We recently connected with Roman Canoy and have shared our conversation below.

Roman, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

When a bride is searching for a DJ vendor they may go to these big bridal shows and conferences and find tons of ‘names’ which may be something along the lines of ‘something something Events’. They are sold a specific vision and pay as much as this multi-operation company can get their prospective client to pay. Other times, they have easy cost and may not make as much. Whatever the case may be, the result is the same. If there is a multi-operation business that has multiple DJ’s it is likely the DJ’s were poached with no experience and trained from the ground up, stick to a formulaic script, and get paid very under market, especially so for the cheaper options. These guys could have any background, they could have been a teacher or just a young adult with an interest in getting a ‘fast pass’ to becoming a “DJ”. They do all the work for the company to collect the dough and they may not even do that great of a job when it comes to musicality or creativity. It is literally the bare minimum. I feel like the brides are being misled by the industry and all the shining diamonds. They would get a much higher quality and less confusing experience if they were able to hire a direct individual. This is what I have to offer!

Roman, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been drawn towards music. When I was a toddler, I beat on pots and pans and sang dynamically. When I was 10, I learned to play the trumpet. Over the course of my 9 year career mastering that instrument, I played competitively, learned music theory, composed sheet music, competed and placed in many marching events, and even became the lead improv soloist in my high school’s jazz band. Along the way, my personal music interests were rooted in heavy content particularly hip hop and rock. Eventually 2012 happened and I literally wiped all my playlists and was only interested in EDM from that point forward! When I was 21 I frequented dozens and dozens of local Dallas EDM shows in any given year. I kept running into the same acquaintances, and we shared the same interest in learning the DJ and producer craft. One of them shared with me how they bought an entry level DJ controller and encouraged me to do the same. I became what they call a “bedroom DJ”. During that summer in 2018, I leveraged my musician experience to teach myself how to DJ alongside many helpful online content. In early 2019, a friend of mine who curated playlists (he called himself a DJ but only used a laptop) asked me to cover a wedding for him because he had an emergency, and that was my first paying gig!

Since then, I have hit the ground running! I joined teams with other multi operation DJ businesses and gained valuable experience in weddings. I can admit that when I first picked up a DJ controller, I certainly did not envision myself doing weddings but it has gotten my foot into so many other opportunities and as it turns out, I am actually pretty good at it now!

My services involves bringing the party ANYWHERE whether at your wedding, birthday, outdoor pool party. etc. I am most proud of the repeat Christmas corporate events I have earned and the annual Cancer run/walks I play at the Levitt Pavilion in Arlington. I’m also very happy and proud of the opportunities my colleagues have given me to play at some club locations, as well as to participate in our very own local festival!

I am open format which means I can play everything for everyone. Normally if I was not a DJ, I would just stick to my own preferences, but clients are paying to listen to their music and so DJing has forced me to open my horizons and get well versed in everything. To my surprise, this has not been an issue in my personal enjoyment of DJing! Whenever I make a clever transition or drop a track at the perfect moment that will make the dance floor go bonkers, that is extremely satisfying, no matter the genre!

I chose my own DJ name as “ZAZU”, which just so happens to be the name of the hornbill bird in the Lion King! There is no particular reason why I chose this name, I just thought it had the phonetic punch and simplicity I was looking for. However if you ever google it, there is some pretty cool symbolism and meaning behind the relationship between Zazu and Mufasa. My brand is minimalist and simple yet distinguished and powerful. I try to represent this in my logo and mixing style as much as possible. Whenever I am playing at a non-private event, I want my sets to have those energetic and sometimes aggressive emotions that I have always leaned towards my whole life, no matter the genre. Those vibes have always been in my performances and they’re not going anywhere!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For a while, things started to become stagnant and I felt somewhat lonely in the game. I didn’t really know which way to point myself. The reason why was because I had the false belief that because I was in competition with the other DJ’s around me, that we could not cooperate or work together, it would be some kind of awkward conflict of interest. So in my mind, it was everyone for themselves and I just had to be the best.

In 2022, I placed third in a local DJ competition and won some prize money. That’s where things really took off for me and I got involved in my first DJ network because there were just so many cool people I got to meet along the way that helped me with so many other opportunities. This completely flipped the script for me, I was completely blown away by the friendships I made and free knowledge I had gained from others and the knowledge I was able to share with others. To this day, I am involved with a large network of DJ’s that started from that competition last year. Yes we are technically in competition with each other but overall, everybody seems to have this belief that you will only get better by helping others. And I can see first hand that this is 100% true!

The other thing I learned was that you do not have to actually be good at DJing in order to be a “good” DJ! There are so many others who when I compare myself to them, I may consider myself to be better in the technicalities or the craft because I know how to do this one thing on a DJ controller. However, they may be a lot more busy than me or make a lot more money or have a ton more instagram followers than me. Obviously they know something I don’t! So I have to drop the pride and realize that not everyone out there cares nearly as much for the things the me and other DJ’s would care about.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Honestly just word of mouth, social media, and personal connections. When I went full time, I immediately invested a ton into paying for leads but those leads are not interested in ME, they just want to know how cheap my packages are. When somebody I know recommends me to another potential client, it is organic and genuine and the potential lead will already be emotionally invested when they inquire from me. Also if someone stumbles upon my instagram profile and wants to reach out, they will feel like they have discovered something on their own and were not sold something. Me especially, I am not the only one: we all scroll right past the ads! Lesson learned: take that money you would spend on advertising and put it towards your social media instead!

Contact Info:

• Website: djzazu.com (pending construction)
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/dj.zazu
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJayZAZU
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-canoy-847504102/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/djayzazu
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNMWWEK3rCT4RAbzZq_Gf8A