AC '08 DJ Spotlight: Protocollie

Anthrocon features some of the most talented DJs in the Furry Fandom, but who are they really? We'll be taking some time in coming weeks to let you know, in their own words, what makes them tick and what you can expect from their sets.

We'll start off this year with a freshman to the Anthrocon dances, Protocollie!

Fandom Name: Kalemika
Stage Name: Protocollie
Age: 21
Genres Played: House, Breaks, Tech Trance,

Biography:

I started playing back around 2001. I picked up dance music from Anabolic Frolic's Happy2bHardcore series starting at Chapter 4 and when I heard Force & Styles' single Look At Me Now, for some reason it clicked that I wanted to be a DJ. I got some cheap turntables and decided to learn how to spin. I started with two records - Make Believe/Look at me Now by Force and Styles (on the label UK Dance Extreme, I believe) and the Scott Brown remix of a track called Sunshine by someone I don't even remember on Go Mental Platinum. From there I started building a huge collection of obscure and massive hardcore records which I still have sitting around in my studio. Somewhere along the lines I also picked up some Technics 1200s and upgraded my mixer, as well. I continued playing hardcore and eventually drum & bass (the song that got me into that was a track called The Helicopter Song by godknowswho at this point.) I played parties, some clubs in the Philly and New York area and a few rave events before I dropped off the map.

During the time I was no longer spinning I started branching out into lots of other kinds of music and familiarizing myself with them. When I left hardcore and drum and bass, they were all I listened to. I'd burned out by the time that hardcore had slowed down its near constant evolution from cheese to upfront, and having exhausted a lot of the sub genres - breakbeat, freeform, and the like - I started to listen to a lot of classic rock, metal, classical, jazz, latin music, and the like. I spent a long time obsessed beyond all recognition with Coldplay, then Keane, then Ghostland, and then branching into more electronic stuff and other things I had no right liking - Kid606, Aesop Rock, Knifehandchop and Eats Tapes. This was when I started seriously producing, too. Just so you know. Anyway, I got really into Royksopp, especially their 'the understanding' CD, and then wound up hearing an electro remix of 'what else is there' which brought me into seriously listening to electro house, which then lead to disco house which I picked up spinning. I know, that's ridiculous, right? Disco house is super fun, though. It was a good time but lasted until I realized that disco house is an entire genre of the same song and promptly jumped ship

About that time I decided I liked the speed and expressiveness of the slower genres of dance and started grabbing a lot of CDs by Uberzone, Carl Cox, Digweed, Sasha and even some stuff from Vinylgroover. I couldn't find a genre I was so devoted to I wanted to restrict myself to so I decided to just pick anything I could throw on a deck and match up with the other tracks in my crate. Then I decided to push the switch even further by ditching my 1200s and moving to all digital, so I started stocking up on MIDI controllers and audio hardware to build a reasonable live performance setup. So that's where I stand now, playing a mish-mosh of anything I can using various software and hardware to try and build interesting sets of mixed genres as best I can and inflect my own flavour into 'em. I don't restrict genres, I like mashing up tracks, I try and bring my own remixes and tunes to the floor. I tend to play a mish-mosh of nu-skool breaks, funky and disco house, progressive house, techy trance, hard techno, and hip-hop. That leaves me with the interesting task of describing what I play or listing genres to expect. Generally, I just say 'music.' I just like to get up there, play a whole lot of fun stuff and have a good time with the crowd. That's what I live for, hopefully you'll enjoy it too, ya?
_____
Check back next week when we turn the spotlight onto DJ Ironheart!