DJ Kevanator on Life, Lessons & Legacy

DJ Kevanator shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

DJ, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
It would be DJing for more than 5+ hours! Back when I started to DJ, I only did 1 hour sets with EDM music because of the way the slot times were formatted. After I started to DJ at clubs & bars, I slowly started to get comfortable with DJing up to 4 or 5 hours. It wasn’t until I started to do private gigs that I slowly started to ramp it up and DJ over 5 hours. It’s honestly a little exhausting to do many hours since the DJing is nonstop and at least for me, I try my best to not use the same songs throughout my set just to keep things fresh. As long as it’s an open format or multi genre event and everyone’s having a good time, I can definitely do it!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello everyone! My name is Kevin, also known as DJ Kevanator.
I’m an open-format DJ from Southern California, usually DJing near the Los Angeles area but do sometimes travel to other cities and states to DJ!
I also have a YouTube Channel that has amassed more than over 185,000 subscribers, where I post mixes of different genres and edits/remixes that I’ve made. I try my best to set myself apart from other DJs by mixing and blending multiple genres together with some EDM elements during my sets in a way that keeps the crowd moving. Seeing the crowd having a great time with the music brings me joy and happiness because I want to make sure the crowd is having a great time and enjoying themselves while I’m also enjoying myself with the mixing!
As for what I’m working on, I’m working on posting a little bit of more content on my channel whether it’s remixes/edits that I worked on, more livestreams or vlogs, so I can expand my channel with more content than just DJ mixes.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
It would definitely be my friends and family. Ever since my first few live DJ sets, I would get told by my friends and family that they can see me going far with my DJing and that every time I did a new set, they can see the growth and work that I’ve been putting in. Hearing that from people who are so important to me meant so much to me and gave me the boost of confidence to really believe in myself with the craft that I love to do. Even now whenever anyone tells me that they loved my set or that they had a great time during my set, it just makes me really happy that all of the work and dedication I put throughout the years was worth it and in turn, makes for a good set. And it’s thanks to everyone who was there since the very beginning and showed up to support me for giving me the confidence to continue to pursue what I love!

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would’ve told my younger self to just be more confident about DJing and to not be so shy with saying that I’m a DJ hahaha. I remembered being so shy about it that I would just share my mixes to my family and that’s it. I usually didn’t talk about my hobbies much to anyone because I would think that no one really cared about my interests. It wasn’t until I decided to reach out and land my first gig that I was like, “Why am I so shy about sharing that I’m a DJ if its something I genuine enjoy?!”. I don’t regret it though, because it was just a part of the process of me becoming more open and confident about my DJing!

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
They would say that it matters more to me to making sure that everyone is having a good time rather than being selfish and just playing songs that I like. That’s where the challenge of keeping a good balance comes in because while I do want to be comfortable and play the safe stuff, I do like to throw in songs that I think sound cool and different but also fit the vibe, and as long as I’m confident with the choice, the crowd usually responds in a good way!

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Oh that’s a great question!
You can say that I’m doing what I was born to do, but I feel like it was something I discovered and decided to do.
When I was younger, I wasn’t taught to play any instruments or to learn about music, but I did find my interest in music because of a game I played called Dance Dance Revolution Extreme hahaha. I didn’t pay attention to it that much at first because I preferred other games, but later I realized how the game works and ended up being good at it! It was the first instance of me learning and understanding time signatures like 4ths and 8ths that would later help me get the timing right when I first started to learn DJing. What’s even more funny about it is that my parents weren’t the ones who bought the PS2 or the game, they were all gifts and it wasn’t my gifts either hahaha.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://djkevanator.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djkevanator/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@djkevanator
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/djkevanator
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/081LqFjYHvzmZfxtAdtJGK

Image Credits
thinkblueprints (2)
Wonderland (4, 5, 7)