The Big Bayou Music Festival Lineup
March 1, 2013
Courts rule in LHSAA’s favor; VCHS ousted from playoffs
March 5, 2013
It’s Sunday night, and I‘m standing in historic downtown Houma. The nightclubs are quiet and desolate with one exception. In front of the Brickhouse Tavern, cars line both sides of the street.
The bass of electronic music being played within can be heard from blocks away. As I arrive, I observe the bar is filled with both fans and performers of electronic dance music, also known as club music or simply dance music. Electronica is a genre of music that is produced primarily for a nightclub-type setting or for an environment that is centered on dance entertainment. Houma is filled with a colorful array of disc jockeys, otherwise known as DJs. The most popular, by far, is an artist that goes by the moniker DJ Dr. Souss.
Joe Sousa was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. It’s there that he was first introduced to the world of block parties, disc jockeys and hip-hop music. His interest in becoming a DJ grew, and at 15, when his family moved south to Louisiana, he bought his first set of turntables. Joe strove to learn more and perfect the craft until finally he became the artist he is today. Twenty-nine years later he is one of the most talented and original DJs performing in Houma.
Influenced by artists such as Michael Jackson, LL Cool J, Grand Master Flash and the Beastie Boys, Dr. Souss’ music is a blend of grooving dance beats mixed with driving bass lines and synth pop gold. His debut album entitled “Relationships” received a limited release, with a majority of the copies used for promotional purposes. The CD is made up of 12 tracks, two are remixes and the rest of which are original.
Dr. Souss is currently working on new material, with hopes of having a CD release party in June at the Brickhouse.
“A lot of the best music that I’ve written comes from painful situations,” Sousa says. “The greatest music can come from the worst times in your life. I think a lot of my stuff comes from that, a lot of the music I write is all from the heart. I never write a song thinking I’m going to make people dance. If they do that’s awesome, but on my side the fence it all comes from those experiences.”
Every Sunday night Dr. Souss can be found scratching and mixing at the Brickhouse’s DJ Café, a weekly dance event that he’s established. DJ Café is a showcase of up-and-coming DJs from the Houma-Thibodaux area and is open to all artists. The show has been held consistently for the past five years. The highlight of the café is a once-a-year tournament that pits the best DJs in the south head-to-head in battles until one is left the victor.
This year marks the seventh-annual Iron DJ tournament. The competition takes place over a number of weeks and travels back and forth between the Brickhouse and the South Shore Tavern. Competitors are judged on their music blending, mixing, stage presence and crowd reaction. If you’re lucky enough to make it to the finals, you’ll understand where the competition gets its name. Much like in the Iron Chef, the final DJs are given music that they’ve never heard and must make an on-the-spot remix to be judged for the win. The 2013 Iron DJ competition will begin sometime in late May or early June.
DJ Café features 30-minute sets from local talent such as, DJ Pyrex, Righteous James, DJ Tech and others. The café has certainly found a devout fan base. The same faces can be seen each and every week, a communion of friends and music.
DJ Dr. Souss also performs every Thursday and Saturday night at the La Casa in Thibodaux. Dr. Souss hosts the Cinco De Mayo party held at La Casa, which draws between 3-4,000 people and has been heralded as the biggest fiesta of the year.
It’s pretty safe to say that DJ Dr. Souss is an integral piece of the dance-music puzzle in Houma. He provides a platform for others to be heard.
I asked what advice he has for artists that are trying to break into the game or kids wanting to pick it up.
“Stay humble, you never know everything,” Sousa says. “Study the art, never feel like your finished learning. After 29 years I’m still learning. Love what you do, you have to love what you do.”
He said it best, you really do have to love what you do. It’s a lesson we can all take into our everyday lives, no matter if you’re a DJ, poet, doctor or a lawyer, you just have to love what you do.
Joe Sousa, known best as DJ Dr. Souss, scratches the turntables. One of the most talented and original DJs in Houma, Sousa is working on his second album, tentatively scheduled for release in June.
