Miguel started as bedroom-DJ in 1977 with the records from my parents ans some singles from Eurovision. With one turntable and a microphone at 11 years old, I learned that technical skills are an important part of being a DJ. When I turned 15, I got a second turntable and made my own mixer with some switches and knobs from the local electronics store. This brought me to the local radio station "Radio Galaxy" where I learned how to use a real mixer and use a record collection far beyond anything I had seen before.
But this was not my cup of tea... I wanted to be on stage and see my audience.
In 1986 I visited the local youthclub "De Kim", run by volunteers, and The Place To Be at that time for young people in Oostende. I took their 6 month DJ course, and on Sunday, October 5th 1986, I was released for my first solo performance at the youthclub. It became one of the busiest days ever, crowded with over 800 people that afternoon. I knew immediately that THAT was what I liked.
2 years later I became head of the DJ's and started to give the training for starting DJ's. As the youthclub was mainly aiming at supporting more unfortunate youngsters, becoming a DJ was a dream, and a boost in self esteem for many. Between 1989 and 1999, I trained about 140 DJ's, and some of them still make their living today with their DJ skills.
After a few years I got some friends in the music business and I worked together with L.A. Work, Monotone, Coadunation and Lhasa on different tracks, video's and hits.
I became Master in Communication Science in 1992 and worked 2 years in Greece and in Spain, where from time to time you could find me behind the decks on a Saturday night.
With Mister Trax and Party Club we organised the biggest New Beat and early EDM parties in the Gimmy's, Sam's and Ambassadeurszaal in the Casino of Oostende. The parties were the best in town and always attracting 600 to 1000 people. I played more than 10 years the New Years Eve party at the youth club and did presenation (Host) at many events and gigs.
After a busy week at work in Germany, my weekends were always reserved for DJ-ing or the youthclub in Oostende, till the year 2000. I kept working for local radio stations and a local news agency for several years. But in 2000 the professional career killed the DJ hobby.
When I turned 30 years old, the club was just a shadow of what is was before, and at work I got more challenges as a Product Manager in tourism, and decided to quit DJ-ing.
Between 2000 and 2019 I kept following dance music and was building up a collection of tracks for my personal pleasure. I never played digital. I did not do any gigs since the year 2000 apart from 2 parties at work, where I played a 1 hour set with CD's. Till a friend and owner of a club in Phuket challenged me to play a set at his venue... And because of the friendship over the many years (and some Singha beers), I said yes...
The resident DJ smiled politely and answered only half of my (mostly stupid) questions when I asked him all about the technical stuff of the decks and the mixer and borrowed me his headset. When he walked out of the DJ booth, he turned around and said with the biggest smile I have ever seen on anyone's face: "Oh, by the way. This DJ gear has no sync button. good luck!"
So in November 2019, I played a 2.5 hour set on the first generation Pioneer digital DJ decks in a club in Thailand, and it reminded me of my earlier feelings: "This is what I like to do... ". The resident DJ came to see me after a half hour and was upset, as I had more people on the dancefloor at 11 PM than he had all night the night before. And he did not believe the set was not pre-mixed... Little did he know that I played vinyl (with no sync button :-) ) for over 10 years...
So after this experience, I wanted to restart my DJ life in 2020, but everybody knows what happened in the club scene between 2020 and 2022.
In 2023 and 2024, I played on CDJ3000's for several gigs during Gentse Feesten and at New Years Eve, with in the end a big success. So ready for new adventures... Can I make your party great?