A turntable to his left, a sturdy machine wrapped in colorful buttons in the middle, and another turntable to his right. Fourth-year Japanese student Jordan Mayer can imagine the moment perfectly. Tonight, Mayer will bust out his turntables once again ““ but this time, he will open for up-and-coming DJ Dillon Francis.
Mayer will perform tonight at the New Year’s event “The Kick Off,” which will be held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom.
Aside from three DJs, the event will feature two photo booths, an alcohol awareness obstacle course, free arcade games and poker games. There is also a chance to win prizes such as BlackBerrys and BlackBerry PlayBooks.
Also, in the spirit of New Year’s, Ackerman Grand Ballroom will have “Resolution Walls” where people can write their New Year’s resolutions.
Five UCLA organizations came together to organize the event: UCLAradio.com, Student Committee for the Arts, On Campus Housing Council, Campus Events Commission and the General Representative 1 office.
David Bocarsly, a third-year economics student and Undergraduate Students Association Council general representative, said the idea of an electro-themed event developed in response to a lack of excitement and enthusiasm for winter quarter.
“There’s that dip in winter quarter, and I was wondering why that was. “¦ I wanted to get people excited of being here, being back in school and seeing their friends,” Bocarsly said.
Mayer, who began DJing during his senior year of high school, said song selection is important because it’s a combination of what people want to hear and what songs go together. Once he establishes what songs to use, he decides the order and, with the help of other equipment, adds effects to make the music more exciting.
Taking a more traditional approach to DJing, Mayer uses CDJs, CD players that mimic the same feel as vinyl.
“When I first saw what DJs did, I saw the whole scratching element of DJing, like controlling the speed of each song. I think it’s cool to use your hands to do music. It looks more traditional,” Mayer said.
Fourth-year economics student Donnie Kendall will also perform. An intern at
UCLAradio.com, Kendall said he was surprised to be selected from eight candidates who competed in a DJing contest for the event.
Kendall, who became friends with Mayer during the DJ contest, takes a slightly more nontraditional approach to DJing. He uses Ableton Live, a digital audio workstation, to perform live as opposed to using turntables. Kendall said that for “The Kick Off” he plans to play a main-stage house theme comprised of Top 40 songs.
Mayer, who performed at Mighty Mic last year, said he originally thought about playing main-stage music, but instead will play a mix of main-stage, which is comprised of Top 40 songs and songs that aren’t as well-known.
The headliner of “The Kick Off” is Francis, a DJ under the same label as Diplo. Kendall said he enjoyed Francis’ performance last year in Ackerman Grand Ballroom when he opened for Diplo.
“He’s gotten a lot bigger over the year. He performed at the Avalon recently and killed it. He plays a lot of Moombahton, a reggae tempo, and club (music),” Kendall said.
Mayer, who also saw Francis perform at UCLA last year, said Francis has grown a lot in the past year alone because of his use of broad genres of music. He said he’s expecting to be nervous but he remains optimistic.
“I’m going in there really open-minded. I’m expecting to be nervous because I’m going before someone who is world-renowned,” Mayer said. “To share the same stage as him is crazy. It’s definitely the biggest show I’ve ever been in. It’s going to be an incredible experience for sure.”