Being a DJ

[Voyage]

For the time I have been a member of this forum I've noticed that some of you are DJs. I would like to know how did you become a DJ? What type of equipment and requirements do you need? Of course the LOVE for music and creativity is required.



I have really learned a lot from all of you.



Voyage

[JussiK]

I was unceremoniously thrown into a dj booth by a pissed-off manager of a club who got tired of me complaining of the music policy there. "You do it then" was all he said. And I did it. I was absolute crap for the first couple of months naturally but still better than the last guy.



Check the deejaying sites on the net for excellent info on the basic dos and donts. Read Last Night a Dj Saved My Life for some perspective.

[Voyage]

Do you have the url of any good DJing sites?



Thanks for sharing your experience.



Voyage

[NickNack]

I quit the US Post Office before going postal and started out as a bouncer/doorman. Bernie is kind enough to have my interview in Disco 101.



Good Luck.

[JussiK]

Try http://www.godisadj.org



or othets from yahoo's music and discjockeys.

I'd imagine getting started today is indefinitely harder than it was in 1977 due to ever more expanding dj culture and fierce competition. But go for it young person wherever you are!

[martya11]

Check out the Disco Dj Hall of Fame:

http://www.discostepbystep.com/discodjhalloffame.htm



Click on the Real Audio 'start arrow' and listen to a great mix of some disco oldies while you go through the Dj list.



See if you can find Bernie's photo.

Enjoy

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: martya11 on 2002-03-28 13:48 ]</font>

[martya11]

Thanks for the kind emails regarding the Disco Dj Hall of Fame. I am glad you are enjoying the visits. Some are lingering quite awhile. Fun, isn't it? Please do me one favor, though... when you are listening to the mixes ... please ... please ... TURN YOUR SPEAKER VOLUME UP .... ALL THE WAY!!!!



Yippie .... long live Disco.

[The Lord of Flatbush]

On 2002-03-26 21:24, Voyage wrote:

For the time I have been a member of this forum I've noticed that some of you are DJs. I would like to know how did you become a DJ? What type of equipment and requirements do you need? Of course the LOVE for music and creativity is required.



I have really learned a lot from all of you.



Voyage

My father Al Browne {RIP} was an on-the-air personality on WHBI 105.9 FM in New York in the seventies and eighties. I guess you can say that I was born to be a DJ from that affiliation.



In turn, my father purchased my first set as a Christmas gift. Two BSR Quanta 500 turntables and a Numark mixer, to go with a Kenwood integrated amplifier and two Gem Sound speakers. Of course, the times has changed since putting two speakers, a few crates of records, along with a coffin in the back seat and trunk of a Cadillac.



Performing mastermixes on the KTU Studio 54 Clubhouse with Brooklyn's own Joe Causi on the Beat of New York, 103.5 KTU and the Jammin Party Mix Weekend on Jammin 105 p/k/a Power 105 in New York is living proof that following your dreams might take your far.





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Lord of Flatbush on 2002-04-06 20:11 ]</font>

[maarten]

My story takes place in The Netherlands.



Listening to pirate radio stations such as Veronica, Noordzee and Caroline, as well as Radio Luxemburg (The Big 208) and local pirate stations turned me into a fan.



At the tender age of 13 I started doing my own routines with one very tired record player and a mono cassette recorder. I had just moved, and taped 'shows' for my friend on the other side of the country and he did the same for me.



A few years later another good friend of mine and me glued together a pathetic contraption which was supposed to be a FM transmitter (called Josti Kit...). I had also collected some crappy turntables, a mono mixer with 4 channels, and a hifi. With all this stashed in the attick, Radio Star was born...



We persevered and the equipment got better, the station became bigger as we got older. We started to get advertisers, and eventually the station had its own 2 studio's in a dedicated building. What do you mean illegal? There were 50 people working here...



In the mean time I had also landed a job as a Saturday help in a record store, through which I got a gig playing rock and pop in one of the smaller bars in a disco in Noordwijk.



Eventually the radio station got busted, but I landed DJ-ing jobs in The Hague and later Amsterdam and other cities. And I was promoted to the largest of the three bars in the club where I started.



DJ-ing has always been a hobby. For many years I DJ-ed as an aside to my day job. Even when my job required me to move to London I continued when I was in Holland for the weekend or a short holiday. When I moved to New York, and to Tokyo in 1999 my DJ-ing days were over.



I owe my lifetime friends to my DJ-ing days.

I now very rarely get to spin some vinyl (or CD's for that matter), except for at home. But I do have this vision of building a studio, hooking it up to the PC and just throwing some music out there. Maybe... one day...

[martya11]

I guess you could say I started spinning records professionally in 1970. I set up the first sound system ever used in a Buffalo, New York nightclub at Mulligans Brick Bar. Some friends were the owners.



They relied strictly on a jukebox for musical entertainment for their customers and did not think my idea would work in their club. I convinced them to at least try it.**I took my own sound system out of my living room and set it up in Mulligans' never used dilapidated kitchen.



The system consisted of two AR Turntables, an 80 watt Dynaco amplifier, and a homemade mixer .... the size of a cigarette pack.**

I found an old wooden door and two metal milk crates in the kitchen and set the door on top of the crates. I then placed all of my equipment onto the wooden door and proceeded to hang two Altec Lansing "Voice of the Theatre" A-7 speakers and two Altec Lansing "Valencia"* speakers throughout different sections of the club.*

*

Most customers departed Mulligans before 12 midnight. But on this historic night they would never be the same. They not only stuck around but refused to leave. The bouncers had to throw them all out at closing.

**

I continued to spin records for one week, using my own sound system and records. Club owners from all over Western New York appeared each night to check out my new idea. The rest is history.**I officially became the first disk jockey to ever play in a Western New York nightclub. I later got heavier into disco record promotion but still hung onto my spinning career. I loved it. I have a bio, discography, etc. on my site: **



http://www.discostepbystep.com/martyhist.htm,



http://www.discostepbystep.com/martyangelo.htm



http://www.discostepbystep.com/discography_a-b.htm



I've been out of the business for years but

I hope my story is an encouragement to anyone just starting out as a Dj. You can make it STILL to this day.



It just takes practice, experience, and rhythm.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: martya11 on 2002-03-29 21:21 ]</font>

[usagi-san]

I have been a DJ at several commercial radio stations but rarely could play anything disco- ish there except for "Love's Theme" at an easy listening oldies station and "Heart Of Glass" at a mostly modern music station. I have been a DJ at a college radio station to some degree since 1984. I co-hosted a disco special there in 1985 and have played a lot of disco there since then.



"dance dance dance, disco baby, shake shake shake, disco baby, get down get down get down..."

usagi-san

[Giovanni]

In the mean time I had also landed a job as a Saturday help in a record store, through which I got a gig playing rock and pop in one of the smaller bars in a disco in Noordwijk.

I visited Noordwijk in the summer of '86!!!! The disco bars were playing bad music but the girls were super cute.... and they had rarely seen italian guys on vacation there..... hot fun in the summertime!!!!!!

[StuckIn1979]

If you really want to be a DJ, it really helps to tell them your gay. I think it's a requirement necessary which comes with the artistic gene.....

[markydefad]

Hey Stuckin1979,



Are you trying to promote your chosen "sexual preference" (NOT ALLOWED) or do you have a sense of humor (SOME DON'T)???



Hmmm...I'm just askin'

[Jeff H]

Stir that pot, Diamond Mark! I think now we know who incites the riots in L.A.!



And hey, Stuckin1979--I love the name. I can relate (music-wise, anyway)!



_________________

"...a once in a lifetime feeling that returns every week..."

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jeff H on 2002-04-03 10:08 ]</font>

[The Lord of Flatbush]

On 2002-04-02 17:06, StuckIn1979 wrote:

If you really want to be a DJ, it really helps to tell them your gay. I think it's a requirement necessary which comes with the artistic gene.....

The point in question is, "What does someone's sexual preference have to do with becoming a DJ or acquiring residence in a bar or club?"



Anyone can self-proclaim themself to be a DJ, but talent within creativity defines the difference between the missing link and the weakest link! Goodbye!

[DJ P]

I got my interest going around '77 in Disco Music. I had found a small lounge on St. Petersburg beach that played this new form of music (atleast to me!!). It was small but enjoyable, great music and a adequate dance floor. I got to know the DJ (Paul if my memory serves me correctly) and was asked to fill in as he lost his part-timer. I basically just faded records at the start, but this was a chain of bars/disco in Florida (ABC Liquours) and they opened a larger bar (bigger dance floor, a more advanced light show, a circular revoling bar, and a dry ice machince!!). I went to the opening of that club and met the DJ 'Cindy Leis'. From her I learned about mixing, BPM's, counting BPM's, percussion breaks, rimming (playing two exact copies of the same song, slightly behind the first to give a 'electronic distortion effect') and overlays. I worked for the ABC chain for around 4 years. Then in 1980 (the so-called 'death of Disco' year) I moved to Baton Rouge, LA. and mixed in a club called the '3D'. I started missing Florida and returned within a year. From that point in time I moved to Wisconsin and DJ'ed in a club off of State Street know as 'Bogie's' (a tribute to the movie star the late Humphrey Bogart). My blood never thickened for the Madison's winters so it was back to Florida!! I went away from DJ'ing til the 'Retro' craze caused the 'Fever' to happen again and started DJ'ing at a 'Disco Nite' (it was on a Wedensday first, then it turned so succesful the club owner's moved it to Saturday nites and it has been running ever since 1994!!) at a club called 'Stormin's' til they ended the Wedensday nite version of it. That is my recollection on my start of Disco DJ'ing.



_________________

Evolution only pertains to Disco, and the beat goes on...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DJ Phil on 2002-04-05 19:46 ]</font>