Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nick Martin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

There was this time during my teenager days (14 or 15 years old), when an old neighbor friend (Alexander) came by my house for a short visit. I remember my dad, Alexander and I talking about how I was doing at middle school. The conversation goes for a few minutes about school related things and he then proceeds with the following question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Me, listening to his question and then syncing my neurons lining up all my ideas replied with the following:
“I honestly don’t know. I like music, I like balancing out numbers and I like drawing, creating things. I would like to become an accountant, a graphic designer or an audio engineer”
It was then when I had a rough idea of what I wanted to become.
After finishing high school, I enrolled in business administration and completed an associate. After this, I had the opportunity to manage a locally own franchise at 2 different locations while also managing my own DJ, Sound & Lighting company. While I was busy as a manager, I was also taking audio engineering classes at Central Piedmont Community College.
I haven’t enrolled in any graphic designing courses, classes or associates, however; I am constantly checking videos of how to use Photoshop, Affinity and other photo editor software. I like watching videos when others create art, graphic designing, flyers, building things, and things related. It gives me ideas and show me different perspectives of things in general.
I am basically the one making my own event flyers for my social media outlets when I have gigs.
Bottom line, I think that I have somehow reached the question I was asked by my old neighbor friend (Alexander)

Nick, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Music has been and continues to be a devotion, passion, and a hobby for me since my childhood. I remember being a kid and listening to music from the ’70s, growing up listening to ’80s songs, and feeling the vibes from the ’90s. I started very young, when I was 14 or 15 years old, collecting music, old records, and tapes. It was not until the year 2000 when I decided to become a DJ. Another friend who was into music and I together started our local DJ business called “MUSICMAN DJs, Audio and Lighting,” and we began doing private events and parties. Time goes by, and after a year, we decided to go separate ways. My friend was more focused on photography and filming, and I was more on the music side.
Another year goes, I continued carrying on with the company I started with my previous friend until I met another local DJ. From there, we started a relationship, sharing ideas, experiences, knowledge, and events. Our relationship continued for another year and we finally realized that by joining forces, we could do much more, so we decided to start our own DJ business known as “MINITECA VENMAN DJ, SOUND AND LIGHTING”. During this time, we were busy every weekend with up to 3 to 5 parties per weekend; sometimes we had to subcontract other DJs to cover more events. Business was booming, and we were investing in equipment for future plans. We were able to do bigger events such as concerts and local festivals. Apex Latino Arts Festival, Dominican Festival, Don Omar’s 1st Charlotte Concert at the Bojangles Arena, formerly known as Cricket Arena, Oscar De Leon, La Makina, Wisin y Yandel held at The Backstage, Franco DeVita performing at the Blumenthal Performing Art Center, Victor Manuelle, Orquesta Guayacan, Grupo Niche, Fernando Arau, Priscila y sus Pistolas, and many more regional and international talent. As a DJ company, we were also playing at local nightclubs such as Latorre’s, Forum, Salamandras, Skandalos, Buckhead Saloon, Suite, Illusions 1000. Back then, I was taking audio engineering classes at CPCC and at the same time being a DJ. I was just starting out, getting to know the ways of keeping the crowd going, building my music library, learning new tricks of the trade, and being mentored by other DJ friends. “MINITECA VENMAN DJ, SOUND AND LIGHTING” remained in business until around 2010, when the house market completely collapsed, and business overall declined. It was hard for us to stay in business to the point that we had to go separate ways, and again, I was on my own carrying on with the company I started with my second business partner.
With the economy being impacted by the housing bubble, not many events were getting booked. I was not heavily involved with DJing and gigs, and I was more focused on school, work, and family. Some time went by, and I decided to switch things around and rebrand my business to something more trending and easier to remember. That is when I came up with Nick Martin. Since then, I have been DJing for different venues here in Charlotte and surrounding areas. The Pub at Gateway, Barrel, Tilt, The Union, DJ’s Skylounge, El Centenario, QC Social, Charlotte’s Tin Roof, Snug Harbor, Mambo Nights, Vida Cantina, Big Ben, Clutch, The Boatyard, Scorpio, Press Box, La Capital MX, Charandas, La Lena, La Fonda, Kate’s Seafood Rest, The Fairwoor, RSVP, The Dandelion Market, Buho’s Rooftop, Yancey Brewing Company, Noda Brewing Company and many more. I have performed for different festivals such as Apex Latino Arts Festival, Festival Latinoamericano, Charlotte’s Parranda Venezolana, Festival Viva Venezuela, Summit Seltzer Fest, Charlotte’s Donut Fest, and Charlotte’s Empanada Fest. International talents I have shared stage with Joel and Randy, Billo’s Caracas Boys, Cardenales del Exito, Diveana, Desorden Publico, Tecupae, Los Amigos Invisibles, Ronald Borgas, Nelson Arrieta, Neguito Borgas, Luis Enrique, Tito Nieves, Gonin. Regional talent I have shared stage with, Conjunto Pentagrama, Swing Gaitero, Skynfolks, Davisson Brothers Band, Smokey Jones and the 3 Pistols, Ultima Nota, Orquesta Mayor, Bakalao Stars, Desorden Publico, and more.
I have done many private events. Weddings, Sweet 16 and Sweet 15 (Quiceaneras), Parties, and more since I started as a DJ. I currently offer sound and lighting equipment rental, Master of Ceremony for events along with DJing. I am an open-format DJ, offering the crowd a mix of everything. I keep the music going nonstop, blending hit after hit and fluctuating depending on what the audience’s vibe tells me. From current dance hits, top 40 songs, pop, rap, hip hop bangers (classic, old school to new), house, remixes, mashups, and because of my diverse background and knowledge on music, I always keep some other genres up my sleeve surprising the audience all seamlessly blended, keeping the energy level at its peak, and the crowd anxiously waiting for the hit banger.
I focus on events regardless of type. Weddings, Sweet 16 and Sweet 15 (Quiceaneras), Partes, Homecoming, Graduations, Festivals, Concerts, Corporate and private events, Bars, and nightclubs. I offer multicultural professional DJs, bilingual Spanish English master of ceremony, top-of-the-line sound and lighting equipment rental, Silent disco headphones, video DJs.

I can be found on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Mixcloud, and TikTok).

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Yes, always willing to improve and prove myself that it can be done and that finish line where all the glory is can be reached. My goal is to make it to nightclubs locally, regionally, nationally and internationally if given the opportunity.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

With the house market bubble bursting between 2007 and 2008 and the whole US economy went into financial crisis, my previous partner and I noticed a decrease of events being booked. People in general were not getting into having parties and celebrations. There was a fear among everyone and the general though was to wait and see what the future would hold. It was getting harder for us to remain busy and active as a business. The basic necessities needed to be covered instead of being entertained; therefore, people were expending on basic needs and not being extravagant by hosting events. And if this was the case, there were limitations when it came to expending money, budgets were more on the table. Let’s add to this that we were not the only ones in the market. Someone else could do it for less. From having 3 to 5 parties on a weekend, we went to have 1 or 2 per month. Nothing compared to our previous years. Remember I mentioned that I used to manage a locally own franchise? I was still doing this while me and my previous partner were managing our own entertaining company during this house market crisis. At the same time, my previous partner was transitioning from one job to adventuring into opening his own restaurant. He successfully opened his own food spot and with this, the focus, attention and care required to keep this type of commerce running made him to get a little distant from our line of business. I realized then since we were not busy with gigs, we had to step in and make some changes to bring more income and stay open in the entertainment field. I decided to have a conversation with my partner at this time. We phone talked for a bit about our current situation, we exchanged ideas and the solutions we had on the table. We ended the chatting by agreeing to another phone meeting to continue brainstorming and looking for a mutual solution.

After a few days, we talked again trying to solve our current situation and look for alternatives. At that time, as a registered company; we were dealing with financial issues and this was also a pivotal point. Even though we talked about it, I was not hoping to go for it. A bitter solution was reached; we agreed on going separate ways.

“MINITECA VENMAN DJ, SOUND AND LIGHTING” remained in business until around 2010, and again; I was on my own carrying on with the company I started with my second business partner.

With the economy being impacted by the housing bubble, not many events were getting booked. I was not heavily involved with DJing and gigs, and I was more focused on school, work, and family. Some time went by, I had to make some changes because it was only me running the business and doing pretty much everything. I had to downsized equipment. Because of those busy days when we used to have 3 to 5 parties on a weekend, MINITECA VENMAN DJ, SOUND AND LIGHTING as a company rented out a 20ft-by-20ft storage facility where we had all our equipment stored. From having 26000 watts of power in amplifiers with equalization, signal processing units, live band mixing consoles with mic snakes and different types of microphones depending on application intended, 30 to 40 ft of trussing bars, up to 20 different types of speakers for different applications, different ambiance effect machines, intelligent moving headlights and different types of color lights depending on application and who knows what else. I had to swallow my pride and bite the bullet. I had to think what to keep and what to let go, sell. I decided to go minimalist, simple and basic. Practicality was a major key. I sold mostly everything. I kept only what was needed for events no more than 150 people. 2 powerful tops and 2 beefed up subwoofers. 2 high end moving headlights. My laptop and controller. 2 to 3 durable “do it all” mics, power cords, audio cables, a trailer and that was it. It was basically me doing all the major work.
I decided to switch things around and rebrand my business to something more trending and easier to remember. That is when I came up with Nick Martin. Since going solo again, things were not that easy. Business started slow and things got rolling after a few years. Being persistent, stubborn, not giving up, urged, hungry, on top of things are the signs of my resilience.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @nickmartindj
• Facebook: @nickmartindj
• Youtube: @djnickmartin
• Other: Tiktok: @nickmartindj

Image Credits
Ronald Zaconet Zaconet Films