A real dance music success story

Saturday night I was able to sit down with one of the realest producers I’ve met in the dance music industry. David Crow, known by his stage name “Ghastly,” sat down to walk me through his struggles and his successes before his closing set at a sold-out Webster Hall.

With multiple hit productions released through Skrillex’s label OWSLA, and Diplo’s label Mad Decent, Ghastly has become a force to be reckoned with.

What most people fail to take in consideration when they see a successful DJ are the struggles they have to endure before reaching fame and stardom. A career in music is never a sure thing, you have to be ready to give up everything in return for success.

When I asked if he ever doubted himself when pursuing music he responded, “Hell yeah, every fucking day!” The story behind Ghastly reveals why he is such a cool, humble guy.

Hre grew up on a goat farm in Arizona. One day he packed up his things and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. After running out of money and juggling jobs, he moved back home for seven months to save up and give LA another shot.

One really touching point Ghastly mentioned was how important failure is to everyone. In his case, when he finally saved enough to move back out to LA, he took a very different approach to achieve his goals. He ditched all the people in his life that would keep him out partying until 5 am, and committed 100% of his free time to making music. Clearly, it paid off.

“It is all about how much you put into it,” Ghastly told me. “Some people are meant for the cookie cutter life, but that’s not me,” he went on to say.

Ghastly realized all his hard work paid off when he went to Burning Man 2014. As he drove into the festival, Porter Robinson’s Sea of Voices was playing in the background. He said, “As I heard that playing in the background, I heard something else echo in my head saying ‘This is the part where dreams come true’.”

Shortly after, Ghastly met Skrillex, who asked him arguably the most important question of his life, “So, do you want to do this?”

The best thing about Ghastly’s story is that everyone can learn from it. I don’t mean to be cliché, but we only have one lifetime on this earth. Isn’t it worth trying to spend it doing what you love to do?

I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell do not want the “cookie cutter” life. Especially after seeing Ghastly go take control of Webster Hall. The love he has for performing is evident in his live sets.

He likes to improvise and feed off of the energy in the crowd. If you are a dance music junkie or someone just looking for a great night, I suggest you go check out a Ghastly show.

He has a big plan for the future. When I asked about it he said, “I want to make a song with Miley Cyrus, and a song with Drake.”

Even though he’s “made it”, I get the feeling he is not going to take his foot off of the gas pedal anytime soon.