get enough of it.”
“I think for a lot of DJs and industry people, the EDM wave in the USA was like the new gold rush. For everyone, not just artists but managers, club owners. It was madness”
“Tiesto invited me out to Ibiza to play with him twice over that summer, then they organised for me to fly to the US. Where I pretty much toured for what was meant to be a one month tour which eventually turned into three months which turned into five years.”
“Music was always it. I had to make music work, because there was nothing else. There was no backup plan. I actually did two weeks of a commerce course and decided “Fuck this, I’m out. That was going to be my plan B then realised that this isn’t for me”.
Touring — Unnatural Extremes
“Touring can be the best thing in the world, or it can be the worst thing. I’ve never experienced something of such polar opposites. You can be playing to twenty thousand people, then in a few hours be in your hotel room alone. The extremes are quite unnatural. Managing those extremes can get a little tricky. It’s a very slippery slope. It’s one of those things that looks very different from the outside.”
“If I had been younger, going through that — It would have been a disaster. And you see that a lot. Younger guys blow up really fast. And all the money, success, everything in the world, can ruin you. There’s a way to do it. There’s a way to do touring in a positive way — I don’t want to preach all doom and gloom. But it takes a real conscious effort to make sure everything is on track and things don’t get out of control. But the artist has to want it.”
“Approach it like it’s a job, not full time partying. That’s a much healthier outlook and will give you a longer career.”
Tommy Trash’s determination and willingness turn up and get involved in a scene, spend the hours on his craft while slowly rising through the ranks is nothing short of incredible. His journey from humble bedroom producer to stadium filling DJ should be enough to inspire and light a fire under just about every amateur musician out there.
Thank you to Tommy for sharing your story.
