Raymond Abril

My favorite DJ gigs have been those at Anime Conventions. I was first introduced to them when Arizona had its first real Anime Convention called Anizona in 2005.

I believe originally I was just going to be the MC for the Karaoke contest, which was a turning point in my life in knowing that I absolutely can not pronounce Japanese songs. I also learned that I’m not afraid to stand in front of maybe 500 kids dressed up in full Cosplay trying to tell jokes, ask trivia questions, and hand out prizes both of my own mix CD (My Sapphire Mix) that I had just accomplished and prizes that made the Otaku in the audience quite excited such as DVDs of shows I had never heard of, or tried to pronounce ahead of time. I had a crack team of video game gurus thinking up new trivia questions to ask.

Actually it was intimidating at first. I was shown a video of a MC of a Los Angeles Anime Convention head of time to get an idea of what it would be like. I opted not to worry about what the first thing was that I was going to say.

Anizona was a real life changing experience because until my first Anime Convention, I was used to the club and warehouse party scene’s mass of people and had learned how to talk to strangers over the years without fear. Being around 1,000 die hard Anime fans changed things enough that I was for the first time in ages taxed to meet and greet new people in a way that is unique to their culture. It was exhilarating, running around the Embassy Suites hotel grounds meeting new people dressed up as their favorite characters from Anime, Video Games, and other media. I told a guy dressed up like Spike from Cowboy Bebop that his cigarette was too perfect. Spike’s cigarettes are always slightly bent. He agreed and bent it up a little making his homage spot on perfect. In one of the lounges, a kid who I somehow must have met before but as always I could not remember asked me a simple question: “Pirates or Ninjas?”

Great! It all made sense to me now. I was finally home.

Anizona 2005’s guest was the great Yoshitaka Amano, perhaps best known as the brilliant artist behind the Final Fantasy video game series characters. This brought Cosplayers from other states to Arizona’s first Anime Convention and in fact made it so popular, because of his status, that the convention simply did not have enough room for everyone and was turning away people at the admissions desk in mass. This meant that everything was simply at capacity, and incredibly exciting to be part of.

As the time for the Karaoke competition drew near, I felt that I had absorbed enough culture to make it through. The room filled and the seats were taken up by every character I could imagine, especially from Final Fantasy. When the time came, I had one thing to say in mind, hoping it would break the ice between me and a room that was trying to decipher the words coming out of my mouth as I explained the prizes.

“Pirates or Ninjas?” The room exploded with hundreds of voices shouting Pirates! Ninjas! “Nintendo DS or PSP? Again shouts from both camps as they proudly held up their video game consoles that they were all playing! Success and adrenaline pumping through my body, the show went on. I would ocassionally ask a question such as “Who is the secret character you obtain in Final Fantasy VI?” That’s quite a question considering that the game was released in the United States as Final Fantasy III and you had to be eaten by a monster in the game to discover him. One girl had the answer, and I gave her my prize of my mix CD.

I had some misses, blunders, and times where I wondered if I had lost the audience. By going to look at the prizes and try to figure out how to pronounce the names out-loud, I had distracted a contestant. Still, it was a grand experience. I would later find out that I was the MC for the following Anizona when I read the programming guide. Not only that, but I had been up all night at various parties and decided to be as silly as I could on the outdoor stage.

Anyways, I was also DJing at this convention. Conventions in Los Angeles, I was told, played primarily hip-hop. This was unpopular here and I wanted to do it right. I hired a real lighting crew and spent hours listening to music that is popular with the Otaku crowd such as J-Pop and Video game songs. This was an entirely new DJing experience because there were no limitations and I was to play 4 hour sets on two nights.

Parties these days are plagued with one hour DJ sets for each DJ. One hour is just enough time to get a crowd into what you’re playing, and not enough time to really perform. I really had no idea if I could please anybody nor if what I was about to do would be fun for either the crowd or myself.

Anizona is the reason I decided to purchase Final Scratch. I wanted to be able to have at my disposal as many thousands of possible songs as I could possibly need for a crowd of enormous possibility of losing touch with. Happily, there was a great team behind every corner to make the technical challenges solvable. I did not accomplish these things alone, and there are so many names to thank. Having problems solved, I still had my chance to pull it off. And it was mind blowing fascinating.

My first song was “Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone” because of its commercial popularity I felt that it would be immediately likable. I had also looked through the song lists of the Dance Dance Revolution series of games and bought vinyl records of songs that were also likely known. It worked! The whole room was packed of kids dressed up in their intricate costumes. For some reason I thought that they might also like a song from the Asian culture and played it next… and it was immediately a flop because it wasn’t a dance song. The whole crowd in unison shouted: “More Techno!”

Happily obliged and completely prepared, I put on the record of “ATB - Don’t Stop.” and next the Condor remix of “Aurora - Ordinary World.” It was a real proving ground for Dj-ing because over 4 hours I played nearly 2 dozen styles of music including the Psychedelic Trance opus by Infected Mushroom, Drum & Bass, Breakbeats, Eurobeat, J-Pop, and of course the Hard House remix of Tetris made popular by DJ Venom. That would be the anthem of the night and perhaps every convention I’ve ever played at. I not seen a crowd go as crazy to a song in my life.

I really used this opportunity to experiment. I had spent $50 on the actual vinyl record for “Ayumi Hamasaki - Dearest”. On stage, I removed it from its protective sleeves and lining, ruining its collector’s value in order to play the ending theme from the popular Anime series Inuyasha. On beat, I changed from the original remix into a breakbeat remix and into a club dance remix and finally into a high energy remake. I was switching styles as fast as I could because this room that was the same room I had previously been an MC in was packed full of kids used to the shorter versions of songs available on DDR - and they were full of so much energy that I was reaching 280 BPM (Beats Per Minute) and they still would not stop. When I tell other DJs that I’ve played sets between 60-300BPM, I always get a look of bewilderment. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was and continued to be.

The greatest part about these dances was that since these are at hotels, people can come and go as they please and so as some leave to catch their breath, others fill the room and the beat goes on. Everyone is listening, as opposed to warehouse parties where people are wandering about or barely paying attention to the music.

I’ve been asked to play at a convention later this year and more details will be available soon, but here is a list of every convention I’ve had the honor of playing at so far:

• Anizona 2005
• Anizona 2006
• Anizona 2007
• Phoenix Anime Fest 2006
• Phoenix Con Games 2007
• Phoenix Con Games 2008
• Otaku University 2007
• Phoenix Cactus Comicon 2009
• SabotenCon 2009 (Upcoming)

Sometimes I’ve played really experimental music, and others I’ve poured over the hundreds of video game remixes available at OverClocked just to narrow down the list to 50. I’ve brought in friends to play whatever they want so the every night, often two, are as fun as possible. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and DJing along side Greg Ayers, who unbeknown to me I had seen DJ previously at an Anime convention in Texas, Oni-Con. Greg’s absolutely incredible capability of ramping up the crowd with his DJ sets and microphone work are awesome. I know I’ll always have a bar beyond what I’ve accomplished until I can deliver a night as amazing as him.

So there’s my experience DJing at Anime Conventions. I ponder often about what I can do that is new and different, but one question always prevails: “Pirates or Ninjas?”