oldie, but - How long have we all been djing?

[Jimmy]

especially on DV nearly all of us must have been going a fair few years now. For me its coming up 7/8 years. im just trying to figure out my timeline, it feels like its always been there, its mad how much of my life has been around it all really.

 

i think i got my first decks at 18. when i was nearly 20 (2006) i entered DMC. Maybe a year after that i had about an 18month break from everything. and then since coming back from that i've been pretty much on the straight and narrow with it and actually have something to show for it ie SSS and a lovely soundcloud page, along with a few rare gigs i actually look back on fondly.

 

so was just wondering how everyone else feels, its been proper time.

does anyone else look back and pick things out or is it just one blur?

[Jon]

I've been scratching casually and collecting records for 8 years, then more seriously for the past 5. I've been mixing and playing out for 5 years (I learned how to mix when I was offered my first gig). I've been battling for 4 years, casually for the first 3 and seriously for the last year and a half (the last two dmc years).

[Steve]

I really wanted a set of 1200s from the early 80s, but they were really expensive and getting the money together to buy some felt like an impossible task given that I was still at school. I started scratching in the mid-late 80s, but I was scratching on a modified BSR deck using a punch button. I knocked it on the head around 1989/90.

 

Around 1991 I became friends with a guy who had aspirations to be a DJ and a couple of years later he got some decks (Technics belt drives, d'oh), then he eventually got rid of those and got 1200s. I would have a go on his decks from time to time and I always knew I would buy some of my own one day, but for a long time I didn't commit to saving up the money to buy some.

 

I bought my first proper setup shortly after Vestax released the PDX-2000 turntables and I've had decks ever since then. I started gigging pretty much as soon as I had my own gear and I got right back into scratching again (although I had to learn to use a fader instead of a punch button) for quite a few years, before my interest in it waned.

 

So I've been doing it on and off for over 25 years, but "off" accounts for the bulk of that!

[savwar]

it's all a bit hazy now but, Think i got my first set in 2001 (gemini XL 500s and a shit mixer) when i was 20, won pretty much all the college DJ battles from 2002-2005.

i was into scratchin from Dj Shadow/ beastie boys and things, but i think the battle on MTV with infamous and a few others really jmade me want to get them..

Entered my first DMC in 2002 but didn't get past the qualifier, i was outraged at the time!! i wasn't great but some of the guys who beat me didn't even juggle.

Got my first technics in 03.

2003 i didn't enter as i had college retakes the same week.

2004 i came 2nd in the DMC Ireland got beaten by Akakabe in the first round of World DMC Supremacy, bad luck in the draw!! wished i had been against the Savage from Holland as i had a routine made for the fact that we had the same name

in 2005 or 2006 3rd in the European ITF Scratching Category

Won the Irish ITF 2006 or 7 then Came fourth in the Euro I think...

In one of the Itf's (maybe 06) I finally beat Tuki in the semi finals of the head to head (i came second to him in like 2 DMCs and 2 itfs previously)... we had to go to two extra rounds.. so i then lost the final as i had used all my good routines...

the order of things in 05-07 may be arseways...

 

did a good few gigs during all this time, a lot of 3-4 deck stuff.

had a good crew goin for a bit with Moschops, DJackulate and Dan Syndrome for a bit but we never really did enough... Mos and DJack are now Neil Buchannon

 

Did fuck all between 08-10 which is when i actually worked in a vinyl shop/record label

then also didn't have decks for the last year and a half up until a month or so ago.

put my battle socks back on this year to Critical Beratement.... with a shit entry into dmc online, but it has rekindled my love a little...

now i've had to move back home to Ireland for a month or two, and my decks are in fuckin Argentina..

 

Sorry did you just want a number or an essay as an answer?

[Jimmy]

more an essay answer nice one man

 

DV is teh place for the heads i reckon.

[Guest Symatic]

about 10 years.like steve i really wanted decks when i was like 12 but could never afford them.

started DJing on 2 discman's and a 2 channel amplifier. got 1210's when i was 18. they got stolen a few years later. borrowed my housemates decks for a year. got another 1210 and had to pair it with a limit belt dive till i saved up for a 2nd technics.

a couple of years after that got a set of pdx-2300's as a bonus from work. sold the technics. then my mate said she was selling her technics and gave me the pair for £100. couldnt say no to that!

been playing out all that time but never anything spectacular. only ever entered one or 2 battles in leeds. provided live cuts and beats for a few edinburgh mc's.

[djdiggla]

about 10 years.like steve i really wanted decks when i was like 12 but could never afford them.

 

Me too. I was also afraid of buying the wrong thing. I had done some selector style stuff in 97/98 then a friend got turntables so I started expanding into more real DJing in 98/99 probably. Got my own turntables in probably the end of 1999.

[savwar]

from 12-17 i wanted to be steve vai, so turntables really hadn't been in my life... if i had seen good skratching earlier i would have gotten them.

instead i played in mostly metal bands at that age..

[Guest Symatic]

i wanted to be steve vai,

 

yeah i used to work with dude who was well into metal and fancy tech guitarists like steve vai, and noticed we were really similarly geeky about music, but whenever we tried to do something it would end up sounding all nu-metal-y and we'd give up

[d00ban]

I've been mixing for 11 years (since I was 15 I think)... Scratching for 8. Never really taken turntablism too seriously. Would like to play out more regularly but have only had spells in the past.

[mattnice]

got my first decks when i was 17 so nearly 24 years.

 

First time i ever djed was a friends leaving do in the local wine bar, used to be able to smoke pot in there, happy dayz.

So i started with a baptism of fire.

[djdiggla]

literally.

[Vekked]

2004 - got decks, got decks stolen, bought better decks with insurance money

2005 - hated juggling. Elgee posted juggling vid on DV, blew my mind. Started juggling. Entered WSTC online battle, beat broke LOL

2006 - entered DMC, choked

2007 - entered DMC again, sucked, got told by M-Rock I had potential and to only battle if I had something worth showing

2008 - didn't battle cuz had nothing worth showing

2009 - no DMC, still scratch and juggle everyday

2010 - ditto

2011 - DMC announced late. I enter, win, don't go to worlds cuz I'm still kinda shit

2012 - Win first regional, nationals and online finals to come.

 

(had an essay but cliffnotesed it cuz no one wants to read that shit)

[R Funksmith]

my first gig was on my 25th birthday (6 years ago) but I didn't get decks until 4 or 5 months later. I was just the guy with cool records, they wanted me to dj so I did, and had to learn how the turntables & mixer worked just before showtime.

 

I started collecting records because I inherited a homeless man's record collection. He literally handed off his shopping cart full of records at a bus shelter in Victoria. A lot of them were shit but there were a couple gems (depending on what you consider a gem). Dude was a packrat homeless man, probably quite a challenge.

 

I don't enter contests or any of that, but I do rock parties til the early morn.

[Nuno]

I got into music when I was 11 and bought my first pair of decks a year later (2007), two of those entry-level belt drive numark turntables. By then I was really into diggin' and I'd spend most of my time just listening to music, so my dj skills were kinda left behind. It was only in 2009 that I started taking scratching and mixing more seriously - I was lucky to be taught by a friend who is, in my opinion, the best portuguese dj (which says as much about his skills as it says about the turntablism scene over here). Meanwhile, I also upgraded my set-up: bought two techs and a rane mixer (courtesy of Dooban). So, basically, I've been practicing for these last 3 years and playing out occasionally. Now my goals are to enter the portuguese DMC this year (if I can finish my routine in time) and to start getting my name out there (although I still need one first).

[Dopez]

Somewhat into music my entire life. Got some Stanton T52s and a shit Stanton mixer for my 16th birthday and learned to mix electro/house. That got boring so I wanted to learn how to scratch. Got my first 1200 6 months after those T52s and a pair of 1200s later that year ($350 for M3Ds), did my first party, it wasn't too bad. Still practicing now and I will for sure enter next year's DMC regional. Until then, I'll keep scratching and still waddling in the bay of production with my little MPC500. My birthday is this month!!!! (18 on the 31st).

[Kian]

Me, skratching since 1999. that works out to be 13 years. i had vestax alps faders to start with, magnetics didnt exist. learning curve was steep up as fuck but alps help build major strength. all the new cats who began on magnetic or digital faders will all complain when they make excuse that the fader was too stiff and made them sound like shit haha.

[Mista_Ed]

scratchin since 91.....fuck.....that makes me feel old?!?!?!

[drumpusher]

I first got my decks around 10 years ago but they were shite Numark TT200s. I consider when I bought 1210s back in '04 as when I started so about 8 years DJing properly, about 4 years since I hit the club circuit.

[Wax On]

been scratching just over 10 years albeit barely in the last 3 years, mixing just under 10, gigging about 7. Did a few battles 2006ish.

 

And I'm gone...

[dextrous]

Tried to scratch on a matsui hi-fi + tape deck in about '93.

 

First turns in 1995.

 

Saw Brit and Mike L in 97-98ish and got into the whole turntablism thing.

 

Set of Technics in 1998.

 

Currently haven't even touched a turntable for 18 months.

[jopa.]

been buying records since i was a teenager. punk rock diy ethos means lots of 7"s and what not. saw the beat junkies in '99 and started buying hiphop and jungle records immediately. dicked around on a buddys decks a few times that year, but in 2000 beavo got a pair stantons. he was messing around with techno records because he thought the dj on the movie blade looked really cool. true story. i came over with a beat junkies mixtape and some hiphop and scratch records and he went out and exchanged his stanton package for one technic and an sk2f the very next day. i hooked it up so his boombox went through one channel and the technic through the other and we just scratched and scratched (aka transformed and transformed). a month or two later he had saved up for the other technic. we spent the next year in his basement taking turns mixing/scratching and playing ps2 at 30min intervals. by the next summer we were already throwing huge parties in fields, aaaah the mid west, where we would go through more than ten kegs in a night. we did this every other saturday for a whole summer and fall. also playing house parties where we knew other djs had their decks setup. great times. by the end of '01 i picked up a ttm56 and a pdx2000 for myself. had a little setup in my bedroom with my pc on one channel deck on the other to work on my scratch game, by myself at night. actually used that gemeni 626 mixer with a sampler and a modified "skratch" fader in it for a few months before i got the ttm56.

 

to this day i still only own myself that old pdx2000 and that ttm56. i have over the past twelve years or so taught my craft to a handful of good men. one of them keeps their ttx1s at my house and i had both beavos technics for couple of years, but i have since put together a frankenstein ttm56 for him to use at his own house so he took one technic back to continue scratching after a six or seven year hiatus.

 

in short: twelve years.

 

timeline...

2000 - 2002 learning. lots of house and field parties.

2003 - 2004 beavo, white owl, and i start throwing dj parties on a suburban bar circuit. named "rabid vinyl monks presents..."

2005 - 2008 beavo and i start playing in the progressive rock band, the hawk, djing takes to the back burner.

2008 - 2010 the hawk breaks up, RVM 2.0 starts with zerosignal added on, beavo starts post hardcore band, hot garbage.

2010 - 2012 zerosignal movs to cali. i dont want to do RVM without him. i become a recluse having just purchased traktor. i get to pretty much pick and choose gigs from RVM acclaim but as i start choosing fewer - having more than 200 hundred shitty gigs under my belt with the hawk and RVM, and having played some pretty fucking amazing shows in sold out venues with RVM 2.0 - fewer calls start coming in. now i try and scratch a little every night. battles were never my thing as much as i love watching them and as much as i love and respect all the competitors, so i still cant juggle at all really. well, i can juggle but no tricks with timing and what not. and i work on mixing some weekends i dont have shit going on. but im very picky with mixing, as im sure you can tell if youve heard RVM or any of my solo mixes, so i hardly ever finish mixes. but i do the whole art thing for me... and just me really. i still enjoy knowing other people appreciate some of my works, but its really just a release for me.

[ELGEE]

been cutting for a few months, started cutting on my dads ion deck over david guetta.

 

currently know more than 3 scratches and own more than 5 real records, have lots of mp3 tunes on my itunes tho.

[Guest broke]

Finally stopped ruining the turntable on my mother's hi-fi and got 1200s at the start of 1991... 21 years ago.

[djfoly]

96 or 97