Monday, November 10, 2008 - 11:52 PM - Tampa DJ Blog log entry by DJ Frontier

Breaking Music Is The Key

I've been sorting through some things lately. I've been finalizing formats, strategies, my marketing plan, and my online plan.
After today, my web site spec has changed. We're going to be doing some really cool things with the DJ Frontier web site.
Early on in my DJ career, I used to read all of these big city DJ magazines such as the DJ times. You'd often find me in Tampa record stores, much in the same way that you'll find me in video game stores today, taking risks by buying new albums and finding some cool music. Keep in mind, too, that in those days buying music from a store was Russian roulette if you didn't know exactly what you were looking for. You'd buy a tape, with no return possible once open, and were not able to listen to the music before you bought it. You'd have to deal with the hand that was played to you. I have to admit, however, that I found a lot of cool music this way, when I wasn't wasting a lot of money on duds, or on albums which had one cool track and a bunch of filler tracks.
Which reminds me. I also spent a lot of time calling radio stations to find out the artists and the song title of songs that I liked. I never understood why radio stations didn't make it easier for their listeners to identify their playlist. Even today, where most radio stations have their playlists on their web sites, it's not at all that easy to follow. Case in point - weekend dance mixes. Good luck finding those tracks. For example, it took me a while to find Jes's track Heaven, and I still have not found the cool mix of that track that I heard in a dance mix.
I've been doing some research lately, and finding out what other DJ's are doing. Weird world there. One DJ whom I have known since 1989 is Paul Santana, and he seems to be doing well. I said hi to him in Ybor a couple of years back, but the last time that I had a conversation with him was in the early 90's (maybe 1994), when I ran into him at the Tampa Bay Center mall. We talked a bit, and he was telling me about record pools. He asked me if I was a member of one. I'm still not.
Didn't Paul do that track "Take me away" in the late 1990's? I was working for a bank at the time, and some of my bank friends and I would spend our weekends jet ski'ing off of the Courtney Campbell Causeway on this little strip of sandy beach back on the Clearwater side. My friend Gabby brought along this mix tape, and that song was on there, playing. I asked him what it was. He told me that it was a DJ Santana track. I remember wondering if DJ Santana and Paul Santana were one and the same. I think that they are (you never know, with all of these DJ's taking the same names these days- some DJ in Wales calls himself DJ Frontier, and yes, he's aware of me. I just wish that he had done his research before "sharing" my name- although I do own the domain name, so there. I bet he doesn't like that at all, especially since it doesn't take an investment to make some stupid page with my name on Myspace). The next time that I talk to Paul, I will have to ask him about that. "Take me away" was one of my favorite dance trcks of the 1990's.
This morning, I spent some time doing errands and thinking. During lunch in Brandon, it all came to me. As I dined on my chicken, I finally knew what I had to do.
One of the big problems that I had as DJ Whiz Kid and, later, as DJ Frontier, during the Cassette Program Release days, was that I didn't own any of the music I put into my programs, and did not have the rights to use them. This prevented me from selling my releases (AKA Mix Tapes). The point was to use the releases as marketing for DJ events, but the irony came later, when I was doing events, catering to the crowds, and playing popular music, rather than breaking new music to them. This went against what I wanted to do, and caused a bit of conflict, as it sucked some of the fun out of it.
Club DJ Tony Humphries used to have a series of three-track sets in his club mixes. He'd play a well-known song, a lesser-known song, and then break something new. It was a balance which kept his dance floors full. As a DJ, I agreed with this. I also believed that a DJ had an obligation to break new songs to their audience, and to introduce them to new music. I still do, but, of course, this applies more to club DJ's than it does to mobile DJ's. I never did get that to work. Doing events as a mobile DJ, it was very, very tough to break new songs to my crowds. I recall DJ'ing one holiday event for a Tampa mortgage company back in 2000, where I kept the dance floor packed, and had a model on-hand to handle requests. This one lady came up to my booth and flat-out told me that they "were a sophisticated crowd, and that they did not want to hear techno". I told her that I wasn't playing a techno song, and that the song that she didn't like was a popular one on the radio. The track was Black Box's "Strike it up". That particular party had other surprises, too. The venue was specifically built to support corporate events. At one point, my DJ rig drew too much power despite being wired to several sources, and tripped some breakers (it was, and still is, a pretty powerful setup which draws a lot of amperage). The music died. The venue staff had to go in the back and reset some breakers so I could reboot my rig and proceed; so much for a venue built for events. I also recall doing surgery on a scanner (a moving light) before the event, and had to repair it. It worked fine during the performance.
I have a lot of good memories with other events, and in particular, my cassette program releases. It almost seems like another life ago.
When my 16th release, Party Zone, was released in late 1991, I brought a copy to a dance studio that I did work at in Valrico. Catherine Croake was a dance instructor there at the time (she would later go on to become the head Cheerleader of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleading squad). Catherine and I were friends, and we would often do things like put together props for dance recitals. On this particular night, she was looking for music for one of her classes. I gave her the copy of Party Zone. There was nothing like seeing a packed room dancing along to my first dance mix. I think that Cathy liked it, too.
Ah, more recent. I did a shoot with two models and another photographer in early 1999 (good God- 9, almost 10 years ago now? Time flies). We did the shoot to my last Cassette Program Release, Party Zone RMX. The models loved it, and it set the mood for a cool shoot.
Good times. We had lots of fun in those days, the days before I beat the crap out of scams and before I had issues with certain shady people is several different industries.
At any rate, what came to me this morning is what has been on my mind off and on for a few years now. Breaking new music. That's the key to my future as DJ Frontier, especially now that I figured out a way to make it work on the event level, too.
I have DJ's who can do weddings. Marlon can do weddings. I'll do them when I have to, but much like photography, I really come into my own zone when I am free to do my own thing, and to be creative.
How will I break music? Another question: How will I sell my new GEN 5 Digital Program Releases (DPR's)? I figured it out.
I really didn't want to post on here some of my plans, but it will become all too obvious what I'll be doing when the DJ Frontier web site launches early next year. So, I'll tell you a bit about what I plan to do.
I own a Tampa music label, which is a part of my company Dream Nine Studios. Dream Nine Studios will also be doing indie films and video game development, and those projects will require music. With indie film, for example, sound is half of the film, and music is critical to set the proper tone for the film. As A DJ, I also need to be able to sell my releases. In the past, with the Cassette Program Releases, I would often program in rare tracks and music which wasn't too well-known. I'd break music to my audience. The problem was that this music was already published in compilations and in albums when I bought, and I didn't have the right to do much of anything with them.
Well, the key is to break new music in my upcoming releases.
As a DJ, I will use music under the creative commons license (many indie film productions do this), from indie artists who I'll deal with, and from music that I will be creating myself. That's right- I fully intend to start creating, and publishing, my own dance music. I'll even return to singing, voicing some of original tracks.
In DJ'ing, I will discover new music and help to break those tracks to my audience. Some of my best finds will be signed to my music label. I will have a huge resource of music for my new releases, my indie films, my stage productions, and other projects (many of those are classified top secret- I have one in particular which will make a lot of money for everyone involved). Everyone will benefit.
My upcoming DJ Frontier web site will have a lot to do with discovering and breaking new music. I will connect with hundreds of indie artists, musicians, singers, and bands from all over the world.
I've finally found what I've been looking for. A new era as DJ Frontier is here.
With that, I have to run. I will be working on my studio tonight, wiring sound equipment and switching out my main computer monitor, and later I need to figure out why Street Fighter 3 in my living room keeps glitching out. I work all the time, Now, I want to play, that is, after my work tonight is done.
Lates.

Sunday, November 9, 2008 - 9:00 AM - Tampa DJ Blog log entry by DJ Frontier

Initializing All Systems

DJ log entry for DJ Frontier, initial entry.
I have brought my official Tampa DJ Blog online in preparation to returning to professional DJ’ing and event planning. My official DJ Frontier web site will launch soon, and the web site of my Tampa event planning company Eventi Events has been online for some time. The web site for Eventi Events sister company Eventi Stage is now under construction. It will be a new, enhanced Diana Class site with the same design layout shared by the Eventi Events site. Eventi Stage will be in business in early 2009, and it will begin production projects such as the Tampa Film Showcase Tampa film festival and networking event series.
As has been stated, this is the first post on this new Tampa DJ Blog. While most posts will be formal, I will express my opinions here as I do with my other blogs. I am a trained, experienced professional entertainer, and on this blog I will post about DJ’ing, DJ’ing anecdotes, live entertainment, events, event planning, and other relevant subjects.
I will start with a bit about me for those of you who are not familiar with my previous work as an underground DJ and as a mobile DJ. I started in the event planning business in 1988, when I began planning and throwing a series of highly experimental parties. I was the founder and the leader of the Friday Night Party Animals (FNPA) of 1988-1989. This led to the development of theme events in 1990, when I co-founded a Fraternity, the Alpha Beta Delta, and a Sorority, the Alpha Gamma Delta (renamed the Alpha Omega Delta in 1995), in college. I was a Fraternity president in 1991, and during this time my Fraternity brothers and Sorority sisters assisted me with creating the prototypes for new interactive theme events, or ITE.
In October, 1990, I began DJ’ing as an underground Tampa DJ called DJ Whiz Kid, which was creatively spelled as DJ Wiz Kid. My equipment was cobbled together by what I could obtain, and consisted of stacks of cassette tapes, a microphone, and a portable stereo with dual tape decks. It was primitive, but all that I needed at the time, because I could be creative and could work out the format of my programs by doing them.
I began recording 90 minute audio programs on cassette with monologues and music programmed much like you would hear on the radio. Each release would have a general theme and an original title. I would put together the programs close to real time, and could do a program in one night. I put together my first two Cassette Program Releases, or CPR’s, in that first month. The third release, however, which was titled Horizons (I’m not going to go into the names of the first two releases because they sucked), was my first hit.
In preparation for Horizons, I went to a Halloween party with grad students and interviewed them. I edited the interviews with my dual tape decks and then used my microphone to mix the interview track with a pre-arranged music mix.
Horizons was released on November 2, 1990. The grad students obtained copies, and more copies were made of those. Thousands of copies of the Horizons CPR spread around the Tampa Bay area, and it was a hit. Now that my name was out there, I had a fan base, and my future releases were eagerly awaited. In that first year, I did 18 Cassette Program Releases, and each release was highly creative, although production quality was limited by my equipment. Starting with my 13th release, Waveform, I began to create cover J-Card inserts for my releases using photographs cut from magazines, paper, scissors, glue, and photocopy machines. They were crude, but effective for what they were. My 13th CPR marked the beginning of my second generation, or GEN 2, Cassette Program Releases. I had more hits, too, such as my 16th release, Party Zone, which proved to be popular with the club crowd.
I had some set backs at the end of 1991, and my equipment finally gave out in early 1992, after 21 releases. It was clear that I was going to need professional equipment.
In 1993, I began to plan my first production studio, Geomedia One. I invested in a Peavy 7032 DJ mixer, CD players, high-end professional tape decks, a Shure microphone, and professional-grade wiring. My new equipment wasn’t as portable as my old gear, but I was now able to push the quality of analog recording as far as it could go. I was not satisfied with simply upgrading to professional quality, however, and began experimenting with video game and computer technology. I obtained a prototype Hughes AK 100 SRS 3D audio component in 1994, which enabled me to encode my audio programs in 3D stereo, and my new GEN 3 CPR’s were produced in a 3D stereo format which maintained their audio characteristics when played back on normal stereo equipment. All of that equipment, such as the Peavy audio mixer and the SRS, are still in use today, 15 years later.
In 1993, I realized that I had outgrown my DJ Whiz Kid name, too, as I was now older. I needed something more marketable and professional. I became DJ Frontier, and planned a new generation of releases and my first DJ’ed events. It took me a year to work up toward creating new releases because I could no longer use audio cassettes for source music. I determined that I had to use CD’s, and it took me a while to build a CD library of good music.
My new Geomedia One studio was commissioned in 1994. I got together with an aspiring model and entertainer named Nicole Angel, who became DJ Cricket, and we launched the third generation of releases with my 22nd release, Futura. GEN 3 releases had high standards, and that included the J Card covers. In June, 1994, DJ Cricket and I did a photoshoot for the cover of Futura, and that first shoot saw the creation of my photography and design services company, Aurora PhotoArts (it would be another six years before I turned pro as a photographer, however, as I didn’t get serious about photography until 1998).
My GEN 3 releases were all classics. After Futura, I did my first real dance mix, Party Zone 2, made possible now that I was using professional sound equipment and mixers. My programs were now more professional, too, with scripts and pre production planning. Instead of producing releases in one day, it would now take weeks, but the quality of those releases was outstanding. My releases had finally found their groove, and an unique programming format which was unlike anything else out there. Horizons RMX, Waveform 3, Party Zone 3, Generation, Futura 2, Aurora, and Party Zone RMX were among my favorites, and they were hits, too, with thousands of my fans.
I began to DJ live events, too, both parties and events that I planned, and parties that I was booked to perform in. I DJ’ed my first professional party in 1997, and my event planning company debuted its first Interactive Theme Event, Silvertree, in January 2008. I began to book, and make a lot of money working, weddings and corporate events. I also began to work with other DJ’s, and signed on my first DJ, Marlon Brown, who was known as DJ Shy. Marlon Brown became my event planning company’s senior DJ, as he was much better with wedding receptions than I was.
My last release was my 33rd Cassette Program Release, Party Zone RMX, in 1998. That was the final GEN 3 release, and it would be my last for a long time.
I planned for GEN 4, which were supposed to be CD releases which were digitally sourced with covers professionally photographed (remember that it would be another two years before I became a professional photographer) and designed with computers, but I became sidetracked with other businesses and work. In 1998, I began writing more and creating my first web sites, which gave me a creative outlet, and my photography work, which was needed for my web sites, took up more and more of my time. The releases were no longer a priority, and GEN 4 became obsolete in a few years without a single release.
I DJ’ed a lot of parties and planned a lot of events, although I also made money as a professional photographer beginning in 2001. In December 2002, I DJ’ed a wedding which I really didn’t like doing, and I decided to take a break from DJ’ing. My senior DJ, Marlon Brown, began to do all the events of my event planning company as I focused on photography. Over the next few years, I became more known as one of the top professional Tampa photographers, one of the best talent photographers in Florida, and a modeling and talent expert. I still kept up on my DJ’ing on the side, however, assisting Marlon with events and auditing other DJ’s. I spent years learning more on how to DJ, how to love DJ’ing again, and, by default, how to be a good DJ.
It’s now late 2008, six years since I last DJ’ed an event and ten years since my last release, the final GEN 3 release Party Zone RMX. Many things have changed. Some, however, have stayed the same.
I am ready to return to my first love. DJ Frontier is back.
Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Photography and Design is currently the main Passinault.Com company, and is my most profitable. My photography company is the top Tampa photography services company, and has come a long ways since that first humble shoot back in 1994 for the Futura CPR. It’s a design company, too, and out design work is now some of the best in Florida, a long way from crude photocopied cassette covers. Our latest modeling composite cards, actor / talent headshots, business cards, and design work is some of the best in the United States.
Aurora PhotoArts isn’t going anywhere. I am still going to work as a professional photographer, and shoots will increase as the company continues to grow. My Tampa photography and design company, however, was never meant to be the core Passinault.Com company. I make money catering to entertainers who are building portfolios and career marketing tools, and I myself am one of them.
My event planning company, Eventi Events (which spun off Eventi Stage due to licensing and legal requirements), was always supposed to be the core Passinault.Com company. DJ’ing and event planning was always supposed to be a lifestyle, as well as a professional career. In 2009, both Eventi Events and Eventi Stage will become our binary core company, and all the Passinault.Com companies will revolve around them. DJ Frontier will become my main alter ego, and I will return to, and embrace, being a professional entertainer.
I have so many awesome ideas. I have revolutionary plans. It’s not like I didn’t have a lot of time to think things through. My down-time has been productive.
My “releases” are due back. I’ve spent a long time refining the formula and upgrading it to the technology in use today. GEN 5 releases are coming, and they will be MP3 downloads with licensed use of music and high resolution image file covers. GEN 5 releases will be digitally produced, and done entirely on computer workstations. The quality standards will be beyond that of what is available in the mainstream record industry.
If you think that what I’ve done in the past is good, you haven’t seen anything, yet. What will begin in 2009 will make what was achieved in the past look like a tiny experiment. Instead of thousands of fans, my influence will increase at least a thousand-fold and throughout the world. I will become one of the top creative DJ’s of our time. It’s time to do what I’ve always meant to do. The technology has finally caught up with my high concepts.
Currently, I am ripping my huge CD library to high bit-rate MP3 files. I am obtaining more recording equipment and music / audio production software. I am investing in more sound equipment and event lighting, too, and am overhauling my DJ gear. I am also finally building my prototype DJ cybersuit, which was originally envisioned back in the early days of 1991. Like I said, the technology is finally here.
It’s time to play. DJ Frontier is here, once again.

UPDATED 06/12/09

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