Interview: DJ Enferno - The Live Remix Guru

When DJ Enferno won the coveted U.S. DMC Championship in 2003, he accomplished a feat that many in his field dream of — and propelled him into 2nd place in the World Finals. His innovative “Live Remix Project” caught the attention of Madonna’s tour director, and landed him an integral role in the Queen of Pop’s 2008-2009 “Sticky & Sweet” tour. Recently, he talked with BlogCritic Justin Kantor about how he got started; his motley array of musical influences; and the methods he employs to keep crowds workin’ the dance floors.

You graduated from college with a marketing degree. How did you end up pursuing music?

It’s kind of funny how that worked out. DJing has been the most steady job I’ve had in my life. I started when I was 16 — throwing high school parties, and then I did college for four years, and then, clubs. It’s always been a thing I had on the side,

It was my goal to get the best education along the way, so my parents actually made me apply to a magnet school. If you know Alexandria, you probably know the school, Thomas Jefferson High. Apparently, I’m a brainiac, so I got in there and went to UVA afterward. At UVA, I thought I was going to get into the business world on the corporate marketing side, but I ended up doing a lot of theatre in college as well, so there was a third life for me.

I had my DJ life, my school life, and I spent a lot of time doing theatre. I was doing shows, acting. After a couple years doing that, I went into the corporate world. I was a networking engineer before I quit my job and pursued DJing full-time. Everything comes around full-circle. I know that sounds cliché, but right now, I’m using my marketing way more than I did in the corporate world, because I’m running my own business.

You had a musical background to begin with: you were classically trained in piano. Did you ever think of being a professional musician? What initially appealed to you about the DJ aspect versus the musician aspect?

Yes, I took lessons between the ages of 7 and 18. I actually took a couple years off and then went back and took some jazz. In that time, I actually thought I would have a lounge act, on a weeknight, playing jazz piano. As far as DJing goes, it’s a whole other side of music. My interest in that started out from just going to parties when I was younger, I was this young kid following my big sister to parties, and I saw these guys you’ve never heard of that first gave me the idea to do this. They were mobile DJs, which means they were setting up like I did when I was in high school, and they would spin records.

Article Author: Justin Kantor

Justin Kantor is a music journalist with a passion for in-depth artist interviews and reviews. Most of his interviews for Blogcritics can be heard on his Blog Talk Radio program, "Rhythmic Talk."
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