MARCHING TO HIS OWN BEAT
DJ CONNOR CRUISE STEPS FROM SHADOW OF FAMOUS HOLLYWOOD PARENTS
Following in your famous family’s footsteps, in the profession that made them household names, has its downsides.
But so, too, does attempting to go a different route, to chart your own course that strays from the path to stardom previously taken.
Ask Connor Cruise. He’s done both.
The 18-year-old son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman took a few steps in the acting biz, with roles in the Will Smith drama Seven Pounds and in the ill-advised remake of Red Dawn.
And now he’s set off on his own as an EDM producer and DJ, where he’s gaining a certain amount of fame and acclaim, and is finding himself very much in demand — for his skills more than his name.
“I’ve been very blessed. It’s been a roller-coaster, it’s been so much fun these last six months,” says Cruise on the phone from L.A. “Everything’s really falling into place, and I have a good team around me and the people around me have been receiving it really well.”
Local dance-lovers will get their opportunity to sample his hard house and progressive mix when he does a set Thursday night at the new Marquee Beer Market and Stage. They’ll get to hear the skills he’s been honing on the club circuit the past couple of years, building to bigger rooms and larger parties, including, recent tours to Australia and Brazil, and even a stint behind the decks for a Rihanna after-party down in the Dominican Republic.
But the path to get to this point, Cruise admits, is one where he was met with as much skepticism and cynicism as doors flung open by that famous family name.
“I faced it a lot the first year and a half ... it was a real uphill battle,” he says. “I had to prove that I could read a room and I could go in there and rock the crowd. Once I spent about a year and a half of playing around and certain nightclubs and certain promoters got to see the live shows, you can’t, there’s no lying in front of a live audience. You can either keep 1,000 people there for two hours or you can’t.”
Cruise was willing to put in the time to prove himself to follow music which had, despite the acting detours, been a passion for his young life, with electronic music becoming a focus over the past six years. DJing became a hobby he did for himself in his room “just for fun, for myself.
“I had some friends come over and they listened to me and a couple said, ‘You’re actually pretty good at this.’ So I took a shot at it and the first time I ever played a live show I knew ...,” he says. “It’s such an addictive feeling to be able to read a crowd and read a room, program a set and just kind of go for it.”
As the club bookings grew, so did his interest in the production side of things and actually making the music that got the dance floor moving. In a short time he’s teamed with such notable producers as Andy Caldwell and longtime Black Eyed Peas collaborator DJ Poet, delivered his share of remixes and dropped his own single Closer to Heaven, featuring Metro Station vocalist Mason Musso (himself, a member of an acting family which features brothers Marc and Mitchel).
“I use it to channel how I view things and how I experience life. It’s a very personal thing for me and I just found my channel to communicate with the rest of the world.” Cruise says, noting the production and spinning complement one another. “There’s definitely no better feeling than playing something that you put the time into create and seeing it go off in the room. That’s why I do what I do.”
The success and fun he’s now having jetting around the world and getting parties started means he’ll keep on doing it. As he does so, he’s looking forward to getting better at it and making his own name with it — in other words, getting booked for what he does not who he is, something he acknowledges still very well may be the case.
“I’m sure that happens, I’m sure,” he says. “But my job is to deliver in the room and I’m going to go in there and deliver what was asked of me — hopefully deliver better. That’s the only thing I can do is prove myself in the room.”
And as to whether or not down the road he may once again take a detour back to the path the names Cruise and Kidman are more noted for, so he can prove himself in the acting world, he doesn’t rule that out completely.
“I mean, I never want to say something’s done entirely, but I definitely am into electronic music and that’s my world right now,” he says. “I don’t have time to think about really anything else besides getting my music done and out there, playing these shows.”