About Me
Obsession with vinyl house records can make one believe in otherwise unbelievable things, such as the ability to stretch time. When Mike Magaña caught the House Music bug, he was certain that his lunch break gave him plenty of time every day to dig 4 records @ Higher Source records and return to work on time. This was especially true, in Mike's mind, on Thursdays when Thomas White, 1/2 of Natural Rhythm would open @ 2:00PM with new releases. The fact that his employer, WB Networks, was located by LAX while Higher Source was on Santa Monica and Centinela, presented no obstacle to Mike's thinking. Until, of course, he crashed back to reality when he was terminated for taking too many long lunches.
While he may be much more realistic now, Mike never lost his passion for House and for DJing. Nor did he lose his sense of humor. Mike, some argue, is the most fun DJs to dance to in Los Angeles. As one club promoter puts its, "he played a techitie, bleepity, funkity kinda house ahead of most DJs. Now, that sound is everywhere". A Mike M. set is always drenched with a mixture of funk and playfulness, which is universally appreciated by dancers in LA. This type of sound landed him numerous guest DJ slots, and most importantly a residency at housesaladla's The Good Life party, now a staple of LA's house landscape.
But the "outgoing" Mike wasn't always so. At first, Mike spent hours upon hours @ his home spinning record after record, and recording mix after mix. He hardly ever went out. He was batman in a cave, Einstein in a lab, Bobby Fisher wherever that guy may dwell. His mixes were gloriously good, enough to land him slots @ some of Hollywood's most famous venues. "That was cool" reflects Mike, "except that us house djs were relegated to the side areas, while the main room had hip hop or top 40. I was itching to play at a true house club, and for a true househead crowd. until then, i prefered my home studio over anything else". Then one day, he was asked to fill in for Oliver Twist in 2003 @ Invited, the short lived but legendary monthly in West Los Angeles. "the place was packed on a Tuesday! the venue was beautiful, and all DJs were invited to play 40 minutes of whatever they liked. I loved it!". After that experience, Mike no longer wanted to stay home, and, finally, yearn to play out for people.Fortuitously for him, the INVITED party was thrown by a bunch of pranksters who went by the joke name Good Christian Promoters. The atmosphere created by these promoters was a relaxed one, filled with drinking, dancing, and constant jokes and pranks. Mike fit in easily and seamlessly in this atmosphere. A close friendship resulted with 2 of the promoters, Imad and Maui, now inauguraters of Housesaladla.com and the Good Life party. The quips and pranks publicly flew back and forth. In explaining why he chose Mike as a resident dj for the Good Life, Imad states: " by 2003, every DJ i heard knew how to beat match. I wanted someone different. My idea was to have a dj who played a set of classic house tracks, and INTENTIONALLY train wreck every mix. When I heard Mike's CD, i knew I had my DJ!!" Not to be undone, Mike hilariously manipulated a digital photo of Fantasy Island by placing Imad's face on Toto's head, and Maui's face on Altoban's, then posted the thing on myspace.com and drew an uproarious response.
It is that type of playful persona that Mike infuses into his sets. As one clubber and regular 'good lifer' explains: "Mike's sets are infectious and fun not simply because he carefully chooses certain tracks or because he has a pre-planned way of mixing them. Of course those things matter, but ultimately it is because he IS a fun and playful guy, and his friends, promoters and supporters are also that way. His sets are a natural and organic extension of his personality. Anyone who walks into the Good Life on a good night with Mike behind the decks, can immediately sense that atmosphere overwhelm them. That the music and the mixing is top notch is just icing on the cake. It makes a two hour Mike M. set wiz right by". In that respect, It appears Mike still has not figured out how to stretch time. But he's currently working on it in his lab.
