The Zone’s Mixtape LIVE took place on Thursday, May 11 at the Capital Ballroom. It featured the legendary A.Skillz playing a headlining set alongside myself, DJ Geekout (a.k.a. webmeister Bud) and an opening vinyl set by DJ Three-Bags (a.k.a. Jason Lamb). ICYMI, here’s what it looked like…
I can’t thank you enough for all your support and interest with this event! Stay tuned as we’ll definitely be doing it again!
I couldn’t be luckier to have a headliner as incredible as A.Skillz for this show. He’s a DJ/Producer whose mixes/original tracks/remixes I’ve studied and appreciated for well over a decade!
A.Skillz is a true party rocker behind the turntables, captivating crowds with his ability to embrace all aspects of music that he takes inspiration from and mash them up into a unique cocktail, infused with his own signature flavour of funk.
With DJ bookings taking him to the four corners of the world, he has appeared on stages big and small and no matter what venue or style, he always brings the house down.
Having clocked up over six million plays on his Soundcloud page, his records have gained the support of the biggest names in the industry, from Jazzy Jeff to Pete Tong, Annie Mac to Zane Lowe, whilst his DJ mixes have won over an army of supporters and resulted in him being commissioned by Radio 1 to put together a special DJ mix for their Beatles tribute night, that even had Paul McCartney tapping his feet. His James Bond mini mix is the only ever mix to be played on every daytime show on Radio 1 in the UK, whilst his productions have appeared in films, TV adverts and many a computer game.
His label Jam City has released, alongside his own work, tracks from the likes of DJ Yoda, Doorly, the Cuban Brothers, Afrika Bambaataa, Jungle Brothers, Nightmares on Wax, Mica Paris to name just a few, whilst his productions have seen him collaborate with a selection of some of the industry’s finest including; Kurtis Blow, Dr Luke, Nasa, Krafty Kuts, DJ Numark, Beardyman, Nick Thayer and Z-Trip.
My brother-from-another-musical-mother, webmeister Bud (a.k.a. DJ Geekout), officially started his journey as a DJ not too long ago. But in a short period of time, he’s become pretty proficient at the artform. And there are a few things that I think has helped him along the way.
The first, and most important, is his attitude – he has the best attitude of anyone I’ve ever had the honour of working alongside. Bud will not stop trying to learn a thing until he understands it both inside and out. The second is his love for music. By the sets he crafts (and has even performed in the Mixtape), you can tell that he very much revels in the music he spins. You can’t ask for a better trait from a DJ…the desire to share the music they love.
My partner in this show is Coultish Management. They’re a local talent agency that’s been around in Victoria for over 35 years. Not only that, but with their work with the Greater Victoria Festival Society, they’ve been involved with the creation of several local events. Oh, and most importantly…the awesome crew at Coultish are Zoners!
Their models have worked for major designers and graced the pages of countless magazines around the globe. And their talent have been involved with dozens of feature films, commercials and television series that have been filmed both locally and in Vancouver. It’s also because of them that you’ll sometimes weirdly spot me behind the decks in a locally-filmed Hallmark flick! Haha!
Finally, I wanted to genuinely thank you for your love and support for The Zone’s Mixtape. This segment of The Zone’s programming was something that started over 12 years ago. It never intended to see the light of day as an on-air program. Until then, mix shows on alternative radio were only ever aired as a post-midnight segment and it would completely change the sound of the station, with the majority of the mix shows on rock radio being EDM-focused.
So at the time, The Zone’s Mixtape only existed online. The show was brought to the airwaves for one simple reason: demand from Zoners. And that warmed my l’il DJ heart. Since then, it’s grown from a once-per-week segment (Friday afternoons) to how it exists today (weekdays at 5pm and The Mixtape REWIND on Saturdays from 10pm – midnight).
Thank you so much for listening! Hope to see you at the show!
❤️ DJ Boitano
