I like to help those who need help. I do the majority of the events and I have a few other djs on my team. But for the most part I prep all the playlists for the crew since I know music and I like doing that. There are times where I cannot do an event or my team can not either since we are previously booked or they have different price points. When someone calls looking for a dj I make sure I know their budget and I guide them to djs I know in the local market. Although we will not make a dime from the transaction I am sending out texts and emails to my dj counterparts to make sure the client gets taken care of. Most djs would not do that. I am different. I want to make sure the client gets the best dj they can afford and ensures they have a good party. I want to reward them for being one of the ones they call first.

I had a bride call me for a wedding in June. She sounded really nice and she has a nice intimate wedding planned. Its around where my second child is going to be born so I wouldn’t feel right taking it since I will be with my family. A lot of djs are already booked for the summer but I was able to connect the bride with an experienced dj.

  As a dj, most of the time we develop an ego. We the best! Well we tend to think like that until you see a turntablist cut and scratch then our ego maybe bruised (a little). Often times djs don’t want to try something new since they will not be good at it. They tend to stay in what they are comfortable with. But at times, djs will step it up and get into music production. 

Why would you get into music production when someone else can do it and you can just download the track? It’s all about customization. Maybe you want a short edit of a song or maybe you just want the intro of the song then the hook then the 3rd verse. It all can be done by you. It can also be a selling point that you can do custom edits for first dances or cheerleader routines. It’s a desirable skill. 

There is something called the Frankenstein edit. I think it was created by a record pool but I’m not 100 percent on that. But it’s when you combine 2 or more of the same song (remixes) that have different drops or breaks. You can put in breaks that you like from the different edits and make it into one seamless track. 

Once you finish a track, then you have a sense of accomplishment. It feels good just to play your track at events. Recently I did a redrum of a pop song and someone came up to compliment it and she was amazed that I told her I did it myself. 

And if you create your own custom edits and don’t share them then you are unique since no one else has the tracks that you edited. You can create your own mash up or blend. 

I had a formal  private high school dance in February at the Hayes Mansion. The Hayes Mansion is a huge property right off Blossom Hill exit. It is pretty easy to get to. I was able to communicate with the coordinator pretty easy and she was able to let me know where to park to unload my gear. The party was in the main ballroom. They had me set up on a stage with a table so that was nice since it gave me less items to set up.

Students were having dinner buffet style. I was supposed to play good songs early but not the really good ones since we would need them for the dancing portion of the night. Students were so well behaved. I was playing off a list that I could not deviate from and with students wanted a song that wasn’t on that list they were not upset at all. They just said ok that’s alright. One student was like can you play shorter amounts of the song if you can. Basically he wanted a quick mix but due to being limited on the song selections for this dance I had to play longer songs.

This place would be good spot for a high school prom. I mean the name of the place is Hayes Mansion so that is pretty classy itself. They do have a nice outside area where I am sure they can host events too. The main ballroom was big itself and the room acoustics sounded good. I was able to fill up the room with sound with only 2 speakers.

A Celebration of life is an event to remember someone who is no longer with us. We try to invite friends and families to the event. Especially at these times it is difficult since there is a pandemic going on and people are trying to stay in their homes. People can still partake in the activities but just need to be safe in these situations. 

We had a small gathering at Fortino Winery. We had around 15 people present. We were playing music that the guest of honor loved. It was a lot of 70s rock. His bride also had music she loved which was classic r&b. 

In the middle of the celebration friends and family took turns sharing stories. They had a nice touch with pictures of the guest of honor on the table. They also had a board with a lot of pictures. I have seen other Celebrations of life use projectors with pictures showing through the whole event. 

Celebration of Life is an opportunity to share stories and to give one last good bye. From what I seen mostly there are appetizers at the event. It can be a solemn time but also a joyous time. The person being honored is being celebrated and friends and family can relive the good times they had with each other. It gives an opportunity for family to get together with the guest of honor’s friends and share words and food with each other.

Finding the right DJ

The year of the wedding was marked 2020. Everyone wanted to be married on that year. Bam then covid hit and in California pretty much shut down. Some folks were able to reschedule their wedding with smaller guest lists in 2021. Then people were saying 2022 is going to be the year full of weddings and while I type this there is an increase of Covid Cases. It might be a short phase or it may continue. Some folks are opting for quick small weddings without a reception due to the restrictions in California. 

  Having a destination wedding in California can be the answer. There is plenty of open space venues that will be a solution during these uncertain times. A lot of destination weddings are smaller in attendance since it is not local to the attendees. Setting up a destination wedding can be difficult since most of the vendors will be new to the couple and have not used before. Setting up a wedding is like having a second job since there is a lot of prep to interview the vendors and then having to select the perfect one for the job. To make it easier there are venues that are all inclusive to take out all the guess work. That is one way to make it easier.

Finding the right dj for your destination wedding maybe a wee bit more difficult. Some venues may have in-house djs but I would not trust that. It’s a dj they always use and most of the time maybe only exclusive for that venue. But if the dj is on the venue’s preferred vendor list then that maybe better to choose for. It shows that the dj has been there before and did a good job so they recommend them. An in-house dj means the fee paid for the dj goes into the venue’s pockets and dj maybe good or not so good but the venue will recommend them either way since it means better profits. 

I recommend actually talking to the dj and getting a feel for them. These times it’s so easy to send a text or an email and get information about the dj but I feel getting the right dj is so important. They are going to be your party director or the Fun Ninja of your big event. It’s their job to build the energy of the event. In the phone call you will feel of their musical knowledge and if they actually like the music that you enjoy. Ask them about their wedding knowledge and what they recommend for the order of events. How quickly can they respond to you is important? You want a dj to have the best communication. You want them to help you with the playlist and give you suggestions and offer suggestions on how to do the events. They should be open-minded to the events you want to do or not do. A wedding is your event and you should have it any way you want since it’s a representative of you and your new spouse. 

Having the best gear is important. It like making a meal, when you make one you want to have the best ingredients possible to make sure it has the best taste it can. Every time I purchase equipment I always make sure I look up reviews and visit dj groups to figure out what they say about certain gear. 

When we started we would only use Technic Turntables but then fell I love with pioneer. We use pioneer controllers and never had any issues with them. For microphones, we use the industry standard Shure. We have wireless microphones and wired microphones. I believe in having both in ensure we can make announcements. For speakers I have tried different ones. We started off with Mackies since they looked good and they sounded good but we blew them out so we tried JBL. Jbl was with us for a long time. We have a pair of JBLs that can take the hot sun and keep on ticking. We decided to go with the qsc speakers because of their crisp and loud sound. It also has a 6 year warranty so for any reason we can get them serviced for free in that time period. I actually went to a speaker maintence shop and asked what speaker they see the least and they mentioned it was qsc. They are built to last. These little guys are 12 inches each but they sound like they are 24 inches. With two of them you can truly fill up a small gym. 

 The brain of my system is an Apple Mac Book Pro. I only use it to do Dj events. I don’t use it for anything else. It is never slows and it is so efficient. 

We like working with all sorts of folks. The ones we like to work with the most are our repeat customers. We develop a good relationship with them and know what music they enjoy so much. They trust us with their event. They know the music we play and like the vibe we provide. We follow directives from the client and make sure we keep the client and their guests happy. Our number one belief is to stand behind our work and continue to make our clients happy.  Our clients know we show up at least one hour before our events and earlier if we are doing a wedding. But with weddings we don’t do repeat weddings (unless it is for different family members) with the same couple but have been called to do other events for them. 

 We also believe in having communication with our folks before during and after the event. Communication is key. Our clients like our prompt responses. I am open for email or text messages. I also set up facetime calls if needed.

  I like getting playlists from our clients. Most of the songs are ones I am familiar with but sometimes they have songs that I have forgotten and absolute gems that I will acquire for the event and become a weapon in my arsenal. 

Our clients know we do not bring multiple guests to the events. We bring ourselves and maybe one assistant to help with the event. 

I was all over the bay area for 3 holiday corporate events. Saturday we were doing a big internet company bash in Morgan hill. This is the 3rd event I have for the group. They gave me a lot of songs in their playlist of their liking. Mama mia served up a master meal. A few of the leaders spoke about achievements and talked about folks they wanted to hi light. We finished up the night on the dance floor.

The following day we were doing a corporate event in Fremont which was primarily Spanish music. This was the first corporate event where most of the music was Spanish. I started the event with a little xmas music then 15 min in when folks started showing up I then went with Spanish. I did throw in some old school classics in English. The boss was a young man and his assistant were running the events. They were running games for their employees for nice prizes. Later on they did a raffle and gave out prizes. The songs that got everyone grooving was cumbia and salsa.

Then on Thursday we had a real estate party. They know how to party and they did it on a weekday. It was at their office and they were very happy folks. It was supposed to be a 3 hour event but it was extended to an extra hour. It was all old school and r&b the whole night, No new music the past 5 years was played. There were no announcements and the theme was just to eat drink and be merry. All of them succeeded!