by Sarah Polonsky

Last week house music pioneer Robbie Rivera had an intimate party at SiriusXM’s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Moments before his live set the acclaimed DJ sat down for a chat with SoundCtrl.

In town promoting his new album “Dance or Die,” Rivera has a slew of tour dates in the Northeast this summer. “It’s been exciting,” said the warm and approachable Rivera, donning his spectacles and a nondescript green t-shirt. “One of the tracks off the album, ‘Forever Young,’ went Top Ten on Beatport,” Rivera said from the sound booth at Sirius. He’s also bringing his long-running Juicy Beach party to New York for the first time ever on July 14th at Governors Island.

“The Miami party has been going down for seven years, and it always brings out around 4,000 people,” Rivera said. ” We’ve had people like Deadmau5 headline it, and Swedish House Mafia play there. It’s always the best time.”

How does an aspiring DJ reach a Robbie Rivera level of mass appeal in 2012? “Stop copying everyone else,” he proclaimed. “You need to start creating original music because what’s happening is everyone is starting to sound the same. You also have to play a lot of parties, and playing the same 16 tracks is not going to work. It’s going to die and how can you DJ a five hour party like that? You need to be creative and have the balls to educate a bit.”

Educating is huge for Rivera. He even admitted that he’d like to design an app “for when I’m playing live, people can see what I’m doing,” adding “but I read that Ritchie Hawtin is doing something like that.”

As for his favorite app that does exist, Rivera announced, “You might be surprised.” A few lucky fans began circulating the SiriusXM space, as the DJ started setting up his console and tweaking various knobs and plug-ins for the live set. “The weather app.” DJs travel a lot, so it never hurts to know what conditions to expect, especially when your set is outside in front of thousands of partygoers who expect audile awesomeness, rain or shine.

And with that, Rivera took to the decks and delivered a bouncy, happy set for listeners across the nation via SiriusXM’s airwaves.

If you want to attend Robbie Rivera’s Juicy New York, enter for your chance to win a pair of free tickets courtesy of Vibe.

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