Webninja.org

it makes the people come together.

Music. It’s always been a huge part of my life. I remember back when Damon had a party when we were 14 and I brought my cd player. I was intent to dj. Also another childhood friend of mine always wanted to start our own mobile dj company, Starlight DJs. We had a logo and everything. If a new song came out, one of us had it.

One thing I regret about my past is never taking music lessons. I signed up for piano lessons once. I was supposed to show up but never told anyone about it and forgot about it. I sometimes wonder if I had gone to my lessons how it would have changed my life. Would I have played for 6 weeks and dropped it? Perhaps I would have started to dj earlier in my life. Perhaps I never would have gotten into djing and did something else, who knows.

Either way, I know in 1999 I saw an ad in the newspaper that forever changed my life. It read “Looking for DJs. Great pay, will train!”. Attached to it as a number I called. I had just graduated high school, was working 2 jobs at McDonalds and the Board of Education. I could use some extra weekend pay though. From the first show where I watched drunken cops sing 8 different karaoke renditions of Ring of FIre to the last time I spun for a crowd, I know I made the right choice.

I moved on to the radio as most of you know, then on to night clubs. When I started djing, I had 2 goals. The first was to make myself comfortable around others and increase my social skills. Years locked in my bedroom programming had killed any I developed as a child. The second goal was to experience all forms of djing. I wanted to dj school dances, radio, clubs, and a rave. I knocked down most of these goals quickly. I told myself I would have a great time djing while I was young, then around 25 I’d throw in the towel. I’d be able to say “this is what I was able to do”. I’ve djed for crowds of 2000+ and I’ve djed for small houseparties. I’ve watched people laugh, dance, scream, cry, and experience pretty much every facet of emotion possible. I’ve seen a group of 8th graders form a ring around boy whos parents were in the military as he danced with his girlfriend. While they had probably never heard it, I watched them cry as I played It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye by Boyz II Men. It was his last night in Duluth and even brought a tear to my eye.

The thing about music is that it moves people. I know that boy will probably remember that moment for the rest of his life. I know that the time I played Marvin Gaye in the middle of the night at a club to recognize a couples anniversary for meeting at Grandma’s Sports Garden, they’ll always remember that night. I’ve had so many great nights. I’ve experienced someone coming up to me and thanking me for the night. For the emotions I evoked in them.

I’ve experienced the emotional high of having 2000+ people lead me in saying happy birthday to Josh’s wife. I’ve watched college students belt out the words to Sweet Caroline loud enough it felt like the roof was going to erupt. Music, it’s so uplifting.

Since moving down to Minneapolis, I was at the bottom of the ladder. The new guy from Duluth that nobody had heard of. When Sean moved down here, we started something. We’ve built off of nothing and have begun our own thing. Harry and Eric have joined up with us and we’re waiting. People are starting to learn the name Nascent Numen, and we’re getting booked. I look back to thinking I’d be around for 5 or 6 years and hang up the headphones and laugh to myself. After all, I’m just getting started…