DJ Dash El Mas Guapo
I thought it would be great for all of us to share how we landed our first gig. Hopefully this inspires a bedroom DJ to land their first paid gig.
Posted 4 days ago @ 2:11 pm
DJ Dash El Mas Guapo
First paid gig: While Bartending at a busy sportsbar, I got to know the DJs, asked them to show me the ropes. Learned to use scratch live, which was the bar's computer. They would allow me to do 30 minute sets and the owner once heard my sets and offered me a Tuesday night 10PM to 2AM slot. At the time we had DJs on a daily basis. Back then as a beginner, I would get paid $120 for 4 hours which was great since they provided the equipment, the bar computer, and a Denon DN4500. Before that I was a bedroom DJ using VDJ 6. 
Posted 4 days ago @ 2:45 pm
The13bats
I first spun as a young neighborhoodlum at a skating rink near my house, the dj wanted to dance with his girl and many times didnt come back to booth in any hurry,
Then early mid 80s I was a gutter punk , trying to book bands I would hit a kiddie club and help out to get in free, that became the djs asking me to help with then new at time "new wave" alternative stuff.
i had a short lived punk night and when break dance died overnight I was giving fri for alternative, the other djs had families, or wanted other things,
That blew up,
I've never been a bedroom dj, it's been my career for going on 40 years now, booked lots of big bands,
I got lucky i got a following and at 60 I am the fri sat resident dj and do 6.5 hour no break sets both nights, my reunions I known to draw over 1000,
Hope that motivates.
Then early mid 80s I was a gutter punk , trying to book bands I would hit a kiddie club and help out to get in free, that became the djs asking me to help with then new at time "new wave" alternative stuff.
i had a short lived punk night and when break dance died overnight I was giving fri for alternative, the other djs had families, or wanted other things,
That blew up,
I've never been a bedroom dj, it's been my career for going on 40 years now, booked lots of big bands,
I got lucky i got a following and at 60 I am the fri sat resident dj and do 6.5 hour no break sets both nights, my reunions I known to draw over 1000,
Hope that motivates.
Posted 4 days ago @ 9:26 pm
DJ Dash El Mas Guapo
The13bats wrote :
I first spun as a young neighborhoodlum at a skating rink near my house, the dj wanted to dance with his girl and many times didnt come back to booth in any hurry,
Then early mid 80s I was a gutter punk , trying to book bands I would hit a kiddie club and help out to get in free, that became the djs asking me to help with then new at time "new wave" alternative stuff.
i had a short lived punk night and when break dance died overnight I was giving fri for alternative, the other djs had families, or wanted other things,
That blew up,
I've never been a bedroom dj, it's been my career for going on 40 years now, booked lots of big bands,
I got lucky i got a following and at 60 I am the fri sat resident dj and do 6.5 hour no break sets both nights, my reunions I known to draw over 1000,
Hope that motivates.
Then early mid 80s I was a gutter punk , trying to book bands I would hit a kiddie club and help out to get in free, that became the djs asking me to help with then new at time "new wave" alternative stuff.
i had a short lived punk night and when break dance died overnight I was giving fri for alternative, the other djs had families, or wanted other things,
That blew up,
I've never been a bedroom dj, it's been my career for going on 40 years now, booked lots of big bands,
I got lucky i got a following and at 60 I am the fri sat resident dj and do 6.5 hour no break sets both nights, my reunions I known to draw over 1000,
Hope that motivates.
Thats awesome, thanks for sharing!
Posted 4 days ago @ 10:40 pm
wildcountryclub
The first one - not counting house parties and such- pretty much just applied for the job. the late 80's and early 90's were a different time.
For where I am now and have been since '98: Was working at local radio station and we were doing live 2 hour broadcasts from the club and I ended up playing music while their dj was ....'doing things he shouldn't have been doing'....long before I was actually working there, they made it official after the place had been open a few weeks and then the radio station started having issues behind the scenes and then stayed there full time as a resident.
27 years later the square peg is still stuck in the round hole.
For where I am now and have been since '98: Was working at local radio station and we were doing live 2 hour broadcasts from the club and I ended up playing music while their dj was ....'doing things he shouldn't have been doing'....long before I was actually working there, they made it official after the place had been open a few weeks and then the radio station started having issues behind the scenes and then stayed there full time as a resident.
27 years later the square peg is still stuck in the round hole.
Posted yesterday @ 5:47 am
DJ Dash El Mas Guapo
wildcountryclub wrote :
The first one - not counting house parties and such- pretty much just applied for the job. the late 80's and early 90's were a different time.
For where I am now and have been since '98: Was working at local radio station and we were doing live 2 hour broadcasts from the club and I ended up playing music while their dj was ....'doing things he shouldn't have been doing'....long before I was actually working there, they made it official after the place had been open a few weeks and then the radio station started having issues behind the scenes and then stayed there full time as a resident.
27 years later the square peg is still stuck in the round hole.
For where I am now and have been since '98: Was working at local radio station and we were doing live 2 hour broadcasts from the club and I ended up playing music while their dj was ....'doing things he shouldn't have been doing'....long before I was actually working there, they made it official after the place had been open a few weeks and then the radio station started having issues behind the scenes and then stayed there full time as a resident.
27 years later the square peg is still stuck in the round hole.
Thanks for sharing man! Did you primarily stick to radio and clubs? Also how did you take to the transition of vinyl, cds, software etc.
Posted 20 hours ago
wildcountryclub
The 'short' form version?
Pre-1993, I had never counted the house parties or fill-in nights at bars and strip clubs in the late 80's/early 90's - too spotty and not that many where I was living at the time. After forced medical retirement from the Marines I used my V.A. benefits for Radio & T.V. major and subsequent working in one small and metro market at same time while going to school, and then one medium market, that I just plain got fed up with it - going from an independent station to one that was bought by one of the corporations that all the corporate garbage that goes on behind the scenes just got to me. I was making more part-time at the club than at the radio station and after they hired one of the owner's sons as GM and the chaos that ensued... i was DONE!
When the club opened we had 2 1200's, 2 sets of Denon decks for CD's, 2 Denon cassette tape decks for their singing contest on Sunday and Tuesday, 3 VHS decks for music videos with 3 GINORMOUS projectors, metal leaf light switches and an NSI board for lighting. the transition to only CD's was easy enough - we were seamlessly using them along with the 1200's - and it wasn't till the club burned down in 02 that they said we'd being going with computers and to start looking at what software we'd be using. we still had to replace a half million dollars worth of vinyl and CDs' to rebuild library first and that took a bit. That took a bit but then 2006 rolled along and we went shopping for a computer.
I had tested Seraturd, PCDJ, and VirtualDJ and it was a no-brainer: $299 and did EVERYTHING. it took me a couple months to rip the entire library and have never looked back.
I DON'T miss replacing needles, skipping plastic that was damn near irreplaceable for the rarer ones, VHS dragging, cueing up frames on CD's, VHS tapes, or cassettes, and DO love that i can concentrate more on just getting the music out there right when i need it and being able to watch and read the crowd more.
All the years of improvements in the software and its capabilities have made what I do there far easier when it comes to the music and giving the customers what they need. (the other issues there are for a different forum altogether)
Pre-1993, I had never counted the house parties or fill-in nights at bars and strip clubs in the late 80's/early 90's - too spotty and not that many where I was living at the time. After forced medical retirement from the Marines I used my V.A. benefits for Radio & T.V. major and subsequent working in one small and metro market at same time while going to school, and then one medium market, that I just plain got fed up with it - going from an independent station to one that was bought by one of the corporations that all the corporate garbage that goes on behind the scenes just got to me. I was making more part-time at the club than at the radio station and after they hired one of the owner's sons as GM and the chaos that ensued... i was DONE!
When the club opened we had 2 1200's, 2 sets of Denon decks for CD's, 2 Denon cassette tape decks for their singing contest on Sunday and Tuesday, 3 VHS decks for music videos with 3 GINORMOUS projectors, metal leaf light switches and an NSI board for lighting. the transition to only CD's was easy enough - we were seamlessly using them along with the 1200's - and it wasn't till the club burned down in 02 that they said we'd being going with computers and to start looking at what software we'd be using. we still had to replace a half million dollars worth of vinyl and CDs' to rebuild library first and that took a bit. That took a bit but then 2006 rolled along and we went shopping for a computer.
I had tested Seraturd, PCDJ, and VirtualDJ and it was a no-brainer: $299 and did EVERYTHING. it took me a couple months to rip the entire library and have never looked back.
I DON'T miss replacing needles, skipping plastic that was damn near irreplaceable for the rarer ones, VHS dragging, cueing up frames on CD's, VHS tapes, or cassettes, and DO love that i can concentrate more on just getting the music out there right when i need it and being able to watch and read the crowd more.
All the years of improvements in the software and its capabilities have made what I do there far easier when it comes to the music and giving the customers what they need. (the other issues there are for a different forum altogether)
Posted 5 hours ago