I wanted to share something that is hands down what I'm asked about the most, and that very few people actually know. This is the real personal story of how my life journey with music began...
Let's take it back to the very beginning before iPods, Discmans or Walkmans. I was sneaking out of my house at 13 and a half years old to go to Tunnel, Limelight, Exit, and Jonathan Peters at Sound Factory that was like church for my ears. I would go down to Canal Street during the week trying to buy CDs to find the music I heard out in the clubs. Until I learned about LimeWire & Kazaa, that's when my iTunes library really began to grow.
In all honesty, I never dreamt of being a DJ or anything with music but I did always enjoy collecting it. I grew tired of the party scene after a few years as I had to focus on school more, playing high school then college basketball.
Then around age 19 I fell in love. The wild crazy kind of love that gives you wings and lets you follow your heart and your wildest dreams.
I can remember like it was yesterday. It was Labor Day weekend and we went to hear Victor Calderone at Neptunes beach club in Long Island. The place was ram packed, they would rent extra sound for the holiday weekends.
This party and the music he played was like nothing I had ever experienced before! It was something about the ocean combined with the music and the sun that clicked for me that day. I just stood there watching everyone dance, and it felt really good to me. More than good. Felt like "it".
A close friend had just invested in a full new dj set up. One morning after the club, as usual like 20 of us went back to his place. At first I stood there watching and then I finally asked him to show me how he mixed the 2 tracks. He then let me try.
I knew right then and there. Of course shortly after, for Christmas, I had to con my girl into buying me a turn table, and my mother a pioneer mixer. And with these I would try to mix the turntable on one channel into an iPod that was connected into a second channel. And this is how I learned to dj.