Music Beat

Holiday Help

The Music Beat

By Dan Pike, BGC TeChnoloGy ProGramminG CoorDinaTor

Will O’Neil- age 13-attends the club regularly and has become very involved in the technology program and has discovered an exciting new passion in the DJ program at the new Pennington Facility Boys & Girls Club. Over the last year Will has really become involved in the program learning a variety of DJ skills, and gaining both career knowledge and experience from professional local DJs. Will describes his experience, “I think it is a great thing to be able to DJ. It teaches people things about music that they didn’t know already. I feel like I am better now than when I first started. I have learned how to mix in key. I guess I have learned about the business standpoint of it as well. I learned about getting out there so that you can get people to discover you.” Will has now acquired enough experience in the program this last year to start really developing this talent. He goes by the DJ name “Iron Will” and has already played a couple of venues for Boys & Girls Club events including Boys & Girls Club Nite Out where he performed for a couple hundred guests. He also played an end of the year school part at the Verdi Boys & Girls Club. Will describes this experience “It was slow and nervousish. It was a new thing to me and it didn’t feel right. Now things like that are exciting and don’t sound boring. I never really stood in front of a crowd. I’ve been in a band, but it is different when you are standing and performing by yourself.”

Will was recently proposed his DJ name by his teacher Michael Rivera who has really taken the lead in making this program possible. Will describes his new DJ name explaining that “’Iron’ is a strong metal and ‘Will’ is the expression of what you are going to do; So having a strength of the ability to express my abilities.”

Will has had a fascination with electronic music since he was 5 years old. He believes that he had a lot of external influence into discovering this passion“When I was little I saw videos of people DJing, I liked the videos they were doing and wanted to be like them one day.” The DJs that Will draws influence from include Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas. Will describes them being upbeat and happy music. The styles Will believes that he is influenced the most by fall under the category of EDM and include genres of Trap, House, and a little Dubstep). Will sees his role as a DJ to bring people music that they enjoy he states, “I think it is a cool thing to make people happy and by doing what you love.” He gathers a lot of inspiration from the music that people enjoy that are closest to him. He explains, “What people like is what I use to make my art. If I have to ask my brother I will listen to some of those songs and get a feel for that and mix something that compares with that.” Will focuses mainly on Turn tables and DJ software, but has had some background in the school band at Clayton Middle School playing French Horn.

Music has become a great outlet for Will who interprets music in a way that “it helps with relaxation and energy; things aren’t so stressful in life. It helps to deal with the normal stresses of being a teenager.” Will plans to pursue this program and gain as much experience as possible. He says, “My plan is to get as far as I can in this career and hopefully produce more of my own style music. I would also like to hopefully inspire others so that can experience the same things that I have experience.” He is planning to try to get some more external gigs with possible school dances in the future, but definitely more parties at the Boys & Girls Club. Will also hopes to inspire others into the art of being a DJ. He believes that there a lot of potential DJs out there and wants them to “just stick with it. Don’t give up on it. Things will be slow at the beginning, but just stick with it.” Wild Island Family Adventure Park

250 Wild Island Court, Sparks • 775-359-2927 www.wildisland.com Sally, Age 8