DJ Dossier: Glory Hole

Bound for glory: DJs Bigie (left) and Epidemic.

DJ Bigie is a rotund, foul-mouthed party animal who knows his way around both a turntable and copy of Photoshop. Meanwhile, his partner DJ Epidemic is a wiry mixmaster with a taste for Red Bull and exotic beats.

Together they comprise Glory Hole, the Mutt and Jeff of Phoenix's electro club scene and specialize in providing a one-two punch of hot spins at and cool music at Party Foul!, the hipster Valhalla held every Friday evening at downtown Phoenix's Homme Lounge.

Since the night's one-year anniversary is just around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time to interview the DJ duo about their experiences, which date back to their days of dropping the hotness at bygone CenPho dive Glam.

Name: Bigie and Epidemic

A.K.A.: Shaun Cheney and Joel Davis (respectively)

Club night(s): Party Foul! every Friday at Homme Lounge, Best Friends Forever on the first Saturday of the month at Club Red in Tempe on the first Saturday of the month. Bigie's over at Pinky Ring on Wednesdays at Bar Smith,

Preferred genre(s): I'm really about playing party rockers, mash-ups, some electro, some glitchy stuff and hard shit. And hip-hop, of course, and even some old-school rock and punk stuff, we'll play whatever. (Shaun Cheney)

I use a lot of B'More, Kuduro, Baile funk, disco, or 80s 12-inch cuts. I also like Miami bass, anything with heavy bass and backbeat, or anything that's Latin or African-influenced with its rhythms. (Joel Davis)

Weapon(s) of choice: We pretty much are like any other DJs and use Serato. There are a lot of vinyl DJs, but there's no way of getting a lot of the exclusive tracks that we get on vinyl anymore. (SC)

How did you start out: I used to DJ at church events when I was younger for five or six years. They'd have B-boy battles and dance competitions and whatnot, so I would play a lot of old school funk and breaks. I pretty much had to quit when I was 18 and sold all my records because I went broke. I started up again around four years ago at places like Camus, and me and Epidemic eventually started up Word Up! At Glam with Kevin the Makeout Bandit. (SC)

I used to play bass in punk bands like The Banned and Bob Orgasmo and the Climax Kids, but when I realized I had no musical talent I gave it up and went out and bought some turntables. I still loved music and had grown up around a lot of records because of my dad. (JD)

Where did Glory Hole come from? Me and Epidemic started it during the transition from Word Up! at Glam and Party Foul! We're both really good at mixing and noticed that we could play together really well. We're both battle-style DJs and like to scratch a bit. We tried some 2x4 sets using four turntables and some mixers and it panned out really well. One day we made up the name and said, "Fuck it," we're gonna do the two-man group thing. Not to copy everyone else, like Daze of Thunder, but it seemed like it was more marketable. (SC)

What's a track you can't get outta your head lately: It's so mainstream I'll probably get fuckin' eggs thrown at me for saying it, but "Let the Beat Rock" by the Black Eyed Peas, which is a Boys Noize remix featuring 50 Cent. That shit is really ill. (SC)

What's the wildest thing you've seen at Party Foul! in the past year? Outside I've seen people having sex in the parking lot before, [party] kids doing drugs, and whatnot. We've def had a lot of crazy things going on at Party Foul. There's always level a general level of insanity or mania that kinda becomes the norm. (JD)

Who comes up with those flashy fliers: I do a lot of freelance graphic design for Party Foul! and Pinky Ring. I based them off fliers I saw for some parties in L.A. Sometimes people don't like how they flash and stuff, but it grabs your attention and makes you wanna click on them. I just did a hyphy/crunk flier for this dude in Boston who's starting a Party Foul!-style thing out there. (SC)

Why are electro nights like Party Foul! so hot right now? Everybody's looking for something new. Everything's been used up, they're sick of the same rock and hip-hop tracks. So people are getting more into crazy sounds. Everyone says electro has a lot to do with the 80s shit, but it's just good music that's really hard. It's just some grimy-ass gritty shit. It'll probably crash eventually, just like anything else. (SC)

Most memorable DJ moment(s): We once did an after party with Z-Trip at the old Propaganda gallery on Grand Avenue until like 6 a.m. There were a good 500 people there at one point and the speakers were so loud there was shit coming off the ceiling. Tricky T and Z-Trip were playing and they were passing a bottle of Captain Morgan back and forth. There was no AC and no one wanted to stop and everybody was sweating their balls off. (SC)

Personally, it was when I crowd-surfed on my birthday at Party Foul, which was definitely a first. But definitely our biggest moment as group was opening up for MSTRKRFT back in March in Scottsdale. (JD)