I thought today would be a good opportunity to share some stories about my life with you. One of the stages in my life was my DJ career that probably spanned a solid 5 years where I went by the name “DJ Quanson”. I know there are some of you out there who have seen me play live or heard about what I previously did through casual conversations. Here is a brief history behind this venture and where I currently am today with DJ Quanson. Pictures included in this summary too!
Growing up, I was always a big fan of music - listening, playing in a band, going to shows. My favorite genres have always been punk rock, metal, and hardcore since as early as I can remember. Around 2010 I started listening to electronic music quite a bit on Sirius XM BPM. This was probably the time when DJ’s started to become mainstream. Being the dreamer I am, I asked the question - why aren’t there more DJ’s out there who mix the music I like to listen to and not all the “mainstream” stuff. I wanted to hear some punk rock and metal thrown together! I decided to make that happen myself.
November 2014 I ordered my Pioneer DDJ-SB DJ controller to mess around on my Mac mini desktop. I remember the first groups I tried mixing together were Northlane, Knucke Puck, The Story So Far, Enter Shikari, Arhitects, etc. I’m sure you haven’t heard of any of these groups but I had a blast doing so! Around the same time. I put out a few mixes on Mix.lr back when that was the way to broadcast live mixes to the world. I had some selections of electronic music but not too much around this time.
November 2014 - First practice DJ Setup
Word got around that I had a DJ controller in 2015 and I was asked to play a private casino night event at board room of an apartment complex. Of course I wanted to give this a shot and try something new! At this time I didn’t have ANY equipment besides my controller and Mac mini. I borrowed lights, computer monitors, a sound system to pull this event off. The biggest problem was I didn’t have any MAINSTREAM music that a general audience would want to hear. Like most instances, its who you know and not what you know. Luckily I had a friend who was a DJ around town that let me use his music library for this event. I didn’t really know any of the songs and could barely beat-match properly at this time. I ended up performing at the event and it went well and I learned so much about performing.
June 2015 - First DJ gig with mostly borrowed equipment.
After the casino night event I felt lots of momentum moving forward. This was when I decided to brand myself as DJ Quanson. The name Quanson comes from my college fraternity days where there were multiple Michael’s in our organization so we would all be referred to by last name. Quanson was one of the names I was referred to by some close friends so I decided I would carry that forward. I wanted to create a logo but didn’t know anything about graphic design at the time. Once again its about who you know, so I had a friend create the logo you see below.
August 2015 - First and only logo
Around this time of getting my “brand” up and running I decided to purchase a laptop computer so I didn’t have to borrow as much equipment to get my mobile setup up and running. I was also asked to play at one of my friends pool parties which would allow me to casually experiment with new techniques and songs.
August 2015 - Summer pool party
After the pool party, I was asked to play another casino night - same organizers and spot as my first event. This time I was more prepared with my laptop and lighting although I still borrowed a sound system. I remember at this event having an active dance floor in front of me which was an awesome feeling that people were “feeling” off the music I was playing.
September 2015 - Casino Night 2.0
After this second casino night event I felt great about my new found DJ career. I was then asked by a friend to perform at an Oktoberfest event at the Tin Roof, a bar downtown San Diego. Of course I accepted the event, but was extremely nervous since this is the first time I would be playing in front of complete strangers on an actual stage. For this event I actually did lots of preparation of a song list and mixing strategies. I actually got people on the dance floor for this event too which was awesome. After this event I realized that my go-to specialty tunes were late 90’s early 00’s pop hits - a complete departure from punk rock and metal.
October 2015 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego
Things were on a roll here it seemed. I was referred to others to perform a Halloween party in Pacific Beach at the Night Owl bar. Not many people can say they’ve DJ’ed at this fine establishment. This was when I knew I needed to get more equipment - my own huge speakers, more lights, more everything. I had a blast doing this event and it was really fun to perform on the busiest night in Pacific Beach.
October 2015 - Halloween at the Night Owl in Pacific Beach.
At this point I thought I’d be done for the year with the holidays coming up…Think again! I was referred to play a private event at the world famous Razor House in La Jolla. Alicia Keys currently owns this house. I stepped it up even more this time and got bigger speakers. This was the probably one of the coolest events I was able to play.
2015 was finally over with lots of momentum heading into 2016. I was then asked to play my first wedding at a winery. I had never done a wedding before but was up for the challenge. Preparing the playlist for each portion of the evening and following a set time line was probably the biggest portion of the wedding. The stakes were really high too because any sort of mess up could ruin the couples special day. We went back and forth a few times with all the songs the couple wanted for each portion of the ceremony and reception and everything turned out perfectly with no hiccups! First wedding under my belt complete.
April 2016 - Winery wedding in Ramona, CA
After my first wedding, in the summer of 2016 I ended up doing my first house warming party, then another small backyard wedding.
July 2016 - House warming party
July 2016 - Backyard wedding
After the summer of 2016, I did a night time pool party. This was when I acquired a bunch of new music to experiment with which gave me new energy and variety to keep it interesting. I also was able to do the Oktoberfest event at the Tin Roof once again. Things were starting to get stale around this period of time for me as many of the events I was doing used a similar set of music and I no longer got the “nerves” prior to each event. Everything was still “cool” but nothing really excited me like it did in the first place.
September 2016 - Night time pool party
October 2016 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego
In November 2016, I also got another interesting opportunity to just throw up some speakers and hit play on a pre-set playlist at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. One of my favorite parts of each event was always seeing how the space was set up and the organizer letting me be a part of their experience.
November 2016 - Air and Space Museum event
Also in November of 2016, I was able to do another wedding of 2 of my good friends that were getting married in San Diego. This wedding was beautiful and I was so glad to be a part of the couples special day. At this point, I had all my equipment and setups optimized so little prep work needed to be put into an event. At this time I felt like DJ Quanson was slowly winding down too and this was a great way to slowly put this business to rest.
November 2016 - San Marcos Wedding
At this point if I wanted to DJ again, I wanted it to be a fun event where I could show up throw on some tunes and have a good time rather than lots of expectations from the client. What better way to do that than a one-off house party.
February 2017 - Masquerade House party
I ended up putting DJ Quanson to sleep for the almost the rest of 2017 as it no longer “Sparked Joy” in my life at this time period and I didn’t see much happening in the future. I felt really satisfied with what I accomplished and the events I was able to perform at. There was always one thing that I never got to do though…..DJ a Night Club. At the end of 2017, I was asked to do event at Fluxx Nightclub downtown San Diego - I couldn’t say no to this one! After dusting off the equipment and getting a refresh in music I was able to execute the event and felt extremely satisfied at the end of it. There’s nothing cooler than being the source of infinite bass in a super packed club where people are having a fun night out. I ended up doing this same event in 2018 also!
December 2017 - Fluxx Nightclub
December 2018 - Fluxx Nightclub San Diego
In the summer of 2019 after performing the Konmari method on my home, I made the conscious decision that DJing was no longer really a part of my current lifestyle and future life. I sold off almost all of my mobile DJ equipment (speakers, lights, cables, etc.) I ended up keeping my DJ Controller and a few lights in case I wanted to have a fun moment or another unique opportunity popped up where I could plug into someone else’s sound system. All in all, I had some great times over the 5 years of doing it - there is a time and place for each and everything in our lives and we must always keep moving forward with the next adventure!
