We were lucky to catch up with Sean White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I first learned how to mix records when I was younger just by practicing over and over in my bedroom. I had a standard DJ setup of two Technics 1200’s and Pioneer mixer and I had about 15 House records that I would just practice mixing for hours. Then life happened and I had to get rid of those things. Fast forward about 20 years and everything had totally changed. DJing is all digital now and YouTube is a powerful resource. I also had some help from a friend who’s been DJing professionally for over 20 years. He helped me through the basics and then I was off and running. I jumped right back in pretty easily but spent almost a year practicing and going out and listening to other DJs before playing my first gig. I have learned that technical ability in mixing is not a DJs most essential skill. It’s reading the crowd and knowing how to keep them engaged and keep them dancing. Which is significantly harder in today’s fast paced lifestyle and everyone having a short attention span. 20 years ago you could mix seven minute House tracks and spend two minutes on the mix and people would just keep dancing. Now, if you play a song for more than two minutes, you’re going to lose your audience. I think the biggest obstacle is the grind of constantly chasing bookings. Even in a place like Nashville with so many bars and nightclubs, there are a lot of DJs and the competition is fierce. There are some real pros here that are amazing at what they do.

Sean, 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?

I am a DJ and a novice Producer but that is a very small part of who I am. I am a husband to my amazing wife Taryn, and father to my beautiful and talented daughter Amelia. I also have a day job working in the healthcare tech space, and I’ve also helped run a nonprofit organization that benefits veterans for the past eight years. Both of my parents loved music, albeit very different kinds, that helped drive my passion for music at a very young age. I started collecting records and tapes in elementary school. Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of money, so when I would ask my mom about joining the band at school because I wanted to learn how to play an instrument, I was met with “we can’t afford it”. By the time I reached high school I thought people were defined by the music they consumed. Therefore I became very particular about what I listened to. There was this local record store that was close to my home in Northern Kentucky called Phil’s Records, and they bought and sold used music. As a teenager, I would spend hours thumbing through their used records and tapes looking for anything that caught my attention. Music wasn’t just something that I listened to, it was part of who I was. I would listen to records and tapes over and over again until I memorized every lyric and melody and I would pretend to perform like the artists I was listening to. After high school I joined the Army and through that I met people from all walks of life who opened my eyes to other types of music. With that experience I began to learn to love it even more. I would go to shows and nightclubs to listen and watch people perform. I would get so lost in the love of hearing the loud speakers and the bass reverberate through my body. I was addicted to it. At this point I have no idea how many concerts I’ve been to, but it has to be in the hundreds. As my professional career grew and I continued to meet people, they would always be amazed at how extensive my music knowledge was. I don’t know how many different occasions someone would say to me “You should be a DJ”. I had actually dabbled in DJing dance music when I was younger, but it never went anywhere. But a few years ago my father passed away. And before he died, he left me with some wisdom about how life is too short, and that you can’t wait forever to do the things you want to do. So I began to pursue the whole DJ thing again. Luckily, I have a friend that has been DJing professionally for several years who mentored me and help me get started. So now I have been at it professionally for a couple of years,

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

For the longest time I had this goal of playing a festival and now I need to come up with a new goal because I just achieved that one. I just played the Breakaway festival here in Nashville. So now I need to look at setting a new goal. I’m teaching myself how to produce dance music and I have some micro goals around that. As someone with no formal training I’m forced to take it all in small chunks. But ultimately my goal there is to be able to consistently make music that I’m proud to share.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a DJ I love looking out to the crowd and seeing people dancing and having a great time and enjoying themselves. It’s always fun to see those people that are trying to make eye contact with you to let you know they like the song you’re playing or shoot a thumbs up. Those little moments are what make all the work and preparation worth it to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.djblanconash.com
• Instagram: @djblanconash
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087785897967
• Other: Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/djblanconash/

Image Credits

The first pic was taken by Nicole I don’t know her last name but her instagram handle is @awake.dreaming

The other two are not professional photos