I have just completed work on a remix for Selëctry Recs first release. It’s a track called “Ayahuasca” (no idea) by label head Robert Guerrero of Spain. The EP will also feature remixes from Robot Needs Oil, Kazu Kimura, Darkrow, and others. The original has a nice bumpin baseline, so I had to specifically ask for that part.

So the site was officially launched last night and everything went smoothly. The sets page is nearly complete. I will be posting my live house sets archive next, and then we will be up to date.

I have put all of my recorded sets from Spain in one place:

Today is a rare day. First of all, it’s a leap year, which makes today February 29, 2012. According to some, it might be the final leap year of our lifetime. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

What really makes today special is that we’re already all the way into 2012 and this is actually the first blog entry of my life! Say what? Did anyone reading this actually know I’m not a bad damn writer? Well, true, I’m a pretty good writer, but I’m not exactly the most consistent person in the world, so we’ll see how often I update it. Plus, I’ve got another blog on this very same site, so how much damn writing can I squeeze in?

I felt like my new site needed two blogs, because I really do have two careers. The one I hold nearest to my heart of course is my DJ career. I knew it was my passion since I was 16 years old, and I’m one of the lucky ones – I’ve been able to live off DJ gigs for a long time.

But in 2003 I discovered poker on television, and what became a slight interest turned into a bit of an obsession, and now, 9 years later, I find myself with a poker career too. I have attempted to find a balance between the two. Together, they’ve enabled me to stay self employed since 2001.

But now I feel like taking my DJ career to the next level. I’ve been way too lazy in the studio. Anyone who knows me knows that I much prefer to DJ to an appreciative audience than to be locked in a studio tediously working on beats. I mean, don’t get me wrong, once I get going and find a sound that gets my head nodding, I can get pretty excited. And I’m proud of the work that I’ve done in the studio. I went to school to be an audio engineer, for God’s sake. But nothing beats the rush I get from an explosive set at a place like Copera in Spain. Nothing at all. And not only am I lucky that I’ve been able to maintain my state of self employment all these years, but let’s face it, I’m also truly lucky that I’ve been able to DJ at so many amazing parties with, let’s face it, not much of a catalogue of music out there. Sure, I do have some strong releases, but I know deep down that I’m capable of so much more. A good friend once told me that knowing what to do is one thing, but actually doing it is a completely different story.

While I communicate well and quite enjoy writing, I do usually define myself as a pretty private person when it comes to my public image. There is something about expressing my opinions out in the open that I find troubling. That’s why it’s taken me so many years to decide to write a blog. For a long time I contemplated creating an anonymous blog, but my specific interests in life would probably out me in the end. So I never did it. And now I am feeling like I must navigate the thoughts in my head that I’m willing to share with the world. My friends have been so nit-picky about how I express my views in public. Don’t say it like this or you will look like that, ad nauseum. But part of me simply doesn’t care. That part of me wants to express every opinion I have about every little thing and throw it out there and see what happens. And then there’s the self protective side of me that doesn’t want to rock the boat and maintain the status quo. In reality, you’re not going to make everyone happy all of the time. Everyone isn’t going to like you. And that’s fine. My ever so critical audiences in Spain have taught me that one. In the early years I took certain things quite personally, then I learned to ignore the obnoxious and do what I felt was artistically right for me. I guess this blog is an extension of that.

This week I’m going to propose a weekly show to a large internet radio station. If they go for it, my radio career will be relaunched, a career that has laid dormant since college. If I grow some balls I might even post some of those old air-check tapes to SoundCloud. I paid for an unlimited account; I may as well soak them for every dollar it’s worth. I’m not really sure how I’m going to format the show just yet; I only thought of this today. But it should be a good creative outlet for me. I used to love playing the new music I’d gather at the record stores each week when I was on the radio in Boston. I was exposed to so much new music working at Beat Non Stop and then Satellite. And again I was one of the lucky ones. I wasn’t the usual bedroom DJ who just took the vinyl home and listened to it in private. I actually got to share the music I love with an audience, either over the air or at local parties. Sharing is in my blood. When I hear something amazing I want everyone to know about it. I can’t keep it to myself. That’s selfish, and then the beauty dies with me. I can’t let that happen.

I’m so psyched I get to put all my old sets on SoundCloud and organize them the way I want to on this website. On the old site I could only post them, and then force you to download the file and listen to it locally or on your iPod. Now you can listen in the Cloud and interact. I love that! This site was such a long time coming. I’ve been talking about it for years with friends. When are you going to redesign your site? So this was one major life hurdle that I’ve finally, finally gotten past.

Uh, wow, that was one long first blog entry. Should I even try to keep these things short?