The Big Cheese

[ernextnation]

Critics may scoff at George Acosta's fluffy brand of trance, but legions of fans keep this Miami DJ/producer large and in charge.

It's a little after 8pm on a hot Spring evening in Miami, and local DJ hero George Acosta steps up to the decks. There are about 20,000 people gathered on the main floor of this, the Ultra Electronic Music Festival, the massive of all massives held each year during the Winter Music Conference. Paul Oakenfold - no easy act to follow, especially for a fellow trance DJ - has just finished playing, and the enormous crowd is fired up. Early in his set, Acosta drops DJ Tiesto's "Urban Train," and as a chiming synth refrain rises above a grumble of bass and the achingly pretty tones of Kristy Hawkshaws's voice, thousands of hands instinctively stretch towards the sky.

This is a relatively typical experience for Acosta, who has held residencies at Denver's Club Pure and Miami's Level, and generally plays a gig every Thursday through Sunday night, stopping off in his hometown just long enough to do some laundry. Everywhere he goes, he delivers the big breakdowns and beauteous melodies that the masses clamor for. And everywhere he goes, fans seem to leave satisfied. His constant touring has also paid off in record sales. While not pushing Oakenfold-caliber numbers, his collection of mix CDs - including his AM and PM mixes released separately in 2001, his half of the Trance Nation series (with ATB) of the same year and his 2002 Next Level mix - have sold well over 130,000 CDs. So why can't the man get any respect? An internet search for "George Acosta" and "cheese" returns more than 50 matches. Numerous magazine critics have lacerated him for stocking his CDs with big, obvious trance anthems. Even his record label recognizes that people (critics, anyway) love to diss Georgie. "Writers always say he just plays cheesy commercial music," says a publicist at his label, Ultra Records. An Ultra marketing executive concurs: "He plays trance, which critics love to bash. And he's American, and American DJs already have hurdles to overcome."

Acosta just keeps playing his parties, though, and if there's a critical world out there that doesn't accept him, or thinks he's not edgy, or that he's not what's hot or hip, he certainly keeps himself isolated from it. In Miami's South Beach, where trance still rules - a glossy, synthetic soundtrack for the glossy, synthetic South Beach cognoscenti- Acosta rose from meager means to take over weekends at the Shadow Lounge, turning it into a spot of international importance on the club circuit. And on top of it all, Acosta owns Grooveman Music, the best record shop in town.

On this day after the Ultra festival, the DJ sits in the Grooveman office, watching hoards of WMC goers snap up records faster than his staff to put them back on the shelves. Acosta is explaining how happy he is with his career when as if on cue three tan, curvy, long-legged caricatures, almost, of every adolescent boy's fantasy - approach to gush their fandom. "We have all your records," says another, clearly in awe of being face to face with her DJ hero. "When is your next album coming out?"

This is the other side of Acosta's public reception. There are the critics, and then there are the people who actually buy records. "I wish I could show you the E-mails he gets from fans," says the Ultra marketing executive. "[He's] the equivalent of some weird pop icon. People really in-depth about the struggles they have had in life -'this track of George has really turned me around.' It doesn't matter what people are trying to push as 'the thing to be' in dance music today. George just connects with people. He knows what they want and he gives it to them."

Acosta, 30, was born in Cuba and came to Miami in '78 with his family, seeking better opportunities. He grew up listening to his father's Cuban records and bought all the hot 45s of the day - everything from "Beat It" to "Planet Rock." When he was 12, Acosta started recording mix shows from the radio. "I would plat them in the house," says Acosta, who still speaks with a slight Cuban accent, occasionally mangling a phrase in an endearing way. "My sister and her friends would be my audience. I would [pretend] that I was a big DJ, and they would cheer for me." When he was 16, his father bought him his first pair of turntables. "He said, 'OK, now you can drive,'" recalls Acosta. "I'm going to buy you your first equipment. Just do parties and pay me back.'" The aspiring young DJ paid his father back in three months.

Acosta set up his own party called The Junkyard in Miami, drawing upwards of 1,000 kids on Saturday nights. It wasn't long before local promoters took notice. Soon he was headlining at a local club called the Spot, a gig that began with Acosta playing alternative rock on CD players and ended with him spinning vinyl to an audience receptive to house music. "I would play from 10 to 1," recalls Acosta. "All alternative-U2, Cure, Deee-lite. Then when the place was packed, we'd throw off the lights and the place would go nuts. I'd play 'The Whistle Song' from Frankie Knuckles or [music] by Steve 'Silk' Hurley. Then the music conference would come to Miami, and I would meet all these people and they would think it was so cool."

A drunk German promoter named Wolfgang Gensch thought the party was so cool, in fact, he flew Acosta to Frankfurt to perform. "I said, 'Pay me the ticket and I'm there!" laughs Acosta. "I had never been to freekin' Atlanta. I had never even left Miami." In Germany, Acosta discovered trance music through labels like Harthouse and DJs such as Sven Väth. "I'd go to the German record stores and buy records and play them in Miami at 4am. BOOMBOOMBOOM. People were like, 'What the hell is this?' But it was cool."

The Spot closed in late '94, Acosta, who had worked his salary to upwards of 100 dollars a gig before The Spot closed in '94, set his mind set on making a track of his own. The result, "Planet Soul," was released in '96 on Strictly Rhythm and went on to rock everything from warehouses to frat houses, its huge, squelchy 303 line and soul-tingling "Set you freeeeeee" hook reverberating all the way to Billboard's top 40 singles chart. But the beginnings were auspicious: To hear Acosta tell it, the track was a lucky break. "I never studied music," says the DJ. "Oscar G. of the Funky Green Dogs asked me if I wanted to buy a keyboard for 100 bucks. I said, 'What can you do with it?'" He said, 'You can make music,' I said, 'For real? Okay I'll buy it!' I had no idea what I was doing." Acosta, working from his bedroom at his parents house bought an effects unit and a sampler and borrowed a friend's 303. "It's really hat to program a 303. I don't know what happened, but this line came up, this really cool line which is the 'Planet Soul' line. I started pushing thinks and the shit came up. It sounded phat. I was like 'daaaam.'" A friend's girlfriend came over and they wrote the song and sang it one night. Acosta put it on DAT and played it at a rave the next day.

"I was playing right after Josh Wink, so I wanted to impress him," remembers Acosta. "I was a fuckin' nobody. So I played it like, three people came up to me with cards. 'Do you have this record signed?' 'You're very talented.' 'Did you make that?' Acosta had a friend at Strictly Rhythm. The rest, as they say, is history.

A few years later, Acosta found himself playing Miami's Shadow Lounge, which was started by one of the partners from The Spot. Following a formula that was old-hat for him by then, Acosta was given a Thursday night to prove himself, with the expectation that he would play more commercial tracks. "Little by little, I started shifting [from commercial to underground songs]," says Acosta. "There were 2,000 people at this club. Then I took over Friday night. Then Saturday night. I met so many people at Shadow Lounge. So many big-DJs. And everyone was like, 'Dude, you're a bad-ass DJ" and 'You're the 'Planet Soul' guy.'" Acosta says it was Oakenfold who urged Ultra Records management to give him a shot at a mix CD. Awake, released on Ultra at the beginning of 2000, has sold more than 40,000 copies to date.

Acosta's perspective on his own career is a heady mix of modesty and self-praise. He travels the globe now, and while the clubs might not be packed with music journalists, they are packed nonetheless. "I go to South America and spin for 5,000 people, and see Sasha and Digweed come in and have 1500. I'm a nobody compared to Sash and Digweed or Oakenfold. I respect those guys. One day I will be like them. But just to go to these places and know I have more power than them is a bog accomplishment for me. I went to Brazil for two weeks. You know those movies where people just follow the car in the streets? I couldn't believe it. I had to go to a press conference and people were like killing themselves to get in."

In this day, when many big Euro DJs have become apologists for the genre that launched them (just listen to Paul van Dyk explain how he doesn't spin trance), Acosta is unwavering - dare we say delusional? - in his love for big breakdowns and ever-ready melodies. "Trance isn't going away anytime soon," says Acosta." It's like hip-hop. You have some kids who look up to Snoop Dogg. And Oakenfold or van Dyk the same way. Every little kid wants [to buy] trance records."

Naysayers may forever equate Acosta with the cheesiest, fluffiest brand of dance music around, but don't expect him to change his tastes or ways anytime soon. "I got a saying," says Acosta, heading out of the Grooveman office for a photoshoot. "If the oil machine is working, don't change it."

Taken from Mixer Magazine - July 2002

The Big Cheese - Story by Bill Werde

[CHRles]

Thx for posting the article. If it's ok with you I'd like to post it on another board as well.

Love him or hate him, you can see that Acosta has been a DJ and producer for quite a while now, and he was listening to Trance way before it was hip with most of South Beach. If you read the article you can see that Acosta has a huge respect for House music, and he started out by spinning a lot of New York House anthems. The article clearly says he's got a lot of respect for Sasha & Digweed, and he's played alongside a lot of well known DJs. That's part of what seperates him from a lot of other Trance DJs in South Florida.

Basically when critics say Acosta's sets are cheese they're saying that all of the following djs/producers are cheese:

Kai Tracid, Taucher, Talla, Mauro Picotto, Tiesto, Push, Svenson & Gielen, Scot Project, Yoji Biomehanika, Ferry Corsten, Armin Van Buuren, Cosmic Gate, Paul Oakenfold, Moguai, Dumonde, Marco V., CJ Stone, Hiver & Hammer, Blank & Jones, Kay Cee, Members of Mayday, The Love Committee, Future Breeze, BBE, etc.

[pod]

It's funny how Mixer perceives Miami as a trance city...

But I give George credit, coming from where he did, to where he is today...not a fan of the epic trance, but he did kick open the doors for Miami..

[klubveteran]

way to go George !!! i was one of those 1000 at the Junkyard when "Sam The Limo man" was a promoter.

youve come a long way.

if you didnt have critics - then you wouldnt be succesful enough for people to even talk about you.

thanks for the 3 years i worked with you at Shadow -what freaking memories.

that quote someone had posted about the sasha Digweed comment was a bit out of content.

a way bit irresponsible.

from what i read up on top it doesnt sound to me that he is saying he is better than those people.

thanks to whoever posted the WHOLE ARTICLE. thats the way to do things.

keep it up GA.

[sobeton]

it would seem that the critic's ,consider Acosta’s style of trance in particular to be cheesy. I hardly think it is, a sentiment they share for other trance dj's...

[CHRles]

Pod, a big part of the rest of the country still perceives Miami to be a Trance town, and whats even more interesting is that a lot of those people think George Acosta spins Miami Trance instead of German Trance.

To some degree Miami at large still is a Trance town. While South Beach currently has one of the biggest and best House scenes in the country (a lot of other big cities are nowhere nearly as evolved), the South Florida area (Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach) is still big on Trance. Go to a lot of clubs outside of SoBe, or go to a lot of the more mainstream clubs and you'll hear a good bit of Trance played. A lot of tunes that are prolly considered played out for SoBe are still being banged in some of these clubs. The same holds true for a lot of clubs around the country - go to many cities where they have a Trance night, and often times it'll be a mixture of a lot of Trance anthems from the past 3 years. In addition, Trance is in high demand in the record stores in South Florida, and you can see just how big its become with a broad audience by listening to Party 93.1.

It's funny how people here bash this station and yet cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and other big European cities don't have a pure Dance station. If you'll notice, the station's weekend sound is starting to become almost as good as what European radio stations are offering on the weekends. Where else in America are you going to find that (and on such a good signal)? Is the station playing the more mainstream tunes in regular rotation? Absolutely, but its trying to target hundreds of thousands of listeners like the other stations in town, instead of targetting a few thousand club patrons.

Anyways, I've gone wayyyy off topic here it seems lol.

[sobeton]

yes a majority of the country perceives, miami as a trance town. for awhile we were considered a freestyle town. oh well !! imo George Acosta spins comfortable trance anthems, I'm sure others will disagree. I think there are like two clubs, in south florida still playing trance Level, and Space. a lot of other cities that have trance nites; are hardly dropping dated trance anthems. reference Exit (nyc) and Glow (dc) as examples. funny my friend is a dance buyer for Alliance Entertainment , they are a music distributor. which supplies most of the retailers in florida, and across the country. he says house music, and techno are largest sellers currently in south florida. there are all dance music stations all over europe, and trust me they are light years ahead of any u.s. dance stations. imo the format at 93.1 needs help. there are dance music stations, all over the country with better formats. i.e. mega 93.3 (texas), fm92.7 (illinois), fm103.5 (new york); to name but a few.

[georgeacasta2]

That's a great article and I'm really happy for him cause he's a local who's done really well for himself.

[digital7]

The Big Cheese? I love that place! Isn't it located on the corner of 67th and US1? that's the best pizza in town

[naomi1]

Originally posted by digital7

The Big Cheese? I love that place! Isn't it located on the corner of 67th and US1? that's the best pizza in town

I do too!!