Easily blending deep house to dubstep to hip-hop and back, Cody Hare, better known to the masses as Buckmaster, is local proof that you can't judge a DJ by the club's free cover. The Rock Hill native spins the ones and twos every Wednesday at the popular Le Bang dance party at Dharma Lounge (1440 S. Tryon St., Suite 105). Buckmaster describes his surprisingly deep affection for R&B and how he gets rave kids and hip-hop heads to dance to the beat of the same drum.
Creative Loafing: So you went from being a band geek to one of the city's best loved DJs — do tell.
Buckmaster: I studied music and took lessons since I was eight and was in marching band, concert band, orchestra, the whole nine. I even studied percussion at Winthrop, but dropped out. You can only go so long being pushed without being like, alright, I need to just break. Music went from being something I loved to being the biggest chore in my life. On top of that, I saw the people who were graduates, and they were working as the assistant director to the band director. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but me teaching kids? I knew then that wasn't the route for me.
How'd you make the transition from being a percussionist to a DJ?
Well, my girlfriend at the time was always dragging me to clubs that I really didn't want to go to, and one day I figured since I don't really want to be here anyway, I can at least control the music. So, I went out to a pawn shop on Cherry Road in Rock Hill, bought all my gear and started DJing. I still use the same gear because I figure if I can DJ using this, I can DJ using anything.
Describe one of your best club nights.
The best party I've ever had was when we started Wednesday nights at Dharma. The owners of the club approached me and were like, we want you to DJ this party and book a guest for the day before Thanksgiving. I had no idea what it would be like since I wasn't partying much then, but I had my friend come in from Montreal, and it ended up being completely outrageous. That night we had about 500 people come through. It was packed like sardines and we were playing all the music that we wanted to play. We made a point to push boundaries that night. From avid Pitch Fork readers, to dudes with an unhealthy obsession for Waka Flaka, to fans of electronic dance, everybody was satisfied. That's a good night. When you can get all kinds of different people to enjoy themselves, in the same place, at the same time.
