Adam Dorn:
DJ Mocean Worker Keeps It Movin’
When you’re the Mocean Worker, you’ve got to keep it movin’ — and as the MoWo, Adam Dorn spins like a funk-fueled clubber. He’s a pioneering DJ who early on ditched traditional turntables in favor of laptop-powered grooves, an electric bass player who quit school at 16 to learn the art and craft of the music business from greats like Miles Davis and Marcus Miller, and a recording artist with his own label whose tunes pop up in movies, TV shows and commercials.
The MoWo scores all his musical identities on his Mac-based rig. “Whether I’m writing music or making videos or selling my songs on the iTunes Music Store, everything I create is done on Apple,” says Dorn. “You don’t have to go to MIT to learn how to do music on a Mac,” he adds. “The software and hardware are designed to the point of perfection so I get to be who I am — a musician.”
“Not many people were using laptops to make music. They didn’t think the technology was stable enough to warrant using the computer on stage.”
A Laptop DJ
When Dorn started creating dance club grooves from the keyboard of his PowerBook, his decision provoked skepticism from his fellow DJs. “I would go on the road back in 1998 with my sampler and my PowerBook,“ he recounts, “and when I rolled into town they’d say, ‘How are you going to make this work?’
“Not many people were using laptops to make music,” continues Dorn. “They had racks of samplers and MIDI keyboards in their studios, but they didn’t think the technology was stable enough to warrant using the computer on stage. They were too freaked out that the hard drive was gonna crash.” And did it? “Never,” says Dorn.
My Music, my Label
Dorn showed the same independence as a recording artist. “I made my first Mocean Worker record, got a deal and put it out,” he says. “This whole other world opened up to me.” But from the outset he chafed at corporate control.
“Making a record for a major label was a turnoff,” he laments. “Nothing was about the music — it was all about what everyone was afraid of. The experience was so different from what I thought it would be.” It was also the catalyst for big change. Says Dorn: “Now I only make my own albums.”
Three records later, “Enter the MoWo!” is the one he’s most proud of. “It’s the culmination of the childhood and early influences of jazz and R&B I grew up with and the electronic music I’m into now,” he says. “This record is the jazzy electronic thing I’ve always wanted to make.” Best of all, he says, “No one is telling me how to do it.”
Mac-Based Recording
The album was created largely on Dorn’s PowerBook. “I did all my composing in Reason,” he says, “and I used iMovie and Final Cut Express and DVD Studio Pro to make my music video.”
The musical heavy lifting, says Dorn, happened in ProTools on his dual 1.25GHz Power Mac, where he mixed and overdubbed tracks from other musicians. The Power Mac G5 at a recording studio provided the horsepower for live recording of additional artists, more mixing and post-production, and final mastering. Dorn is eager to install his own Power Mac G5 so he can bring those activities in-house.
An Online Boost
“Enter the MoWo!” got a boost from the iTunes Music Store. “When the album was finally done,” says Dorn, “I wanted to make sure the iTunes Music Store could take it. But I didn’t hear from my manager, so I thought it was a lost cause. Then the day it was released I logged on and saw it was #20 in the electronic section. At first I thought the site wasn’t working right.”
Soon the album zoomed to #50 among the site’s top 100 titles across all categories. “I was freaking out!” exults Dorn. “I kept checking the ranking. I thought, ‘This is it. This is me. And I’m not waiting for anyone.’”
Dorn is passionate about the new way to distribute music. “When CNN did this piece on me, I was all hot about how the iTunes Music Store evens the playing field for indie artists,” he says. “That’s been so true for me — I’m doing way better on my own than I ever did with a label.”
