DJ Random Hajile

How It All Began...

Well, if you’re reading this then you’re interested in how I got started in DJing. Like most that get into it, I’ve always had a passion for music. I spent time when I was younger learning to play keyboards, piano, drums and guitar, but never really took any of them up seriously. The problem was I wasn’t good at really creating new music and realised I only really loved listening to it.

I grew up with vinyls around me. My parents had a varied selection of 60s and 70s music on 12” and most singles I bought came on 7” in Woolworths... God, that makes me feel old saying that... Anyway, I used to decide on playlists for family get togethers when I was around 7-10 years old and making mixtapes to listen to in the car on on my walkman... Yeah... I’ll stop dating myself now...

That was the first foray into DJ programming, little did I know it at the time. In later years, when my obsession with Italo Disco and Eurobeat in full swing, I started listening to trance, techno and dance music a lot. It was around this time I picked up a couple of belt-driven turntables and an analogue mixer. Using these and a small selection of dance vinyls I picked up, I started learning to beatmatch. That was VERY difficult. For those of you who actually read that last part, you would know what I mean about beatmixing on belt-driven turntables...

Since then I started making more advanced mixtapes and beatmixes. I was around 18 at the time and living alone, but I would often go out on a coach trip with my parents (my father was a coach driver at the time). Sitting next to my mother I’d play out the latest mix I made on my minidisc player (Hey, stop trying to work out my current age! :-P ). I’d still DJ BBQ parties with a small PA system I had for my electric piano. Not the best, but it worked.

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