Meet the DJs

The DJs have been assembled. And the clock is ticking, ticking … down to 9 p.m. this Friday night at NV (220 Admiral), where a fresh crop of DJs will face off with randomly ordered, back-to-back, live, super-intense, peak-time, club-banging, 30-minute sets in the city’s biggest yearly DJ event: The Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest. We’re totally excited about this year’s contestants. They come from all sides of the music spectrum — and some are from halfway around the globe. But they’re all coming to the contest to do one thing: Make. You. Dance.

1. Real name: Shaun Duval

Unofficial title: The Heavyweight

Mexican wrestler name: El Rey

Ridiculoso

Birthplace: Chicago

Cut his teeth: Atlanta, 1995 to 2005

Has been DJing: “Longer than I care to talk about. I would say, professionally, 10 years.”

Started off spinning: “Strictly soulful Chicago house.”

Preferred style(s): “I just kind of go with the event and the night that I’m playing. Some places, I play Top 40 mash-up remixes; some places, I play downtempo. But I don’t really mix too many styles together. I try to keep to one particular style when I’m playing a gig. … I like to rock a dance floor.”

Inspirations: Hot Mix 5, Frankie Knuckles, Clever, Tittsworth, Diplo

Has played: Re:Verse (three-year Friday residency), One80, Mosaic, Blonde

Current residency: Thursdays at Nara, on rotation at Blonde

Calls his followers: The Shauntourage

Plan of attack: “Pure energy. I want to surprise everyone. A lot of people think that I play only one style of music, or that they can pigeonhole me into being one kind of a DJ. But I really wanna surprise people. I want them to know I’m not just house music, not just Top 40 mash-ups and remixes. That’s the plan of attack — just energy, make some eardrums bleed.”

2. Real name: Francisco Asis Morillo Otero

Unofficial title: The Spanish Flyboy

Taxi-driver name: Chow-Chow White

Birthplace: Cadiz, Spain

Day job: High-school math teacher

Has been DJing: Eight years

First gig: A club called Ajo in Cadiz

First gig in KC after moving here two and a half years ago: The Westport Beach Club, alongside Oz McGuire

Preferred style(s): Electro-indie, electro-noise, mixing up funk, reggae, hip-hop, afrobeat, “flavor music, urban sounds, very eclectic”

Inspirations: Ninja Tune, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow

Has played: One80, Balanca’s, Record Bar, Eighth Street Taproom, Replay, Skybox, “pretty much everywhere”

Current residencies: Tuesdays at Nara, Fridays at One80

Plan of attack: “I’m going to play things that people recognize. … I don’t care if I win — I wanna play music and help people have fun.”

Best thing about being a DJ: “The response of the crowd. Another thing is, I feel that I can put everything I have in my head — all the sounds and beats — and put it together in a session. I like to take people from one place to another place in terms of music.”

Worst thing: “Requests for commercial music.”

3. Real name: Scott Carpenter

Unofficial title: The Blonde Bomber

Hobbit name: Lotho Boggy-Hillocks

Birthplace: St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri

Has been DJing: Three years

Got started: “I used to be in electronic music when I was younger, and I kind of got away from it. Then I went to an event at the Madrid, featuring BT as the headlining DJ, and after that I just kind of re-emerged myself. I went out, bought some new equipment and got going again.”

Preferred style(s): Electro-house

Inspirations: Deadmau5, Klaas; “Locally, Bill Pile, Steve Thorrell, and this up-and-comer Andrew Northern (who’s real experienced with production).”

Has played: Blonde, Mint, Glow

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Current residency: Wednesdays at Blonde

Plan of attack: “To go there with a handful of tracks that I love, feel the crowd out, and play what they’re going for.”

Best thing about being a DJ: “You get paid to do something you love.”

Worst thing: “That, in this line of work, a lot of things can change really quick, as in working with nightclubs, and you don’t necessarily get much notice.”

During this interview, he was recovering: From a cold.

4. Real name: Jamel Williams

Unofficial title: The Hip-Hop Kid

Pimp name: Sheik Rockwell Slither

Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri

Has been DJing: 11 years

Got started: DJing in college at Central Missouri State University

Preferred style(s): “I work mostly in hip-hop. I’m part of James Christos’ collective, the Guerilla Movement. I also like electronic stuff. I spin a lot of traditional house and ghetto house. I’m good friends with DJ Shad — we always had a bond because of ghetto house.”

Hip-hop background, advantage or disadvantage? “I consider it an advantage. I think, as a DJ, you need to know how to spin, period. I think if you classify yourself as a specific type of DJ, then you lower your stock as a DJ. Funkmaster Flex – he spins a lot of electronic stuff, whenever it pays. Van Helden, Fatboy Slim — a lot of those cats, they have some kind of hip-hop background or some kind of background other than electronic music.”

Inspirations: “Armand Van Helden is definetly an influence. DJ Funk. I actually have a pretty decent appreciation for DJ Skribble. The big dude that I kind of pattern myself after or try to emulate is [Afrika] Bambaataa, because he crossed genres whenever he pleased.”

Has played: the Hangout, Balanca’s, the Peanut, Korruption, Kandi

Plan of attack: “I think most of these cats probably don’t know me, so I think the element of surprise will be there. But let’s put it like this: If people have expectations of what I’m gonna do, that helps me out.”

Best thing about being a DJ: “It’s a different form of communication from what other people may use in their lives. It’s a way to express yourself and draw expression out of your crowd. Sometimes it’s a calm, casual conversation; sometimes it’s a street fight, trying to get someeone to understand what you do. But when it’s going right, whether someone likes what you’re playing or not, they understand what you’re trying to create.”

(And that answer: Was pretty much the best response to anything we’ve heard this year.)

5. Kipsquared, composed of: brothers Tunc and Timo Kip

Unofficial title: The Tenderfeet

Cyborg name: Kinetic Intelligent Person Skilled in Quick Utility, Accurate Repair and Efficient Destruction

Birthplace: Izmir, Turkey

Came to the United States: for college at KU

Have been DJing: Eight years

How they got started: “Is MTV a bad answer for that? It’s way different in Europe. It has music, not all those reality shows.” — Tunc Kip

Favorite MTV Europe Show: Dancefloor Chart on Saturdays

Pronunciation of “Tunc”: Toonch

Producing their own music: One year

Preferred style(s): House, electro

Have played: Nowhere yet in Kansas City; house parties and at Abe & Jake’s in Lawrence

Plan of attack: “We’re hoping to come up with the winning playlist.”

Are you intimidated, going up against so many veterans? “We’ve always done this for fun, and that’s our main purpose. We’re hoping everyone else has fun as well. For that reason, we’re not intimidated. We know who we’re running up against, too. The main purpose is having fun, making sure everyone else has fun.”