DJ Michael Woods treks globe, stops in Vegas

You truly don’t understand how difficult it is to track down some of these musicians who DJ in Vegas nightclubs. I found Michael Woods literally on the other side of the globe in Australia.

The English DJ-producer was on tour as usual, although Woods returns to Vegas to perform Friday at MGM’s Hakkasan nightclub.

QUESTION: How do you like Vegas and Hakkasan lately? By God, if you tell me “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” I’ll strangle you. I’m not looking for TMZ stories. But can you give me a good fun story?

ANSWER: On my birthday last year, I was playing at Hakkasan. And when I arrived, management had all the dancers and hostesses escort me to the DJ booth. In there was a big banner that said “Happy Birthday Michael,” and there was a cake and everything.

When I pressed play on my first track, I quickly picked up the cake and slammed it into my manager’s face then rugby-tackled him to the ground.

To this day, he has never forgiven me and whenever he is out, I have to be on guard.

Q: Now that is a good story. I saw on Twitter or Facebook, you were playing “Shinobi” on your tablet. I also review games on the side as The Game Dork. What are your favorite games or types of games? I do like tablet games, but I’m hoping the new PlayStation 4 controller lets me use it on my Nexus 7 tablet.

A: Platform games. Old-school arcade games, something with a bit of nostalgia attached to it is always good.

I don’t really get much time to play games anymore. I used to own a PS3 but gave it to a friend because it never got used.

Q: I also saw some interview where you said you can either mix or DJ on your iPad. That sounds pretty crazy. What do you think the future is going to be? I mean, I thought carrying around DJ music on a USB thumbstick was pretty efficient. But what would you like to see the future be, technically? Maybe DJs could just start projecting holograms of themselves in clubs instead of flying on planes 36 hours a day.

A: Haha, well, I’m pretty sure they’ve already done that right? At Coachella?

Who knows what’s in store for the future? It has now become so difficult to predict.

Right now, two USB drives are more than efficient for me. But with the technology that’s out there at the moment, I’m sure DJs are probably going to start to look more like something out of “Minority Report.”

Q: Is there anything else I can tell people for you?

A: Make sure they go and buy “The Pit,” which is currently out on beatport.com.

Also, watch out for some new music and artists to be coming through my label Diffused in the new year. I have been working closely with a few new fresh DJs-producers and artists, so I’m really looking forward to that development in 2014.

Doug Elfman’s column appears on Page 3A in the main section on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He also writes for Neon on Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.