The WAV Makers: Dows
It's only right to talk about myself as the first highlight here. Except I will highlight the lowlights when it comes to music & I, creating a hit piece on myself. It can't be all sunshine and rainbows on here.
Growing up in Hauppauge I was forced into chorus by my parents until Middle School and I eventually joined Percussion, but even at that time I really didn't care a whole bunch for music, just a casual listener to whatever was on the radio. It wasn't until high school where I took an interest discovering artists like Tyler The Creator & Post Malone and that's when I wanted to explore what went into making it. I would watch videos from artists and music accounts on YouTube such as Aries or the Genius series "Deconstructed" to see what went into making WAVs (nice).
I started off using GarageBand on my tablet learning to recreate songs such as Post Malone's "Psycho" and then I would play around and create funny stupid songs of my own with friends or make inside joke family songs with my cousins. Unfortunately if you took a deep dive into the web you could find them, I won't give any hints though. After high school I would play around with GarageBand never really releasing anything and it wasn't until my Sophomore year of College when I picked up a Numark Mixtrack Pro DJ Controller, began watching tutorials, posted mashups and mixes on YouTube & SoundCloud. I took an extreme liking for DJing, doing parties at school I just found it to be such an exciting hobby and I made it a goal of mine to take it to the next step and get paid for playing at a bar/club. I had already done local bars for free but I wanted something bigger and it wasn't until my senior year where that opportunity presented itself.
A New Haven, CT promotor was looking for new DJ's who went to school in the area and was asking for suggestions, I sent it to everyone I knew and sure enough I was contacted shortly after thanks to the support from those around me. It was set up for one weekend. The first night was going to be at one of the most popular bars/clubs in New Haven, 144 Temple, where people like Rick Ross, DJ Pauly D, Disco Lines, and many more have performed. My friends and I would go here and I would always say that one day I'd play here so it was super encouraging to me to know that anything was possible. Sure enough I was opening for Vyce Bloom, it was a PLUGGED UNIVERSITY & CT Welcome Week event and everything was set up, I was told they'll have all the cables I need just show up and do my thing for 1.5 hours. I show up early to set up aaaaand they don't have the cable I need. The reason I mentioned the specifics of the board I have is because there is no XLR cable on it, something that's on 99.99% of others but since it's more of a beginner board it's just not on there. For this club that's what I needed which is why I made sure in asking about cables prior. They had aux cords and other cables but I would plug it in and it would be a muffled bass, could not hear a single vocal. I was calling knowledgable friends, contacting the promotor and DJ after me, it was a mess. Here it is the one goal I have coming to fruition, so motivated knowing I actually got to this point and I am about to blow it. Prior to coming a bunch of people were getting together just to show up for me so I was ready to face the shame, disappointment and embarrassment of this head on. Luckily the DJ up after me showed up in good time and saved me, for the 30 minutes I was there people were just listening to muffled bass from house songs because that was the only genre that would even make sense in my mind to play in this nightmare scenario where it would not sound worse then it does already. It ended up being a fun night, I was super down on myself but seeing all these people show up for me was helpful. I also got a security escort through the club to leave so that was at least one cool thing. Next day the promotor contacted me apologizing saying he felt bad it didn't work out, and he said night 2 will be different. I woke up, went to Guitar Center and I did not want to buy a new controller but instead I wanted to buy a Mixer so that's what I did. Night 2 was at a brand new club in New Haven, "Secrets", It ended up going perfectly, I got many compliments for my set, the promotor texted me after saying the owner and staff had no complaints and that he'd work with me again.
After college DJing faded away and my focus switched to creating music with rapper Centra & guitarist Andrew Nofer. We have done a few shows, released 10+ songs and are still creating today. I myself released my first EP this past year titled "Reflections" containing 4 short house music songs that I had a lot of fun making and have hopes of creating an album down the road. It wasn't DJing that made me think of starting this but being on the recording/production side. Working with Centra and talking with others I realized it can be very challenging if you don't have any connections to find mixing engineers, promotors for shows, and so on. I have met people who want to create music but either don't have the resources or just don't know how. I want to help people accomplish their music goals and create a community where LI artists network and support each other's craft no matter if you're a musician, photographer, engineer, promoter, venue, studio, DJ, whatever it is!
You can listen to Dows here:
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