For at least one Friday night this month, the Yost Theater will be on par with Las Vegas' hottest nightclubs. Presented by ClubKillers.com, House of Dreamz is the brainchild of KIIS-FM DJ and Anaheim native Alex Dreamz (born Alejandro Becerra). The “Wicked Wonderland” theme–dressed by Costa Mesa sex shop Wicked Chamber–will give the venue a playful yet mysterious ambiance, as lasers, confetti, glow sticks and giant LED walls will take club revelers' breath away.
Dreamz will reign over the Santa Ana club with his usual band of culprits, Tekno Teddy and Shuffle Bunny; sexy go-go dancers; and a slew of talented DJs from the Club Killers family, bringing a banging medley of progressive house and Top 40 jams for a monthly residency of EDM debauchery. It's rare to see a DJ/remixer/producer throw a consistent club night without the help of promoters at a space as large as the Yost, but then few have as much experience and brand recognition as Dreamz.
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For the past nine years, the tastemaker has been rocking the airwaves every Friday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the No. 1 radio station in the country. This has given the 30-year-old Dreamz access to the pulse of local pop culture, dance music and club life. “It's crazy,” he says. “I get kids hitting me up, saying they've been listening to me since they were 10 years old and now they are aspiring to be DJs.”
The old-school raver has come a long way from nights at dingy warehouses, digging for vinyl in the crates of Hollywood's long-gone record stores. Mesmerized by the art of deejaying at age 13, Dreamz had his sights so set on being a DJ that his friends would tease him. “Alex dreams too much,” they would say, inadvertently coining his DJ name. Back in the early days of MySpace, his artist page had a following from the mixtapes he would hand out on the streets. Dreamz was soon approached by KIIS-FM's music director, who offered him a position on the spot. “Though I was getting more into production at the time, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up,” says Dreamz. “Now I'm like, 'Damn I should have stuck with [producing],' but I'm thankful for the ride my career has taken me on.”
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That ride includes having a Las Vegas residency at the hottest Wynn Resort nightclub, XS, in the days before EDM had taken over the strip. “I was playing songs such as Afrojack's 'Take Over Control' and Deadmau5's 'Faxing Berlin' on the radio and in Vegas long before the managing partners at XS even knew who they were,” says Dreamz. Though he was scolded for playing too much house music at times, Dreamz continued to grow his brand through his remix work and his ClubKillers.com website. A couple of years ago, he saw the EDM shift, with super-star DJs suddenly getting the residencies. So he decided to focus on his Club Killers tour, which has been to the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Paris, Malaysia, China, Japan, Mexico and all across Latin America.
“Now that I have a staff of employees I can delegate and help to mentor these guys,” says Dreamz. He plans to bring his House of Dreamz club night to places such as New Orleans; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego; Hollywood; and, of course, Orange County. Already having been enlisted to do remix work for artists as big as Britney Spears, the entrepreneur is now going back to his music and intends to release a debut album in 2014.
Who knows where the club life experience is headed in the next five years? Not long ago, celebrity hosts such as Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton were all the rage. But what we do know is Dreamz has been feeding the masses with electronic music, mashups and even pop hits for so long that when this huge EDM bubble finally bursts, we believe he'll be inventing something new.
Alex Dreamz performs at House of Dreamz with DJ Raize and Dirty Lou at the Yost Theater, 307 N. Spurgeon St., Santa Ana, (888) 862-9573; www.yosttheater.com. Fri., 10 p.m. $15 in advance; $20 at the door. 21+. For more info on Alex Dreamz, visit www.alexdreamz.com.
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