DJ Danny F aka 12inchjunkie

I figure I write a little about myself for those that don't know who I am. I started deejaying back in 1986 at the age of 12-13 years old. Before I got my first set of turntables I would try deejaying with a small home stereo turntable and a tape deck that my parents had for the house, I would split the left speaker for the turntable and the right speaker for the tape deck. This was the way I would try learning how to mix, I had no pitch control and I would use my fingers for slowing down or speeding up the record. I wanted to become a dj so bad..lol anytime my parents would give me money $5-$10 I would call up my brother to take me to the record shop. This record store I use to go to had records everywhere! And I mean everywhere...as soon as you walked in you had to climb around records, it was all over the place...gosh I wish this record store still existed. As soon as I got there I would look for house records that had multiple tracks on them so I can get my moneys worth. That's how I discovered Frankie Bones and his bonesbreaks, I would buy any records by Frankie Bones and I also bought Todd Terry, that's all I wanted! if a house record had a Acid Mix I would grab those also I was in love with the acid sound coming out of Chicago and the UK in 1988 and 1989. My mom use to get mad at me every time I would walk into the house with records..lol she use to tell me why don't you buy yourself some underwear or socks with that money..lol I though my mom was nuts for telling me this! all I wanted was vinyl I became such an addict for buying vinyl that I even stole money from my fathers stash and even wrote checks of his, I really felt bad for doing this especially when my father was such a hard worker and did everything to keep food on our plate may he rest in peace... But I wanted records so bad and I did anything to get them. So the first turntables I got from my parents were the Gemini 1100 with diamond needles together with a Pyramid mixer and a cheap receiver not an amp. For speakers I used the home stereo speakers. By this time I had a crate full of records and enough to make a mixtape. Well I didn't have a cassette recorder so I borrowed my upstairs neighbor just to make a tape. My first mixtape was a mix of House and Freestye music one side house and the other side freestyle and the mixing sounded like sneakers in a dryer..lol. It took me about a year to learn how to beat match perfectly.My first gig was at a hall for a birthday party there was about 4 other djs there also I was nervous and scared to mix in front of the crowd there was about 200 people. The first record I played was Todd Terry The circus no one was dancing just bobbing there heads. I kept throwing underground records thinking alright I'm playing good records but I wasn't focusing on the dancefloor and thought that wasn't important, so I'm playing these records and still no one on the floor so my friend asked me to get off for alittle so that one of his boys could play a set. As soon as he got on the first record he dropped everyone ran to the dancefloor and started doing the soul train..lol and his mixing was horrible but he was making everyone dance and I kept thinking to myself how in the hell is this guy rocking the crowd and I wasn't? Its because he was playing commercial dance music that people knew! While I was playing afterhours underground music...but I still didn't understand the meaning of programing at the time and all I cared was playing the music I liked. And every mobile gig I did sucked..lol I was 14 yrs old doing sweet 16s and only playing freestyle and house music. If you wanted spanish music I would ask the people throwing their party to bring their spanish tapes and I would play the whole album thru in one set the same artist...how ghetto is that? Lol. But thru the years I learned how important it was to program your set in order to get a crowd dancing and this was also important in order to get more gigs. Oh! I forgot one story I forgot to finish...the tape deck story. I borrowed the tape deck from my upstairs neighbor in order for me to make tapes.he moved from his apartment and forgot to ask me for his tape deck so one day me and my friend were chillin outside and I had the tape deck with me I think we were going to someones house to make a tape, and a new neighbor that moved in a few months ago said hey I will buy that tape deck from u and I though to myself umm...? Money for records I said ok give me $80 he said deal! So I got the money and at that same hour went on a bus to hit the record store I was in euphoria I must have bought around 10-15 records I was excited! So about a month later I see my old neighbor downtown and he said bring my tape deck to my new place I forgot all about it... I said ok I bring it tomorrow. I though to myself FUCK! How am I going to get him this back?! I sold it! So I tried to avoid the old neighbor but he was hounding me for it passing by my neighborhood I kept giving him excuses telling him I left it at my brothers house I will bring it to you as soon as I can, so this kept going for weeks and one day he said "Where The Fuck is my shit?!" I better see it tomorrow! and he was a big dude! Could crush my head with his pinky! So I got scared! Lol! Its either get the tape deck or get crushed from this guy. So I asked one of my thief friends from the block if he could do me a big favor and break in to the guys house that I sold the tape deck to, I knew the time he went to work and what time he came back home, so I played hookie from school and my thief friend who we called ET (he looked like ET) at the time didn't go to school at all that was the day we decided to do the mission, ET broke into his house got the tape deck and took some jewlery at the same time. This had to be the worst thing I ever did but I had to do it for my sake..lol. So I returned the tape deck that same day and the guy was happy again. I went back home and noticed cop cars by my building I knew it was for the break in. The neighbor was excusing me for the break in but I just played it off he had no proof. So that was that story...I decided to keep away from trouble after that. And wait to get a job to buy records. So I continued for years to come and explore music I learned a lot of different music thru my older brother since he was a dj also, him and my other brother also were both djs I guess it runs in my family. I did mobile parties with them thru the years and at the same time I did clubs, then they decided to stop deejaying and I continue on my own. I do 2 spots on the weekends I do a night with my friend Raul C who's part of the blog which I know since my high school days. And I have a residency at another spot. And I don't plan on stoping what I love to do best deejaying making people dance and collecting music.Especially collecting music and sharing it with people that enjoy it as much as I do. Hope you guys enjoyed the story I know some of what I said was messed up but I was just a teen trying to get records in anyway I can at the time, I had no job and whenever I saw money I did what I had to get my hands on it.--12inchjunkie