05 May Warren Peace’s Las Vegas Insider View

Warren Peace’s Las Vegas Insider View
By: Andrew Lazar

Warren Peace is one of Las Vegas nightlifes most decorated resident DJs. He’s one of the first DJs to bring the dance music culture to the city. Not only that, but he was a deciding factor in the shaping of the world famous XS Nightclub. Warren has played an integral role in the shaping of the dance music culture and continues to break the barriers down of what was once considered taboo in Las Vegas nightlife.

Warren, please tell us about where you grew up.

I was born in Seattle. I lived in Arizona for a while and went to college in Las Vegas.

Did living in Las Vegas have any effect on what career path you chose?

Music was always my first love. I bought my first record when I was five years old. When you’re a kid and you go to the store with your mom or dad and they ask what do you want, most kids would say a candy bar. I never asked for a candy bar. I’d always ask to go into the record shop next store and ask for a record.

What made you want records versus getting candy or toys at a young age?

I still wanted toys, but I was just always into music. When I was six, my parents bought me a tape recorder and I would sit next to American Bandstand and Soul Train and just record the songs I liked.

You were at XS nightclub for almost seven years. How did that residency affect you as a person and your career as a whole?

XS was amazing! Before XS, I was at a club called Raw, which again was so amazing. Backing up a bit, Raw was the first club on the strip that did an all hip-hop night. This was happening when the rave scene was big. It was funny because as the rave scene would come in on a Friday or Saturday, fans would start coming into the club a day early because they had hip-hop the night before.

At the time, hip-hop was a bad word on the strip. You wouldn’t really hear anyone talking about it. It got to a certain point where the general manager of Luxor didn’t like the elements that were coming in. Towards the end it got bad and they kicked us out. So one of my buddies, who worked at Tryst, told me they were going to be opening this nightclub called XS.

At that time, we were doing a house radio show for about nine months. XS was just starting to make plans to open and they were having auditions. I went and did my tryout at 3 p.m. and by 4 p.m. I received a call saying we want you. Me and my buddy at Tryst talked and decided to try and convince XS to do an all house music club. When we opened XS, we told them that we wanted to do all house music. We knew it was going to succeed because all the Europeans would go to Wynn properties and it just worked.

To read the full article on Warren Peace’s Las Vegas Insider View and to get even more exclusive content, then check out the magazine now. This article can be found in Issue 10 of EDM World Magazine! Download the app for free. Apple users click for access on your iPhone or iPad. Android users click for access here.