Today we’d like to introduce you to Don French.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Don . So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My career as a DJ started in 2018 during a time in my life where I found myself uninspired; a few years went by where being creative was put on hold to pursue my day job as an educator. But last August, on my way home from an ionnalee concert, I had an ah-ha moment. From that moment forward, I’ve been working tirelessly to put in my ten thousand hours perfecting my craft as a DJ and find that right balance needed to keep my day job uncompromised. Tracing my love for music is the easy part, as I’ve been involved in music and visual arts since I was a toddler. My parents knew I was interested in music from an early age because they noticed me playing Janet Jackson and Bobby Brown on my Fisher Price cassette player twenty-four seven. They enrolled me in performing arts schools from elementary school through high school, and I started my musical journey playing the violin in fourth grade. At 16, while attending LA’s Hamilton Academy of Music, I put down the violin and transitioned to vocal performance and musical theater. It was around that time I taught myself how to play guitar because I was obsessed with Jewel’s Pieces of You album and had spent the entirety of my teen years fantasizing about co-writing songs and singing duets with her. After high school, I turned my parents’ garage into a makeshift recording studio, where I wrote and recorded demos throughout my early twenties.
Listening to and making music were safe havens for me and gave me an outlet to express myself. I often felt alienated from my community in South LA because I felt I wasn’t Latino enough and I was also going through the growing pains of accepting my queerness. I also felt alienated in high school because I wasn’t privileged or white enough. Music gave me a place to belong. There was always one safe space for me there.
In the early to mid-2000s, when I wasn’t writing songs, I would reach out to musicians on social media and try to wiggle my way into the Los Angeles music scene. Through MySpace, I befriended Beth Hirsch, Air’s vocalist on Moon Safari, and she passed one my demos to her producer, Bernie Larsen. And in 2008, Bernie produced my first album, 21 Grief Street, at his studio in Burbank. The album was influenced by some of the pantheon of female artists that I grew up with, including Elizabeth Fraser, Aimee Mann, and Tori Amos. Bernie and I quietly released the album in the fall of 2009 because we had zero budget for PR, but the real accomplishment for me was less the release and more the recording process.
I never stopped being obsessed with music, but I put my own music career on hold to fulfill another dream of mine: getting my bachelor’s from UC Berkeley. It was no easy feat. It took six long years from the time I started focusing on transfer requirements to finishing my degree in Ethnic Studies in 2015. The only music I made while I was working on my degree came out of a serendipitous connection through social media in 2012. A Bay Area electronic music producer contacted me through Twitter and asked me if I’d be interested in doing vocals for him. It was during these particular recording sessions that I started to feel the creative burnout. Leaving the recording studio, I would often have this sinking feeling telling me that the music industry just isn’t for you. The spark that often drives the hustle needed to move forward in that industry had burned out and I had academics to focus on.
Cut to the fall of 2018, I had just finished my first school year as a middle school teacher and started feeling that creative itch again. During that fateful post-concert drive home I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be amazing to DJ as an opening act to get the crowd pumped before the headliner?! I went home, downloaded Serato DJ software and began putting together my first setlist. After months and months of practice, learning the software, teaching myself how to use a DJ controller, and collecting music files, I started reaching out to clubs and venues to secure my own DJ night. Once a venue was secured, I decided to make my first club night an ionnalee-themed dance party, which is a full circle moment for me. Not only do I have a space to DJ, I also have guest DJs and some of LA’s most iconic drag performers on the bill. It was only about a month later that I met the people who run Queer Monday’s down in Long Beach, who invited me to DJ at this year’s Long Beach Pride Festival. I guess the rest is history.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has certainly not been an easy road for me. After high school, when my mates were going off to university, prestigious music academies, and landing jobs in the industry, I had to join the workforce to provide for myself. Although I spent most of my early 20s waiting tables and feeling stuck, I never stopped creating and never stopped believing in myself. There was a period of time where I carried copies of my demo CD in my jacket pocket thinking that if it landed in the right hands, my music career would take off. It took all the courage in the world to walk up to Jon Brion after his weekly gig at Largo and beg him to listen. But in the end, my journey wasn’t going to play out like it does in the movies. Luckily for me, social media stepped into the picture and it became easier to contact people in the industry and make contacts through that platform.
I hit another roadblock just prior to the release of my debut album after a bad breakup left me broke, carless, and without a job. When it became apparent the album would be released without a record label to fund promotion, I decided to walk away from it all. The thought of starting from scratch as a street performer or playing coffee house gig and open mikes left me with crippling anxiety-induced stage fright. But in the end, I’m thankful for that time of chaos because it’s what pushed me to pursue my degree and eventually find stability.
Finding a venue to secure a club night wasn’t easy either. I must have contacted every venue with a dancefloor within a 25-mile radius, and very rarely did I get a reply. After the owner of one of my favorite bars showed interest, they asked me to record a DJ mix that they ended up hating and said my taste in music would alienate their regulars. That was a low blow for me and in a brief moment of discouragement, I wanted to call it a day. But I didn’t because my gut was telling me a space would eventually present itself.
What else should we know?
As a DJ, I specialize in spinning synth-heavy pop, house, indie-dance, and experimental music. I’m most proud of providing a safe space for queer, transgender, non-binary people of color to come together, celebrate their artistry and inspire others.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Sometimes in LA, it’s all about being in the right place at the right time, or it’s who you know as they say. This almost never happens to me. I would rather be given a seat at the table based on my skill set, talents, or artistry, rather than luck.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djdonfrench/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djdonfrench
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJDonFrench1
Image Credit:
Trent Liddicoat
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