Chua is seen in action.
THERE are jobs that look like fun doing – for instance, those of comedians, singers, actors, puppeteers and cartoonists – not forgetting, of course, deejays or disc jockeys.
If we aren’t perceptive enough, we may not know what it takes for people to become professionals in these vocations.
Surely, many who end up doing what they do and seem to be having a whale of time doing it, have put in the hard yards to get where they are.
Besides the daily grind, many such jobs also require talent, flair, passion and dedication to attain optimum adeptness.
Deejaying, for example, is one job that looks like fun – chattering, joking and jesting while spinning recorded music for a live audience.
According to deejay Ivor Chua, it’s not as fun or as easy as it appears – certainly not a job any Tom, Dick or Harry likes to or can do.
A deejay, like any respectable professional, needs years of learning and practising. It takes hundreds or perhaps even thousands of hours, spinning the turntable, mixing and playing recorded music for an audience to reach the pinnacle of the business.
Chua, whose stage name is Ivor Marco, said the word deejay comes from the acronym DJ – for disc jockey.
Disc and jockey are used because when this profession first started, the music played by a deejay was recorded in black plastic discs known as gramophone records.
The discs were played on a machine called a turntable – and it was the ability to play or ‘jockey’ these discs on the turntable to orchestrate the music that distinguished the deejay.
Chua said although nowadays music is no longer recorded in discs, there is a modern version of the turntable known as the DJ Turntable, used by deejays to do their job.
However, he pointed out that this profession need not necessarily refer only to the type of work he is doing.
“It could commonly allude to radio station or club deejays or their counterparts performing at music festivals or nightspots or it could even mean a turntablist manipulating sounds on phonograph records.
“So a deejay is quite an encompassing term, especially in describing someone who mixes recorded music from any source like cassettes, CDs, digital audio files on a CDJ or laptop.”
Chua said a deejay might use equipment that could play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously.
“The music is mixed to create seamless transitions between recordings and unique mixes of songs. This entails aligning the beats of the music sources so their rhythms do not clash when played together or if they were joined, the transition from one song to another must be smooth or natural.
“There are many more technicalities involved, but suffice to say to be a really serious and professional deejay, you have to go through a lot of hard work and practice.”
The start
On how it all started, Chua said about 10 years ago, he and a friend developed an interest in becoming deejays after watching experts perform and how they were able to create an exciting atmosphere for the audience.
The duo then arranged with a bar manager to use the latter’s place and they first tried out with a borrowed deejay machine, and also got some help from DJ-savvy friends.
Deejays use equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously and mix them together.
Chua and his friend were so engrossed in their new pursuit that they practised six to seven hours a day. They also picked up tips from YouTube.
“My friend and I now feel very thankful to the bar manager for giving us the chance to get started,” Chua noted.
Then one day in 2010, feeling confident they were ready to perform in front of audience, Chua and his friend started with events such as social gatherings, sometimes combined with live band performances.
Thereafter, it was on to bigger things and pretty soon, they found themselves performing at various functions and venues.
Chua has deejayed at entertainment joints in Kuching, Singapore, Johor, and Kuala Lumpur. He is currently the resident deejay at a bar in Kuching and performs every weekend.
Most memorable
Sharing his most memorable time as a deejay, he said it was in 2013 working at a beach club with many international customers.
He experimented with all kinds of music, including those he seldom dabbled in, saying, “Things worked out well and everyone partied and enjoyed themselves.”
In 2016, he had another unforgettable experience at the New Year’s Eve Festival Songkran Pattaya in Thailand.
There was a 1km stretch of street with some 30 music stages, deejays and live bands. As he walked past one stage to the next, he was mesmerised by the different kinds of performances and music genres.
The revellers seemed to resonate with one rhythm – the rhythm of music, Chua said, adding, “This really shows music has the power to connect souls.”
Women deejays
According to him, there is now a trend of more and more women venturing into deejaying.
He admitted that women deejays might have an advantage in that they could attract bigger crowds and better business.
Photo shows Malaysian deejay Eva T.
“That’s why many music outlets are eyeing female deejays. In fact, a number of places would only hire female deejays to attract bigger crowds.”
He revealed there were instances when people would look for him, seeking his connections to help them hire women deejays.
The organiser of an event even asked for up to five women deejays, he recalled.
Chua is a bit concerned about such a trend as he is afraid a DJ’s job might become overly associated with sexuality instead of being purely about the enjoyment of music.
He cited the example of videos showing female deejays performing without a proper dress code.
“So far, this has not happened in our country nor will it be allowed to happen,” he said.
Quality deejays
To Chua, the hallmark of a quality deejay is the ability to entertain and engage the audience.
“To be able to truly connect with the audience requires much more than playing records or doing fancy tricks. Selecting song genres will depend on the kinds of event, place and even crowd.”
He said the one track people never seemed to get fed up with is ‘Kick the Groove’ by Menini and Viani.
“The vibes and elements used in this song never got outdated and there are lots of songs being reproduced based on its melody.”
Chua also said he is more into Trap and Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Big Room and Electro House.
Trap music is a sub-genre of EDM that has been gaining momentum among dance music fans. Trap music first emerged from the south and included a multitude of sounds like triplet hi hats, loud kicks, snares, triangle, brass, and the popular low end 808 bass samples.
EDM Trap or Trap music is constantly evolving. Since the mid-2010s, it has become one of the most popular forms of electronic dance music and is regarded as a combination of hard dance and electro techno.
Just like anything else, Chua said the music world has had its share of disparaging snipes such as being venues that attract drug abuse by young people.
In fact, he noted, drug and music had been symbiotic in nature since the 60s right from the disco era.
Like trying to solve the many other social ills in human society, it isn’t easy to deal with drug abuse, Chua said, believing that the best deejays could do when it came to handling this problem at their premises is giving the audience a ‘gentle reminder’ on the deadly consequences of using drugs and trying to convince them they could party just as blissfully without popping pills.
Sceptical
Unfortunately, he added, there were always people sceptical about deejays giving advice against drugs, thinking DJs were often associated with substance use.
He said the image of any profession could always be tarnished by some black sheep and he is absolutely against such a blight of society at large.
According to him, another misperception some people have about deejays, especially male DJs, is they are often associated with women, alcohol, and drugs.
“In this line of work, the likelihood is there. But I have many deejay friends who are happily married and are good parents to their kids and good partners to their spouses.
“Temptations are everywhere. It all depends on our self-control. And, by the way, using simple common sense is already enough for a person to know what’s right and what’s wrong,” he said.
Like vampires
Chua said there were also people who thought deejays were like vampires – staying active all night and inactive or sleeping all day, adding, “Some even insinuate deejays have no fixed income.”
He said he didn’t know about others, but for him, that is not true as he is making a stable comfortable income and is proud and happy of what he is doing for a living.
“It’s all about making a living and providing a service to society like everyone else.”
He added that he would continue to be a deejay until he was old enough to call it a night.
He hoped to perform big time one day at events such as ultra music festivals or annual outdoor electronic music festivals seen around the world.
He noted there were people who thought deejaying was a cool career.
“They put the profession under the celebrity category like those of movie actors, singers and entertainment hosts.
“True, there are deejays who have become kind of famous. But to get there, you have to overcome many challenges and most importantly, work very hard.
“Competition is everywhere and you can’t relax in your comfort zone all the time. You have to get going when the going gets tough.”
It takes education
Chua also refuted the notion that a higher education is not needed to be a deejay.
“Actually, a lot of knowledge is needed. You must know many songs and their meanings. This takes education.”
He said he had to make full use of his college education to become a deejay. Chua was studying law but later switched to a diploma in mass communications.
“By the way, many deejays are well paid,” he added.
Chua is from Miri but now lives in Kuching. He has a sister and three brothers and is the youngest.
He revealed it took his family two years to accept his choice to be a DJ all because of the misgivings surrounding deejaying as a career.
To aspiring DJs, his advice is to have a great love of music – all kinds of music.
“Be prepared to work hard and persevere as well. No shortcuts. Always avoid performing for free, hoping to get exposure. This will pull down the deejay’s status and ruin the market.”
It would be good to be a freelancer as that would open more options to negotiating for better pay, he suggested.