always looking for a way to make that
[underground] sound commercial,”
he says. “For that to make sense in
America is kind of a riddle.”
He’s trying to solve it by creating
both an infrastructure for a sound he
likes and a platform for artists who
might not get headliner status without
his co-sign — Born Dirty, Andhim and
Sidepiece among them. “It’s really
difficult to become a new EDM artist,”
says Diplo. “The doors kind of got
closed behind Martin Garrix or Marsh-
mello. The old guys aren’t going away.
I’m not going away. And it’s really easy
to copy someone’s sound. If I’m pro-
ducer A, and I hear an underground
producer doing something that’s com-
ing up, I’ll just do what he does. EDM
doesn’t have rules that you can’t copy
people’s sounds because EDM fans
don’t care. They’re not there for the
prestige of it. So with all these EDM
guys, they don’t let the young person
that’s doing the cool thing up.”
Higher Ground has yet to deliver a
massive hit, but for now Diplo seems
happy enough that it provides him
with a ready supply of music to play
at warehouse parties, Burning Man
and the tiny nightclubs near his house
where he sometimes shows up unan-
nounced, pulls a USB drive out of his
wallet and gets behind the decks. “The
fact is that he loves DJ’ing,” says Gog-
gins. “It doesn’t matter what size the
room is. If he goes to some afterparty
at 4 a.m. and there’s even the jankiest
CDJs, he’ll get on it and start playing.”
It’s a lot to keep up with. Many on
Team Diplo describe their job as a
lifestyle, one that causes them to miss
a lot of holidays but which also affords
them myriad singular experiences. Na-
taf is still kind of astounded that Ma-
donna knows who she is. When Diplo
went surfing in Ghana, photographer-
videographer Joe Larkin got to go
too. When McNees gets Diplo to the
show on time, he hears 10,000 people
cheer. And when Diplo turned 41 last
November, he brought everyone to his
house in Jamaica for the party.
There’s still no rest in sight. A new
Major Lazer album is coming soon
(reports that it would be the group’s
last are incorrect), and Diplo’s various
projects will set him and the team on
a spring and summer tour that already
includes nearly three dozen dates,
including his Vegas residency and
Electric Daisy Carnival (he’ll return to
the recently rescheduled Stagecoach
in October). For now, back in the base-
ment, the work continues. Diplo and
Jaeger lay a steel guitar over an R&B-
inflected chorus they play on repeat.
Soon, Diplo will head to yoga, then
pick up his kids from school. Maybe
B he’ll sleep in tomorrow.
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THE CORE MEMBERS
OF A GLOBAL TEAM ON
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE
DIPLO AS A BOSS
KATY EGGLETON
Senior day-to-day
manager, Diplo; TMWRK
“He definitely knows
when he needs to reset
and be alone with his
thoughts. It’s not often,
but he always knows how
to communicate that.”
JUBA LEE
A&R, Columbia
Records
ANDREW MCINNES
Manager; CEO, TMWRK
RON PERRY
Chairman/CEO,
Columbia Records
RENEE BRODEUR
Manager; executive
vp, TMWRK
JESS MORAN
Day-to-day manager,
Major Lazer; TMWRK
BELINDA LAW
U.K., EU, Australia &
New Zealand, Africa
agent; Echo Location
LUKE MCNEES
Tour manager,
Diplo and Major Lazer
“Sometimes to get his attention
you have to FaceTime him —
it interrupts whatever he’s
doing. He can’t just flip the
notification away. That’s a good
way to get ahold of him.”
SAM HUNT
North and South America,
Asia agent; Paradigm
“He’s a deep thinker and is
very worldly, culturally curi-
ous and aware in a sincere
and scholarly way.”
CARLA SACKS
Publicist/president,
Sacks & Co.
MAX JAEGER
In-house engineer
“He’s kind of chaotic
sometimes, but in his head
it’s a very straight line. If
we make four different
edits of a song, he’ll know
exactly what happens in
each version.”
MICHAEL LIEBERMAN
Radio/club promotion
and marketing
JOE LARKINPhotographer-videographer
“He’s trusting, but he’s also
direct. My job is to get content
that works. He doesn’t give
me a lot of direction, but
I need to get the shot.”
NOAH ROTHMAN
Film/TV agent,
Underground Films
“A lot of people wouldn’t
do The Price Is Right —
they’d think it was too
silly. For him, it’s super ex-
citing because it’s a show
he actually watched. That
[attitude] allows us to
entertain ideas that are
incredibly different
from each other.”
JAHAN
KARIMAGHAYI
Digital and social
strategy; CEO,
Benchmob
DANIELA SOCORRO
Executive assistant
“He’s not difficult, but
he knows what he
wants. He’s constantly
changing time zones
and just expects things
to run smoothly.”
JOHN
CONNOLLY
A&R, Diplo and
Mad Decent
Publishing
JASPER
GOGGINS
President,
Mad Decent
STEPHEN CHEUK
Personal trainer,
S10 Training
“I have clients that are scared
to flip on the rings or do shoul-
der sets. Wes just goes for it,
even if he falls over.”
THOMAS PENTZ
Father
BENNY BLANCO
Producer-
songwriter,
friend and
collaborator
FERRY GOUW
Creative director,
Major Lazer
SARA NATAF
Creative director,
Diplo