DJ Eskay and I have casually been friends for a while now, so I thought it would be good to sit down with him to discuss his new Discotecha Thursday parties at El Centro.
Ben: So Adam (I can't really call people by their DJ names, for some reason it just comes off so strange), I know that you've really picked up in the last few months with regular gigs at Third Edition in Georgetown and Redline in Chinatown, what spawned the whole idea to expand your party base onto U Street with Discotecha Thursdays?
Eskay: Well I became friendly with Jerome Baker III, whose a huge dj in dc (Policy on Thursdays, Recess on Fridays & Napoleon on Saturdays), and I was amazed by the scene that he helped create through his site Better Than Yours. He managed to bring in Common, Tabi Bonney, Theophilus London, etc to hit up Recess on Tuesdays for concert after parties, so he's kind of a big deal. We kinda vibed on the same shit, and decided that it was worth exploring U Street. Once we checked out El Centro, we envisioned this sick spot with that Meatpacking District, back alley vibe to it. The goal is to throw clean, trendy, sexy parties (the entrance will be in the alley behind the restaurant) - we both love disco house but can’t play it elsewhere, and since .the whole Marvin/Lost Society scene is so into disco house, we figured that it would fit in well with the overall U Street music vibe.
Ben: I've always felt like disco house is one of those genres thats so open to interpretation...I know from a personal preference point as a DJ, that would be the green light to go crazy with a lot of stuff from the bastard pop mashup scene, so what kind of sets do you and Jerome envision yourself playing.
Eskay: Well I've been thinking for a while about it, and then I was like, why not combine top 40 mainstream pop with fun disco house....kind of like Chromeo meets A-trak with a lot of fun disco tunes that people can still dance to.
Ben: Ah, nothing like another hot sweaty mess of a Thursday night then, looking forward to it for sure. Now that we've got that bit of business out of the way, what inspired you to take the leap of faith to become a DJ?
Eskay: I’ve always liked music and it was kind of the same thing like you where I went to these parties and the music was fucking awful. My fraternity loved country music and I can’t stand that shit, so I was just like always thinking in the back of my head that I wish I could control the music at this party, I would be playing much better music. After graduating I moved to Chicago and went w/ a buddy and his girlfriend to a club, I’d never been to a club during my four years at UMD, and DJ AM was spinning. There was a video camera setup showing a birds eye view of him and it was mind boggling to see what he was doing on the turntables. I would have never thought to have dropped Tequila, followed by NWA, by Kanye, RHCP...I mean how the hell does he do that? It was just so crazy and his transitions and scratches were incredible. I looked him up on YouTube and started basically studying everything about him, so I figured why not try it out. The rest is history I guess...
Ben: What was it like moving back to DC in 2010? Or lemme rephrase I guess, how did it affect your DJ career?
Eskay: I felt like I was at the point where it would be fun to make some extra money and see how far I could get, and I took DJ lessons at the Beat Refinery, brushed up on my Serato and scratching skills, learned how to use turntables, then just started grinding. I was able to meet a lot of fellow DJs at the Beat Refinery, who gave me a lot of tips on how to find gigs in DC. At first I had no fucking idea what I was doing, but over time when you start doing it over and over again, you find what works well and know when to drop certain songs at certain times. I’m not saying that it becomes routine, but you feel more comfortable with everything and it becomes a lot more fun.
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