From Unzipped Magazine April, 2006:
Great Scott
New York City club Avalon. DJ Scotty Thomson is on the turntables as drag performers Kevin and Koko Aviance hit the stage. They bring up a hapless male from the dance floor, tie him to a coat rack, and strip him to his undies. After doing some runway passes around him, the two Aviances walk offstage to work the dance floor—leaving the guy up there for 20 minutes, till security finally unties him. “People still talk about that night,” grins Thomson. But what about Scotty’s own sexy exploits
Scotty has a face and body that are definitely made for sin—and we suspect he’s had many opportunities to do dirty dance-floor deeds—but he prefers to focus on music. He started spinning in 1999 and was what he calls an “apartment DJ” until 2001, when two of New York’s biggest club promoters, John Blair and Beto Sutter, hired him to spin during happy hour at the Manhattan hot spot XL. “After just two nights as the happy hour DJ, I was moved up to Thursday nights,” he says. “Two weeks after that, I became resident DJ in the Chapel at [notorious NYC club] Limelight.” He made such an impact that Limelight denizens began referring to his Sunday-night gig as “Scotty T.’s Chapel.” “I was completely taken aback to know that a room in one of the most famous clubs ever [was named] after me, after only a month of being in the business.”
One reason for Scotty’s immediate popularity is his eclectic playlist: He mixes dance-floor classics with the newest imported vinyl. “The crowd knows I’ll be playing some hits, but I’m also obsessed with finding fresh tracks for every performance. It keeps me excited.” What do these new records sound like? “Soulful and deep vocal tracks—hot records that resemble the music from the mid to late ’90s.”
Scotty’s musical formula is working well—he has residencies at New York’s XL and the clubs Five and Nation in Washington, D.C. This year he played Miami’s White Party, and he has upcoming DJ gigs in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He’s busy, but he wouldn’t have it any other way: “I love to entertain. I get so involved in my music, creating fresh mixes on the fly and changing things around every time I spin so that I make each performance unique. I get in a zone, and 10-hour sets go by in a flash.”
Make no mistake, we love Scotty Thomson’s music. But isn’t there even one dirty DJ story he can tell us? Pretty please?
“Well, I had a boyfriend for four years, until June 2004. After a very rough breakup, it took me almost a year to get my confidence up and feel good about myself,” he admits. We immediately feel bad for bringing up the subject. Is he feeling better now? Thankfully, he says yes. “It’s uncanny how people can sense confidence or the lack thereof. Most of the time I’m hidden up in the booth where no one can see me, but my change in mood seems to have projected itself way out into the clubs lately.”
Judging from the dancing throngs of sweaty, smiling guys at his every performance, we’d agree: Scotty Thomson’s mood is indeed infectious. And now that he’s single, we’ve got an idea that might help this hot DJ get rid of any remaining blues: Hold on a sec while we strip to our undies and grab that coat rack.
Visit DJ Scotty Thomson at his website, ScottyT.com.
By Perry Kramer
