On Monday, BYU-Idaho held its semesterly DJ auditions during roller skating in the Hyrum Manwaring Student Center ballroom.

Campus DJs are employed by the school to work the music at weekly events, including roller skating, latin dance, country dance, ballroom dance and the occasional special one-time events each semester.

“We value our events, and that way we value every little aspect that goes into it, such as our DJs,” said Danielle Maples, full-time event coordinator for campus weekly events. “We have DJs that range from helping with I-Night, Date Night, they help bigger performances and they help our weekly events, so all of our dances as well. It is very, very important to us to have help cue the music, help keep the energy high.”

Alex Roderick, a junior and special education major, has worked as a campus DJ for a year and is currently the DJ coordinator.

Roderick, who goes by DJ Al, said that people don’t necessarily need experience to audition as a DJ, but it does help to be confident going in.

“Confidence is key,” said Roderick. “Going into it with the mindset of, ‘I can’t do this’ and ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this’ is up to you, but go into it with an ‘I can do this.’"

Roderick said that for the DJ auditions, it doesn't matter if someone has experience or not.

"I started a year ago and I knew nothing," Roderick said. "And here I am with more experience, and I have this leadership role, so it’s real nice.”

Derek Schmidt, a senior and history major, auditioned to be a DJ in July and has been working in that role ever since. He said that this is something he’s wanted to do when he would go to dances and notice the DJ up on stage when in high school.

“I remember looking up at the DJ a few times and I was just thinking, ‘man, I wish I could be up there right now, I could be playing so many great songs,’” said Schmidt.

Schmidt tends to use a variety of music. He mostly uses disco and electronic music while working at roller skating events on campus.

“I think if you play the same music the whole night, it gets kind of boring after a while, and it’s like ‘please play something different,’” Schmidt said.

The campus DJs use software called Serato to mix and transition the songs. Schmidt said that DJing takes practice, such as watching DJs on YouTube, as he likes to do, and that newcomers should not be intimidated by the soundboard setup they use.

“You also need to know [the music] very well,” Schmidt said. “Another thing too is it looks intimidating with all these buttons and all these wheels and everything. It just comes with time. When I first started, it was very, very stressful, and it took me a while to get where I am now.”

The DJs

Roderick said that the DJ auditions do accept walk-ins, but they also have opportunities for people to practice in advance.

“We do have a camp that will teach you how to DJ. We do that in preparation," Roderick said. "It is really scary getting up and DJing in front of so many people.”

The DJ camp was held Nov. 6, and that was meant to give people a bit of extra practice before the auditions themselves.

Not everyone who auditioned on Monday attended the camp. Some individuals, like sophomore Jordan Jones, auditioned last minute.

“It looks really easy, but it’s not," said Jones, a biology student. "Especially when you’re up there, there’s so many buttons.”

Jones said that being the DJ in front of people during roller skating was nerve-wracking. As he sat on the side of the ballroom waiting for his turn, he underwent a “frantic search” to find songs that he wanted to use.

“I was just going through all my Spotify songs and I was like, ‘What would I want to actually jam out to?’” Jones said.

Freshman Rachel Evers, a business management and marketing student, auditioned as well, and she said that being a DJ was something she had thought of before but never got into. On the day of the auditions, however, Roderick approached her in the Manwaring Center and told her about it.

“Before I came to school, DJing had always been on the back of my mind because I’m really into music, but I never really knew how to get into it,” said Evers. “But today, while I was hanging out in the Crossroads, Alex…was saying that there [were] auditions to be a DJ and I was like, ‘screw it, let’s try it out.’”

Evers pointed out that her set wasn't done perfectly, but if she were to do it again, she could do better, now that she has "more experience."

For junior and graphic design major Spencer Saunders, this was also his first time acting as DJ, and he thought he did ‘alright.’”

“I’ve never really DJed before, I just thought it’d be a really fun thing to do,” said Saunders.

Saunders got interested because he actually helped make the promotional material for the event.

“I am actually a graphic designer on campus,” Saunders said. “I made the DJ camp flyers and the auditions flyers, so when I was making them I was like, ‘Oh, this would be actually kind of fun to do.’”

When the music ends

After his set, Jones offered advice to people who might want to audition next time.

“Prepare beforehand if you can,” Jones said. “But also have fun, because if you’re not having fun, why are you doing it?”

The DJ auditions provide students an opportunity to try something new, whether they end up with the job or not. According to Evers, she said that it was at least a learning experience.

“I learned that I can try new things and it be ok,” Evers said. “Now if I ever needed to be behind a turntable, I could do a much better job.”