The Perry Twins

DJ’s in Identical Harmony at XL for Pride

Celebrated identical twin DJs Doug and Derek Perry are just coming off of performing at The White Party in Palm Springs. The duo will be at XL on Friday, June 26, for Pride week in New York City. Aside from being talented and well-known DJs, producers and songwriters, they are incredibly cute, international, extremely popular and both gay. I was able to have a conversation with half the team, Doug Perry, and found him to be fun, humorous and willing to speak about almost anything.

Are you actually identical twins?
Yeah, we are. We come from the same egg that split, so yeah, we’re identical.

Who became a DJ first, or did you do it at the same time?
It was kind of simultaneous. We did it together. We had always been interested as kids. We would like pretend to be DJs, and then we really got into it in college. It was kind of fun doing it together.

Who is better?
I would definitely say Derek is.

I bet he would say you are.
No, he’d probably say the same, but he definitely is.

So how did you start once in college?
In college we started doing radio mix shows, so there’d be like dance mix shows on the college station, and then from there we got involved in more state-wide radio. We’re from Rhode Island. We did radio shows in Rhode Island. Then we finally started working at clubs in Providence. This was back in the ‘90s. I remember there was one summer when Derek specifically said, “By the end of the summer I want to DJ in a club!” He had set that goal. It was actually Labor Day weekend back in ‘97, and then there was “that DJ job that happened.” So he set that goal, and then it did happen for the last day of the summer. Then we worked in Providence for a while, then New York, and then we moved to LA in 2003. We always wanted to live out there and thought we’d give it a shot. We just loved being in LA. It took a while to get gigs nationally at that time, or even locally in LA, having been rated in the northeast and then coming out here having to make a name for ourselves.

So you’re both gay?
Oh yeah, definitely. We’re both gay.

Does it become a problem if one of you finds a boyfriend?
It’s not a problem, but my boyfriend right now – I’m always around my boyfriend, and I’m always around Derek, but they don’t always want to be around each other. It runs into a kind of problem. Right now we don’t live together, me and Derek, but we lived together for so long. We’re around  each other all the time, we work together, so being twins and having grown up together, it just depends on the boyfriend.  Some of them have been really cool, accepting, and they get it. But some are like, “I should be the most important person in your life.” For the most part, me and Derek will have disagreements, but then we always are there for each other. We always have each other’s back. There are people in your life who come and go, but your twin is always there for you.

I think that is so cool and sweet. I work with these identical twins, and one stole the other’s boyfriend.
That would never happen with us. That’s crazy.

Do you ever DJ separately?
No. We used to when we were younger, when we first started, but for the most part for the last 10 years we’ve been together.

Do you also produce together?
Yeah, we do. We do original music, and then we also do remixes.  There will be instances when one of us does the majority of the work but then the other one will jump in at the end. For the most part it is 50/50.

Who is your favorite DJ? And don’t say your brother.
Besides my brother, well, it’s so hard to pick a favorite. There’s so many different DJs I like. When we were growing up, there was like Junior Vasquez and Peter Rauhofer. Those were really big influences. I’ve always loved Richard Vission. There’s so many awesome DJs. Last week we did Las Vegas Matinee, so we got to hear a lot of people. Before that we did The White Party in Palm Springs, and there was Chris Cox and Abel and Wayne G. There are just so many DJs, and I get to hear them all the time.

So you will be doing a party at XL for Pride.
Yeah. I don’t think we’ve ever DJ’d at XL, so it will be fun. It seems really cool. I’m excited about it.

What day will you be there?
Friday, June 26. We haven’t worked in New York in a while. It’s so awesome to be back, especially for Pride. We did the Pride Pier Dance a few years ago.

What’s the biggest party you’ve ever done together?
I’m not sure, but that was one of the biggest ones, Pride Pier Dance. We’ve done Fire Island in New York, but maybe the Pier Dance was the biggest one.

Do you travel internationally?
We did Madrid for Pride. We do a lot of stuff in Canada and Mexico – a lot of stuff in North America.

Do you think that being very cute gay twins helps in getting gigs?
I think that being twins has helped with certain gigs. People think that being twins we stand out and it’s a little different, a novelty. We have a photo shoot next week, and our friends say, “You’ve got to show a lot of skin.” So doing things like that helps us get a lot of work.

Send those pictures with a lot of skin showing right over to Get Out! Do you ever fight about what songs to play during a party?
Usually Derek wins out, because he’s the more controlling guy in charge. Sometimes he will listen to me. We have gotten into fights while we were working. Normally when he does want to play something that I don’t think will go over well, it does usually stand out. It does help having a second opinion. He does things and suggests things musically that I wouldn’t have thought of. For the most part it works out.

What kind of music do you play?
We will play tribal, house. It depends on the party. We play a lot of vocals. If we do a tea dance or pool party it’s a tribal music crowd, but also if people ask for dance, we’ll pick it up – the energy. We love to dance. We’re always into the music. Our dad was a drummer, so we’re used to a lot of percussion, but definitely a lot of vocals for sure.

What’s your favorite thing about being a DJ?
I think my favorite thing about being a DJ is being in the middle of the party, and when you’re there you might want to hear a particular song or your favorite song, and I can play it. I can play my favorite song – like, I can really go for the classic Madonna, and I can do that. [I like] being in control of it.

Do you take requests?
We do actually.

Wow!
A lot of people are against taking requests, but I definitely like the feedback from what people want to be hearing. For the most part, if it’s something that fits into what you’re doing and we know the people like it, we definitely play it.

facebook.com/PerryTwins

Ticket info:
www.xlnightclub.com