What Made You Start DJing? What's Your Story?

[davoh]

I'm curious to see everyone's story about what got you into DJing/electronic music/just this type of lifestyle in general. Why do you do what you do?


My story:
For me it kind of started with just messing around on shockwave back when it was big. I would spend hours playing this one game where you are this kid who just walks the streets with a tape recorder and recording different sounds, go back to your apartment and mix it. Virtual DJ also had a game that I played frequently.

Then I got a dreamcast.


And then an xbox.

This track still give me chills.


Shortly after getting my xbox, I got super into video editing and animation (still am really). So I *purchased* (I was 11) fl studio for making quick little samples for intros and stuff like that. I also got Virtual DJ for the eq, and just to play with.

Fast forward to 16, I went to a club known as Afterlife in Dallas because my friend/roomie had left his license at home (which was an hour drive) so he offered to pay my way in. That was my first time to see a DJ, I spent the night having a blast but kept going back to the outdoor stage to watch the DJ's spin. Instantly feel in love with it. The way to control the music, the people, the fun, the dancing, the mood and you're the center of it all. Hell yeah!

Did the whole "raver" thing for about 1 1/2 years. I eventually just grew out of it. Toward the end of my raver days was when dubstep started getting really big, so I jumped on that bandwagon trying to make the next big track for the genre!

That never happened. I realized quickly that dubstep just wasn't my thing.

Started branching out, learning more instruments, genres, had a few bands, and now I've come back with a bit more knowledge and understanding of music, trying to relearn everything and hopefully do something with it.

And here I am!

[epikeddie]

Actually started out attending events.....was really into dancing.

[photojojo]

I had a lot of records that other people wanted to hear.

[soundinmotiondj]

I had a lot of records that other people wanted to hear.

+1 My tape collection was a little bigger than average. So I would make mixtapes & bring them to parties.

[AllDay]

What made me want to start djing would probably be from being that raver that overly enjoys the music.

At an early partying stage I was counting beats before the drop and letting my nooby friends know when the bass was gonna hit. It started here and slowly moved into me finding my own bangers that people enjoyed.

Now I enjoy setting the tone or vibe of the night. Makes me happy when I can see people having the most awesome time of there lives

[backtothefront]

Good thread

Mix tapes back in the very early 90's, particularly Sasha G-Spot 1992 and Universe 1992, also the Essential Selection and later the Essential Mix (1993), not forgetting the seminal Renaissance Mix Collection by Sasha & Diggers in 1994. I was a little too young to go to clubs at the start of the 90's, think my first rave/club night was around 1994 (showing my age ) - which simply blew me away. I'd heard and listened to dance music in the late 80s/early 90's but going to the first event was an eye/ear opener.

Got my first decks in 1994 - Soundlab DLP1's (belt drive!!) and a Kam MadeIIFade 4 channel mixer - which only had channel and cross faders, headphone output/mic input and 3 band eq on the overall master output - that was it! Bought my Technics 1210 Mk2's later that year.

First record bought for DJing purposes was a Rising High white lable of Union Jack - Two Full Moons & A Trout

[sarasin]

I was into Metal and was drumming in a band. I was 16.

My mate took me to a 'techno' party...( I was thinking 2Unlimited ) and kinda made up my mind that i was gonna hate it.

Got there....and was enjoying it by the end of the night.

Then I went to a Psytrance party and saw Tsuyoshi Suzuki playing. It was badass.
He was really good on the vinyl decks.

I knew a guy from school...that I randomly bumped into one evening and we started talking about parties etc. He told me that he DJ's etc. I went to check his shit out and fell in love with it.

Soon I had flogged my drum kit and bought TT's and mixer.



That was in '96.

Here I am!

[JZed]

My whole life was always music, I never got involved with music beyond listening to it until I was 15 and picked up playing the drums. Back then my whole life was heavy metal, black metal, death metal, thrash... Whatever it was, you name it and I listened to it. The more evil it was the more I liked it. Around 2005 I met the most unbelievably gorgeous woman I've ever met (still holds true to now) and she loooooved house. I gave it a shot but never really got fully into it though I did enjoy it. Around 2010 I started going to after hours clubs and fell in love with the music.

In mid 2011 I realized just dancing wasn't enough and I wanted more so I started playing around with a bootleg version of Traktor to see how I'd enjoy it. Didn't take long and in Dec 2011 picked up my Kontrol S4 w/ Traktor 2. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life and even though I've still only played a few gigs I'd never had so much fun or worked so hard on anything ever! Now I'm working on producing as well and it's a whole new love of mine to go with the DJ aspect. It's a wonderful musical world and hopefully we can all achieve our goals!

[photojojo]

+1 My tape collection was a little bigger than average. So I would make mixtapes & bring them to parties.

Sometimes I forget I started with a double cassette decks several years before the whole record deal. I knew I was on to something when people would say "you made this?!?" I wish I could find some of those tapes again.

[sarasin]

My house mate pulled out a tape during the week and I almost pissed in my pants. It had been a while...