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Ivan Gomez, DJ Pornstar dish on WinterPRIDE

The two top DJs play gigs for Whistler's gay ski week festival
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Music Makers

With WinterPRIDE heading into its final weekend, it's time for Whistler's gay ski week festival to let out the big entertainment guns.

DJ Pornstar, a.k.a. Dominic Pacifico, is master of all he surveys at the festival's annual SPLASH Pool Party at the Meadow Park Sports Centre on Thursday, Jan. 30, while DJ Ivan Gomez plays the biggest night of all, the Snowball, alongside DJ Phil B at the Whistler Conference Centre on Feb. 1.

Pique spoke to both DJs as they prepared for WinterPRIDE, DJ Pornstar from his home in Las Vegas and Ivan Gomez from his Spanish home in Barcelona.

Ivan Gomez

Despite being from mountain-swathed Barcelona, which has some fine Catalan skiing nearby, DJ Ivan Gomez has never been on skis or snowboards and he promises not to consider it until after he performs.

"Mmmm... maybe after my gig. I have never worn skis or a snowboard in my life, so I don´t want to break any part of my body prior to playing," he says, via email.

"This is my third time in Canada and the first time in Whistler. The first thing for me to do after a very long flight is sleep then take a walk around, visit some places. I am very curious and I like to know the places you travel for the first time if I have time."

Gomez says his fans at WinterPRIDE can expect a "happy and groovy set, sometimes a little dark, too," at the Snowball. 

"I'll include some of my last remixes and own productions, and lots of my private edits and mash-ups, groovy tunes, happy melodies, tribal beats and some vocals," he says, adding there will be released and unreleased tracks from his Guareber Recordings label.

"I hope everybody has fun Saturday at the Snowball party. I will try to do my best as always."

Whistler makes up an exotic gig list for Gomez in the next few months.

"I'm really happy with the way this New Year starts. I have a lot of work in 2014, and lot of travels around the world. Airports are my second home!" he says.

"I was in Brazil for New Year's and I just returned from Miami days ago. Whistler next week and after, to mention some places where I will be playing, Miami again, Paris, Palm Springs for the White party, Rome, London, Naples and then Vancouver for Pride weekend, San Francisco, Shanghai, Madrid... Maybe it´s easiest to say that in 2014 I will be everywhere."

And if there is any time left, he will be turning out new tracks on his label, along with collaborations and remixes. 

Asked about the state of electronic dance music, he doesn't hold back.

"As everybody knows, the genre EDM is a global thing now. I don't like this kind of music; some of the last productions (I heard) are only f#@$ annoying sounds over a kick and a clap. I prefer the old kind of true house music, mixed with powerful tribal rhythms, sexy vocals and beautiful melodies," he says.

"For me it´s really hard to find good tracks on Beatport or iTunes since maybe two years ago. For that reason I made my own private mixes, edits, or remixes of some songs because the official remixes are really shit. Sorry for that, but I'm sincere. I´m glad that in the gay circuit scene, the EDM is not arrived yet, maybe some songs, but good songs, not crap."

But the obvious passion for music is softened by his adding, "I'm an easy guy. 

"I´m the same guy who started working in this hard world of music 18 years ago and I will be doing the same, famous or not, and be the same guy. My life is music," he says.

Anything else...?

"Mmm... I´m single, LOL."

DJ Pornstar

DJ Pornstar found that he was working so much in Las Vegas that he decided to buy a house there. Now he alternates between the gambling Mecca and his other home in Los Angeles.

Most recently, he completed tracks for former Spice Girl Mel B and RuPaul.

"There's a lot of back and forth. Typically, I'll drive through the desert because I might have to bring gear with me or extra people or a drag queen, you never know," he says.

He's delighted to learn his SPLASH Pool Party is already sold out.

"That's good news; that will be my third event in a week-and-a-half that is sold out," he says.

"Typically, the pool party season for me is in the summer. I did Ascension in Fire Island and a pool party here in Las Vegas. I love to do the pool parties; I love the dance style house music."

He is coming to Whistler for the first time.

"It's fun and interesting to do it during the ski season, so I am excited about that. I bring a blend of tech house and tribal house," he says.

"Sometimes the tribal house DJs go very dark; mine is uplifting, very happy, very high energy, sexy and fun. I try to keep some vocals in there for those who like to sing along or maybe a song they've never heard. I think that it keeps an interested for all ages, the younger crowd and the older crowd. I try to play for everyone and keep them moving."

He started DJing in 1998, after moving to San Francisco for college.

"There was a huge trans movement in the late 90s and I was quickly inspired by all the music at the turn of the millennium. It seemed to be the DJ capital of the States at the time," he says.

"I quickly adapted, and within six months I was performing at Castro Street's Halloween in front of 100,000 people, right off the bat. I was really, really lucky. As time evolved, around 2005 people started calling me DJ Pornstar because I started to become recognized for my adult work. That put me on the map and from there I started to play nationally and internationally."

These days, DJ Pornstar directs and performs his own adult movies for his production companies and, of course, writes the soundtracks.

"It gave me an air of confidence... I started doing my own remixes and the next thing you know, I'm producing for record labels."