Opening for Bandersnatch 2019 is Syracuse University’s very own Khari Brandes, professionally known as Troyce Pitones — a DJ and junior is the Bandier program.

Born in San Diego, CA, Pitones moved to London at 9-years-old and grew up with a mother in the book-publishing industry and his father playing bass in a reggae band. Pitones said his international upbringing, along with his mother’s Caribbean heritage exposed him to genres like hip-hop and house-music, among others.

Now, the DJ talks about his musical progression and influences:

The Daily Orange: How would you describe your music style? What were the genres that shaped you?

Troyce Pitones: I think growing up in London, I feel like where you grow up dictates what your ears are tuned to. London has a very international sound. It draws from dance music from Chicago, hip-hop from Atlanta and Chicago as well. There’s lots of Caribbean influences and African influences. So it’s all mixed under one umbrella. I would say that just growing up in a place like London, it embeds in you those kinds of rhythms from different places.

Once I took my gap year, my horizons broadened. I was going to the clubs and experiencing more of those different kinds of music like trap music and grime.

D.O.: What did you do in your gap year, how did that time influence you?

T.P.: I mostly did it just to mentally prepare myself for college. I think it helped me a lot because I grew up a lot in that year. I definitely wanted to have more time to spend on just music, so it gave me a really good chance to get better at producing. I turned 18 at the beginning of my gap year in London, I was able to start doing club gigs, which is really a great learning experience.

It helped me get a lot better as a DJ. You can only be so good when you don’t have an audience. I was DJing in my bedroom, and I had like these big dreams about ending up playing at huge festivals, but I feel going into a club, humbled me because it was like starting from the bottom. It made me a lot better at music discovery because you have to play to your room.

D.O.: Which DJs inspire you?

In my first years when I started DJing, I was really into this duo, Stooki Sound. They were cool to me because they were from the same area as London as me. There weren’t too many DJs in the dance music space from London.

I think right now, I’ve seen Virgil Abloh a lot. Seeing him play certain songs that I wouldn’t have thought to play in in a club setting, it kind of made me broaden my horizons in that sense as well. To play not just typical trap music or dancehall or whatever, but going into like R&B, soul, I think he’s really good at synthesizing lots of different genres.

D.O.: How would you describe the Syracuse music scene? And how has it influenced you?

T.P.: The Syracuse music scene is really interesting. It’s quite small, but high quality. It’s been cool to see the house show culture, and to see artists like Clairo and Claud — and also Ruchir is doing really, really well — come through Syracuse was really cool. It’s been inspiring to see people being involved in the scene here and then go on.

D.O.: Any song you want to perform in particular at Bandersnatch?

T.P.: I’ve been listening to “BOP” by DaBaby. I’m excited to play that because I already know how I’m going to transition into it. And the rest I’ll keep as a surprise.

This Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Published on October 3, 2019 at 1:21 am

Contact Diana: dianar@dailyorange.com