About BroKen DJ's

All the best things happen by mistake (well that’s what my parents tell me). BroKen DJ’s is certainly one of them.

BroKen DJ’s were formed in December 2002, Jon told me “I was bored as I’d broken my arm quite badly so I decided to go round Jamie’s house to do some mixing. Jamie delighted with the idea suggested some Stella’s and shortly after BroKen DJ’s were born.” I don’t think at the time they realised how far it would go.

Bios nearly always sound kind of cheesy and unfortunately for you (the audience – all three of you) this one is no exception. BroKen DJ’s is a concept of two music lovers with identical but different music taste. Now that sounds like a contradiction and it is, but between the two of them, they like the same music, the same DJ’s and same genres but despite this they buy music, which to untrained ear sounds similar but to them is very different.

About the members

Jamie started DJ’ing not long after Jon following a long discussion in Tyrant @ The Bomb in Nottingham, Jon persuaded him to buy some decks. Initially Jamie was a traditional Prog head, buying records on labels such as Bedrock and Saw. Jamie always stuck to slightly subtler records, which always had the tingle of melody attached. Jamie’s also an ardent clubber, travelling from club to club, festival-to-festival and country-to-country in pursuit of special nights. His passion and knowledge for the scene is second to none and he’s easily recognised as the guy with a big grin across his face when you meet him.

Jon decided to buy some decks after getting sick of seeing DJ’s just DJ’ing for the sake of being cool and being able to pull girls. Jon says this honestly was NOT the reason why he started; it was all about the music. Jon was initially a Prog head but focused on a groovier style of Prog, along with epic tracks, which are normally saved for the end of the night. Again like Jamie, Jon is massively into clubbing, maybe not quite to the level Jamie but still pretty obsessive.

Gigs

BroKen DJ’s began their first performances at a friends night called Kenanga, the two hour warm up sets were excellent for the guys to improve their technique from mixing to record selection. Unfortunately after only 4 gigs Kenanga ended and so did BroKen DJ’s… well for until 2005 at least.

In 2005 BroKen DJ's did a few temporary sets in their original hometown of Stamford, now these sets were normally just for friends but this was when they made the important transition from Vinyl to CD.

2007 was a great year for BroKen DJ’s as Jon started to co run a own club night called Nuestra Casa. 2007 saw several diverse BroKen DJ sets at Nuestra Casa, which were always well received. After steady 2007, 2008 looks already to be a good year for BroKen DJ’s and Nuestra Casa after they secured a set at the über-night the Gallery @ Turnmills. BroKen DJ’s are to DJ with one of their DJ idols Pete Gooding.

The future

BroKen DJ’s have recently been using Ableton live and are planning soon to start incorporating this to their set (along with CDJ’s).

After Turnmills BroKen DJ’s will be looking to get gigs outside of London and in particular in venues in Europe, but until then keep an eye for them and come and check them out when they’re in a town or city near you.

R. Pilcher, Jan 2008