Today we’d like to introduce you to DJAY DAVID.
Hi DJAY, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
At the age of 9, I would wait until my favorite songs came on the radio and record them on a cassette tape. I would play them back to listen to them, and to my surprise and people would ask for copies of my tapes. As I got older, whenever my family would have gatherings with hired DJs, I would watch how they were able to control the room by the way they played music, and it caught my interest. It made me to want to learn more about DJing.
Then, when I was 12, I met a DJ that showed me the basics on vinyl records, and I created my first mashup. I mashed “I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Missy Elliott and “You Make Me Wanna” by Usher. At the time, I knew nothing about BPMs or keys, nor did I have laptop visuals. I simply had an ear for music. I continued to play music for house parties and family gatherings, but I never took it seriously. I watched the greats like Grandmaster Flash and Jazzy Jeff, perform and saw a standard for what a DJ is and does.
By 2006, I joined the U.S. Navy where I got deployed overseas. At this point in my life, I’m able to DJ in Panama, Peru, Honduras, and other places in South America and the Caribbeans. I used my laptop do DJ for morale during port stops with fellow sailors and locals. That experience helped me understand how to read different crowds, even crowds that don’t speak the same language as me. I honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2010.
I continue to DJ for family and friends but not professionally. In 2020, I purchased a small, $99 DJ controller as a joke for a family gathering. I expected everyone to find humorous, instead, the opposite happened: everyone loved it. People started inquiring about booking me.
My first paid gig was at a restaurant with that same, small $99 controller and a PA speaker I bought from Sam’s Club for $180. I made $200 in 2 hrs, while also securing the time slot for future gigs. When I moved on from that location, I secured a weekly slot at a lounge, where I played concerts, comedy shows, and poetry nights.
As of now, I have branched out so I can perform at other locations, events, and broaden by audience.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been challenges along the road. People have tried to typecast me and put me in a box. At one point, I wasn’t getting any bookings outside the venue I was DJing weekly at, because people were convinced I only played one genre of music.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m professional dj. I specialize in vjing, which is djing with video. I mix music videos and animations in my dj sets. People get audio and visual effects when I dj. When they are not dancing they sit and watch the video transitions to entertain themselves. I’m most proud of being able to do something I have loved as a child as a job. I loved drawing, music and computers. Now I create art with the music visuals, I get to write code into the dj software and play music loud for everyone to hear. The thing that sets me apart from other djs is the way I play music videos and other dancing animation while performing. I also take request from guest in the room and mix them perfectly within a reasonable time frame of one or two songs. I also do not create a dedicated playlist for my events I dj at. I do it old school I ask what genre, favorite song and what is the vibe of the event to prepare. So, my sets do not sound the same. It just depends on the crowd I am playing for at the time.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
In the next 5-10 years, I see dj’s having more 3d light effects in sets that go out over the crowds to bring more energy to the sets. I also can see clubs adding dancing robots to entertain their customers. The biggest shift I can see is djs using a.i to mix their sets and just standing behind the booth talking on the microphone.
Pricing:
- Booking start at $75/hr for clubs,bars,and lounges
- Wedding start at $1,200
- Corporate Events/Birthday Parties start at $100/hr
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djaydavid/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094675745676
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DjayDavid_931
