NEW TIMES How long have you been a DJ?
HOWARD I’ve been doing this for 11 years now. I did my first gig midway through 2000 when I was 15. I started with school dances, and I was pretty much just choosing songs, and then when I was about 16 I started realizing, oh you can mix these songs.
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NEW TIMES When did you purchase your first equipment?
HOWARD In 2007, so I would use, like, the school stuff or I would use the club stuff. I was broke, and I was struggling to make rent. I had to sell a projector and an Xbox when I bought my own stuff in ’07, and it was really crappy equipment, too.
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NEW TIMES How much stuff do you have to carry around with you when you tour?
HOWARD Well, the places I am going to all are set up with the equipment. I just bring my computer. I have an iPad for my video and my hard drive. There are some places I can just bring my hard drive because I’m with other guys and I can just plug in.
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NEW TIMES Have you always been into music?
HOWARD Yeah, I mean I didn’t ever play—I played trombone at about the same time I started to DJ. But I was always into the way the lyrics land on the beat.
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NEW TIMES What is a video DJ?
HOWARD People who DJ with video, when they spin, you’re still mixing the music, but there is also a video counterpart. If I mix in a song or scratch it out or echo it out, the video corresponds with that.
This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2011.