RockMyRun: You are now a Grammy-winning producer, on top of being a sought after DJ. How has your life changed, professionally, after winning a Grammy?
Dave: It hasn’t changed at all. I’m gonna get the Grammy in the mail here one of these days and it’s going to go on the wall in the studio and remind me that there are people out there that are noticing all the work I’ve put in over the past couple decades. I certainly feel inspired that I have this award now and I can get back to creating music and doing what I do.
However, I’m not driving a different car, people aren’t calling me all the time. I’m busy and have work to do and stuff like that, but nothing out of the ordinary.
RockMyRun: Can you walk us through the day of the Grammy’s? What happens?
Dave: We got to the Staples Center at eleven A. M. we were there until nine. We had lunch thrown in the middle somewhere. There’s red carpet, and that’s just bananas trying to get through. There’s every media person in the whole world is on this red carpet. Some want to talk to you, some people don’t.
That takes about an hour, at the very least. You’ve got to take pictures and stuff like that. Then you get to the pre-awards.That’s where my award was and where they read most of the awards. They read through the categories pretty quick because they have to get through about a hundred and twenty of those awards in about three hours. Next the Grammy’s start at five and goes until eight thirty. Then you walk next door to the convention center for the official Grammy after party which starts at nine.
RockMyRun: Are most artists there for the whole day or do some of them show up just for the second piece?
Dave: I think so. We got a hotel about three blocks away, which we couldn’t even walk to because my wife had heels and a dress so we took an Uber. We did all the interviews. Won the award. Did more interviews and Ubered to the hotel and so my wife could change into a second dress. For the big stars that are performing at the actual Grammy’s, they don’t get there til later.
RockMyRun: You seemed very composed on stage, and thanks for the shout-out, were you nervous?
Dave: Of course. I think I was more anxious than nervous. I’ve been on stage a bunch and I was really anxious. I was really trying to not plan on winning and I didn’t do any kind of speech until the morning of. I wrote down a bunch of names of people I wanted to make sure I gave shouts out too. I think I forgot five or six people and I think I probably thanked two or three people I probably regret thanking.
Dave: I noticed if people weren’t getting to the stage fast enough they started playing music on them. “We’ll take the award for this person.” “No, no! I’m coming! I’m coming!” The next thing I knew, they’re reading the category and I see my name on the screen and I just jumped up out of my seat and started running towards the stage with my hands in the air, kind of like Rocky. I didn’t even say goodbye to my wife or give her a kiss! Funny side note is, my wife put together my outfit and didn’t realize I needed suspenders so my pants were falling down. When I got up there it was just a crazy, crazy whirlwind.
RockMyRun: So when you go backstage it sounds like, you walk off the stage and then there’s a lot more things that happen that we don’t see. Can you share what goes on?
Dave: They give you the Grammy, you say a speech, you go back, they ask you to make another speech and, “Hey, thank everybody who you missed.” I’m like, “Well, I just spoke one minute ago. I don’t even have any idea who I missed. I don’t even know where I’m at right now.” Then you do a bunch of media and you go through like five or six media rooms with about a hundred and fifty people in each room. You stand on a stage and they ask you questions and you give speeches. I don’t know if I’ll ever win another Grammy, but thank God I have this one experience.
RockMyRun: How long did all that take backstage?
Dave: Probably about two hours.
RockMyRun: I think you mentioned before that McDonald’s was sponsoring something backstage?
Dave: Yeah, weird but they had McDonald’s sponsoring the Grammy’s so there was a bunch of Egg McMuffins everywhere.
RockMyRun: Did you help yourself?
Dave: I did. They had a huge McMuffin truck at nine P. M. when we got out of there at the after party next door. My wife and I both ate a McMuffin. We were like, “Wow.” Never thought I’d win a Grammy and then be at an after party eating an Egg muffin.
RockMyRun: So you celebrated with the Egg McMuffin, how else did you celebrate your big win that night?
Dave: We were exhausted. It was a pretty long day. We went to the after party for about an hour and a half, so at about ten thirty my wife and I looked at each other and we’re just like … “Look, we’re done.” We had to take my kid to school in the morning. You know, life goes back to normal the next day. We had a glass of champagne and drove home and went to bed. I was in my bed midnight.
RockMyRun: You mentioned they’re sending you the Grammy in the mail. You don’t get it that night?
Dave: No. They don’t engrave the Grammy’s because somebody would know who was going to win. They just have a bunch of Grammy’s backstage that are blank. They hold them with white gloves. They let you hold it for a few minutes then they take it back and say, “Okay, we’re going to send you yours in April.”
RockMyRun: Is it heavy? Is it real quality?
Dave: Yeah. It’s a nice trophy basically. They hand it to you when I get up on stage and I took a bunch of pictures with the Grammy and stuff like that.
RockMyRun: Thank you for talking with us Davé. Again, congratulations and we are looking forward to hearing your upcoming projects!
