The weekly après party at the Aspen Art Museum will look a little different this evening. With Winter X Games amping up the scene in town, a one-off party is taking over the museum’s rooftop — it’s an event all about the funk.
Coined as the “Winter Get Down” — presented by the New York-based creative agency, TheGoodLife! — the party will take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the AAM rooftop and feature a music performance by the eclectic-funk DJ and worldly music producer, Quantic.
The event is ticketed at $50 per person ($35 for AAM members) and is meant to be a fun dance party that exposes Aspenites to maybe a different kind of music experience than they’re used to, said Willy Soul, one of the event’s lead producers.
Soul is a DJ and music director based in Brooklyn. He and his production partner, Craig Wetherby — founder of TheGoodLife! and a photographer also living in Brooklyn — originally started their Winter Get Down concept two years ago as a three-day event held at the Hunter Mountain Resort in upstate New York.
Soul credited Wetherby for being one of the first to bring out hip hop and funk acts to the mountains, which he said is especially noted via Wetherby’s tenured position as the special events producer for Burton Snowboards.
With Wetherby’s event-producing creds and plug-ins with the pro-snowboarding scene and Soul’s music-industry connections — he’s currently the music director at New York’s Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace, which has celebrities Liberty Ross, Jimmy lovine and Usher at its helm — the two combined their resources to pioneer the Winter Get Down.
And in its second year, they’re looking to expand their production concept to different mountains all over the map, Soul said. Today’s Aspen event marks the first in that journey.
“Bringing that funkiness and hip hop to the mountains is like a very unique thing, and together, me and [Wetherby] share a very similar hustle, similar visions, similar taste,” Soul said. “We’re looking to partner with different mountains and venues and resorts, and, yeah, this will be our debut, in Aspen.”
Soul came up with the idea for an Aspen Winter Get Down when he was visiting town about a month ago to help out with some programming for the new pop-up club from Brooklyn, known as Ponyboy. During his time in Aspen, Soul said he naturally connected with people tapped into the local DJ and music scene — AAM resident DJ Alex Golden being one of them — as well as connected with employees at the museum.
“I just think Aspen is like hustlers’ paradise — you meet so many people out here if you’re, you know, in the right circles of people within music,” Soul said. “So I was able to kind of put something together, not last minute, but very fast for my typical standards.”
Soul said he’s worked closely with the AAM to put together this event. He noted how Golden will be playing her set, as will Soul himself, as the two supporting acts to Quantic this evening.
The producer also mentioned that his Brooklyn friends over at Ponyboy have been big supporters of the event. The nightclub, located in the W Hotel, has been hosting pre-party gigs all week leading up to the Winter Get Down and will put on an after party tonight.
“It’s gonna be like [the AAM] Saturday après party but on steroids because we’re bringing in a big
talent budget for this. ... We’re essentially bringing in world-class talent and our hosting abilities to create a unique atmosphere there,” Soul said. “And Quantic is a very special producer and DJ — like he’s very worldly, he’s very funky and he can take you on a journey, because he’s just been so eclectic and been in multiple music scenes.”
Soul went on to describe Quantic’s artistry as being more on the sophisticated, funky world music side of the genre spectrum, as compared to his observations of Aspen’s common music scene — which Soul said seems to go from EDM to more Burning Man-esque music to the electronic-pop shows.
“We’re just kind of bringing a talent to Aspen that they don’t usually get, so we’re really excited to bring something for Quantic fans in Colorado and also introduce the people of Aspen to music maybe they’re not used to,” Soul said. “And Quantic is an absolute killer when it comes to rocking the party and educating people on really tasteful music from around the world.”
The Winter Get Down party will take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at the AAM. Tickets are available to purchase at eventbrite.com or at the door. There will be a one in, one out policy if the event reaches capacity.