Meet DJ Gumbeaux
Beaux is a DJ/Turntablist with 14 years of experience. His love of music began in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana where he began as a scratch artist and quickly established himself as a contender through DJ battles and other competitions..
His deejay name comes from a fusion of his given name and his love for his home state of Louisiana. He’s brought that strong sense of family and community with him when he moved to Seattle, 11 years ago by getting involved in local Seattle community events and youth empowerment events.
In his many years of experience, Beaux has deejayed for weddings, parties, clubs and has toured the world deejaying for various musical artists.
You come to Seattle by way of Louisiana, what brought you here?
I moved out here to pursue my DJ career as it was not as popular in La. at that time. Some very good friends of mine and I started dedicating our lives to showing the phonograph as a musical instrument. Not just a person standing behind some equipment playing tracks. To put on a show to excite and entertain the crowd with unique musical blends,programming,party rocking,mixing tricks to provide a visual aspect to the audio and breaking down the stereo-typical ‘Disc-Jockey’ mentality that was and is still somewhat perceived in modern music culture.
What lead you to become a DJ?
I started out playing drums and always had a solid grasp on all types of rhythms, from the basic 4 on the floor time to zydeco, Afro-Cuban, soco and much more. While I was performing at local drum competition a friend asked if I would come by and see what he could do with drums. I was an avid learner so naturally I went. I walked in and he had a set of turntables and I kinda laughed at first but after I saw how he could not only drum with records but he could also play guitar, horns, keys the whole nine. After that it just clicked. Why confine myself to one instrument when I could compose the entire orchestration from just 2 turntables and a mixer. I was hooked from that point on. Sold my drum set and the rest is history.
It’s obvious your also passionate about public education arts funding; where does that come from?
It seems the first thing to be cut in our society’s budget is the arts. But the thing is, empirical evidence shows that the arts has contributed more to our society than any other form of social construct. This idea comes from our passion for not only music but the pursuit of knowledge in all its forms. Music and the arts have touched all of us in some way or another and this donation to the arts is ‘our’ contribution to making the world a more beautiful and colorful place; not only for us but future generations to come.
What are your favorite types of music?
If it sounds good it is good. I love all music. Every piece of music has value in some way shape or form. That is the beauty of turntablism, we can take something you may not enjoy and flip it into something you do like and that to me is the true essence of music, sharing your passion of listening with the world.
How do you go about selecting music for an event?
Very simply it’s all about knowing the room, crowd, age demographic and building a relationship with your audience. That is achieved with many years of experience coupled with truly being passionate and making sure that no matter what, after our time together we are no longer entertainment/client, We are family.
What is it about deejaying that excites you the most?
Picking out the one person in the room that doesn’t want to dance and have a good time and finding that song that makes them get up and just lose themselves in that track if even for a moment. All our problems seem to go away, if even for a short time, or bringing back a fond memory of a happier time for them. I love the energy that is required in knowing that you have brought the gift of music to people and they truly enjoyed themselves.
Meet Cho, Event Coordinator
Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea and has spent much of her life traveling the world with her family as an Army brat before settling in Washington state in 1991. As a teenager, Cho discovered a passion for event planning and would later go on to create, Dahlia Events & Planning, LLC. She graduated from Evergreen State College with a Bachelor’s degree in English and enjoys creative writing in her spare time.
Cho handles all of the marketing, administration and event coordinating for Magnolia Rhapsody.