The '90s come to Ophelia's.
DJ A-L
As a kid, A-L would use speakers that he pulled out of trash cans, and when he scraped together some money, he bought used turntables from thrift stores. Back then, a DJ had to innovate; there was no YouTube, and there weren't classes to learn from. The culture was secretive, so you had to be self-taught. “To get a party started, you almost had to become an electrician,” he jokes.
Some DJs give themselves superhero names, such as Stretch Armstrong and DJ Clark Kent. Others might use puns that reference turntables or the scratch, like Oprah Spinfrey and Vinyl Richie. A-L used his initials, which he says reflects authenticity — though it does have one downside: “It’s hard to Google.”
He wants an emotional connection with his audience — a story with tension, peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s attitude and confidence that separates good DJs from great ones. “If you don’t think you’re playing the best music in the world, you’re not doing it right,” A-L states. “A certain amount of arrogance can help a DJ.”
When asked whether he still “digs in crates” — the practice of combing through record store or thrift shop bins for music on vinyl — A-L responds, “I’ve been digging in my crates this entire conversation.”
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