Boxstar
So I was dj'ing last nite at a private party, nothing major, but very cool. The coolest, intimate set I've played in quite a bit. The progression of us dj's has always interested me.
I remember when I learned to mix, my mentor, the Great Andrew Gage aka Anderoo ( we were the team of Vinnie the Pooh and Anderoo) would tell me of the revere of the dj way back when. He would tell me of his early days in MN at a club called the Gay Ninetees and how club dj's back in the 70's and 80's were revered as gods, pretty much.
I came to club life just by coming out to dance every weekend. I was 16 and just loved to dance. No one ever ID'd me so I got away with experiencing some fantastic adult worlds through the eyes of a 16 year old. And I always just went to dance. I never went to get drunk or pick up guys, though guys were always picking me up and sometimes I didn't say no. I remember being at the club from Friday at 9.30pm dancing until closing (which in AZ was 3am) going to breakfast with friends or "new friends" and usually staying over at the apt. of my two other influential dj friends DJ Jimmy Justice (James Fowler) and his husband Rick White*. It was great to listen to all the music and see the import mixes and I was definitely interested in the dj thing.
In 1990 I was 19 and frequented 2 clubs: Cactus Jacks and Trax in Phoenix, AZ. One has to understand that in AZ most places are just bars with a tiny make-shift dancefloor. Cactus Jack's broke the mold with their stainless steel dancefloor, raised dj box (booth), plush couches and expensive light system. It was heaven to dance there. Trax was a leather bar (and and I never really was into or cared what that was back then I could always dig elements of the leather lifestyle, but the bar always housed a bunch of old guys in leather and jeans who looked like mechanics while most of them sounded like a bunch of old drunken queens. They were always sweet to me though). Trax was an old place with wood everywhere, think S&M Lincoln logs. But the wood dancefloor was huge. Cactus Jack's was my first meeting of Anderoo. He moved to Trax on Sunday's with his "trash disco" set that was competition with another club that was more popular for "trash disco" though the disco that club played was the generic crap and not really disco at all. Anderoo has THE best collection of pure disco I've encountered anywhere.
I finally got to match the artist with the music my Ma would play when I was a little kid. I loved Tavares and Voyage and Cerrone and when I was able to find my own copies of these albums my Ma would reminisce of her old "disco dancing" days. (my folks were always supportive of my music endeavours and Ma even was MY light tech some nites at TRAX). Music was always a part of my life. So as I would spend Sunday nights dancing to Anderoo's disco, we got to chatting some nites. I asked him if he needed a light man up there in the box with him and he said sure but I'd need to ask the owner if I could be up there. I knew nothing of lighting or anything, but remembered thinking that lighting is just painting with no mess. So what the hell, I could do THAT. I remember asking the owner if I could run lights on Sundays. He was quite the miser so I came to find, and even at our first meeting he, for some reason, never really liked me, I don’t think. He said he couldn't afford a light guy on a Sunday so I said I'd do it for free. Story of my life.
Of course he agreed to it and over a couple weeks he and the patrons saw that I pretty much rocked the lights. I was good enough for the owner to ask me to work as back up for the weekends and finally had the weekends. And even, ultimately got paid.
During my stint as lighttech I was very curious of the mixing thing and dj thing
and Anderoo said that for my B-day gift that year (91) he would show me how to mix. It was a lot more goin' on than I thought. He had a splitter so we both could listen to him cueing the records and I was hooked. I bought records, old and new like mad, counting bpm's and intro's/outro's****.
The first record I started learning off of was New Order's "Blue Monday" I bought two copies of it and mixed the two together. That was an easy disc to recognize the beat or to recognize what two discs sound like together faster or slower than each other. I was then trained how to mix using disco records. Anderoo told me that if I could mix disco, I could mix anything. Live drummers and changing beat patterns did make the learning tough compared to the digitzed and even, current house music of the time. After a while, I got used to it and began the road of practicing for hours and hours there at the club on sunday afternoons.
Train wreck after train wreck** I finally caught on and began progressing in my talent. In the fall of '92 I broke up, well ran for my life from, my drunken ex. And when that happened he called the club out of revenge and informed them that I was underage and they cut me off until I turned 21. I remember I was only 2 months to my birthday when that all happend. ugh. It was a VERY long 2 months of NO dancing or playing.
Novmber of 92 came and I was back practicing and running lights. Anderoo and I were both nominated for DJ and Light Tech of the Year (respectively) and though we both never won, it was a pretty big deal for us. Anderoo and I had a fun time up in that box, his music and my lights, sharing Laffy Taffy and laughing at the wacky lame jokes and then running to Gag in the Bag (Jack in the Box) for Ultimate Cheesburgers though we pronounced them Ull-tim-uh-tay cheeseburgers.
My very first time spinning was not at Trax however. The owner, still not quite into me, was fearful of giving me a nite so I leapt at the opportunity to play at another bar. Unfortunately it was to cue up music for a drag show at a lesbian bar. I sucked big time. The owner of the bar and her lover were very nice to me though, a lot more decent than the owner of Trax. I wasn't into Hip-hop at the time (and not full blown on it now) and I didn't last long trying to sneak in house tracks to a crowd that would clear the floor if the beat got past 80bpms. Fortunately for me the Friday dj's at Trax wanted to do their own thing and one friday comes along with no dj – he just bailed. My chance was at hand and I took over the tables that nite and so began my residency at trax.
The crowds were great and the applause was something I began to crave. I was never big BIG time like Calderone or Vazquez or Rauhofer, but I had a decent following and signed my name on a few asses at the local afterhours diners. It was a fun time, for that time. I also had the honour of being asked to play at Tempe and Phoenix Gay pride festivals from 1994-2000. I really started to like Latin house and tribal and one Friday nite, possibly my best Friday afterhours set was when I played a bunch of latin house type stuff. There was a club across the parking lot from us called Club Zarape. It was a gay Mexican bar and on this particular Friday the Club Zarape patrons who were mostly Mexican and Native Americans, flooded my dancefloor and it was a great nite. However after I was done playing and the doors were locked the owner comes up to me and goes “Don’t ever play that Mexican crap again, we don’t want them over here every nite.”
!!!!!!!!!
I played nothing but latin house and tribal my remaining days there. The owner always demanded 80’s Hi-energy to please the leather queens – all 5 of them – and ultimately the business went elsewhere for newer music and to be honest while I had a good floor and following I never swamped the crowd over for my style was always the imports and deep, happy, hard house and the Friday crowd was a bit fickle. A dj from LA, Enrique Pagan moved to town and would come to hear me. We befriended one another and I would let him spin on my nites since I was pretty much over the place. And one Friday evening, after I had helped Anderoo move to West Hollywood, I arrived on my Friday nite about 20 minutes late after calling in to the owner to say my plane was delayed. Enrique was playing when I got in to the club which was fine. The owner said that he wanted Enrique to play from then on and that I was out. I didn’t mind, but I said I could at least be given the decency of a last nite. I don’t think he ever agreed to it, but I played my last nite there and it was a decent goodbye.
I went to visit a new club at the request of a dj friend the following evening and that friend asked if I would play at the club. I liked the freedom of music and the non-prejudice normality so I said yes. My residency began at Harley’s Club 155 in mid 1998. Trax closed down and sold to new ownership a few months after I left.
The whole club thing was fine and something I remember fondly. The dj culture now has turned to more of a humdrum thing, whereas it’s not so ‘cool’ or special to be a dj anymore. Anyone can dj now-a-days with the technology and computer software that makes it so easy. A true talented dj is still remarkable to listen to live though – and one who still uses vinyl is definitely considered a REAL dj in my book. It’s still amazing to me though the things folks think of club dj’s. We all don’t do drugs. I never have done any drugs in my life actually. All Dj’s are not jukeboxes. I don’t take requests – as any self respecting dj doesn’t. All dj’s won’t give away free music if you let us fuck you. All dj’s don’t fuck every one that comes up to the box. Though if you’re gonna be on my floor for more than a nite, I’ll definitely get snuggly wuggly with ya. In your OWN box. :D
* Jim Fowler and Rick White lived in phx, Az. At least until 1999 on Thomas road and 24ths street approx. They moved, supposedly to Washington state and I’ve lost contact with these two wonderful men, sad to say. ***Enrique Pagan and his husband Juan also lived in Phoenix at Indian School rd. and about 30ths street. I too lost contact with them and truly miss these remarkable guys. If anyone knows where they are, if they STILL are, please contact me and let me know.
**”Train wreck” in dj lingo is when one doesn’t have the records perfectly matched and the mix is all off and shit and sounds like sneakers in a dryer. A most NASTY sound. Quite possible the most ugly sound in the whole world.
To a dj anyway. :D
**** BPMs = beats per minute (how fast a record is)
intro= how many beats are at the start of the song to mix into
outro = how many beats are at the end of a song to mix out of
posted by Saint Vincent @ 3:16 PM
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