How I became a DJ
June 25th, 2019
Well, where do I start? It’s been about 9 months since my first gig in Boston at The Causeway and about a week away from opening at Royale Boston. Of course I’m not alone. Tom Dennis, my other half, is by my side. Without him, I don’t think I would be where I am today, and I feel he would say the same… at least I hope.
So my story of DJing is not very glamourous and honestly kind of pathetic. Of course I always had a love for music but I have never been musically talented. The most experience I have is a little piano while producing and in 4th grade I was front row at our recorder (yes the wind instrument) concert.
My first thoughts of ever becoming a DJ happened in 8th grade, my second year (that’s another story we will get to) at a party in one of my friends basements. Of course thinking I had the best, new music, I was on AUX duty. It was as simple as a girl at turning to me and saying “ I like the music you play. You should be a DJ”.
That’s it.
I didn’t even know what a DJ did besides play music. I didn’t know everything that came with it. Over the next few weeks I read articles, watched countless hours of DJ interviews and live sets. Its quickly became clear that there was a whole musical world with no rules to dive into.
There was mixing, mastering, editing, chopping, scratching. All these words and phrases that once were a different language, over time became my first tongue.
As I was just getting into high school, the first DJs I really explored were SuperMash Bros, KapSlap, White Panda and that was just because they were the first ones that popped up when I YouTube searched “ DJs”. With that I began using a software called Audacity.
Audacity gave me my first mashup. With the acapella from Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani, the instrumental from Avicii’s Levels, a dash of Lights by Ellie Goulding and topped off with a verse from the great Notorious BIG’s Party and Bullshit. It took me about a month to put together as I was teaching myself everything
Fast forward about a year and a half and I now had 2 more mashups. My friends started to actually enjoy listening to them and it was around this time I “invested” $40 in my first DJ controller, the Numark DJ2GO. Two tiny jog wheels, a crossfader, gains, and bpm slider.
There was another kid at my high-school who was the most musically talent person I have ever met. Nick Alves could pick up any instrument and as long as he knew where the notes where he could play anything. This kid could hear a note and tell you exactly what it was.
It turned out that Alves and I had a free period together our junior year of high school. Me and him would spend that block in a tiny sound proof room, with a headphone splitter so we could both listen. We would record mixes in that room like it was nobody’s business. So it was time to make nobody’s business, our business.
One thing I quickly realized.. trying to call yourself a “DJ” in High school is tough, especially when you don’t have places to play, don’t have any songs out, and your mom calls you DJ NuNu. So Alvesy and I decided we were going to burn our 6 mashups, totaling about 30 minutes, onto CDs to sell under the duo name GoodHousekeeping. From there Sex In A Compact Disc was born. Yup, that was the name of the album.
After buying blank CDs, slips for the cds, and ink to print out labels it was time to sell them. Five bucks and it was yours. I think we ended up making $25 bucks each. Not bad in my eyes.
From there Audacity turned to Pro Tools in my Music Tech class and I was opened up to producing my own original sounds. My Numark was upgraded to a Numark Mixtrack. By the time I graduated highschool, I was creating my own sounds, mixing at house parties for friends and family, and thinking of ways to get more money in my pocket for doing what I love. It wasn’t playing the music, or being in the center of the stage, that I love about DJing. It’s the “OUUU” of a crowd when a throwback comes on, or the happiness in a toddler’s feet when they’re the only one dancing. The influence music has on people is indescribable, and being able to say I get paid to do it is a blessing
-NA
