Disc Jockeys

Anderson
6/28/08

When you think about legions of young people on busy dance floors all moving to

the beat of music presented to them by a live disc jockey, large cities are the locales that

usually come to mind. The fields and towns of central Iowa hardly seem a likely location

for the DJ scene.

An ever-growing group of disc jockeys are trying to make that thought sound less

absurd.

Disc jockeying is the art of playing prerecorded music for an audience, according

the BBC’s Blast website. It often involves playing multiple tracks together to make them

their own. There are many different ways to perform as a DJ. Many premix songs on

computers, while some still use the old fashioned way: playing two or more vinyl records

together.

Every such artistic movement within a city always has a venue that serves as its

hub, and DJing in Ames seems to trace itself back to the Boheme Bistro, a bar and bistro

that hosted live DJs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. According to its website, they

would host electronic and vinyl nights on Thursdays, and international dance nights on

the other two nights. The Boheme closed for good this past December, but many of the

DJs that got a start there are still making their presences felt.

“It all started on Thursday nights there,” said John Solarz, reminiscing about the

now extinct venue.

Solarz, 29, is an Iowa State alumnus who graduated with a degree in design. He

said he began DJing at the Boheme in 1999, his freshmen year. His girlfriend at the time

worked at the Bistro and set him up with the job there.
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“The first few shows were shaky, but got better when the crowd got used to me,”

Solarz said.

Solarz said he usually shared Thursday nights with Dan Sherman, son of the

Boheme’s owner. He said that after a few months the house was routinely packed. They

began to bring in local and regional DJs to share the gigs with.

“I didn’t want the crowds to get bored with us,” he said.

Solarz said that most of the in-state DJs they brought in were from Des Moines.

One such exception was Troy Cairo, 23, Iowa State and Ames resident. Solarz shared a

Thursday night with him in one of the last months before the Boheme closed.

“He was really raw at first. It’s fun to see how much he’s progressed,” Solarz

said of the younger DJ.

Cairo has been regularly hosting a dance night called Bootytronic at the Bali

Satay House in Ames, according to fliers posted outside the venue.

It was through Cairo that a newcomer was able to come onto the Ames. The man

Cairo has been sharing the Bootytronic stage with was accustomed to audiences that are

more used to the music he’s playing. He thinks it’s entirely possible to cut through their

inexperience.

“It’s all about being taken by the performance. The location is irrelevant if people

are present,” said Adrian Navarro, a 23-year-old local DJ and Iowa State student who has

just begun putting on performances, along with a few other newcomers, around the Ames

area.
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Navarro, a native of Quito, Ecuador, came to the U.S. in 2004, and moved to Iowa

a year and a half later. He says the music and dance scene in South America is much

larger than it is here.

“The club scene is huge there. The difference is unreal,” he said.

Navarro said he became familiar with electronic dance music by frequenting

dance clubs that featured live DJs in Ecuador, but it was one certain jockey that made

him think about trying it himself.

“I saw Tiesto live in California a few years ago. I knew this was something I

needed to do myself,” Navarro said.

Tiesto is a minimalist Dutch DJ known primarily for his live performance,

according to his official website. Navarro cites him as both his favorite DJ and largest

influence.

“Dr. Navarro,” the name Navarro has used for recent live performances, came to

life about a year and a half ago when he purchased some DJ software for his computer

and a DJing console, a device used to provide an easier way to control the music. The

music Navarro plays is similar to his influence Tiesto. It considered very minimalistic,

featuring mainly drums and bass. He says it can be difficult to appreciate at first.

“Any type of electronic music is hard for the outsider,” says the Ecuadorian. He

does off a key tip for the new listener, however. “You have to ignore the loops. There’s

so much more in the music behind them, but they can be very distracting. Once you get

past them, it just opens up the music in a whole new way,” he said.
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The DJs all seem to think that though the Iowa scene may be small, it’s quite

unique. All the individuals use their own methods, styles, and equipment which give

them all their own sounds.

“I’m all about vinyl,” said Solarz. “The sound just seems more pure,” he said.

Solarz has always used vinyl and said it would be impossible for him to

completely give up. He has started to use digital equipment and will admit advantages

for both.

“Digital equipment is much more convenient. If you wanted me to, I could set up

an hour-long set in 15 minutes,” he said.

Navarro had different feelings however.

“I much prefer digital equipment. I only have to bring two things to shows: my

computer and my controller, and I still can put on an original show,” Navarro said.

He seemed to have quite a lot to say about why he preferred it over vinyl.

“I think that most people do agree that the vinyl sound is better. The question is

whether you think it’s worth it,” he said. “Vinyl is a lot more expensive. Depending on

how long your show is or how complicated your mixes are, you also have to haul in

boxes of records.”

Some others used even different methods, or their own mixture of both. “Dan

Sherman used vinyls and CD, which were what Pete (owner of the Boheme) used when

he DJed,” he commented. “That’s looked down on by a lot of people, but their music

was so unique and unknown to the average listener, that nobody minded.
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Navarro was impressed by what his stage partner used. “Troy uses a good mix of

vinyl and digital music. He even mixes them together quite often. It’s really fun to hear

him mix on the fly,” he said.

Regardless of how they mix their music, the local DJs all seem excited about what

the future holds for their art.

“I’m just excited to keep going, now that I have a steady thing going,” Navarro

said. Bootytronic has a number of shows booked at the Bali Satay House through the

summer and the fall semester at Iowa State.

Solarz on the other hand has started to add a visual aspect to his shows in the form

of Adam Ferry. Ferry, 28, met Solarz while at Iowa State. He said he had seen some

fliers Solarz made for some of the Boheme shows, and was immediately interested. He

asked around the College of Design to find out who made them, and after a brief search

met Solarz. They have since started a design company called Flatform. Flatform is also

the name most of their DJs shows are advertised as.

Ferry has joined Solarz recently as a VJ, or video jockey. Most of his source

material is one to ten second clips that he uses from old movies or commercials, and then

edits to make them his own. He uses a computer program called Union to store many

clips, and decide just which ones he wants to play on the fly. The pair says they haven’t

seen many do quite the same thing around the area, and are excited to see how it

progresses.

Solarz said that the group is excited to play the biggest show they have ever been

booked for this Independence Day. The inaugural 80/35 Music Festival, which features

national bands The Flaming Lips and The Roots, has a DJ tent with slots scheduled
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between the main stage bands. Solarz said 15,000 people are expected to attend the

festival, and the DJ tent can hold 250, with many more able to dance outside of it.

Next time you hear the thumping bass of dance music from outside a club in

Iowa, don’t pass it up just because you’re in a Midwestern agricultural state. You’ll

never know just what you’re missing.