Volume 2, Issue 14 June 22 - July 5, 2000

He looks like the average freak: skinny, long black and blue braided extensions on top of his shaved head. Black stretch jeans and a black band t-shirt. His name is Christian and he's the new DJ for the Deadbeat basements on Fridays. You might already know him, as he's been spinning at several clubs in Denver for the last two-and-a-half years.

"I got in to DJing when I moved from San Francisco to New Orleans. I was bartending at a club called the Angel, when my manager came up to me one night and asked if I had any experience DJing," Christian explains. "I didn't really know much about it, but I was willing to give it a try. It was on a Wednesday, their biggest night -retro 80's- and the people loved it. After that I just bartended four nights and DJed one."

"After a couple of months they gave me another night, then a third. I had lots of experience in clubs, since I worked at clubs as a bartender since I was 18, so I knew how to promote. I started a Sunday night fetish night called 'Slave State.' Unfortunately that didn't go on for very long, since the Angel closed pretty soon after that."

"After the Angel closed a DJ-friend of mine, who was a promoter too, contacted me. We started promoting an 80's/Goth/Industrial night in the French quarter. That was fun to do, but I got sick of New Orleans and headed back to San Francisco."

Christian never made it back to San Francisco though. He ran out of money halfway and stranded in Colorado. The state where he'd done his senior year in High School would become his home once again.

To get his money together, Christian wanted to bartend. He'd had enough of DJing and spending all the money he made on new CDs and wanted to get back to his former career. He liked the money he could make and went to several clubs in town, but no one would hire him as a bartender.

"I think it's because I had too much experience. I'd been bartending since 1988 and I guess the bar managers were somewhat afraid that I'd take their jobs. When I went to Rock Island, I asked for a bartending job there too. They didn't have anything for me as a bartender, but they'd just started anew goth night. They only had one DJ working that night: DJ Michael. I asked the manager if it wasn't a good idea to put a second DJ up there, since Rock Island is a big club. He told me to bring in a mix tape, and the next week I got a phone call that I could start there."

One thing led to another for DJ Christian, who was by then known as DJ Christ. "What happened after that was pretty much all a blur ... from drinking so much," Christian laughs. "A lot happened after I got started at Rock Island, though."

"There was a goth/industrial night at Rock Island on Fridays too. The DJ there didn't show up till about 10:30. So I just asked if I could spin before she started. I really learned a lot from that. I could try all kinds of stuff, and the crowd liked it. The other DJs working there gave me a lot of feedback on everything. It didn't matter what I'd ask them; they always helped me out. They gave me a lot of little hints, on beat mixing and stuff. After six months the other DJ left and I got the whole night to myself."

While Christian worked at Rock Island, he was introduced to DJ Gary from the Deadbeat Club by his girlfriend. Gary mentioned that the Deadbeat was looking for new DJs so he went there and dropped off his resume. "I guess they were pretty impressed by what I'd done so far, since they gave me Saturday nights in the basement."

Another person who helped Christian out there was Sheila, a bartender at both Deadbeat and The Church. She put in some good words for him and told him that the DJs from The Church's Sunday goth night were leaving. "Sheila told me to go talk to the management there. I did. I really wanted to keep that night going. It wasn't that I wanted to replace Eric [the former DJ], but I wanted to keep the night going and change the music a bit."

"Since I lived in San Francisco for ten years, I wanted to bring some of that music out here. The music was old for San Francisco, but totally new for here. I'd post my set lists on the Internet, and after a while I started noticing that other DJs started playing some of that music too, like Das Ich. I thought that was really cool."

"People didn't really respond to the new stuff I played though. So I'd just play one song for a couple of weeks. When people didn't start dancing I'd just try another one. I pretty much went on like that."

According to Christian this is the most important part of what a DJ is doing. "You've got to keep the music fresh," he explains. "There was a lot of stuff I used to play, but I could tell that people were starting to get sick of it."

The job Christian did at The Church apparently didn't please the management as much as it pleased himself. "After I worked at the Church for three months, I had the chance to go to Europe. Being the paranoid person that I am, I was totally freaking out. I kept asking if I'd have a job when I'd come back. They told me I would." When he came back from Europe though, two days later he got a phone call telling him that they didn't need him anymore. "I really don't understand why. I thought I did a good job there. But they told me I was more of a 'Deadbeat Club' DJ. Maybe another reason was the rumor that I wasn't going to come back from Europe. People seem to have thought that I was moving there."

While Christian lost his jobs at both Rock Island and The Church, he still had Deadbeat. "That's actually been going really good. When I started out there we had an average of 500 people on Saturday night. Now we actually get to 800. Two weeks ago Chris, the manager, and DJ Gary came up to me and asked if I wanted to spin Friday nights too. It seems like they've just shifted me from one club to the other, since it's all the same company."

Christian is really nervous about starting his Friday nights. He doesn't want to play exactly the same music on Friday as he plays on Saturday. "I'll try to make it as different as possible, without losing the 'college sound' that Deadbeat wants."

"I've been working at Goth/Industrial clubs for 12 years already. It's all the same. That's why I really like working at Deadbeat. I like all different kinds of music and here's a place where I can finally play everything I want."