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Above the bridge
Episode 189 DJ JAVI ( Hawaii Dj )
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Most people judge a DJ by the loudest 30 seconds. We wanted to talk about the other 99 percent of the job: the decisions nobody sees that keep a club alive, a dance floor full, and a night moving in waves instead of burning out early.
We’re joined by DJ Javi, one of Hawaii’s most versatile DJs, to break down the real mechanics of nightlife. We talk DJ battles, mentorship, and the Hawaii DJ community ethos of showing up for each other’s gigs. Javi explains why “reading the room” is not a vibe-based cliché, it’s a skill: watching who is dancing, who is stuck at the bar, and how to sequence songs so the crowd builds naturally. We also get into the business side of DJing, why cold asks for peak-time slots fail, and how newer DJs can earn bookings through demos, feedback, and consistent presence.
Then we go deep on emo nights in Hawaii: how the concept spread from the mainland, why some sets land and others don’t, how to balance mainstream sing-alongs with deeper cuts, and even how to keep mosh pit energy safe in a club environment. Along the way, we touch on how social media changed nightlife behavior, how different venues demand different strategies, and why undercutting rates hurts the whole scene.
If you care about Hawaii nightlife, DJ culture, Serato and Rekordbox workflow, or how a great DJ thinks in real time, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a DJ or promoter friend, and leave a review with the best lesson you’ve learned from a night out.
Welcome And Meet DJ Javi
SPEAKER_01Aloha, welcome to another edition of the Above the Bridge Podcast. I'm your host, Thaddeus Park. Thank you for tuning in on whatever platform you guys are tuning into. Please like, subscribe, tell a friend, and thank you very much for being a part of the Above the Bridge podcast. Ohana. Aloha.
DJ Battles And First Big Win
SPEAKER_01Okay, this week is probably one of my favorite DJs for emo nights, and I always get stoked to see him at Republic when I go with Sonia for Emo Nights, and I love his music, his alternative choices. Uh, but he plays all kinds he's a DJ, regardless of emo alternative music or whatnot. DJ Javi, what's up, brother? How's it going, brother? You don't just play alternative, you play EDM, and you can play whatever, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I started actually back at Daven Buster's opening for Jimmy Taco and K Smooth. So I've been doing hip hop side since 2012, and then did a couple battles along the way. Um, one KTV's DJ battle for programming way back when Chris Styles was running that one.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the one by was that the one by um Walmart. Walmart, yeah. Oh, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, go ahead. No, no, that one was like a weekly series one that we did, and then that one was just like for 30-minute sets, and then um ended up doing the first spin-it to win it battle for uh Hawaiian Aroma Cafe back at the gallery when I was open. So I won year one, so on the 2023 channel, the first one, and then after that, Toma won the year after that. Um Scotty Doo got the third one, and then this year it was DJ Dynamics, one of my other homeboys that I used to do David Busters with.
SPEAKER_01So that's Hoppa and Taco and uh Tech's contest, right? Yep, yeah. Oh, I didn't know you were the first winner. I actually went to okay, I went to the first finals, and I got lit, and I didn't so I didn't stay to yeah, I didn't stay to the end.
SPEAKER_00It's hard when they decided, yeah, we're gonna make it look like a boxing ring and put the two turntables facing each other. So it was me and um who was on my side because I know across from me was Bosef and Drama. Oh and then it was me and why am I blanking on his name? Youngboy Spazi's son.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I've forgotten.
SPEAKER_00Jojo, Jojo Flow. That's why it's like he's been doing so much other stuff and producing and everything else. I kind of blanked for a second, but yeah, no, because he just turned 18 when he entered the battle, so it was one of those where we were like, Oh, oh, we got a kid kid.
SPEAKER_01Yes, couldn't lose to that guy.
SPEAKER_00Well, that was the fun part for me because drama was technically the old guard, me and the same DJ generation, and Jojo was the new one coming in. So it was one of those where it's like a weird spot to be in because I was 32 at the time, 31, 32. So it's like I'm not there, but I'm definitely not there, so we're just here.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. I've um I did go to the one Toma one, and yes, uh, I bro, his set was that Lottie Dottie. He put bro, I was I was flooring. I was thinking, like, bruh, if Toma doesn't win, then I'm not coming to any more of Hoppadim's programs ever again. But in Toma fashion, he won, came straight to me and Hansen and said, Let's take a shot. And like it was just happens every time. It was just it was just cool, but I I love that contest, and like I was saying earlier,
The Hawaii DJ Support Culture
SPEAKER_01I love having DJs on my show. I'm trying to get as many, I'm trying to pull one at a time here and there, and I love your guys' culture. For one thing, my whole business was ran on the abilities of you guys. I got the people there, but you guys keep them there, you guys uh perform for them, you guys are the ones that set the vibe. So I'm indebted to DJs. Um, my for the last 20 years, you guys help me put food on the table, you know. I mean, and I feel like the culture of DJs from my interactions here in Hawaii, you guys have an amazing culture where I feel, and it probably not the same all the way around, but I feel like you guys uplift each other, you guys um pretty much have each other's backs, and you guys I feel like you guys are all on the same page to watch each other grow. I mean, I could be wrong, but do you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00So this is almost like a callback to a thing I said back on in spec's podcast, like way back during COVID time, where there has always been a collective of us where we all want to see each other grow. Um, we always want to push each other to get better. And our whole thing was like, we didn't like hearing guys complaining and not doing anything about it. Like, if you feel like you can play better, then play better. Show that you can play better, show that it's worth hiring you. Because a lot of times guys were just like complaining that they didn't get booked for a show, didn't get booked at this one place or another place. I'm like, well, how do you expect that club to be comfortable with booking you if they've never seen you play before? If you've never shown up, if you've never shown face and just just shown up for the sake of showing up, because a lot of the guys that I came up with, we all show up to each other's gigs if we're not playing, and we always want to try to show face, not just for the sake of like, oh yeah, shake hands, kiss babies, but also like we want to support, like, I don't need you to put me on guest list if I'm gonna go to support you, I'll pay the cover charge. I don't care. Because if you're getting me through the door and we're paying for the establishment to keep hiring you guys, then we're keeping our friends in business. So that's how we always looked at it. Where it's like, hey, if you put me on guest list, cool. If not, still don't care. I'm showing up, I'm showing up whether you put me on or not. Because we want to make sure that the guys who try at least can make some sort of living off of it. If it's not like your primary job, at least make some fun money, get some stuff that can pay down your credit cards, your loans, whatever you have. Because, like, I'm gonna be real. I my day job takes care of 99% of my stuff. All my DJ money does is take care of my student loan and my fun time. So that's what the DJ money is for for me.
SPEAKER_01That's good. I mean, it's good that you have a balance as well. Do I work cancer research and that's my real job, and then my promoting and and podcasting is gravy, but the the real job gotta stay real, you know what I mean? Like, there were there are many times where my promotions would make more than my real job, and I was tempted to be like, fuck this. I why am I work waking up in the morning to go to work when but I kept true to it, you know what I mean? But um, DJ-wise, I I had nasty Nate on, and he kind of said the same kind of things, like how he started off. And I was in DJ boots for years, and I'll get the most randomest DJs. Oh, why don't you put me on on a uh Friday night at district? Um, this, this, and this. I'm like, for one, like, I don't know who you are. Two, you're just gonna come up to me and tell me to put you on the biggest nightclub we have at the time in Hawaii, and I don't yeah, and I don't even know like anything about you, or you don't even introduce your and I've never seen you in here, like trying to to watch our DJs or learn what they're doing, or even establish a rapport with anybody. I uh it was like, Oh, that's the quickest way to get the uh you're never gonna play here, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Wow,
Booking Yourself Without Entitlement
SPEAKER_00yeah, it's every time it's one of those where I'm like, it it's just as much a business for them as it is exposure for you for a lot of DJs. Where I'm just like, hey, end of the day, I know you want to play, but unless you're going to very specific shows, you need to know how to work this as a business. Like, yeah, if you're playing at a club, at a bar, you gotta know what your audience is. You gotta know that hey, my job right now is to keep people here, keep them cycling to that bar, getting more drinks, getting more food, whatever, and not running away. And like some guys just want to play hard, play hard the whole time. Like, hey, cool. If you're doing that for a show, that makes sense. But if you're at a Friday night at a club and you're the 10 o'clock guy, and this thing is supposed to run till four in the morning, how how are we gonna keep these guys that whole time? Like, I get it, we want to cycle them, we want more people to come in and out, but you gotta at least give the guys in there a chance. You gotta build that dance floor, you gotta build so that even the guy that comes after you or two after you has a chance with whatever group that's there. Because a lot of time, like the mentality's changed a lot. Where before, um, I know a lot of us used to think of it more as a whole night viewpoint, yeah. And then some of the older guard that deals with the youngins now have told them straight up, like, nah, do you, because in the social media age and everything else, a lot of DJs have to be just as much their own promoter as the promoters are. Yeah, and I get that, but for a guy like me, where at one point, for so I've been doing this for what 14 years at this point, for the first five, six years, I was on nobody's flyers, and I didn't care about that because what I cared about was whether or not did you make sales, did I get the dance floor going, did they enjoy themselves? If they're there and they can recognize me, cool. I don't need you to know my name. I don't need you to see my name on a flyer and be like, oh, it's that guy. What I need to know is that the other DJs know that if they need somebody to cover for them or somebody to help build their night, I got their back. If they need to hire somebody for any of the bars or whatever that they can trust, I'm there and they can see that I know how to work. Yeah, because a lot of times now it's very much not that. But I can also say that clubbing in Hawaii has very much gone a very different route compared to million percent, billion percent, yeah, which is why a lot of times guys are going hard now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh honestly, like you brought up social media, I always say it. Oh, clubs are different because of social media. Like back in our days, we had to actually talk to people, we had to actually go up to girls and be like, hi, I'm Thaddeus. Can I buy you a drink? And put yourself out there. Now you can just go on your freaking one of these at home and meet people on the toilet, and you don't have to take that risk of embarrassing yourself in front of a girl and her friends and and all that. So the interaction of nightclubs is kind of losing its luster because you don't need it. I don't if I'm gonna try and like honestly, people go to nightclubs to have fun with their friends and meet people, but if you can meet them without the risk of rejection, it's the easier to do it on this.
SPEAKER_00Go it's like I'm just gonna go at my friends and I'm just gonna go for this reason. Yeah, it's like okay, cool, but that leads to the whole like treating your DJ more like an iPod or Spotify than you are treating them like an actual professional. Exactly, it's weird at that point.
SPEAKER_01Like, I I like that you brought up something about DJing is how you cycle the crowd, and I always get impressed with this. And with uh my residents, I would tell them, like, just do your job, because I don't like I don't need to worry about my DJs because they could do that and they know how to cycle them out, and I would be amazed watching because I I'm a I'm I always watch and they could have the dance floor banging and then have them drinking and then pull them back, and then it's like bro, like people don't understand how much of a skill that is. Like, like you said, there's not an iPod in the world that can do that, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Like a lot of times, like I lucked out that I came up under another DJ who would just bean me in the back of the head with freaking napkins and peanuts whenever I would screw up transitions or make bad sound choices. Uh, shout out to Jimmy Taco.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that sounds like Jimmy Taco.
SPEAKER_00Taco beaning me in the back of the head every time. Like, um, first of all, it's 10 o'clock unless they pre-gamed. How drunk do you think they are? Not really. Okay, so why are you going like put on something that they'll drink in two-step to then? What are you doing? I'm like, oh, okay. And it was like,
Reading The Room Like A Pro
SPEAKER_00for a while, they're like, I don't mind like putting this out and everything. I was like, I had a formula at one point for like how to do an opening set where it was pretty much hit them with throwback RB tracks in the very beginning that they'll drink to and do two steps to, and then you look around and see if you got any dancers in the crowd. Luckily, I came from the dance scene originally. I was a b-boy growing up, did you know dance and everything else? So I knew a bunch of the studio kids too. So I'm like, Oh, they're here, cool. Put on something that I know they're going to dance to because that's gonna make a cipher circle. Once the cipher starts, everybody wants to watch. So everybody starts filling up your dance floor trying to watch dancers dance, and then you switch it over to okay, how am I gonna get every dude that's currently standing at the bar to get over to the dance floor? Well, I'm gonna get every woman to dance with her friends on the dance floor. So you go straight from hey, b-boy track, dance track to girls sing-along track so that all the dudes will show up with them. And at that point, it's already like 10 minutes left in my set. So now when Jimmy's about to hop on, he has a full dance floor ready to go, primed, and I didn't burn any of the songs that are on the radio at that point in time. No bangers, any yeah, still have all the bangers you want to play with and just let them run. And it was because I was doing that for so long and doing weddings and doing private events, like doing clubs now for me very much is a I spend as much time looking at the crowd, figuring out what is the makeup of my crowd as I am figuring out what song I'm playing next. That's because I know my library enough where I just like I can do two, three songs ahead. I just need to see who's moving right now, who's not. The guys who are moving right now is the ones that I'm gonna need to send to the bar in about two, three songs. The guys who are at the bar are the ones I need to drag out to the dance floor so there's room at the bar for the guys that are about to evacuate. So what do they look like they are about to dance to? Oh, I see a couple girls over there. Cool. If I put on some bad bunny or bachata, see if I got any of them yelling or moving. If there is, cool. I can hit a Latin set for a little bit, then switch it out to a hip-hop set, switch out to an EDM set, whichever way I need to run. Um it goes. That's why it's like having to do like a four-hour night at Boohoo turns into a lot of like fun because it's just me. I have nobody after me. I'm not gonna repeat myself. I can just switch everything around and just run that dance floor and just be like, okay, cool. It's like, are you guys making money? That's all that matters to me.
SPEAKER_01Everything you just said just now made me realize how happy I am that I'm not a DJ.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, like everybody's like, Yeah, you jump around, you push buttons. I'm like, Yeah, you I could do that, but that's not my personality type, that's not how I spin. Like, I I'm the type that just thinks too
Sponsorship Break And New DJ Trends
SPEAKER_00much.
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's take a break and shout out our sponsor, Defen Hawaii. They got some new stuff for summer. If you go to their website, defenhawaii.com, use promo code ATB pod upon checkout, you'll get 15% off your first purchase. I love their stuff, I wear it all the time. Their new stuff is super cool. My daughter wears their stuff, my wife, but go check them out defendhawaii.com. Let them know above the bridge podcast sent you. Aloha.
EDM Formats Versus Open Format Clubs
SPEAKER_01How much of the younger DJs coming up in this game have that mindset and kind of know how to do everything you just said?
SPEAKER_00Um, it depends on what background they're coming from and what side of the scene and industry they're coming from as well. So, for instance, um, shout out to the homies in Escapism that run Eve. Eve is primarily EDM stuff. Okay, from when they started. It was like you have a base room, you have a house room, they now have a vibe room that the homies from Scratch Ahoy, like Inspect, Chrisky, all those guys are now playing in that room. So, like they have that switch over as well. But for a lot of the EDM shows and everything else, if they're coming from that side, they're not gonna think about reading a room like that. They're gonna think about how do I stick to my format that I was given, but play and make everybody notice me. And there's nothing wrong with that. I have no qualms with that, it's just very much you have to think of it. The the thought process is very different. So, for those kinds of people, the way I look at it is you treat them like you would treat a promoter. They're gonna try to bring in their audience, they're gonna record their stories, they're gonna make sure that everything looks good, and that's what's gonna bring people into your area. So they are more so the ones you put on the flyers, the faces, the the one, the names that you expect to see. And that's how they can promote themselves and be useful for those kinds of spaces compared to like what me and Inspect do. It's like Inspect is a big name in and of himself, he can take care of all his stuff, get his name on things. We already joked that he's a K-pop pretty boy, so it's it looks great on flyers. Um, but it's very much we are comfortable enough in our stuff that we can play around and we don't mind playing around. The new ones that are coming up, depending on where they're coming through, have very different thoughts, very different comforts as far as the different genres and everything else. So I look at places like Eve like a good like building ground for those guys because they're able to segment and try to build it, give them chances to build themselves and get to that level that they want to be at, because it's not the same as trying to do parlor. Parlor is a very different vibe than even district, and it's right next door to each other with a shared hallway. Yeah, so it's like it's not always gonna be the same, and like a lot of the guys, especially coming straight from the bedroom, coming straight from COVID and the whole streaming era, yeah, they're so used to playing what they like, what they want, and how they want that putting them into those scenarios becomes its own learning experience that they have to go through themselves.
SPEAKER_01I've seen it before where they have a predetermined set, and I'm thinking, like, how can you have a I understand having a a list of songs that you you want to like kind of build to or whatever, but you cannot have a predetermined set and stick by it if you're playing to the crowd, it just can't happen, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00It's one of those where unless that crowd is there for that specific thing, yeah, it's never going to be that way. Like, for instance, Emo Knight, love the guys at Emo Knight, shout out Ash, shout out Bryson, they will always start with the exact same song. Contractually, they will start with the same song. It will be Sugar We're going down, no matter what. Um, and for most of these themed nights, like even the Taylor Swift night, the gimme gimme disco, and all that kind of stuff. Technically, you know what that playlist is gonna be. There's sure you're not gonna have like for an emo night, there's no way you're not gonna hear Fallout Boy. There's no way you're not gonna hear my chemical romance. There was absolutely no way you're not gonna hear Panic at the disco. Yeah, it's more so the hey, can I look at this crowd and figure out how old or young they are? Can I get away with playing this song? Like for Imona, it gets a little harder because since they do it so often, it also turns into a thing where it's like, all right, we have a whole bunch of new people coming in. So we want them to get a similar experience to what everybody else got. But at the same time, for everybody who's returning, do they really want to hear the exact same things they heard the last time they were here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then it turns into that weird mid-space where you're like, okay, how many familiar faces do I see in this crowd? How many new faces do I see? Can I get away with playing the used? Can I play get away with senses failed? Because I want to play that route, but yeah, it's too much of a younger crowd. Most of them don't know those bands, so it's like, yeah, there's no way to run that route.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense.
From B-Boy Roots To DJ Mentors
SPEAKER_01And I'll get into emo nights because, like I said, you're my favorite emo night DJ, but uh, how did you even get into DJing? Like, when did you know, like, oh, I like doing this, or try how did you try it out, or what?
SPEAKER_00So, like I said, I grew up as a b-boy, and what usually ends up happening for a bunch of b-boys is somebody has to have the music, so one of the guys ends up turning into a DJ because he couldn't he couldn't top off good enough. Uh, in the case of uh so in my family's case, uh we're going back to a little bit of Hawaii history at Farrington High School. There used to be a b-boy crew called UBC. Um, they were on brown bags to start them, and okay. So what did UBC stand for? Unbreakable crew. Okay, it's it's uncontrollable breaking crew. So UBC. Okay. It was UBC and ABC were the two that were dancing around that time. This is like mid-90s. All right. So one of them is my uncle, my dad's like half-brother, who's only 10 years older than me. So he's the one that at my grandma's house, they had two turntables, a deck, and they had a Serato scratch live box, and it was just there so that we could hook it up to the computer and record all the vinyls he already had onto a CD so that we could use it on a CD player. So that's all it was for was because he wasn't gonna play out with it, and that's what he why he had it. Um, a couple of the other guys from the crew ended up becoming like wedding DJs and everything else, so they also ended up going that route. But that's what got it started for me was I literally needed to record beats for when I was b-boying at Kameo. We just needed a CD. It's like we just needed a CD. I knew where to get break beats. We just fucking I just span, put it on, no beat matching, horrible jabs, freaking like horrible scratches. I'm so press play. I'm so glad I can't find those CDs anymore because it was bad. So, like, that was the start. And then when I went to UH, I ended up going into the Filipino club because I was also doing Filipino dance at the time, and that's where I met um Teddy, who used to run the warehouse for fitted. Oh, okay. So I used to help them out setting up at fitted hoys black fridays.
SPEAKER_01So oh, those things went crazy. Shout out to Ola and uh Kazo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what's always freaking crazy.
SPEAKER_01He's he's my sister's ex, or they used to date. Yeah, yeah. Cazo is good fun. I get choke nights with that guy random, random nights to like five in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a lot of that fitted crew around that time. This is like 20. I want to say this is 2010, 2011. Yep. That's all the homies that all ended up freaking doing stupid shit running around. So it was over there, and then that's where I met Taco was doing that. Okay. And then I ended up after I turned 21, I just ended up at David Buster's randomly one Wednesday night, and it was before uh before the night started, and Taco was setting up sound by himself. So then I helped him set up, and then I started coming back every week helping him set up, and then it turned into, well, you wanna just start playing the opening. So it was literally I fell into it by accident.
SPEAKER_01That's not by accident, that's because you showed aloha to someone doing the craft that you're getting into. That's the correct way to do it. Not oh, can I play? Like, oh shoot, you need help setting up, I'll help you. That's that is the culture that you guys built, and that's why I'm so attracted to it. And and who better than to have be your mentor than Taco? Like, he's one of the hoi goats in DJing, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yep, and I lucked out that during that time too. Tech was playing downstairs, so then it turned into tech would stay during my sets, give me shit for my shitty scratches and drum players and whatever. And then, but I was also thinking about a lot of stupid stuff, so I'd bounce ideas off of him, test it out during my sets because nobody's there during the first half hour, yeah. And and then it turned into one of those. So that's why by the time the KTV battle came around, I had four years of just being under those two guys, giving me feedback constantly, and just never really look back at that point because uh that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, that's what that's the one of the two, that's two of the best that to ever do it in
Sponsorship Break And Nightlife Shifts
SPEAKER_01Hawaii. And okay, let's take a break from talking to DJ Javi, and I wanted to shout out our sponsor, Medicinal Mushrooms Hawaii. They are your locally based medicinal mushroom company, and right now they have five different tintures of extracted mushrooms. I take all five religiously. They have lion's mane, chaga, turkey tail, red reishi, and the newest one, cordyceps. I'll take them all in the morning except the red raishi. I will take that at night uh to go to sleep good. The cordyceps I will also take before a workout. But if you don't know the medicinal properties of these mushrooms, go to their website, uh, medmushroomhigh.com, and it'll explain to you what all these mushrooms can do for your health. If you decide you want to buy one, use promo code ATBPod Upon. Check out all capital letters, and you'll get 45% off your first tinture of extracted mushrooms. Medmushroomhigh.com. Aloha. How much has the Hawaii nightlife scene changed over the years that you've been DJing? Like other than the amount of clubs and stuff. Like I've noticed that a lot of like the Chinatown kind of vibe's been been more popular than it used to be. What have you noticed?
SPEAKER_00So it's it's one of those things where it ebbs and flows. So it's like everywhere will have their little time where it'll pop off for a little bit and then it'll go back to another spot and then another spot. So, like for a while there, it was because you had First Fridays in Chinatown. That block party would always pop off, and everybody would always be there for those ones. Um, but then like also around that time, you could just go down to restaurant row and you had Encore or M or whatever down there. So it was like you had a big nightclub there, smaller bar slash nightclub venues, plus you had Scarlet at the end. So it was like that was where it was popping for a bit, and then that area started dying down a little bit because it was honestly getting a little rough. Um, and then at that point was right when district started popping, and then it was like, yeah, between district and Ginza, you pretty much caught most of the people where it was like most of that crowd you would want to see would be over there. If they're not there, you would probably see them down at Shorefire. Not Shorefire, but Rumfire.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then it was like, okay, now we're moving to rooftops. So now it's like sky Waikiki, Boo Hole. Um, then Moani started popping off in Waikiki. So it was like, oh, that side is now like that area became more of a clubbing spot where it's like right around that central area of the Waikiki strip, a lot of guys was going. And then now I'm starting to notice it going back towards Chinatown.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's one of those where it's like a lot of those smaller parties that were happening on like the day parties, the Sunday parties, like Nate's one, Nate and Mark Nato's uh PS Much Love, like oh yeah, move. So they were doing that as a daytime thing, the same time that all the down guys were doing it. Uh, shout out to Down Global, Keldi, um all the homies on that one, Dre. Uh those guys all would have like a one-night thing at a lot of the Chin Town spots. So now, like Nate guys have a once a month where it's like, oh, we got late night lovers at manifest, so we're gonna just do art army throwbacks and everything else. And then bar 35 just never stopped chugging along. They've yeah, it's like bar 35 is not gonna stop being bar 35.
SPEAKER_01I like that, I like the outside. Yeah, you go in the back and you're like, Yes, I like that, and it's like they made a loft and shit too, now, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's like old chin chin spot, is like up there, yeah. Like, oh, whatever, just hit them.
SPEAKER_01Bar 35. We did an event there one time, it was one of my favorite ones.
Genres He Loves And Filipino Party Waves
SPEAKER_01Um, you kind of are a very versatile DJ. What genre do you like to play the most?
SPEAKER_00So it gets weird. Um, because depending on how I'm feeling or what time of year it is, I get more into one type of thing than another. Oh, okay. Uh, like a lot of times it's like we always joke that I I play the most Filipino music out of anybody, but it's like in the weirdest way possible. Um, so it's like artists like Pilo, Saweetie, it's like it's like it's all Filipino guys, but like not the way that you would think in your head. And yeah, Bay Area. Yeah, so it ends up with me playing a lot of Bay Area shit at certain point. So it sounds like I'm just trying to get a few.
SPEAKER_01A Niner fan banger or a nine, a seeds fan, which makes it worse.
SPEAKER_00So I'm like, yeah, so it's like, oh huh. But then at the same time, like growing up, it was like other than 98.5 was what my parents were playing on the radio, but the first CD I bought with my own money was Good Charlotte. So I'm like, so it was like I like my own shit. That's on its side, but then like that's cool. Like I said, it's depending on like what time of year it is, because sometimes it's like, hey, I'm I'm kind of feeling going a little heavier right now. Let's do some dub steps, some traps, some like all right harder stuff. Maybe I'm on a zone for a bit. Let's hit some like house stuff where it's like nice and dancey, steppy, but not like too heavy. Then other times it's just straight like I need to scream right now, so I'm going to just drop everything from it's like from rage against the machine. It's like, what are you doing? Yes, we're just going. I don't care right now.
SPEAKER_01That's funny. The um Filipino DJ community is pretty huge, and I've been noticing that whole uh seafood uh what is it? Seafood palace thing that they've been doing in the mainland. Is it seafood?
SPEAKER_00Seafood City City, that's the one. Yeah, so bruh whole thing started as like just a homeboy trying to just like he wanted to play somewhere as like a joke. And the problem is when Filipinos get together at a spot, it just turns into like, oh, you're gonna just let us eat and party and dance and sing along to the music that we like anyway. Cool, turns into a whole thing, and then that and that led to like a whole bunch of other parties where it was like, Oh, I wonder if we can put it into some other stuff. Like for a while there, while he was doing Seafood City, some people were doing like restaurants, but not like out on the outside, like in the kitchen at the restaurant, they would be doing some shit. And then at one point, I remember catching one on um on the socials where it was like, Oh yeah, they're having a rave at the hot plot place, and I was like, What? So it'd be like a shabuya, and they just set up the decks in the middle of it, and people are over there eating hot pot while a rave's going on, and then just start headbanging. And I'm like, Okay, and then that's random, yeah. The homie Nick, uh subtle, he put on the rave at Zippy's, and I was like, Okay, I was just gonna ask about that kahala zippies, right? Yeah, because they were about to go and do some renovations anyway, so yeah, oh, we gotta clear this out anyway. And they're like, Well, since it's empty, can we just uh because it just calls back to the whole uh so you remember the old YouTube video, what the fuck is up at Denny's? The dudes doing yeah, freaking hardcore show in a Denny's same thought process, just now we're moving it from a band to a DJ.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's kind of cool. I mean, we've done restaurants and turn it into nightclubs for years, but yeah, not a zipies, but that seafood city thing. I just was like, and they've been moving it around the country, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, because it started with just the one dude in Cali, and then you know, yeah. Ah, it we just go expand them.
SPEAKER_01They should do it down here. Your guys' Filipino community here would come out in droves for that. I would go, that'd be sick.
SPEAKER_00It's out the seafood city in Waipahu probably should have one by now, honestly. Yeah, I thought they would have done it by now, but that's like the easiest thing that they could have done.
SPEAKER_01Bro, I went to the one in Maui last month and I didn't realize how good the food was there, bro. I eat dinaguan like no business, and I'll mop bro. I mopped that thing before we even got to the car. My and my wife loves Filipino food, so I didn't know they made Filipino food, I thought it was just a supermarket.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's one of those weird ones because it's like it is a supermarket, you can buy kits to make different foods, like they have a Longanisa kit, they have an adobo kit. Like it's like straight up like it's like, hey, if you buy this one, it's the styrofoam, it already has your pre-cut chicken for the adobo, and it has the bay leaves inside the peppercorn and sauce. You just gotta drop it into a pot and cook. And I'm like, that's fucking dope. Like, yeah, that's cheating, but it's it works for me, bro. Hey, it's cheating, but let's be real, it's a it was perfect chain. It's a chain that's made for you know, all of us that was born here. That some of us never had somebody teach us how to actually make it, so it's like, hey, you wanna do a quick one, run that one first, try out that, and then you can tweak the recipe from there. You can figure made, huh? Hey, you made it at home, technically, so you know.
SPEAKER_01Just hide the have hide the wrapper when you cook it for your family. Yeah, just don't let them know, just don't let them know. Yep, yep, made it from scratch, bruh. I'm good. Yeah, I made that totally. Yeah, so you um you're very diverse, like I said, in in how you DJ and the genre.
How Emo Nights Hit Hawaii
SPEAKER_01And I wanted to talk to you a lot about emo nights because that's where I experience your DJing the most. And like I said, you're my when I know you're coming on, like it's it, I already know it's gonna be a good set. And I've been there when they're there, I don't know the name, so I can't put anybody on blast, but I've been there when it's like shit. When is this DJ gonna change? Like it, like you're killing the vibe, and then it's like, okay, you're coming on, then it's good. But um, how did even emo nights become a big thing in Hawaii? Because it it wasn't that that was always my dream is to have uh rock music or alternative music in a club setting, and then all of a sudden, emo nights popped off.
SPEAKER_00So the one that happens at the republic is actually a branch from emo night la. So it started as a LA thing. Um, they were doing a month, like they were doing an event down there, and then that spread to different communities, and then um they wanted to do ones down here, so they reached out to Star 101 when that was still a rock station down here, and then that's when Ash got involved with them, so she was their only contact down here. So that's what got that one started, and they used to do it like once like once quarterly, and then it's kept selling out, so then it turned into oh fuck it, we'll just up the the frequency, so now it's another month, yeah. So they have that running over there, and then it's pretty much Ash and Bryson are the two that are the mains for Emo Knight in Hawaii, and then they invite some of the other DJs to come up, guest, and like play some tracks. Um, there might be visiting artists that play some songs, like the one that not this last one, the one before that, back in April. We had Jack Keys play a set on stage, and he was the one of the opening acts for Pierce the Veil.
SPEAKER_01So yes, I was there for that one. Yeah, I I'm I wasn't a fan.
SPEAKER_00It's he to be fair to Jack, he was trying to play a set that was not I'm going to play every single banger that I know you guys want to play earlier in the night, but I'm telling you to leave it on the side for me so I can play it. So he was trying to leave some leeway for us to do what we needed to do before and after and not burn some tracks. But his deep cuts went a little too deep for what crowd was there.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And um, I I'm a mainstream alternative fan, but I do know some stuff that most people don't. He went a little too deep, too much. Like there were songs I knew, but then it was like too long, and then that crowd for me to look at is primarily uh mainstream emo, so they they weren't it wasn't resonating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a bunch of what we've noticed for a lot of the ones coming out for emo nights, it's a bunch of like pop punk kids essentially, yeah. Some scene kids, some metal core kids, some like post-hardcore kids. But for the most part, if you ask them what is emo, they're not gonna tell you it's a post hardcore subgenre that started in the 80s in DC that started from the hardcore movement and went this way and everything else. No, most of them are gonna know all American rejects just for their dirty little secret. Um, they're gonna know, they're gonna know Fallout Boy, they're gonna. No panic. So a lot of times with those crowds, it just turns into okay, I know a bunch of you know sing-alongs. So you have to figure out what sing-alongs you would know no matter how old you look. So it turns into all right, like I know I can get away with certain ones, even if they might not know the artist, because the song itself is one that they would know. So for instance, I've been getting away with three covers that I use, and I'll switch it out depending on which time it is or what we're trying to do with the night, where it's like static lullabies cover of toxic from Britney Spears.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I do I do remember you uh playing that.
SPEAKER_00So that one is more screamy version of Toxic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's like because it's toxic, a lot of the girls will know the song anyway, but then it goes heavy enough that the guys who want to do a mosh pit will run around in the mosh pit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, the another one that falls along those lines is Electric Callboy's version of Every Time We Touch. Because oh, like again, people might not know the band name, but they'll hear him start singing every time we touch, and they're like, Yes, I know this, I can fist bump to this, and then random breakdown starts, and they're like, Oh, I can headbang to this, I can run in a fucking circle pit for this. And then the last one is a data remembers since you've been gone. So oh, again, all three of them very much sing along with screamy parts sung by dudes that are usually sung by women. Yeah, it'll catch a lot of stuff that needs to happen in order to keep that crowd's attention, and then just knowing when they need to rest a little bit and just sing along and run around and not just wall of death the entire time, yeah, is the other aspect of it that makes it a little bit harder. Um, because we do know that if we play system of a down chopsui, they oh yeah, in circles, they will I've done it.
SPEAKER_01I lost my shoe at with mass funk in in the freaking pit.
SPEAKER_00And and that's the thing, it it happens, so it's like we know that those moments are there, but we also want to make sure it's safe. So, like a lot of times, like during those, you'll see me just grab a mic because a lot of times these kids like just coming to their first show, it's 18 and up for some of them. And I have to remind them like, hey, rule number one of the pit they fall down, you pick them up. That's how it works. That's how it is. Yeah, it's like this is your family for tonight. Make sure you pick them up, just like any other time in life. You see your family's down on and out, you pick them up, you make sure they move on, they can fucking walk it off. Now help them. Yeah, that's always like the worst feeling. Is like you see somebody go down, and then you see them try to get back up, nobody's really paying attention, and then now they gotta go see Archer at medical.
SPEAKER_01And you're like, uh, it it's fun. I mean, I took my old ass in the pit just because I'm like, bro, it's there, mass was down, so I'm like, let's go. And he was down, and we went in, and I was like feeling like a little kid again. I remember we they had an emo something at um next door, I think it was, and um there was a pit, and I remember jumping in it. I just remember going and I just railed into the biggest dude ever, and it just was like and I didn't move, and he just looked at me, and I was like, that's not gonna work, like and he just smiled, super cool. But I was just like, Brad, I was a big dude. I tried to rail that I just went shoulder to, and nothing, nothing. But it yeah, I do love the culture, and for me, uh, that's what I grew up. That's my favorite type of music was metal and that kind of genre, and those emo nights I get super excited for. I've been missing a few recently, and Sonya's getting all like upset. But I I even brought my wife to that that one that guy was um DJing, and bro, it that's my shit. Like, I love emo nights, and I love when you're playing. Um, how hard is it to play emo nights after like playing different genres, or it's just you love the music, so it's not that hard.
Building Safe Hype At Emo Nights
SPEAKER_00Emo nights for me is a lot easier than playing any of my other nights. Oh, okay. Only because I know exactly what my like I know my end dates essentially. Yeah, it's gonna start at around this era, it's gonna end around this era. I might be able to pull in some songs from this side. If I know it's trending viral on TikTok or whatever, I know I can get away with a couple of these songs, but for the most part, it's gonna be within this framework, and I don't have to do transitions, and I don't have to do like any of my fancy, like I don't scratch in, I don't do any of those. The only time you'll hear me echo out or like spin out is if I know a song is just bombing. Oh I need to run into something else because I'm like, all right, we're gonna lose the crowd at this point, fucking backspin it, go into banger, just because it's like they have usually three or four CDJs on stage, so we already have like while one song is playing, we're loading up the next three every on stage. Like, do we do this, this, and this? Uh the crowd's kind of reacting this way, maybe do this, this, and this, or how about we switch that one out for a different one? Um, the other part that makes it hard too is like hard and easy is the fact that if it is a controversial artist, it makes it not playable. So that's why you you won't hear us playing anything from Ronnie, even though it's like, would I play situations every single time? Of course I would. Makes sense, but they would get in trouble if there's any videos that come out where it's like, oh, because it's like certain artists, they'd it's like it's on the no playlist. Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's good to know.
SPEAKER_00Depending on the parties, some some parties are more strict than others. Um, like they very much have a no-fly zone for a bunch of songs.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, and that's the brand emo nights. Um or Republic.
SPEAKER_00The brand emo night NITE um has their own like do's and don'ts. Yeah. Versus emo night Brooklyn, which was another party that was running, versus emo social, which I don't even know if they're still running, uh, versus emo night tour, which is the one they have at Hawaiian Brian's. So it's like all of them have their own little things that they can or can't do. So like it's all dependent because I know at one point we were kind of pushing, like, we really want to try to do an uh grave rave, which is like an offshoot of emo night, where it's all like all the artists you would hear at emo night, but it's EDM remixes, so it's oh my bass, dubstep, house that's kind of cool. And the thing is, like I have the tracks, Mass Funk has the tracks. It's like we we all have the tracks ready, it's just someone gotta put it together and promote it. Whether or not they actually want to push that kind of event, and yeah, with Ewanite, they're not going to push any more than they absolutely need to because it doesn't it honestly doesn't make sense fiscally for them to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay,
Sponsorship Break And Local Emo Concepts
SPEAKER_01let's take a break. I want to shout out our sponsor, i rep detail supply. They're your one-stop shop superstore for all you need to detail your vehicle. They have three stores: one in Temple Valley Shopping Center, one in Las Vegas, and one in YPO. Their staff is uh very amazing, they're highly knowledgeable with their products and how to use them, and what they can answer pretty much whatever questions you have. But go to their website, irepdetailsupply.com. If you use promo code ATBPod upon checkout, you'll get 15% off. IREPDALSUPly.com. Aloha. What since okay? My question is, and this is something as a promoter, I'm always thinking, what would it be like if there was a Hawaii-based emo night or emo event? Because, like you said, there are all these emo events that are kind of brought in from the mainland. Like, has Hawaii ever had emo nights Hawaii? Like, not with those, um, not with that heading, but with that kind of if we do those headings, we get into legal trouble. Yeah, but say I say I did something like some something I don't know what we'd call it, but Hawaii, like heavy rock or heavy like alternative Hawaii or something like that.
SPEAKER_00You think Hawaii got a couple shows like that back at Anna O'Brien's. We did a couple of them where it was just like like we did one called Out on the Rocks with uh a couple of the other guys that were promoting over there, and um where it was all like 2000s alternative. So Creed got played, nickel back got played, all the butt rock stuff got played, and everything else. There was also a 808 hard rock fest essentially at Anna O'Brien's put on by um a group that's no longer there. Um, that one we're DJing in the back, and we're just like dropping. So upstairs would be all the bands that were playing, and then in the yard, they'd be selling food, and then they would have a couple of us like doing sets where it's just all tracks from all different like we could go into metal, we can go into emo, we could go into hardcore, we could do whatever. So it was just a rock central night. Um it's not that there isn't a crowd for it, it's just we have to be a little careful with oversaturation, and then we have to be careful with like who gets tied to what. Oh, I see because like if you have the right venue, but you don't have the right people running it, yeah, it ends up like not working, or you have the right people doing the stuff, but it's a bad venue, be it that the parking's trash or it's out of the way compared to like because the way I always look at it is for that kind of event to work, if you're trying to appeal to more than just the island's rock scene, yeah. You're trying to get like other people to show up, you would have to put it in a spot that has other bars nearby so that they can go next door, do whatever they want to do, and then come back. Yeah, that's why like the emo like Brooklyn one that they used to do at next door made because it was like you could literally go next door to bar 35 if you want to go listen to something else, and then you could come back and get your rock fix if you want to go on this side. So, like we did that.
SPEAKER_01Was a guy from uh American Pie was there, uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's uh being stifler's mom, stifler's mom got it going on.
SPEAKER_00So essentially, there's something in the works currently that can't really talk about, but there is a thing coming up that they're trying to plan. So okay. There's one coming relatively soon that they they want to try to start, but that is gonna be on a smaller scale, so it's like where location-wise, it makes sense. Um like you'll be able to get there by Uber very easily. Um there's okay clubs in the area, so it'll make it a lot more accessible.
SPEAKER_01Uh are you gonna play?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll be one of the ones.
SPEAKER_01All right, well then let me know when and where, and I shall be there. Yeah, Hawaii Hawaii needs its okay. Hawaii needs its own uh emo entity, I guess, or alternative enter entity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we're we're planning on doing some stuff for that one, but uh we still have to work out all the details. That's why it's like can't really put anything out there right now about it.
SPEAKER_01But all right, well, I would look forward
Where To Catch DJ Javi Live
SPEAKER_01to that. Um, what will be next for you? Like what are other than that, what else things you got cooking for the for the future?
SPEAKER_00Well, weekly I'm actually at um Hawaiian Aroma Cafe's Waikiki Walls location. So across from actual walls, um underneath uh Lulu's, so I'm there every Tuesday, four to seven, and then like weekends, it always just gets thrown up in the air because um I have residencies and stuff with a bunch of different spots, so it's like because I'm in the cycle for a bunch of different spots, I never know where I'm gonna be. So you can possibly catch me at Boo Hole because that's where I usually do two Fridays of there minimum. Oh wow, that place rages too, huh? Yeah, because it's one of the spots where it's like they know that they will hear a bunch of Latin music, and then now on Fridays they do like a free bachata lesson beforehand, and then we turn nightclub 10 o'clock and then just run it until two, but it's only one DJ at that point, so it's that one DJ getting to run the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01It's an insane set.
SPEAKER_00It it is in the sense that you know you can't go run and take a shit, but um get a shot or what? Well, oh I am not saying I have done it, but I have seen multiple people just drink and then um of course my DJs drinking, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01Well, to a level.
SPEAKER_00I've yeah, liquor commission says otherwise, yeah. Yeah, it's all those.
SPEAKER_01I have I'm not saying they my DJs do, I just like it before and after their sets.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, yeah. Never while they're working, never, yeah. Which is the trick used to be you take the headphones off and you are no longer working at that point.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I see that I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it used to be one of those like we did it, but it was like it was one of the stupidest loopholes I could I ever heard of. It was just if I take my headphones off, face away from the crowd, and take a step away from the decks, I'm not working at that point. Yep, because I'm not actively DJing, I'm not touching anything, I don't have any gear on. Yeah, I am a person at that point, and I take my shot, and then I'm gonna be a patron currently. Then I turn back around, put my headphones back on, and suddenly I am a worker. That is insane. I didn't even know that like we we stopped doing that a while ago. That was that was like 2013, 2014, we would do that shit. Um, but what we realized after a while is like, you know what? I would rather like drink a little bit beforehand, maybe one or two shots, just so I'm like loose enough, yeah. And then just drink water for the entire set, just because I have to be able to drive out of Waikiki at the end of the night.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, that's a bitch. Yep.
SPEAKER_00How many cops are gonna be waiting on that bridge? It's like, yeah, not dealing with that.
SPEAKER_01Uh definitely when we were promoting W, that was like our biggest like fear. Like, bro, these cops are just waiting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they know it's like, yeah, like they know you are gonna be here. Like when Moani's was fucking huge. Oh, it used to be the biggest trap. It's like they know you there, yeah, locals there. Yeah, they just wait by international marketplace because they know it's gonna happen. Yeah, play bar is right there, you're right here. Somebody's gonna get drunk, get into a fight, so they're waiting. It's the perfect storm, yeah. Just like my ties when freaking Pearl, well, oh yeah, house at the bottom. Yeah, extra pearl ultra lounge. I was just like, yeah, oh, we have house where it's going to be where all the Ginza kids ended up now, and they're gonna be going over here, getting drunk, and right above them is gonna be my ties where they're getting drunk. And we were doing Sakijis at the time, too. Like, we're getting yeah, you're gonna all end up drunk in the same parking lot, you know.
SPEAKER_01It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
SPEAKER_00Like, there's like, all right, so who never meet their quota for the month? Okay, yeah, go over there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can get five in one crack.
Practical Advice For New DJs
SPEAKER_01Well, since you've been DJing for so many years, what advice would you give these up-and-coming DJs now, especially here in Hawaii?
SPEAKER_00Um, if you are using Serato, record your sets. If you are using Record Box, bring an extra USB so you can record your sets. Um, what will always come in handy is you record it, you upload it to your mixed cloud or your sound cloud. You don't even have to publish it like publicly, put it privately, and just send it to somebody that you respect and you know will be honest with you. Wow and have them tell you like how, like what they hear in it. Because a lot of times in the moment, we will rush to do something and we know we screwed something up, but if I give it to somebody who wasn't there at the time, I want to see if they noticed that I screwed it up.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00That's gonna be my my gauge. Um, it goes back to like back when I was doing magic a lot when I was a kid. Um, yeah, I used to do a lot of card tricks and everything else. And the way that my dad would always teach me was the easiest way to get better was you practice in the mirror. That's the first thing. You gotta pass your own no bullshit eye test.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This in the mirror, record yourself doing it, see if you can see it on yourself, show it to somebody that you know knows what's going on, then try it on somebody that doesn't. That way you can get every level of like passing the bullshit sniff test kind of thing. Where yeah, I didn't see it. Let me record. Okay, I still didn't see it. Somebody that knows how this works. Okay, watch it. Did you catch anything? No, okay, cool. Now let me try it on some on a layman that I trust that I know that if I screw up, they can like they don't know how it works, but they'll at least know that hey, I saw something there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So back then it sucked for my little sister because me and my dad both did magic and she didn't, so she was always the test subject. She was like, Again, you're gonna do a part trick for me again. I'm yeah, no, she got so mad at one point, she was just like, Oh, I don't want to see your fucking magic tricks. And then my now brother-in-law, he was just her boyfriend at the time, she was like, Dude, I want to see the magic tricks, and I was like, See, I have a willing participant, and that's the thing. Like, on the DJ side of things, we have those. Like, if you are getting more into the EDM side of things and everything else, guys like Jet, um, he was always down to like, if you want to submit a demo to open up for any of the visiting artists, so anything audio file puts on or bam puts on or anything else, make your demos, make sure it's 15 to 20 minutes of whatever specific format, reach out to those guys, send it to them so that they can give you feedback because that's always going to be the thing is like. For the EDM side of things, they like having those demos because they like to know if you're going to be able to play the style that they want you to play. And if you can, cool. We'll book you for that one hour to play that style. Do not deviate. Do not like mess with it. That's awesome. It's very much the it's the opposite, not really opposite, but it's like it's very much the still record, still send it to like whoever. But that one you need to do a lot more footwork. That's a lot more going out, showing yes. Because one of the biggest things that I learned from Taco was like once I was like one year in and I had like my basics down pat, I could do my transitions easily. I didn't have to rely on effects or anything else. He would tell me to go out, just go to other clubs, listen to how they're playing, and see how the crowd reacts. And that is when the DJ's gift and the DJ's curse kicks in. Um, if you ever want to enjoy yourself at a club, never become a DJ. Yeah. Because you will hear every fucked up transition. You will question why they went into a certain song, and you will look around at that crowd and you will see the huh? Or oh shit. And that's when you know they messed up. On the other end, when you see those eyes light up and you can see like a song did that, I don't want you to think about what song did it. I want you to think about the two songs before that song so that you can see what built to that, so that they had the reaction they do. Sometimes it's just the song. If I hear ga, I know somebody's gonna go hype for freaking mad mad city at that point. On the other hand, if you hear the woot start for work from Isapp Fergus, you know that a bunch of people are just gonna go. If you hear listen to this track, bitch, the amount of girls that are about to say get away moving, you know it's coming. Yeah. What was the song before that that got them to be that high? What was your build? Why was it so effective at that point? Because did I just hard drop it, or was there something else before it that made lyrical sense or made auditory sense? So, like, if I play My Boo from Ghost Town DJs, and then I play An OJ's Love You Down, yeah, it's almost the exact same drum beat. Yeah, so you can get between the two, and it's like you won't notice the transition, but then I can also scratch straight into Rich Baby Daddy from Drake because it's almost the exact same keys, exact same drum, and then you just hear 60 red scream about shaky ass, and that's how you know it's going to that route. So it's like for the new DJs, uh this is all after you've already spent time learning your own music, figuring out how to count, getting your basics done. I'm just talking about your next step when you want to leave the bedroom, when you want to start gigging out, when you want to start doing anything else, hit that because there's a YouTube video for every level of when you're starting to DJ. When you're a beginner, like, hey, how do I do a clean transition? There's a YouTube video for that. There's a whole series for that that will show you how to do it.
SPEAKER_01University of YouTube is freaking underrated, man. That shit works a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's very much the hey, I don't care if you used YouTube to learn. What I care about is whether or not you have the passion to move forward and not screw yourself over and screw anybody else over. And keep learning the whole, yeah. Part of that whole process of like, hey, I'm gonna reach out, I'm gonna see if I I can do some gigs here, I can try to do this, do that. Ask the people who are currently playing there what they would suggest. That that's always gonna be my thing with it as well, because like there are some spots where I'm like, This is getting into the minutia of the business side of things. DJs haven't been paid or done a pay raise for what inflation is since the 90s. Yeah, it's it's been almost the exact same rate the entire time for a decent DJ or a good club DJ. Um, and then if you're dealing with shows, depending on where you are in the lineup, is how much you get paid. So in order to make sure that you're not undercutting yourself or undercutting everybody else, ask those questions. Like, if somebody's trying to book you for a gig and you got a DJ homie, ask them, Hey, would you charge this much for this gig? Like, is this in a comparable range? Like, what would you charge if they're asking me to name a price? That kind of thing. Because we still do that even to this day. Like, I got a couple homies that whenever they get booked for a gig, they'll text me and like, hey, they want to charge, they want, they want to pay this much for this. Are they over or underpaying me? And it's like, oh, we'll run that route. Because it's already hard enough to get guys paid $100 an hour. Really? As is, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh shit.
SPEAKER_00Like for club side, it's hard to get guys like just a straight hundo per hour. Like, and that's what the old club regular was.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Like certain spots we had finally like gotten it up to like 150, and then other spots we have it at like 125, and I'm like, I'm cool with that. Be it's just don't be that guy that says, Oh, I'll do it for 75. I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, don't undercut DJs. Yeah, I feel you. Don't yeah, but you get what you pay for, you know what I mean? That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's what we always say, but then a lot of them don't care. And at that point, I'm like, why even have a DJ? Why not just put on your like if you want them to take requests all the time, just put on the Sonic Sound jukebox that you have.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like exactly spend their money on their freaking tokens and then go put in their songs.
SPEAKER_01That's bruh, that has been the awesome advice that was not um traditional that I've got. Like what you just laid down that no one, no DJ ever said that when I asked that question. That's that's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's because, like, on the DJ end of things, like the actual physical art of DJing and like finding music and everything else, most guys know a lot of the answers, they know where to find the answer for what they're looking for. Yeah, it's the things they don't think about that I wanted to at least put out there because it's like when guys ask me, like, oh, how do I get onto the show? Well, did you talk to the promoter? Oh no. Did you make a demo? Oh no. It's like, then how are they gonna know? One, how you play, and two, who you are. Yeah, is this your are you doing a cold call right now? Like you're a telemarketer trying to sell yourself as the product? Because that's not gonna be great compared to you've already supported, and now hey, is there a way that I can be a part of this? You're not trying to come in and say that you are the commodity, you say you want to be part of the community, it's community over commodity with a lot of this shit, where it's like bro. I wish I understand that.
SPEAKER_01I wish I had this video when I did a lot of nightclub stuff, and these random DJs just come up to me. I just watch this link and then learn from it. This real quick, yeah.
Influences And The No Headphones Approach
SPEAKER_01So, so what DJs inspired you coming up, other than uh taco and and tech?
SPEAKER_00So it was weird because like I grew up watching videos of guys like Scratch Basted, um Qbert, all that kind of stuff, where it's like it was all scratch heavy, but I couldn't scratch that well. It's like yeah, I can I can scratch possibly, I can do a decent amount of baby scratches and everything else. But like once once I became a certain age, like I just started like looking at certain aspects of different DJs and figuring out like what I liked from them and just building from there. So like taco and tech were very much the my basis for like how I should run a club set, how I should do certain creative things. So that's where guys like Trentino and everything else comes in from YouTube. So like a lot of times, like Taco and Tech used to always joke that I always sound like I'm doing a battle set while I'm in the club, and I'm like, I'm trying to have fun for myself right now. Where we just hit a lot of buttons to make it like make a song turn into the keyboard for another song. So I'm like, because of that, it's like guys like Trentino, guys like J Espinoza, oh Charles Medina, like all those guys, all the three-style guys were always fun, but like locally, it was like there was a bunch of guys that I could look at and try to like shape some of what I liked into it. Where I was like, what I love most about Toma, honestly, was the fact that he didn't use his headphones when I first met him. It was just straight no headphones. I was like, dude, I love that, I'm gonna do that. So most people, whenever they see me out, they get so confused because I will never have headphones on. It's because you're taking shots. Nah, nah nah. Jake. Here's the thing it's like I have them, they're in my bag that the laptop is also in. It's just I it's like, unless it's a song I've never touched before, or it's a brand like a request that's coming in, and I gotta scratch it in, whatever. I know my library so well, and all my cue points so well that oh, I can see it, I know where my start is, I can count, I know my timing. I have a monitor right there, just blast it in. I know I can do my timings properly. That's awesome. Yeah, so like it was like toma, tech, taco, and then compose for a bit too. Just he was doing a lot of the uh three-style stuff, and then yeah, his addiction tapes and everything else with Annette.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, that was a fun
Respect For The Craft And Farewell
SPEAKER_01all right on. Well, we've been going for over an hour, and I definitely appreciate you taking time out. Brad, this conversation was really cool, and I always get excited to get insight with DJs. Like I said, my whole business was was built around you guys, and I love the culture. I love that I'm able to be part of your guys' community, and I always uh I always have love for you guys because I know for a fact what you guys do is not easy, it's not picking songs, it's not pushing buttons, it's not it, it's way more than that. And I know the nuances of everything you guys do, and I know how hard it is, and that's why when I know good DJs, I know how hard it is and what it took to get there. And I mean, I seen my DJs go through it, and I put put my DJs through the the ringer to get them to to where they're at, and nobody had it worse than Hoppe. Like Hoppe was my video guy when he first started, and he because he was my close friend, I had to make sure nobody could say he got where he's at because I'm his friend. That fucking kid, more than anybody else, kicked, pushed, fought for every little bit of where he any bit of playing time and any bit, he didn't he had it the worst, and he fucking just wanna now. He I just get inspired by that kid, and like I'm I'm stoked that he took this career so serious and took it to the level he's at, and bruh. I like I I have so much respect for you guys, and I I appreciate you taking time and opening um pulling back the curtain a little bit because you guys inspire me. I hope you guys inspire some up-and-coming DJs to come up and do it the right way, like how most of you guys are. And bruh, it's it's a fun job to have if you're good at it. It's real fun when you know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yep, exactly. Uh well, and along those lines, too. It's like a lot of the stuff I've been able to do is only because I had the guys that paved the way for me. For sure. Guys like tech and taco that pushed me, made me better, but also didn't sugarcoat it when I sucked, they didn't sugarcoat it when I needed to do better. Um that's why we we laughed when it was like all the DJ battle, and they're like, Oh, two out of three judges is your homies. I'm like, Yeah, two out of three judges listen to me play for the last 10 years and know every single one of my sets. Yep, and we'll so you're just gonna be hard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's gonna be even harder.
SPEAKER_00Hoppa hasn't heard all my sets. Hoppe's gonna judge me off of what he hears that night. The other two know me, they know my sets, they'll know if I'm using something that I've been doing, and they'll have a frame of reference to go, oh, that wasn't even as clean as when you did them drunk the outer night. What do you mean? It's like so. That's why it's like having that kind of community down here where everybody likes to push and try to get better is what keeps us going. And I'm glad we have like stuff like Scratcher um out in Waipal, who's scratch away. They're trying to make sure the kids are learning how to DJ and learn how to scratch everything else. Uh Bo has been teaching some kids over at uh summer school and everything else. Um, we are trying as much as possible to like make sure it's as open to anybody who wants to do it, but also like we don't want to just let in all the riffraff either. So yeah, it's like you gotta earn it. It's like, hey, come in, do some work, be respectful. Yeah, you're more than willing to help out, and you just gotta show that you're willing to help everybody else as well in the community.
SPEAKER_01So definitely, I definitely know that you guys have a community. Well, man, um, thank you again for coming on, and bruh, I'm I'm looking forward to see what you got cooking on the emo side. And I'm always like that's the first thing is oh, is Mass and you DJing emo nights. Like, that's always my deciding factor if I'm going or not. It's a lot of fun. We have yeah, we can right on, bro. Well, shock us for the cameras. Right on, we're out. Shout out to the artist group network. Aloha.
