Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Snaps Provolone

RIYL

The Italian Smoke Squad, Kottonmouth Kings, Turd Hurdler, Psychopathic Rydas

Influences

Insane Clown Posse, Kottonmouth Kings, Slade Brunner, Danny Elfman, Gwar, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, Tech N9ne
Sponsored

Local DJ and Crypticon Records label head Snaps Provolone got his musical start in middle school, with a rock band called the Deviants.

“I played lead guitar, and not too well at that! We played parts of Poison’s ‘Talk Dirty to Me,’ Jane’s Addiction's ‘Jane Says,’ Metallica’s ‘One,’ and Skid Row’s ‘18 & Life,’ among other bits of songs none of us ever cared enough to finish learning. It was all about playing something and actually having drums and amplifiers and making noise. We all split fifty dollars for playing absolute crap at a party, and that was the moment where I realized you could actually make a buck messing around with music.”

Provolone made his first inroads into the San Diego scene by creating graphics for Suburban Noize Records and the Kottonmouth Kings crew from 2000 to 2003. “I was a fan first, and then got to work for them through my friendship with Zinger at SRH. I even got to have meetings inside the Capitol Records building for official graphic design work, and I learned how to do complete album art layouts.”

So why do DJs make up pseudonyms, rather than use their given name?

“Hiding behind an alias is a fun and elusive feeling,” says Provolone (not his real name). “Making up a name allows us to roam free as artists and jump into projects and live vicariously through new alter egos. Aliases induce a sense of mystery.”

Provolone founded the San Diego DJ-themed Crypticon record label in 2001. “I encourage all Crypticon artists to pick funny names. For instance, anyone who wanted a beat on the Italian Smoke Squad album had to have a mobster name.”

The 34-year-old — who graduated from UCSD with a BA in multimedia production — declines to provide his real name for print. “It helps build a puzzle, like Bruce Wayne and Batman. I literally have 20 other names for myself, and most have been used in print for something or other. It [a pseudonym] also helps protect me and my family, in case I get crazy on an album or project.”

As for the ongoing debate over DJs creating “new” works from unauthorized song samples, “Call it an homage or a shout-out or simply a mutation of the original-source sound. Things like bootlegging are wrong to me. The direct reproduction of a work for sale is not a good thing, but appropriation and sampling is one of the key ingredients to great hip-hop music.

“The question of DJ originality has haunted the movement since its inception. However, each sound is carefully chosen, manipulated, created, defined, oscillated, transformed, pushed, distorted, echoed, gated, and flanged for the best tone for its given intent. The rearranging qualifies as a new creation.”

In addition to producing, DJing, and designing graphics, Provolone also plays with The Italian Smoke Squad. There is another project he would like to realize someday...

“I do have a dream about creating a live stage band. I’m looking for a Chuck E. Cheese to go out of business, so I can buy up all their freaky musical robots and then assemble them on stages in new costumes. With this musical-robot army, I could program each one to play the instrument of my choice, and the Cyborg Symphony would begin!”

And if the music biz collapses entirely, he has a backup plan. “I’d like to have some of my original scientific theories taken seriously and published. For example, how leprechauns were really alien ‘little green men’ mining gold on Earth, only to be misinterpreted by drunken Irish storytellers.”

That, and “I have this urge to take a long time carving a canoe out of a redwood tree.”

Sponsored

Upcoming Local Shows

No shows scheduled

Post a show
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader