I'm 30 years old, love music, and am about to become the sickest DJ my bedroom has ever seen.

But first, let me give you a a bit of a backstory...

In the late 90s (high school, for me) I found house music. I had mostly been listening to terrible metal and rap at the time… but once I heard those crazy electro sounds, I started to become super interested. I even started going to some under-18 dance clubs in the Quad Cities.

As soon as I heard a DJ mixing these crazy electro tracks on ridiculous house systems I fell in love. I still remember that first club pretty vividly… Not only was I blown away by what I was hearing, I was also blown away by what I was seeing. There was an entire room of people just raging out, crazy raver kids, etc. It was a completely different experience and environment than I was used to. And it was all being controlled by that one dude in the DJ booth. I loved it. I began collecting mix tapes and sets from DJs like Bad Boy Bill immediately.

Fast forward to college.

I became roommates with a dude who was into music as much, if not more than I was. We got involved with the group that brought musical acts to our campus. I was in charge of setting up and tearing down sound systems for events and concerts as they were booked. While doing this, I started playing music on the house mixer before events. As time went on, I started trying to beat match CDs and keep a flow going between my tracks… I was DJing.

So I started actually DJing a couple campus events at things like freshman orientation week, etc. During one of my first daytime events I remember being told to cut the music during a certain vulgar line of "Damn, It Feels Good to be a Gangster" haha… I was so mad. I yelled at the woman who told me to cut it off that "It's going to sound terrible if I just flip the track right now!"

Either way, I did it... and I learned that you should always get your next track cued up right away. I also learned that it's maybe a good idea to keep a "clean" crate in your collection.

As this went on, my roommate and I started talking about DJing some events together. I began practicing sets with CDs while my roommate was practicing sets on his computer with MP3s and music videos. Shortly after, I was DJing more campus events and my roommate was throwing dance parties. We switched off between mixing CDs and setting up full-on desktop computers to DJ with some crappy software.

For comedy-sake, I should also mention that we never thought of a good DJ group name, so we were just called, "Those 2 DJs." In fact, my roommate came up with a logo for our little DJ group and still has it tattooed on his arm til this day! …No, his tattoo doesn't say "Those 2 DJs."

After college.

I started thinking about getting serious and trying to DJ some clubs in Des Moines. I didn't have the luxury of borrowing campus equipment anymore so I started researching my own equipment. I quickly realized this was expensive - really expensive. I remember sitting in my tiny apartment office and thinking that DJing wasn't a hobby that I necessarily needed to pick up while I was young. Sure I'd need to make sure I was staying on top of music if I got into it later in life - but really, I had too many hobbies. I wasn't ready to throw 3-5 grand into a new one. How about I just keep working, skating, and having fun while I'm young… then when I'm 30 I should be loaded and less busy. I'll start DJing when I'm 30.

Now.

Welp, here I am… 30 years old. I'm definitely not as loaded or as free as I thought I'd be, but... I suppose I better keep that promise I made to myself anyway. And what better of a situation could I be in? I'm temporarily living in a house full of dudes, often times hanging out bored in my room - much like the days when I started messing around with music in the first place.

So here goes nothin! I brought my records to Chicago, bought myself a good pair of used turntables, and have Serato on order. Hopefully I'll be able to throw a party and play some tunes for y'all sometime soon.

… and now's the time where all you DJs in my circle give me tips on getting started. I definitely don't serve any kind of threat to the residencies y'all are holding down, but I'll let you spin some records at this bedroom residency I've got!

The 30 Year Old DJ