Dream On: Vinyl and Tavi's Private Weblog

by Koiyuki

Vinyl, on What It Take to Become a DJ

Watching my dad do his morning radio show was always a fun time, as I imagine wacky sounds and stone cold funk would be for kids my age. Of course, because he's of a certain generation, he has different conceptions of what good music is, thus making his view on newer forms...less than enlightened, so to speak. You remember him, right? Purple mohawk? Eyes like ice? Ridiculously buff? Anyways, I remember him coming home one day grumbling about the terrible music he heard blaring from the car next to him. After asking what kind of music it was, he said, "I hear it's called Electronic Dance Music, you know, EDM? You'd think from the amount of distortion that crap uses, they'd call it an Ear-splittingly Destructive Mess. Cripes, you kids have terrible taste, if that's what's cool"

Since my dad fed me a steady diet of Motown, Hip Hop, Dancehall, and all that other good stuff, I didn't have a lot of reason to disagree, and even less of one to give EDM a shot, with how much I loved all that. I even used some of the music making programs on my iPepper to make some of my own, but, as my dad soon learned, they weren't much better than painting with your butt, and that was primarily to both me not being a wunderkind who nails everything in one go, and knowing next to jack squat about what makes music, music.

While he got me into reading sheet music, what different parts of a song are, and all that junk, he introduced me to a bunch of different instruments, from pianos, to guitars, to who knows how much else. It ain’t like playing stuff like Classical Gas wasn't fun, or any of that, but for whatever reason, none of 'em really stuck. None of ‘em had that little something something that draws folks to their instrument, the same thing I imagine drew you to the cello, Ms. Strings and Things. The one that did have it, though, was something I saw a bunch of times at Stacks, but never really noticed until my dad and I saw someone really put it to work. That instrument? The turntables, which that person used to do what he called Turntablism.

I had no idea how, but with Turntablism, they were able to blend together samples from completely different genres like they were peanut butter and chocolate. When I heard the DJ mix up hair metal and rockabilly, the only thing I could think at that moment was, “This sounds wicked cool, and I want to make it” Not long after the demo, I stepped up for the lessons offered that day, quickly finding out that much of that music theory stuff applied to what the DJ was teaching, like when he asked me to scratch on 1/4ths time, then 1/8ths, then mixing in a bunch of random time signatures when he felt this was getting a bit too simple.

Can’t even begin to describe how amazing it felt to hear the different scratch patterns they taught me coming together, and all I could think of the whole week after was Turntablism. Every chance I got, I stowed away cash towards getting the gear I needed to practice it at home, thinking about the day I would play before a crowd, and get them moving to my groove. Soon enough, though, I found out there was an immense cost to getting into serious Turntablism, from the time I needed put in in the lab, to the insane prices I saw when I went gear shopping. With the cans, 2 turntables and mixer together, it easily climbed into the 1000s of bits in cost, even if the stuff was used! Shoot, for that price, I might as well buy a decent used car!

Later, when I asked my dad about what it takes to be a DJ, the first thing he said was, “Depends on what kind of DJ you wanna be,” right before we sat on the couch and talked about the difference between the art of building the perfect playlist and Turntablism. He told me that to do what he does for the morning show, he’s gotta be sharp on what kind of music people are into, what kind of energy the songs in his collection give to the crowd, how to use the different production tools to transition, not to mention reading the mood of the room, and learning how to produce music, if DJs ever wanna make something original. When we started getting into Turntablism, he mentioned a lot about of how they use different scratch techniques to create a unique kind of groove with a record, as well as how much training and cash someone’s gotta have to get not only the gear, but each record they wanna use in their set.

I was starting to get depressed about how much it took to do what that guy at Stacks did, and under my breath, I asked myself if all that was really needed to do what he did. At point, he started to bring up something I never heard of before, something he called ‘Controllerism,’ which uses drum machines, sequencers, the mixers and different computer software to use both the sounds found in Turntablism, and whatever your imagination and resources can whip together, as he learned from of his EDM spinning friends in the biz. At that moment, he gave me his cans, and pulled up this song on the family PC, treating me to one of the most amazing things to ever grace my ears.

I knew then and there that whatever kind of music that was was the kind of music I wanted to make, and right after the song, I had to know if DJing, Turntablism or Controllerism would let me do out. His answer? “You’re need to know a bit of all 3, along with all that music theory stuff you’ve been studying,” afterwards promising me that if I proved good enough at being a DJ, he would let me DJ at one of his personal parties. This, of course, made me wanna ask how I can get better at it, to which he replied, “Practice, imitate, practice, improve, practice, innovate, and most importantly, practice. The more you do, the quicker you'll get to making it hot”

When I went back to my room that night, I studied all the video tutorials I could find on my music making software, and kept on grinding at it until the sun came up, and I fell asleep in bed, my laptop beside me, and my headphones firmly on my head. In time, that became my weekend habit, and every time I heard a new song on the radio, my first thought after "This is dope" became "I totally wanna remix it" the more I dipped into the EDM pool and learned how deep it ran. My mom must've noticed, too, because I remember coming home from school one day on a Friday, and finding two wrapped boxes on my bed, with "Late Birthday Presents" written on the tags of each.

In the smaller one, there was a pair of Schwarzvald DJ cans, the same kind my dad uses for his job, and in the other was a Ponisonic CDJ, one of digital turntables that lets you plays CDs and MP3s like they were vinyl (compete with a mixer!). I knew they were good for the price, but at the same time, I knew that this junk wasn't cheap. Not long after opening them, I heard my mom knock at the door, and ask, "May I come in, Vinyl?" Since my mom is a super no nonsense kind of person-complete with red rim glasses and double bunned indigo hair, I was totally confused about why she, a hard driving Teppanyaki restaurateur, would even get this kind of thing, knowing how hard she worked to keep the place above water. As we set up my stuff on my laptop, I asked her why she did, with her telling me about her life back in Japonica.

When she was my age, she wanted to be a pro wrestler under the name Flying Juushin, and after she told her folks and friends, they all ragged on her because they thought she was too skinny, the sport was too dangerous for her, or that it wasn't lady-like to get in the squared circle. She hated how they all but said, "There's no way in Tartarus you can make it as a wrestler," and even as she had the title of the New Japonica Wrestling League wrapped around her waist, she could still hear them telling her to quit this nonsense, and get back to reality. I can still remember the chills I got when she looked dead at me and told me this:

"No matter what I or others may think about you wanting to be a DJ, they're not going after that dream, you are. Remember that, alright? If that's really what you want to do, then do it with everything you've got. Don't give anyone the chance to take an ax to it. Don't waste your energy trying to justify or defend it from people who will never understand. Don't let how bad things look convince you to let go of something you want with every fiber of who you are. Keep that dream deep in your heart, and let it burn as bright as the sun. Dream on, my dear Vinyl, and dream on 'til your dreams come true, because in the end, aren't you the only one that can do it?"

At point that, I was too choked up to to say anything coherent, so summoning the meager knowledge I had about my mom's native tongue, I told her "Arigarou, okaa-san," That drew the most tender smile I've yet to see from her as she said, "Your accent is still atrocious" before leaving to fix dinner, leaving me to bone up on my skills, and work on building my special brand of funk on the wheels of steel(and in case you're wondering, yes, she did totally rip that from that Aerosmith song)

Author's Note:

Next time, Octavia discusses her time in Manehatten, as she and a friend travel through the boroughs, and find themselves confronted by a group of hostile locals. What could have drawn their wrath? How will she deal with the consequences of their actions? What will Octavia learn from this encounter with the dark side of her society? Tune in next time, and find out! Don't miss it!

Comments

[Air Heart]

which drew the most tender smile I've yet to see from her

seams like it should be
'which drew the most tender smile I've seen from her yet'

what you used says that vinyl hasn't seen said tender smile. while the second says its the most tender smile she's seen so far.

[Koiyuki]

4003630 Hmm, didn't think about it that way before. Something to consider for future works