We were lucky to catch up with Damion Saunders recently and have shared our conversation below.

Damion, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I definitely wish I would have started sooner. As of now I have been DJing for the past six years. Growing up I was always into music singing in choirs, playing drums in church. Never thought to do any of it professionally. In 2005 I decided I need to do something with my life besides working fast food. I remember seeing a commercial on TV for a school at the time called Western Career College. I decided to look into it and ventured on to become a Veterinary Technician. That was fun at the time but still felt I had this passion for music. I spent 14 years doing that until about six years ago I remember sitting in a friend’s garage and he along with some other close friends were all DJing together. I felt kind of left out they all had controllers or iPads and was having a great time. That night I remember going home and was like this is what I want to do I want to DJ. I purchased my first controller some speakers and my journey began. The success Ive had these past six years I could only imagine where I would be today if I had started sooner.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I go by the name of DJ Madsticks. People often ask how I came up with that name and it goes back to be being a drummer. It has always stuck and it has become a household name. When I started DJing it was more of just for fun not knowing how far it would take me. I now provide professional Dj services thoughtout California. I have had the opportunity to tour with several artist such as Baby Bash, Mike Jones, Baeza, Lil Flip, Bubba Sparks, and Young Dro. As well as DJing for local artist here in the Sacramento, Ca area. I provide services for weddings, tours, private events, backyard boogies, tours, you name it I am available for your services. I think the thing that sets me a apart from others is the production value I bring when booked for services. I care about my clients and strive to provide A1 services every time.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started DJing at the right time where social media is everything. Before it was word of mouth but with so many platforms to share videos it makes life that much easier. When I started DJing I would have clients leave feedback and reviews to build that database. As word got out and I was able to get more videos out the following began to grow. For anyone starting out social media is gonna be your biggest tool. You can grow your following without booking any gigs. You have the ability to setup and stream from home these days. If done right gigs will begin to just fall in your lap. From there make sure you have a digital business card. I use Pool where everything you need to share your info is at the scan of a QR code.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Support is key in today’s society. The one thing I can’t stress enough is for people to support not only the mainstream artist but to also support your local artist. Your local artist actually need you more than the mainstream artist does. Your local artist is hungry and is trying to make a name for themselves to become that mainstream artist. With social media it makes it very easy to support your artist. Buy their music, go to local shows, share their stuff. It’s a very simple concept. As a dj I’ve had to the please to to DJ for both sides and I guarantee the local ones are just as good or if not better than some of the stuff we hear on the radio.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @djmadsticks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madsticks2020
• Other: Tic Toc: @djmadsticks

Image Credits
Melissa Kayaer from Kayaer Media