Tune into any radio station in the city and chances are you’ll come across a song devoid of any originality. In today’s sales obsessed music industry it’s rare to find something able to set itself apart from the throngs of uninspired commercial offerings. Madonna, 50 Cent and U2 are all talented in their own right, but lack the necessary individuality to keep the airways from being dull. What these artists require is variety and the ability to conquer different genres of music. This is where Boca 45, otherwise known as Scott Hendy, comes in. A DJ from the UK, Boca 45 is willing to spin a diverse set of music and take the risk of doing something different. In the business for over five years, Boca 45 is one half of the talented Dynamo Productions group, but has now chosen to go out on his own to create a sound both entertaining and educational.
“I want people to enjoy themselves, but then I’ll put a few things in there that they’re not going to necessarily know, but they’ll want to dance too,” explains Hendy. “I play sort of partly mash-up, cut and paste things. It’s just a good varied listen.”
Integrating old rock and soul from the 60s and 70s as well as hip-hop from the 80s and early 90s, Boca 45 has an eclectic taste in music clearly displayed on his first solo album, Pitch Sounds. Currently in the middle of a North American tour, Boca 45 is excited and willing to entertain.
“It’s not that I’m trying to do anything amazingly different” says Hendy on the phone from Austin, Texas. “I’m into a lot of different styles and I just try to express that. I’ve got a melting pot of influences.”
The name Boca 45 stems from Hendy’s two passions, soccer and music. Boca for the Argentinean soccer team Boca Juniors and 45 for the number of revolutions per minute records make on turntables. When asked which one he prefers, Boca 45 has a tough time deciding.
“Well, probably music. It’s close though,” Hendy grudgingly answers. “Growing up it was either music or [soccer]. Yeah, I wasn’t that good at [soccer] anyways. I was really blown away by the whole hip-hop thing in the mid eighties, I was into the whole culture; I tried graffiti and break-dancing but was horrible at them. It just seemed like it was music then.”
Regardless of his talents on the soccer field, Boca 45 has managed to create an innovative way of playing sure to attract a diverse audience. Though not mainstream in the strict sense, Boca 45 does cater to the crowd and hopes only to keep them dancing while proving an artist is much more entertaining when they are not trying to fit into a set genre of music.
“When I DJ I want to entertain the audience so I play a variety of good music,” claims Hendy. “I think that a lot of people go to clubs and hear the same drum beat and tempo all night, I don’t play any record for more than two minutes; that’s how I get the party going.”