Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Vennell.
Hi Joshua, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was originally born and raised in Woodbury NJ. (The Greater Philadelphia Area). My name is Josh but everybody knows me as Traps N Trees (Traps) Philadelphia is already a huge core part of south jersey’s identity. But I started my true personal Philadelphia journey with the skateboard community as a younger teen. Going to love park, nocturnal skate shop and various skate sessions in the city. Skateboarding and music have always intertwined and I got into DJing through a close friend of mine named John Guzman who happened to be DJ Yankee’s cousin. I was already familiar with party music, but Power 99 was playing a lot of DJ Yankee records and edits and that was my true intro into the actual world of party music aka Philly Club Music. I’ve been DJing in the city of Philadelphia for 14 years under the name Traps N Trees. I started DJing at age 18 at various north Philadelphia house parties, college parties, and even raves. Spent years dedicated to Party Music after watching a DJ Sega Mad Decent Block Party set in 2011 and realized how special club music was and learned about the brick bandits and the Baltimore club kings. Played parties with various club music peers, and eventually began producing my own music. I traveled to Newark and Baltimore, the birthplaces of the sound I was so infatuated with and began throwing my own flagship party “Club Action” in 2016. A party dedicated to authentic Philly, Jersey, and Baltimore Club Music. It’s been a journey ever since. Club Music or what we called party music wasn’t really being played in Philadelphia around that time, so it’s been a struggle and long upward climb but now I’m blessed to still be throwing this party today with the help of my friends and peers, DJ Sega, DJ Reezey, Dj Suki Baby, The Muvas (A female dance collective), Gate The Monster (Philly Dance Legend), and Fame Vasquez (Philly Dance legend and MC) . I’m also very blessed that my original Philly club production and remixes have gained popularity and resonated with folks around the globe and that I’m able to start touring off the strength of the culture. And I’m very grateful that the dance culture and community is behind me. Club music is alive and well in Philadelphia.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. Coming up as a DJ in Philadelphia is definitely humbling and you learn a lot of lessons. As a young dj it was fun, but I got ripped off a lot by promoters, was always fighting for a good dj slot, was just trying to find my way. Never getting paid, taking whatever parties I could. Becoming a mobile dj, bringing my speakers around, complaining about not getting booked 🤣. Philadelphia is a very personal city. It’s not New York and it’s not trying to be New York. Rich Medina once said at a seminar I was at “If you can make it in Philadelphia you can make it anywhere.” I carry that saying with me everywhere lol! When I first started making music and began club action I lost embarrassing amounts of money and nobody was really coming to my events. A lot of the Philly Club community was scattered. In Philly I realized that like most blue collar cities, people don’t really pay attention to you until you start making motion elsewhere or unless build undeniable community. I was booking party music legends to DJ and nobody was coming. I booked Dj Tameil and Dj Technics for the first club action and they played to a room of maybe 15 people. Party music wasn’t really being played in the city. People were listening to my music but it was really only the true club heads. The EDM world whitewashed a lot of the real cultural club music that was a fabric of the city, and a lot of the Philly club music producers just stopped making music because of just life issues etc. It eventually got to a point that when I started a family and had my first son in 2019 I pretty much was done with music and threw up the white flag. Figured it was time to just be a grownup and pay bills and die. (Sounds depressing I know 🤣) But that’s really a lot of people’s reality. I came back to making music in 2021 after the pandemic. I realized club music gave me purpose. Since then I feel the tides have really changed.. the music industry has latched on and the whole world is now playing club music. We are definitely in a club music renaissance and it’s a beautiful thing. I wake up every day to somebody in the world playing one of my tracks and now I’m able to tour. A lot of these trials and tribulations made me into the DJ/Promoter/Curator/Music producer that I am today. I look at those struggles as dues paid and seeds that I planted.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a Philly Club Music Producer/DJ/ Event Curator/Promoter. I’m known for producing high energy Philly Club Music, as well as Djing it. I’m also well known for being an official club music event curator. If you ask around the Brick City, Baltimore, or Philly club community my name is known in those spaces. Nowadays I can say my name is known throughout the globe. I’m very proud that I never took shortcuts, and always stood behind the real culture. The real heroes are movers and shakers and producers and dancers who make this thing we call club music so special. I think what sets me apart from others is my intention, integrity, and mission to show the authentic real raw culture, and to de platform the digestible industry stuff. As well as using my identity to help my community navigate and raise up my peers. I’m blessed to have spent a lot of time and have many friends and peers in Baltimore city.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Skateboarding, Parties, Construction vocational school student. Was blessed with a diverse environment and two loving hard working middle class parents and siblings.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trapsntrees/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TrapsNTrees
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/trapsntrees
- Other: Traps N Trees everywhere and all music platforms
