On Jan. 31, the Music Technology Program returned to host the third Student DJ Showcase at Moorpark College in the Black Box Theater of the Performing Arts Center. It featured thirteen incredible DJ’s with various, and unique genres of music that they were eager to play.
Director of the Student DJ Showcase Nathan Bowen, worked on setting up the showcase and was excited for his students to show off what they had been working on a few weeks prior the showcase.
“What I’m excited to see is that we actually have experienced DJ’s coming in who I haven’t necessarily taught, or I haven’t seen, and so we’re getting a mixture, and the program is growing just by reputation now,” Bowen stated.
Many performers were returning DJ’s who improved their craft from the previous showcases, with a few newcomers.
The Black Box Theater had two projector screens above the DJ’s setup during the showcase, with the left screen featuring colorful visuals synchronized with the music.
The right screen had the name of the performing DJ, along with their social media below that, and would react to the music every time a DJ was playing by rapidly shaking, or expanding on the screen.
“We were doing that live, so what was happening is we would play those to react to what we were hearing, so if it looked like it was super responsive, it was just ears deciding ‘Oh, I’ll just move these around’,” Bowen said.
During the show, the Music Technology Program gave out glow sticks to the audience to make the event more enjoyable and to give off a really fun vibe. There was also dancing mixed with some music performed by DJ L Bird.
The host of the show was Lysander Hernandez, 26, who entertained the audience during the beginning, intermissions and at the end of the show.
“Hosting is fun, interacting with the crowd is probably like number one, next to performing,” stated Hernandez.
Each of the DJ’s sets lasted roughly 14 minutes, and each featured a different genre of music.
DJ Bedlamites, 23, started the show off with some interesting noise art which grabbed the audiences attention, nodding his head to the music.
Bedlamites commented “Tonight was like ‘I went first, so I got it out of the way you know?’ So like, it was relieving, I got to enjoy everyone else’s set, which is always nice.”
DJ Bradley Bucky, 18, played electronic music but had some unfortunate technical issues during the performance. The host, Hernandez noticed this and managed to keep the audience entertained and engaged.
Later, DJ Taylor Jones, 19, took the stage. Although it wasn’t Jones’ first time performing, it was her first time performing her own original piece of music which was a mix of chill, hip hop and experimental.
“I’m so excited to just create more, and share more with people, because the support and energy from everyone just makes me keep going, I’ve always wanted to make music, and so this really motivates me to keep going at it, and make stuff I’m proud of,” expressed Jones.
Halfway into the show, ASMC stopped by and tossed out shirts to people in the crowd, also awarding a backpack to whoever made the most noise in the audience.
ASMC also reminded the audience that the show was a competition with prizes at the end for the top three winners.
At the end of the Showcase, ASMC announced the three winners by observing which DJ received the most applause at the end.
DJ Kobold made it to third place, winning a $25 Amazon gift card. DJ Toyss won second place and a $50 Amazon gift card. Taking home first place was DJ Feurdrache, who won a Launchkey MIDI keyboard.
Bowen stated “Oh, I’m so proud of them, it’s actually really fun to see how things have evolved,” Bowen added. “I think it’s just gonna continue to get better.”
The next DJ Showcase event will be held April 17-18, and will run for three shows.
For more information about the Student DJ Showcase, or the DJ’s themselves, follow the Music Technology Program on Instagram.
