Indy DJ Topher Jones brings live EDM show to Bloomington

Zionsville, Ind., native and Depauw University graduate, Topher Jones, returns to Bloomington tonight to perform at Kilroy’s Dunnkirk with Tritonal. The 28-year-old was recently signed to Ultra Music, the label of Deadmau5,  Tiesto and other EDM superstars.

IDS Recently you’ve performed at some big name events, like Spring Awakening in Chicago. How do you prepare yourself before going on stage?

TOPHER JONES It’s just more like, alright, I got my music, I have an idea of what I want to play, and let’s go from there. Once you get on stage and you play that first track, it’s just really fun. You get a big crowd and people are having fun and that just takes over. I don’t think I ever get nervous before a show.

IDS Do you have any kind of routine before the show?

JONES Not really. People ask me that a lot. I think I should start one because I get asked so much.

IDS What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?

JONES This club I was performing in had this really elaborate LED wall set up behind me. At one point, the screen went from being kind of flat where you could see it to being parallel with the floor. Someone hit the wrong button and the DJ booth went backward while the big platform screen was moving forward, and it almost drilled the back of my head. Luckily I ducked in time. It took out all the speakers that were in the DJ booth and stopped the music. Everyone just looked and was like ‘Oh my gosh, did he just get
decapitated?’

IDS What’s your musical background? Are there any big musical influences from your days in Zionsville?

JONES My mom is an amazing piano player and a very talented musician, and so is my younger brother, so I’ve grown up around music my whole life. I never took classes or trained or anything like that, so I think I was just very fortunate to have an ear for what I love to do and what I want to write. And then when I was a freshman in high school I got my first turntable and started messing around with DJing.
 
IDS Who would be your dream DJ/artist to pair up with?

JONES Oh man ... probably Chris Martin from Coldplay. I think he’s incredibly talented.

IDS So after writing “Hello Chicago,” can we expect any Indiana shout outs? You did grow up here.
 
JONES I’ve been living in Chicago almost three years now and it’s been a great experience, and so I wrote a song about that. But I don’t know about an Indianapolis shoutout. I’d love to do a shoutout to Indiana because I grew up there and spent most of my life there. It just has to be the right time and the right song. 
 
IDS One of your other most popular songs is called “Brohammer.” Do you consider yourself a “bro”?

JONES No, I’m definitely not a bro.

IDS So where did the inspiration from that song come from?

JONES My younger brother, Nooka, and I were joking at dinner one night about the types of people that come to my shows, and somehow, he claims that he came up with the term brohammer and used it. It’s kind of like a dance move that people use, and we thought it was so funny that we just kept using the phrase over and over again. And as a joke I went back to my studio and wrote a song based off the words.

Follow reporter Michela Tindera on Twitter @mtindera07.