DJ
Juan Carlos
History (radio edit):
Ive been DJing for about ten years. During those ten years Ive lived in Bermuda (where Im from), Tampa FL (where I went to university), New York (where two of my best friends are from), Ibiza (where I left half my brain), Salamanca (where my Dad is from), and Los Angeles (where I currently reside). All of these places have influenced me musically, and when you hear me spin you will hear that influence. If I had to describe the type of music I spin in one sentence, I would say that I mix a soulful, eclectic, and funky selection of house, hip hop, reggae, and r&b infused with latin, and tribal flavors and a dash of drum&bass.
History (extended remix):
I was born in Bermuda, where I grew up, and I guess my earliest memories of music were of Reggae, R&B, and Pop music. The main radio station when I was a kid was fm 89, which basically played syndicated top 40 radio shows from the NE United States. So, I listened to a lot of US Pop music. I also have four older brothers who introduced me to a wide variety of non-pop music. Some I liked, some I did not; but I am grateful for the exposure to different sounds. In the streets of Bermuda, however, the most popular music was Reggae music and R&B. These influences represent my musical foundation.
I always loved music. Throughout grade school I would go to sleep listening to the radio. By the time I started high school, I was already an avid collector of cassettes. I remember sitting in front of the radio often, with a fresh blank tape loaded and ready, just waiting for that new wicked tune to come on so I could record it. I dont think that any of my friends in high school could boast that they had bigger or louder speakers than I had. My first stereo receiver and pair of big speakers were hand-me-downs from my oldest brother. I blew those speakers in no time; a necessary lesson for a future DJ. Dont blow your speakers!
By the time I was finishing high school two new sounds were emerging. Rap music and Dance music. The first Rap album I ever bought was Heavy D and the Boys first album. I still play some tracks from that album when I mix. I started sneaking into the clubs in Bermuda when I was 16, and European Dance music was definitely carving out its own niche. Plus, one of my older brothers had spent a year in Germany and had returned with a ton of Dance music. My taste in music was evolving.
I took some time off between high school and college. I lived in Salamanca, Spain for almost a year (where my Dad is from). During my time there I was introduced to Spanish music. Since that time I have become especially fond of Flamenco music and dancing. There is something about that sound that I find especially unique within the world of music, and it definitely reminds me that I am half Spanish. I now incorporate a variety of Latin sounds and rhythms in my mixes.
It was also during that same trip that I first stumbled upon the underground scene and hard house/techno. I wasnt especially fond of the sound at that time, but I was also naïve to the scope of what was really going on in that scene. I wasnt quite catching the vibe the way the others in the club wereif you know what I mean. Oh how quickly things change.
When I returned to Bermuda, I got a job working in a small mens clothing boutique. I worked there for almost two years before going to college. The owner, who is still a very good friend of mine, introduced me to a lot of new music. At first I hated much of the music he played in the store but, little by little, I grew to appreciate and even love all of his music. Specifically, he introduced me to Sting and The Police, and Seal. Sting and Seal are two artists you are likely to hear at my house during dinner or while I do chores.
Coincidentally, this is also about the time that I got my first CD player and began to make that transition from cassettes to CDs. I was ready for the change. It was terrible when your favorite mix tape began to get that stretched, distorted sound! Or, how about when your tape player ate your favorite tape and you had to actually try to get it out of the player, untangle it and then roll it manually back into the cassette, without touching the actual tape with your fingersnow thats old school!
In 1994 I went to Howard University in DC for my freshman year. This is when Hip Hop really grabbed my attention. Everybody was bumping Biggy, 2Pac, Snoop, Dr. Dre, and Wu Tang! While at Howard I got to see some of the biggest Hip Hop DJs of the time, like Funk Master Flex, Kid Capri, and Biz Markie, perform live at parties. But, without a doubt, the best parties I went to while at Howard were the Caribbean Society parties, where I got to hear and see huge Reggae Sounds like Stone Love, perform live and mash up de dance floor. Somewhere in a set youre likely to hear me drop in a couple of Dancehall tracks.
I transferred the following year to the University of Tampa, in Florida. My CD collection was growing rapidly and becoming ever more eclectic. By this time, I was a master of recording mix tapes, from CDs without a mixer. I had a small boombox that played CDs and cassettes, and it also recorded to cassette. It is a complicated method to explain, but I made mix tapes by putting different CDs in, playing them, and pressing the play/record and pause buttons on the cassette recorder to mix the tracks. I was ready for my first real mixer, but that was still almost a year away.
During my first year in Tampa, my musical horizons really expanded as I was inducted into the Tampa rave scene. I was ready for the underground! I quickly learned how to catch the vibe the way the others in the club were. Anyone who has ever been to Tampa, or anywhere in South Florida, knows that they love their breakbeats down there; especially funky breaks, electro breaks and Drum&Bass. I was loving the scene, the music, the people, and I was blowing up with the best of them.
It was also during my first year at UT that I would meet two of my best friends for life. One introduced me to Rock, and the other introduced me to A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots. During the second semester of that school year, the three of us together discovered The Fugees as they released their second album The Score. This is without a doubt my favorite Hip Hop album of all time; although, that may be because we got blunted every day that semester listening to ithow many mics do we rip on the daily?
It was during my second year in Tampa (1996) that I finally got my first mixer and two belt driven turntables. It was a used Gemini DJ in a Box set that somebody didnt want anymore. You could probably buy the whole set back then for less than 200 bucks, brand new. I started to collect records, but I quickly learned two things:
..1) Belt Drive turntables suck ass!
..2) College students cant afford records!
So, I gave away the turntables and decided to stick with CD players. Pioneer had just released their CDJ 300s. Between my younger brother Chris (who had just started his freshman year at UT) and I, we invested in two of them. With those two CD players and the Gemini mixer we both began to really learn how to mix. Chris learned much faster than I, and I must admit that he really helped me learn how to mix.
The following year we began to throw some of the biggest and best house parties UT has ever seen. Im talking about 5 kegs of beer, 10 gallons of rum punch, mad blunts, beans for days, and 200 people partying their asses off while we spun hot tunes! It was a fun time. This is also about the time that I got my first DJing gig. For close to a year, I spun Hip Hop, Reggae, and Jungle on the back porch at Club Kaos in Ybor City, Tampa.
More to come soon...