Andres Romau, or “Iggy Baby” as his close friends call him is just a 20 year-old, skinny, darked eyed kid from Overland Park, Ks. Accept when he’s feeling frisky and puts on his big billed hat covered with drawings of eyeballs, some skinny black jeans, and a pretty amazing pair of shiny gold high tops. Who would guess that this one person, with some of the most amazing pairs of sneakers this world has ever seen, would have so much passion and the ability to make any somber party into a raging good time.
“The point of a good dance party is good music and good people, just moving expressing yourself, that’s the vibe I want to put out,” says Iggy.
“I’ve always been really into music, I used to make all my friends mixed tapes and CD’s,” Iggy said. “At parties I was always the one close to the stereo. I loved to pick out fun music, it thrilled me when people would get excited about what was on and start dancing.
Iggy hosts a number of DJ sessions in Lawrence, Kansas City and does some shows in Chicago as well. He got his first big break at the Bottleneck when he was asked to take over the ever-popular dance party Neon.
“Well, I wouldn't say I just got asked,“ admits Iggy, “I mean I stalked that place, every week I’d come in with a new mix tape for them, to show them what my show would be like. Finally they let me get up on stage one night and I’ve been doing it every week for over a year now.”
After gaining more confidence doing the Neon shows, which are always packed with indie kids, pixies girls, and your occasional emos dancing their brains out, Iggy decided he wanted to go even bigger. He started taking some of his tapes to the Jackpot bar and concert venue. Luckily, the news of his popularity at Neon had traveled and the Jackpot liked his mixes. They told him that every last Saturday of the month he would get his own show. Ecstatic, Iggy began to realize his talent and that he could actually make a living DJing. His show, called “Get Crunk” attracts hundreds of Lawrence partyers out to have fun and listen to tunes that will get them pumped up every month.
“My sets are all about what makes people want to dance. ‘Get Crunk’ is great because I get to play whatever I want, and I like to mix my sets up a lot. Play lots of different kinds of music,” says Iggy.
Iggy sets are mostly electronic music, but sometimes he’ll mix in a little house, brazilian and hip-hop music. Most of his selections are not mainstream, but occasionally he’ll throw in a popular radio hit to please the crowd. Now Iggy does more that just put songs in a row on a playlist, he mixes his own beats and creates his own works of art.
“My Mac changed my life, I got into all the music software, now it’s second nature for me, I’ll sit for hours and mix beats and put things together, it doesn’t feel like work, it’s just fun,” said Iggy.
When asked what his main influences have been in the music word, he replied “Daft Punk” without a seconds hesitation. Daft Punk is a French electronica band that exploded onto the scene in the U.S. in the late 1990’s, their music is said to be the most successful electronic music collaborations of all time. Iggy incorporates many of their songs into his own recordings.
Dane Wallace, Iggy’s roommate and an aspiring DJ himself, had nothing but praise when asked about Iggy and his DJ sets. Wallace was sitting on Iggy’s computer with his headphones on mixing for the entire duration of the interview.
“Mixing and DJing is not easy, some people think they know what music people want to hear, but they don’t and there is nothing worse than a bad DJ, it can really kill the life of a party,” said Wallace.
Wallace has only been learning music software for the last eight months, and while he has improved, his mixing sounds very amateurish next to Iggy’s. However, Wallace has been DJing a set for KJHK for the last two years, and has gotten much acclaim for his spots on the university radio station.
“Like Iggy, I have been into music my whole life. I would like to be as good at mixing as Iggy is someday. He just has a natural ear for how things should sound, It’s not exactly something that can be taught.”