Today we’d like to introduce you to Moee Turbin.
Hi Moee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born on September 19th, 1995 in Los Angeles, CA. I grew up with a single mother and was raised with the help of my grandparents. I lived all around Southern California the first eight years of my life including Pasadena, Pomona, Riverside, Ontario, Corona and other cities. When I was eight, my mother decided to move to Las Vegas to be closer to her other children and grandchildren. Never having much, I can recall riding the public bus with my mom in the early years to go to Welfare appointments and food banks. Once when I was around 5 years old, I can recall briefly living in a shelter with my mom. At the end of the day, my mom always made sure that I had clothes to wear and food to eat, and though poverty was consistent throughout my upbringing, thankfully being homeless happened when I was very young and didn’t last long. When we came to Las Vegas, we lived with my older sisters at first and helped watch their children to contribute. My mother hitched her car to the U-Haul when we drove from California to Vegas, but unfortunately it was stolen shortly after. It was at this time, 8 years old, that my mother taught me how to ride the public bus in order to get to school (3rd Grade). I distinctly remember her riding with me three times to show me the route. After the third time, she said I was on my own because that’s how the real world is. It may seem scary, but she was right and I am thankful for those experiences that built my independent/go-getter spirit.
I can remember being obsessed with music as early as 5th grade. During this time, I focused on writing a lot whether it was writing poetry, short stories or songs with melodies that only existed in my head. At the time, I would write lyrics and sing them to myself. The songs were often about school, my friends or just random topics my mind came up with. I always loved reading and writing so school was a place I flourished. I didn’t usually feel challenged in school and so I would typically finish my work or tests very quickly leaving me with free time to write about whatever my imagination came up with. As a class clown, I began using the classroom as a stage; getting in front of it whenever I could for some laughs or overall attention. Eventually, I began using opportunities in front of my classmates to share my poetry. By this time, I had found Rock & Roll; much different from the hip-hop and oldies I had grew up listening to, but I loved both sides. It was then I imagined being a rock star and learning how to play the guitar. Middle school was uneventful, but coming out in 8th grade showed me who my real friends were and how much of an uphill battle it was going to be as a girl who liked girls. I realized very quickly who I could trust and who I could confide in as a whole; my family not being a part of that circle. My poetry and lyrics transitioned into sharing my deeper feelings which I didn’t feel I could share with many people without judgement, ridicule or abandonment.
In high school, I learned how to play guitar through classes, and it finally gave my songwriting a chance to fully come together. Knowing very little about music production or recording, I began writing songs with a beginner acoustic guitar I received as a gift which I still have today. I referred to myself as “The Black Taylor Swift” due to our similar music style of singing about relationships and heartbreak. This was the best way and safest way for me to express myself and my sexuality. I recorded and released two albums during high school with most songs being about my feelings for girls, feeling rejected by some, being involved with some and the challenges that I faced being out. Again, not having much knowledge in actual production or audio editing, I would record my songs “in the closet” in one take. I had nothing but a laptop that was given to me to use while I was doing online school my freshman year, a USB microphone, my notebook with the lyrics and my acoustic guitar that I tied a shoe string on to use as a guitar strap. Having no concept of recording in small increments and piecing it together, I would play guitar while singing at the same time recording the whole song in one take. After recording, I would upload my music to a website that no longer functions the same or holds those songs on their site but I was happy to be able to finally package it all together with the lyrics and melodies I was now creating.
Throughout high school, I listened to a lot of Dubstep which was the first Electronic genre I found. By the end of high school, I knew how to shuffle from listening to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and watching corresponding videos on Youtube. I spent hours downloading music to fill up the storage on my PSP (Playstation Portable) to listen to whenever I got the chance. I had a plethora of music ranging from Pop to Rap to Dubstep to Rock and loved each genre for different reasons. After graduating high school in 2013, I was fortunate enough to be recruited to Nevada State College to be a part of a pilot program for 1st Generation, low-income students. Thankfully I qualified for Financial Aid and was able to make my dreams of going to college a reality; something I had committed to when I was 8 years old. I was always encouraged by my mother, who believed in me tremendously, to pursue college, but it was always a mystery as to how it would be funded. I am thankful for the Nepantla Program which gave me guidance, support and a home at Nevada State College. Here I met some of my best friends to this day, and when I began raving. In 2017, I went to my first EDM festival, GoldRush in Arizona with two of my good friends. It was here that I finally saw DJs live including Rezz, Excision, San Holo, Marshmello and others who are still big inspirations to me today. I quickly fell in love with rave culture feeling loved and understood and blending right in as someone who had been making kandi bracelets for years beforehand. I decided then at the festival, not only did I want to produce electronic music and potentially blend it with my guitar playing in the future, but also dive deep into the rave community back home in Las Vegas once I returned. Sure enough, after this festival I went down the rabbit hole in Las Vegas; binding myself to the underground community. I began searching for local artists to support and events to see them live.
Eventually, this lead to promoting underground events in Las Vegas and meeting lots of others in the community. Fast forward to 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, I saw this as the perfect time to hone in on my DJ skills so that when the storm was over and the world returned to “normal” I would emerge as a skilled DJ ready to perform live. By this point, I had spent years beforehand studying DJs by watching them live or on streams, researching on music theory and teaching myself how to produce using Garageband which came with my Macbook I bought for college. I spent whatever free time I had after school and work, making music and studying DJs along with the history of Electronic music. Learning about the origins of House and Techno music in the U.S. as well as now finding other sub-genres, I began building a library I would later use for DJing. When the world shut down, I finally dished out $250 to buy a DDJ 400 controller and began teaching myself how to DJ with all the free time we had at home. One DJ friend of mine went over basics with me such as audio hookup, best times to transition and power cables. I also asked around to see what would be the best speakers to invest in on a budget, and then took to Youtube for the rest. Overall, I spent hours during the quarantine producing music as well as practicing mixing. I often would go live on Instagram and even set up and play in my apartment’s communal area for practice in front of an audience. By June 2020, I played my first live set which ended up being a 3-Hour Set at an underground event and speaks true to my open-format today consisting of House, Drum & Bass, Psytrance and Dubstep. At this point, I was fully committed to learning and growing as an artist and continued building my brand as DJ Moeejito.
Today, I have two active residencies in Las Vegas; one for Church of Bass, a production company focused on supporting local artists and Lilith Las Vegas, an all female ran Burlesque Show that gives a platform to female/female-identifying performers in a Queer-friendly space. I still spend time promoting underground events as well as club events on the Las Vegas strip, and I balance my time between work to play gigs and produce music.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The most notable thing about me as an artist is that I welcome many genres. Not only do I play a variety of genres in one set, but I also play different genres based on environment, crowd and timing. For example, I play lots of Deep House and Disco at brunches, but lots of Trap and Dubstep at late-night events as well as Hip-Hop and Pop at my Ladies Night events. I change depending on the scenario and people around me and adapt as needed throughout my set if the crowd is not responding. I take great pride in mixing through different genres because they all have a special place in my heart, and I found each of them at different points in my life. I encourage other artists to think outside the box for their sets and make them unique by including old, new and self-made. My original music also moves through different genres, and at times even fuses multiples together. I never tell anyone what I am going to play. I always focus on showing, rather than telling and love to catch people off guard with my sets. In addition to the diversity I bring with my live performances, being a black queer woman sets me apart visually from most DJs especially because of the fact that only 3% of the music industry is female. I am very proud to be a part of this 3% and inspire other women to join. Something very unique that only I do is something I call The Feminist Series. This is where I play an entire live set of music from only female artists. I am currently working on the 7th Edition and I have self-made visuals I have made for older editions.
What are your plans for the future?
My biggest goal for the future in terms of my music career is to eventually establish a record label dedicated to supporting underrated artists as well women and artists of color such as myself. This will allow me the chance to mentor in both mixing and production and bring more diversity to this industry. As far as my individual goal for myself I plan to become a traveling festival artist playing shows internationally with both my original music as well as lots of the underground music I play to share unknown music with the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Solo.To/DJMoeejito
- Instagram: @DJMoeejito
- Facebook: Facebook.com/MoeejitoMusic
- SoundCloud: Soundcloud.Com/DJMoeejito
Image Credits
@Galactic_Acid @Mac_Designs_LV
