Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Wu.
Esther, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Back when I was interning in Taiwan in 2013, I was introduced to electronic dance music by some friends during a visit to a local nightclub. One of my favorite pastimes in Taiwan was hitting the club after working a 40 hour week; the venue was a hotspot for foreigners, and while I identify as Taiwanese-American, Taiwan was still very foreign to me. The clubs frequently had big-name international DJ’s (Project 46, Myon & Shane, Paul Van Dyk), so I was always ecstatic to go.
Taiwan gave me a newfound appreciation for electronic dance music, and I continued to go to music events when I returned to Boston University for the fall term. I had several DJ friends I looked up to in Boston. I remember attending an MIT dorm party and begging the DJ to play Timber ft Ke$ha — this is when I thought: “OK, rather than being that one girl requesting the songs, I want to be the one behind the decks.”
I was strolling down Cambridge during my last semester of college when I saw a sign: “MMMMAVEN DJ School.” It piqued my curiosity, and I found myself entering a mysterious building with no offices on the first floor and following a sign up the elevator up to the second floor. I committed to signing up for weekend courses, where I would have to brave the snow and cold in Boston to commute to my classes. As I had already graduated by this point and was working 60-hour weeks as a consultant, weekends were my only spare time.
Eventually, I graduated from MMMAVEN and played at the Good Life bar for graduation in March 2015. I didn’t have a plan afterwards in terms of DJing, but once I moved to LA and found Scratch DJ Academy, I started to move towards a path of culminating into becoming a more “official” DJ through their program.
After graduating Scratch, I became proactive about getting gigs, reaching out to several businesses via Yelp and Instagram, attending various events, and searching the “gigs” category on Craigslist for the keyword “DJ.” I started DJing with EMX, which helped me get gigs at Avalon, Lexington, and a few yacht parties. It was Broadway Bar and Blind Barber who first gave me the opportunity to DJ their bars on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. There, I met a whole world of DJs, who are still my friends to this day.
While DJing Broadway Bar and Blind Barber, I dabbled with event planning and booking DJs, also producing events at The Room in Santa Monica. This led to gigs at other bars like GAAM and Joey’s, as well as private events. I also started to manage DJs in a sense when I referred a few of my friends to their first gigs and residencies.
As they say fail fast: I quickly realized event planning wasn’t my thing, and I would rather focus solely on DJing. I can finally say I am happy with where I am now, which is my commitment to a number of gigs per month, the occasional show in Downtown LA or Hollywood on a school night, or for an opportunity to DJ at a wedding or charity event. This isn’t to say I am complacent, as I’m still putting myself out there to network and find more gigs, but I have become more knowledgeable about my workload threshold.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth? Far from it. Most people don’t know that I tried to quit DJing multiple times before I even got started. After I finished my DJ courses in Boston and returned to LA, I didn’t have solid plans to continue DJing. It wasn’t until six months later that I set hands on turntables and music again.
I was going through a tough time and needed a hobby to get my mind off things when I discovered that Scratch DJ Academy and enrolled in their DJ Certification program. While the beginner courses were manageable, I found the advanced courses rigorous. They were Pass/Fail courses, meaning if I didn’t pass, I’d have to retake the class again. I often took breaks in the program, which pushed me a few graduating classes behind. It was either my full-time work, or passing DJ courses begging for my attention, and more often than not, I had to prioritize one over the other. I was finishing my final course for the program, but couldn’t seem to pass the exams required to pass the course. I composed a letter to the Director of Scratch telling him I wanted to give up. There was no way I could pass the final test, but he convinced me it was all in my mind, I just needed to push through.
I eventually graduated Scratch, performing at the Graduation party at Melody Bar & Grill to showcase my skills I had learned at the academy.
There are three struggles that I am constantly working on.
First, time management. DJing isn’t my full-time thing. In fact, I care a lot about my day job in IT, as I am also very career-driven. When I first started DJing, I took multiple weeknight gigs. Sometimes, I was doing four gigs per week, on back to back days. This meant I was out late Tuesday through Friday, and I could tell my performance was suffering at work as I would come into the office groggy from being up until 2 AM DJing and then tearing down. Now, I am selective of the gigs I commit to and more conscious of what I can handle. I’ve committed to DJing my gym twice a month on Sundays and know my threshold; which is, I cannot take a gig Saturday night, or I cannot drink too much the night before if I want to make it on Sunday morning. I’m still working on budgeting my time, and I would like to get better at prioritizing family and relationships.
Second, alcohol. DJing, nightclubs, and alcohol all go hand and hand. It took a while to realize I didn’t exactly “mix well” with alcohol. Now, I take actionable plans to adhere to my alcohol count limit. I have been partaking in Dry January the past two years and reading books on quitting alcohol. I’m not sure if I’ll get to that point eventually, but moderation is a start. I’ve enjoyed a decreased amount of “hangxiety” since reducing my alcohol intake. Moreover, the returns from sober DJing at my gym on Sunday mornings are far greater than the nights I DJ and don’t remember my set.
All this leads me to the last point: anxiety and negative self-talk. I’ve always been a shy girl, and large groups can give me anxiety. However, after performing weekly, delivering quality music to my clients or venues, and learning that hours of preparation does in fact show for itself, I’ve been able to increase my confidence. My anxiety used to be crippling, in that I would deliberately tell my coworkers and friends not to come to my gigs because this would make me even more scared or nervous. It’s a complete 180 now, and I happily welcome anyone who can make it out to my gigs to come out. Part of what was causing the anxiety was my negative self-talk. The amount of times I’ve done a gig, delivered, and made the audience happy should have been proof to me that the next gig I did was going to be fine. I could choose to accept my negative self-talk that the compliments I received at my gigs were fake, or accept that they were genuine, and move forward.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I created New York Minute, LLC, and while this article covers mostly my DJing, I also want to highlight that my skills in business analysis, process improvement, project management, and IT also come into play.
The name of my business, New York Minute, LLC was born one morning at the gym. I had finished a 6am class at House of Fitness training, used the showers, then sat on the sofa to check up on my side work. One of the trainers, Mike, commented: Wow, you’re a New York minute!
I didn’t know what that meant at first, so I had to look it up. I thought it was catchy; growing up I had some fascination with New York, but the definition resonated with me. I was always going from one thing to the other very quickly. I opened my LLC last March for my IT Consulting work at Sony, and have been purposing it as an umbrella LLC for my IT and DJ/Entertainment work, as I enjoy being involved in both the technology and entertainment fields.
In regards to my DJ work, I’m known for being versatile, adaptable, and easy to work with. I’m not just a standard hip hop, Top 40, or open format DJ, but I cater to a variety of shows and events, including the Halloween party for UCLA FEMBA (Fully Employed MBA) program and the 2019 Taiwanese American Heritage Week at Barnes Park. I played a mix of songs by Taiwanese artists and American artists during my set at the Taiwanese American Heritage Week. I also DJ my gym, Double Ops Functional Training, twice a month. One of the classes there, Disco Inferno, allowed me to explore a lot of the 70’s, 80’s, and freestyle music in preparation for my sets. It is the non-bar/club environments I DJ that spice up this job and make it challenging for me in terms of the prep work I need to do. This is what makes me proud to be a DJ.
I’m still working on getting clients for the IT side of this. What I hope for one day is to DJ for a brand but also help out with their IT operations, because that is another area in which I can deliver. My experiences as a former consultant in two large media companies, working on Enterprise applications and building out processes, and the skills I am honing out now as a Project Manager at a tech company would allow me to contribute value to future clients.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I have to credit the people who were there in the beginning, the middle, and right now.
The educators, MMMMAVEN and Scratch DJ Academy: These two DJ academies and its teachers supervised me start to finish with the curriculum. I could not have done it without their encouragement. Thank you HAPA, Ver5e, Gravity, Wall-E, Swift, DJ Joey.
Christopher Chung/DJ ChrisC: He sold me his Numark Mixtrack Pro, which ultimately kickstarted my practice sessions DJing.
EMX: For being the first DJ collective, I was involved with and opening the doors to opportunity to DJ open deck nights. Because of Justin Olsen, I was able to get my first gig in May 2017 at The Other Door in Noho.
Broadway Bar and Blind Barber: For being my first weekday night residencies, and for letting me book other DJs with me on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This is where I have met some of my close DJ friends, and where I dabbled in event production.
I am appreciative of all my friends who came out to support on weekday nights. When I first started DJing, I wasn’t able to pick up weekend gigs as well, as I needed more exposure and practice. My Fox family (Silvia, Erik, Selorm), Sony family (Trish, Ron, Marwan, Carol, various PDG guys) and high school/college friends (Divyesh, Luis, Edward, Anthony, Daniel, Laura + guys who came to Blind Barber and played Hearthstone on their phones while watching me play) were kind enough to make it out to my late gigs despite having to work the next day. I also have to thank my cousin Darren, who’s been along from the start and is always there to make me dinner when I’m too busy to cook. It was through Mike Pfeiffer, a personal trainer at House of Fitness, who gave me the idea for the name of my LLC.
I am thankful for the non-bars and clubs that give me a chance to deliver music. I DJ my gym sometimes on Sunday mornings, and it puts me in a great mood when I see people cheerful and pumped from my music. Through DJing my gym, I’ve learned to mix various genres together such as hip hop, house, rock, top 40, pop, disco, which makes me a more eclectic DJ — so thank you Chris Mogaddam for pushing me to be a versatile DJ so that I can deliver a fun and energetic vibe for the gym. I’ve carried these skills and playlists to my other gigs, such as James Beach in Venice Beach, and it works fantastically.
I am appreciative of all the industry and all the non-industry friends I’ve met from throwing events and talking about my passion, and I love that this hobby and passion of mine has turned into an activity that has allowed me to meet fun and like-minded hustlers. (DJ Feels Goodman, RYMX, DJ DENO, DJVu, Laowang, AJ SACHS, Flossy, AOTA, Kenkou, Garage Life, Tiffany Pridanonda, Baylienz, Mo Lokho, Alexx Munoz, DJ Ninja Noise, DJ BOSS)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.djwuwu.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dj.wuwu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djwuwu.official
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherniyunwu/
Image Credit:
Jason Chiao Yang; Michael Gamboa; Jex Delossantos; Tiffany Pridanonda; Kalen Sheng; James Gross
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