In the Midwest, live music acts sometimes don’t divert too far from major genres like rock, alternative and country, but Troy Cairo, Adrian Navarro, and Ian Anderson, are trying to change that image in Ames.

The three are part of the Ames based DJ group Bootytronic, a group that will perform for the first time at the newly remodeled Project 20/20 on Saturday.

Cairo, the founder of the group, said Bootytronic was formed to make sure dance parties stayed in Ames.

“I used to DJ at a place here in Ames a few weeks before it closed, then once it did I figured there wouldn’t be any more dance parties in Ames,” Cairo said.

“So I started this thing and it kinda took off from there.”

Soon after having this idea, Cairo joined up with Navarro and they began to play together at local venues in the Ames area.

“We just kinda ran into each other when I saw him playing at Element one night, we talked and decided we should start something,” Navarro said.

From a young age, all three said that they always had a passion for techno music.

Each said starting out in the business just takes time and practice, actually learning the technology is the easy part.

The hard part is knowing what to play and when to play it.

“A huge challenge is finding your style and a way to work with it. Then be confident with it all,” Navarro said.

Once the group figured out its style and grew into it that’s when the technical work began — work such as transitions between songs.

“Finding a way to play your songs so that they don’t get stale to your audience can be difficult,” said Anderson, senior in journalism and mass communication.

Then came the task of getting people interested in coming to the show.

“Pressing the Bootytronic name is the biggest part. We’ve tried in Des Moines and a little in Iowa City, but Ames just seemed to just fit more,” Cairo said.

 

“Preparing for each show and getting inspiration to perform is no problem,” the group said.

“Music is my inspiration for everything, music is inspiration for everything,” Anderson said.

The internet is a key tool the group uses to keep up on the different styles of music.

The group said it understands the pressure it is under when it goes out to perform — it is responsible for starting a party for sometimes more than 200 people.

“I really like when people come up after the show and tell me how my music totally blew their mind,” Cairo said.

Although Bootytronic uses the internet to get new ideas and network with fans, one down side of technological advances is that they are beginning to hinder the artistic and musical aspect of the show.

“It just seems like if you did anything more to it you’d take the human aspect out of it,” Anderson said.

“The computer would be doing it for you.”

But one thing computers can’t do is throw a party and no matter if it’s playing for a huge crowd or a small gathering, Bootytronic still gets the results they are looking for — one hell of a show.