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DJ Rumor takes a trip to the Once A DJ studio to discuss a background and love for breaking, and at the same time, New Wave music, and shares his journey through DJing which lands us at his current main gig which is as musical curator and Knicks/Rangers Dj at Madison Square Gardens.

Rumor shares a load of insights into lessons he's learned and give some great advice across many areas of professional DJing, including how to DJ for sports, the importance of professional conduct and much more.

Mentioned in this episode:

Reissued classics from Be With Records

Get 10% off at bewithrecords.com using the code ONCEADJ

Adam Gow 0:00

DJ rumor, thanks for coming on the show. Great to have you on. Thanks,

DJ Rumor 0:03

Adam. I appreciate you having me.

Adam Gow 0:04

How you doing today?

DJ Rumor 0:05

I'm doing well, yeah, here in New York. Yeah, things are going well,

Adam Gow 0:10

awesome. So as we tend to do with most guests, let's just get into it. Let's get into your story. And if you want to tell us where you got into DJing and music,

DJ Rumor 0:19

yeah, absolutely so, born and raised in White Plains, New York, which is in Westchester County, so it's suburb of New York, of the city, just north of the Bronx. And so, born and raised there, youngest of five kids. So I was influenced from a very early age, from a lot of different music. My parents were into. They love the Beatles. They love Sinatra jazz, like Dave Brubeck, stuff like that. And so they were, they were into music. But then, of course, my siblings, my my three brothers, and my sister, they were, they were older than me. Not Not only was I the youngest, but there was, like an age gap, even between, you know, between me and the next oldest. So how big it got? Oh, like seven and a half years between me. Wow. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like 80s music from a very early age was huge. I mean, I love prince, I love anything from that era, 80s, new wave, like just it runs a gamut. I mean, Stevie Wonder, I was I loved at an early age, and so I was learning about a lot of different music just from absorbing it from listening to tapes and CDs from my brothers and my and my sister's music collection, and then, of course, watching MTV things like that. And then, as I got older, I was, it was like early 90s, like I was probably like eight years old, nine years old, and one of my brothers in particular, had Low End Theory, tropical quest, yeah. So that was, I mean, I still remember hearing excursions for the first time, and just like Right, right track one, you know, from there. And so that was very, it was so jazzy and funky. And obviously, I was very young, but it made an impression. And I still feel it to this day, like, just like, what that was like to hear tribe, and then that De La Soul, my brother loved Diggable planets. Just a lot of New York based, you know, Pete Rock and CO smooth, Heavy D nice and smooth a lot of that early 90s era, the golden era, as it were. Yeah,

Adam Gow 2:45

I feel, I feel like, over here, I don't know that Diggable planets get enough appreciation. Yeah,

DJ Rumor 2:53

oh, that's I've I listened to that all the time. My brother was a huge fan. Yeah, and, and it's funny, because, like, that was pre internet, like, you just, you found out about things, you know what? I mean, like, whether it was from one of his friends or what have you, I'm not sure, but yeah, you just kind of absorb it as you go along. Yeah? So, like, that was, that was kind of, like the early stages of me really getting into hip hop. But yeah, so as I got older, probably like 12 years old. That's when I was getting in, yeah, that's when I bought NAS, Ill Matic and Biggie and like, all, like the main, like, that whole era of whether it was, well, mob, deep, gang, Starr, I mean, that's then eventually, a little later, Big L and stuff like that. Then I got into, like, underground hip hop in the late 90s, but I'll get to that. But yeah, so I was, but this is all before I was even DJing. So I was just, I was just getting into the music as as a fan. And can

Adam Gow 3:54

I just ask then, do you think that when you're living in the thick of the epicenter of kind of where it's from. Do you think that music at that time resonates differently?

DJ Rumor 4:05

Adam Gow 6:01

and yeah. Do you think that the because, because I, I mean, I'm, what, a year older than you, and I feel the same about 90s music. I think there's so much amazing stuff. Like over here, it was so say, like late 90s, brick, pop and indie were absolutely massive. Yes, the country was doing quite well economically as well. So you just there was this kind of all around sort of good feeling. I think maybe that's just because of the age I was, and you're starting to get disposed no responsibilities, yeah, but yeah, it does seem to me, I don't know if it's as well, because there was just lots of money in the industry as well, that there was the opportunities, yeah, for all this, you know, sit like the profit margins on CDs and CD sales were huge. Maybe that was something to do with the the sort of quality and the money that was spent on production and stuff like that.

DJ Rumor 6:55

Adam Gow 7:15

DJ Rumor 7:57

yeah. Definitely it was, yeah. And then, of course, there, like I was saying before about the underground hip hop, and that was, that was kind of its own thing, and I was just such a huge fan, like the raucous records, yeah, and most definitely, so, like me and my friends were getting into that. But that was, that was around the time when I started DJing. So when I once, I bought turntables, and so it kind of went hand in hand and in terms of loving that music and then buying the 12 inch singles and getting into it in that in that way.

Adam Gow 8:33

So being in kind of like a satellite of New York City was, was it hard to start getting gigs and things like that. Or like, Did did you go into it was the sort of access point through school sort of stuff. Or, like, how did DJing sort of evolve? Yeah,

DJ Rumor 8:49

so at first it was, I was a bedroom DJ, just scratching, trying to MIT. I was very obviously, like, every, every DJ, not very good at first, but started buying records all the time and going into I'll never forget getting my first turntables at place called Music Factory in the Bronx on Fordham Road. And I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was like, I remember going down these steps and where, where, where they sold the equipment and the records. And it was just like a whole, just a whole other world that I was, like, really excited about getting involved in. So from there, once I was started buying the records, it was, again, I was really just trying to hone my craft and learn. And then eventually, yeah, I would do little parties here and there, local stuff. Nothing, nothing crazy. And then so eventually, what some of my first, I guess some of my first gigs were, but certainly kind of past that point once, once I. I started, at least getting a little bit better in terms of actually mixing. I got into the B boy break dancing scene, right? So, as a as a dancer, so I always love to dance like as a kid. But then I started getting into breaking and, you know, I just got into the scene. I we would go down to the city and go to battles and like this whole it was, it was an underground thing. And so that whole world definitely impacted my understanding of the samples and the funk and soul and disco and where and jazz and rock, and you know, whether it was, it just runs the gamut where that opens up a whole lane of different styles of music, from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and a lot of avant garde music. So that's what got me in, heavily into because of the B boying scene, because they would dance to the break beats. Yeah, that emerged from that time in the Bronx, and that whole the classics. Jimmy Castor bunch has just begun. Give it up, turn it loose. James Brown, Apache, Incredible Bongo band, plus, like a whole bunch of other lesser known records. And so that was and I would watch VHS tapes of of breaking battles from all over, from Cali and England. Actually, there were some, some ones from, I remember how to VHS tape from there. So that's, that's what kind of propelled me into that world. And then I started actually DJing battles, like breaking breakdancing competitions.

That that's an interesting one. Yeah, because, yeah, I DJ a couple of breaking battles, probably around 2010, ish, okay. And what I found with it is I was going to them, and my assumption was I would just be playing the, you know, the classics like you say, the Apaches, the Jimmy Castor Yes, Babe Ruth, things like that. Yes, yes. And when I came to the battles I played at that stuff wasn't that well received. Okay, it was to an extent, but, but those ones, those guys just wanted, like, really hard, sort of 130 BPM, sort of, and it was this kind of comes into something that I think's really interesting now about breaking with it becoming an Olympic sport, because we've talked on this with a couple of people about how it's kind of maybe shifted where people dance less to the music and more to the tempo. Yeah, I found it really, kind of really hard to know how to DJ for B boys. Like, Were you good with the classics, or was it kind of evolving when you were doing it?

Yeah, it was, it was, it was definitely, yeah. I Yeah. This is early to this is, like, very early. I guess it was by the time I started DJing some battles. It was like 2001 two around that era. So, yeah. So the classics were very much still a part of the vibe that they wanted. And plus me being a B boy and I was always into, like, top rocking. I wasn't too much into, like, doing crazy acrobatic stuff. I could, I couldn't do much of that, but I just love the actual dancing like so that lended itself very well in terms of just knowing those, those songs and trying to find, like I remember Ltd love to the world. I remember finding doubles of that, and it was, if, I'm not sure if you know that record, but it's, it's such a it's a great breaking record, and it has a break beat that you need doubles of because, you know, you got to rock it back and forth. And so that kind of got me into finding those kind of, those kind of records, and that eventually, I mean that still to this day, that whole vibe is still some of my favorite music to spin.

Did it make you think about arrangement in a different way? Do you think and like, it must be interesting, like being a breaker and thinking about how rhythm goes through, through someone as well?

Yeah, that's a that's an excellent question. Actually. I mean, it probably was a factor without me even knowing it, just because, if I wanted to keep a certain tempo from, say, 110 to 120 because it's not too fast, where you're going to throw the dancers off by playing something whatever 140 beats per minute, or going too slow at something 85 beats per minute? Yeah. Now, granted, that was still, those are still very early days of DJing for me, so I wasn't as much into BPMs, per se, but that that came a little later when I started arranging things more by bpm. But I just it was more of a instinct, like a feeling, okay, this is a that I can I can dance to this. This will work for them, yeah,

yeah, like, almost like an empathy, yeah, yeah, for sure. So where did you move on then from the breaking, yeah. So

eventually I Well, after graduating high school, eventually moved to the city. I moved to Manhattan, went to college down here, graduate Hunter College in the city and yeah, so my early years in the city trying to find, like, I didn't have, like, a set plan. It really was. It was an organic type of a situation where I knew I wanted a DJ, but I was still going to school, so it wasn't like I could, I could only dedicate so much time. But as the years went on, well, pretty relatively soon after moving in, but certainly by like 2004 is, and then definitely 2005 is when I this. This is before social media and things like that. Like, I eventually just hit the hit the ground and went to different venues and gave them mix mixtape, mix CDs, and I would introduce myself and be like, hey. Like, I only knew, I mean, I know a few people in the city, but like I was, I think I was the first out of all my friends to move to the city. So it was kind of like it was definitely, it was different. I mean, obviously growing up near it is, is not exactly the same as living in the middle of the city. So it was, it was definitely, I had to network. And eventually, some of those things panned out. I eventually, again, bring in vinyl. I was on the fifth floor of a walk up my first apartment, so I was lugging three, four crates of records up five of five flights of stairs. And yeah, I don't, in retrospect, I don't know how I did that, but I somehow, I just did it and and I started doing some weekends, and down in the village, eventually landed a residency at one venue. And it was great. I mean, so many of the venues during that time were, I mean, granted, it was 20 years ago, but it was very they were so musically open. It was kind of like the last remnants of the 90s. New York. Even though it wasn't the 90s anymore, you could still you you had to know the classics, okay. I mean, not necessarily, like B boy classics, but I'm saying like playing Luther Vandross and playing, you know, Teddy pentagrass And like chic and Roy Ayers and just like really good vibes like that. And, you know, maize and Frankie Beverly thing records like that. Then, of course, playing the current hip hop, or playing, uh, some 90s hip hop. And then house too. I mean, we didn't even talk about house but house music, of course, I've always had a passion for 90s house music and the masters at work vibe like that's, that's definitely what, what in what? What got me into a lot of that realm. So doing these venues, doing these there were more lounges that I was doing at that time, and bars, and then eventually,

just whilst we're on this, and just going back to the sort of networking and the sending mixes, did you have a kind of strategy? Were you focused on the village specifically, or were you looking at new bars, or were you kind of naive and like, I'll just go anywhere or, like, because I would imagine, and I may be well wrong on this, but I could see it being quite a C sort of thing. These are the guys that are DJing these bars and it, and it's kind of hard to get in there. Oh,

for sure. Oh for sure. Yeah, yeah. And that's, yeah. I mean, it's something you have to contend with. It's just you, it was, but it was a much smaller circle of DJs at that time. I mean, this is again, pre Serato, so and even the early days of Serato, 2005 could 2005 is when I got Serato, and like I would say, all the way up to like 2008 nine. It was still relatively a small world, even in the city as big as New York, yeah, because it just wasn't this is before social I keep saying that, but really, before social media and that whole it. DJs. DJs have always, there's always been a kind of a cool factor, if you will, with DJs. But it wasn't as prevalent as it is today. I mean, today it's like, it's completely different. So I think that that was an advantage, because there was just, there was that much less competition and but also you just, you try to, you just be yourself, and you, you play the music that you think fits right, but still incorporating your own style and what the music that you're passionate about. So that's what I tried to do. And, and, yeah, it was definitely clicky to a certain extent, but, but that's the other thing. I started meeting a lot of other DJs, and it was great. It was, it was a good time to be involved in something like that, yeah. And

looking at your website, there's a lot of kind of corporate stuff in there. Was that something that you consciously tapped into? Yeah?

So once I got into the club, doing some clubs. I was also getting people were reaching out to me to start doing some corporate events, private events. And that could be, I mean, I was handing my card out. You know, obviously these things happen. You network, and eventually you get an email or a call, and it was a it was a different type of DJing, for sure, because you had to, you were still using your music knowledge and your skills as a DJ and reading a crowd. But first of all, it wasn't as late. It was like and much shorter hours, because that's the thing. In New York, it was 10pm to 4am for all those years of, yeah, so I had that was bars and clubs. I mean, yes, that was kind of the going. I mean, give or take, maybe it would be more like 11 to three, but def certainly within that time frame of five to six hours where you're DJing and but I liked it like and I still like it. I still like doing a full night, not necessarily having an opener. I mean, if there has to be an opener, that's fine, that's cool, but, but in those days, you just learned, and that's how you learn how to play so many different genres. Because you had to, you had, yeah, in the open format, World of DJing in New York at that time, you had to know how to play classics and play some R, B, and then Hip Hop house, reggae, back to classics, you know. And I guess, like, it runs the gamut.

So something I'm at some point going to do a big post mortem on the things that stops me progressing more as a DJ, because there's loads of them. And one thing that I've probably always been aware of is that my energy levels will steer what my music selection is. So say, I'm playing somewhere, and there's kind of an hour till closing, or an hour till kick or kick out time. If I'm tired, I've, I've definitely had a habit where I'll start playing slightly more mellow stuff, kind of subconsciously. Would you ever find those times where you just your bodies against it? Say, if you say, if it's 3am or whatever, and you've just had a really long day, and you've just got to try and keep the energy levels up. Or could you kind of separate and be like, This is what the people need.

Yeah, I was, I've always been able to just, kind of just get it done, like, even if I had that low energy. I mean, I mean, these days, I'm not doing as many of those late, very late nights. I mean, some, a lot of my my work these days is much earlier in the in the evening, but in that time. And plus, I was just that much younger. But yeah, you just, you kind of, you just get it done and and sometimes all it takes is a is a group, say, a new group of people who come into the club and they're really energized, and they just got there 230 and you're playing, playing something where they haven't heard it in 20 years, and they're going crazy, and then you, you feed off that energy. So that's, that's something that I usually try to look for, yeah,

like, because in the era when I was DJ more and I was doing local bars and doing it all off vinyl, I would be concerned about getting a load of requests for things I didn't have. So say, like, I love my money, my problems, amazing record, but I would hold back from playing it because I wouldn't want to get a load of shiny suit requests for things that I didn't have, because it's like a gateway into that sort of world. Because I remember getting just told I was shit before because I didn't have certain tunes, like yin yang twins. This girl was like, Oh, can you play this? I've not got it. She's like, Oh, you're shit, aren't you, and I'm just, yeah. What else can you say? Yeah? Well,

yeah, because if. Play one song from that deviates from what you were playing before. Yeah, it can, it can, it can definitely change things up, for sure. Yeah, yeah. What?

What have the crowds been like? Sort of over, sort of working around, sort of New York. Are they generally all right, or do you get some quite rude people?

I mean, it's, a mix. Obviously, it depends on so much. But I would say, Yeah, I mean, there's no perfect kind of situation. I mean, or at least it can get close to that, but you have to be ready for anything, whether it's it could be like the night, the beginning of the night might be not going the way you want it, and all of a sudden it gets so much better, kind of, like what I was saying, whether it's it's a group of people who are really responding to the music in in the way that you want everyone to, and that can change. And it can be infectious, because then other people are getting into it as a result. And then the opposite can happen too. It starts out great, and then all of a sudden it kind of takes a nosedive. But you have to, that's part of, that's part of the job. You know? Yeah,

I remember, yeah, when I used to DJ more, and every now and again, you'd get a request for something really good. And if you had it, it'd just be like, amazing. Someone. For me, it'd be like, Oh, someone gets it yes, because sometimes you get quite a few horrendous sort of requests. They just don't fit the mood at all. But then when you get the good ones, you just like,

yes, yeah, oh no, no, definitely, definitely, um, and that's and, well, and that's the thing you were asking about, the corporate events. I mean, that's the really cool thing about a lot of those, because I was getting hired, and I still get hired to do a number of those kind of things. Be because of the fact that I know how to play music that's not just the top 40 like, not just predictable whatever, like, just cookie cutter kind of music. I'll play New Order, and I'll play Blondie, and I'll play Depeche Mode and the cure and tribe and de la and like, you know, so it's like, that's what they want. And sometimes it's more background music. It's not necessarily dancing, per se, or it could be background and then maybe the pet the last hour will be, they'll try to get a dance floor going. But when I do those events, I definitely think the music nerd in me has helped, like being such a music nerd, being such a like just being so into the classics, has, has has helped me, because people can know that I do that, and it's not going to be a predictable type of set.

So something that I find quite interesting now is about consumption of music and how it's so different. People don't get handed tapes, and there's not a lineage. People go on YouTube, Instagram, whatever, and it's odd, it's their algorithms. Everyone gets such a unique sort of musical journey, musical spread, if you like. Have you done any corporates where it's been like loads and loads of 20 year olds? And if so, is that like a really hard sort of crowd to play for, or can you kind of still just do the same stuff?

No, I mean, a majority of the get the events that I do are more mixed. It's not just one, one demographic, necessarily, but yeah, I mean, thanks to Serato. That's the great thing about that. You have the music on there, and you read the crowd, and if you have to play, cater to that audience, of like, of that kind of demographic, then you got to do what you got to do, you know what I mean, and you're there to do a job. So you don't want to get too artsy about it either, like, Oh, this is the, you know, this is the even though I may think that the best music is this certain sound, not just because I like it, but I think it, it plays well to the room, but at the same time, you have to do what you have to do. So it's, it's kind of, it's a, it's a balancing act. You really, you have to know how to, how to navigate that. And it's not easy that take, that's, that's experience, like you need to just, you just need to be in those situations multiple times to know how to navigate it. You can't just, you can't just do it out of, out of, out of nowhere. Yeah,

it's so my old boss in my last sort of office job, she used to say I was good at reading a room. And I wonder, with that, it would just be, like, even if I'm just on, like, like a multiple person group, sort of dialing phone call, like a conference call, I'd still kind of be able to gage how much I could have a laugh with people and what tone I had to take. And stuff like that. And I wonder if that, if I wonder if kind of part of that is coming from. You're in the middle of DJing somewhere, someone comes up and talks to you, and you've just got to immediately gage where they're at and process if they're coming to you with a request, you've got a process, say, if it's at a wedding, for example, you've got to kind of process and try and work out how important this request is, because is it going to derail everyone else? And you've got all that. You've got a kind of, almost be a bit of a politic. Is a politician or, like, you've got to be, like, bureaucratic, I don't know exactly the right word, but you've got to make these kind of, like reading between the lines, sort of decisions. Yeah,

definitely. And you need to make them quick, yeah, especially these days where it's like the whole quick mixing thing, and where you're playing some DJs or, I mean, I'm not, I quick mix, but I try not, I try to let songs breathe when I can. So you don't. That's another balancing act where you want to keep it moving and you want to keep the vibes going, but you want to, you don't want to play 10 seconds of a song and then people turn around and say, Oh, why'd you? Why'd you? Yeah. So, yeah. So net, so trying to do that and play a song that someone really wants to hear without losing the crowd, you have to make those decisions in real time. It's like,

Yeah, and you don't have time to explain to them that it's not necessarily going to be the next song, because you've got to get it in context. Because you're too busy. Yes, even if you're not quick mixing, you just you've got to kind of have your area you're trying to kind of get your beat matching right, and then you've got to get to the right mix point. And at the same time, you've got to try and kind of talk to this person and manage their emotions and their wants and their needs. Oh, yeah, pretty difficult stuff.

Yes, for sure. For sure.

So from there, then did the corporate stuff build up to the MSG work? Like, how did you, how did you get that? Sorry, just, just for any listeners that don't know, when we say MSG, we're referring to Madison Square Gardens. Yes,

it was around that same time period. So this is, like, still in the 2000s when I started doing the corporate stuff, also doing fashion events. Like I was actually DJ, like, couple fashion shows in the city. And so it was a whole world. It was, there's just so much work to be had outside of just clubs. At least in New York, there is so I was, I was definitely open to those, those experiences, and working in that, in that realm, and then eventually I was doing a lot of mixes. So I've been recording, creating mixes for a long time now, for, oh well, I mean, I used to do, I put them on cassette tape way back in the day, late 90s, early 2000s but then eventually, obviously, on SoundCloud and mix cloud, but yeah, like, there was a certain era where I was just, I was creating so many mixes, and they're still they're still there. Most of them are still up there on SoundCloud, yeah. And so I was doing, like I did, like a whole Stevie Wonder mix, James Brown 80s, new wave.

James Brown, one's had over a million plays, hasn't it? Something

like that? Yeah, yeah, and, yeah and, like, again, that's like, totally just from my B boy days, like learning about the breaks and and some of his just everything, all the classics, plus lesser known records by him. And, yeah, and I was doing, like I did it. I was doing yacht rock mixes way back in the day. I know that's kind of yacht rock is like a thing now, but that was still kind of like early days of that being a thing is like 11 years ago. I think I put that out. I love all that stuff. Steely Dan and Michael McDonald and, you know, so good. So, yeah, so basically, me playing all this kind of music, and I was putting mixes. I also made some mixed CDs. So had a mixed CD that I would just hand out to clients or or whoever, prospective clients. And eventually, yeah, eventually, I got a an email. Believe someone heard it that was associated with the garden, and then they, they were doing guest DJ spots at that time. So essentially, to do a half time set, or a pregame and a half time to rev the crowd up. And, yeah, so this was, like the end of 2008 when I did this is to go in there live, right? Yeah, go in there live. And I had, like a turntablist angle. I was doing a lot of scratching and a lot of kind of live blends. Like. Acapellas over different beats and and this is also very much the kind of mash up, the height of the mash up era. So playing yeah a rock record, and then into 90s house, into back, into hip hop like, kind of all over the place. I mean, that still exists today, but this was early, relatively early days of that being on that level. So, yeah, so I did. It went great. It was great. It was surreal, obviously, because I'm a Life, lifelong fan of both teams, knicks and Rangers, and this was a Knicks game. And, okay,

so, so just there, can I just ask then sure what would have been the biggest typical audience you were playing to before that point? Oh, like, how many people? Yeah, yeah. Say, like, 1000 couple of 1000.

Yeah, if that, yeah, something like, yeah.

So that arranges game. Watch, the sock capacity is about 1820 something like that. Yeah,

it's around there. Yeah,

that's a big increase, yes,

like, yeah, for sure, for sure, in

that just kind of blur into one or you're like, oh shit, there is a lot of people here.

No, I mean, definitely it took, it took me a little while to fully get used to it. But this was, again, this was, this was just a a guest DJ spot. This is just to because there were other guest DJs as well who would come along at that time, 2008 2000 2009 and then I, I did a couple more with it over the next two years, few more. And then in 2010 is when I started, when I came on there as a in House resident DJ, so essentially working behind the scenes to enhance the vibe and and so it wasn't, it wasn't as much of a featured situation, although they we still do that, we'll still there'll be those times where I'm featured, but more often than not, it's behind the scenes work, and I am curating the music, but in coordination with everything else that's going on with the video screens and announcements and what Have you. You know, it took me a while to really get used to that and understand the nuances of everything.

So are you kind of, are you programming the music then along? And is that like part of a bigger team?

Yeah. So it's, it's a mixture of, like, when the doors open and I start DJing, that's just DJing, like, I'm, I'm spinning for, yeah, half hour, 40 minutes, but as the game goes on, yeah, we there's, there's just certain things that I'm taking a director's lead to come in. I'll tell you what. It's a lot of music beds, lot of instrumentals. I mean, yes, I'm playing a lot of songs as well, but I'm saying, but I have to be ready with a lot of instrumental because different there's a announcer making different announcement. This is like, between different points of the game, whether it's between the quarters or at halftime or what have you so. And I'll play like, classic funk, you know, instrumentals, or DJ Premier, Pete Rock instrumentals and things of that nature. So that's that's fun, but in terms of the actual songs that I'm playing, yeah, I have to be aware of what's going on in the game to get the vibe. If it's a celebratory moment, or if it's more of a if it's a moment that's kind of a critical point of the game, and it's it's more dramatic, if you will. So it's not as celebratory. So I have to have all these different ways to go into and different playlists that I'll set up beforehand, and then in real time, I'm making decisions.

Yeah? So rather than reading the audience, you've got to be reading the game,

yeah, pretty much, pretty much, yeah.

So you've got to kind of know your sport then,

yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean that it doesn't hurt for sure.

Has it, um, has it opened up any sort of unexpected doors for other types of DJing that you, that you would have never thought of, um,

yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely, I've had the opportunity to work a lot of different events. I've done some other, like, I've worked the US Open tennis and things of that nature out here in New York, and a few other kind of sporting events, but, yeah, I mean, it definitely, it's, it's a very specific lane, but you're still utilizing your music knowledge. It's not as different. I mean, yes, it's different, but it's, it's not drastically different in terms of utilizing, like. Like, just the years and years of consuming music you can, you could do it in that, in that, in that way.

Yeah. So how does the music differ for a tennis crowd then not,

it's just, it's, it's, it's just, like, upbeat, you know, pop and then playing, like, some 80s classics. Pretty similar, pretty similar. Yeah, yeah. It's not, not too different.

When you got that sort of assignment, as it were, would you have then been like, sort of going to Pete? Have you got people that you'd go to, to go? What sort of stuff do I need to do for tennis? Or do you just get get there and you just have to read it?

Um, it's a combination of things. I mean, I try to, basically before any event I do, whether it's something in the sports realm, or if it's something private event, corporate event. I mean, I, I'm one of those DJs that I prepare a lot. I know, I know it's kind of like the cool thing to be like, I just, I just read the room, and that's it. Yes, I read, yes, I read the room. But there's a lot of planning that goes in beforehand. I mean, I make playlists that I think will, will, will work with certain events, but then the event itself that I'm working, I try to work with the client and know not only what they're looking for, but what they're not looking for. And certain John, I'll be like, is there a certain genre that you want to stay away from? Please let me know. And I'm happy to accommodate. And it's I always like to have more information than less. And yes, it's still great to all of a sudden, think of a song at the last while you're while you're DJing in the middle of it, and, oh my god. I never even thought that that would work. That's great, and I will do that. But I still like to, I still like to have a lot of things prepared, because that's just the way I've even in my vinyl days, I was doing that like I was. I'm still getting a lot of record I put them, I'd have the BPMs labeled very clearly on the on the upper right hand corner of the vinyl, as I'm going through and and, oh, this record, I have doubles of it. All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to put two records on and now go back and forth. So I just think that kind of that comes with years of experience. So yeah,

it's another, when it comes down to my big post mortem, that's going to be another thing I never really, I've never really practiced. I never really, sort of beyond, sort of selecting my records to go off and play somewhere. I didn't really think about it too much beyond that I know, like John first, who I had on here, he talked about, like he would think about the D, like, the running order of a night, and who's the DJ that he's coming in after, and how he's going to kind of mix out of what they do, and then how he's going to set it up for the DJ that comes after. And that's like, a level that I just I was far too, like, tunnel vision for that sort of awareness. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's, it can be, it can be daunting, because it's like your mind is going in a million direction. You're trying to, like, you're trying to do a lot of things simultaneously and but again, you just, you do it each, each event that you do, every party, it all, I think it accumulates, whether you know it or not, it's all helping you as you go forward. No matter what kind of event it is, it's like, it's it's all going to be helpful, even the gigs that don't go well, you learn from it, yeah? Like, all right, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna fix that for next time.

Yeah? And I mean that that sort of same thing lends itself to experiences in life, doesn't it within reason? Yeah, you know, a lot of things that don't go as well as we'd hope, we still learn something from them, even if it's just not to let yourself get in that situation again. Yeah. So day to day, then so also week to week. What's your kind of split of doing the sort of MSG work versus going off and gigging is MSG effectively, like a full time job?

It's um, yeah. I mean, it's not a it's not a full time job, but it's definitely, uh, during the season. So between September and, you know, the summertime, it definitely, it takes a lot of a lot of my time, for sure, but I still work a lot of other events and completely outside of the garden, and a mixture of doing some nightlife here and there, but certainly more of a focus on the private events and the corporate events. And so it's a nice balance. I mean, definitely depends on the time of year. I know December is always very big because I'm doing like holiday parties, and it's the middle of the season. So there's. A lot going on in months like that, yeah, but this, yeah, and then so it just, it kind of, it's, it's all over the place. I mean, it's definitely a unique type of schedule, for sure, but yeah, it works out well,

I guess it must be nice knowing that you've got that kind of summer break where you can just kind of, well, I don't know, unless you end up, end up doing those sort of summer parties and festivals, yeah? But just like having that break from that specific side of DJing, must be good, yeah? No,

for sure, it's always, always nice to have some time off and kind of recharge the battery, as it were. So

amazing, I think we've covered a lot of stuff there. Have you got any one piece of key advice that might be something that people might not necessarily think of, which is a key to kind of operating as a full time DJ around corporate and events and and that sort of thing? Yeah,

I would say to show up on time, it's the little things you show up on time and being respectful and being courteous and responding to emails. I mean, this is all like non music things, non DJ things, but it goes a long way. And just being professional, that's kind of says it all being professional. And then on the music side, like, like I was saying before, being prepared, knowing your music. I mean, that takes years and years, obviously, and not everyone's gonna have that, that, like, the lane that I'm in, I'm kind of the last of that generation to learn on vinyl. And of course, yeah, I'm from New York, so I definitely come from that school of classics and R B and funk and soul and like all that stuff. And so not every DJ is going to be exactly in that same, those same genre, working with those same genres, but no matter what you do, no matter or if it's you just play whatever, whatever kind of genre, just being prepared and being confident with with what you can bring to an event. And all those things combined, I think, help. They help out a lot and and, of course, networking and all those things help, and they matter for sure. But it's one thing to network and and meet people. But in order to keep working events and having multiple things going on, it's important to have some of those other things going too

amazing. Where can people find you? Online,

djroomer.com, at DJ rumor, on Instagram, Sound Cloud, mix cloud, just search. DJ, rumor, DJ, r, u, M, O, R, yeah, and yeah, you just yeah, all those, all those places,

amazing, awesome. Well, we'll let you get back to you, Dave. And thanks very much for your time.

Adam, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.