We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jonathan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have worked as an audio engineer for a long time. The one downside is I would spend a lot of time away from family. Doing sound for concerts and events have taken me all over the place. 10 days in Pueblo, 4 days in Copper Mtn, 6 days in Telluride…all of that time spent away from home made me miss my family. Realizing this brought on a change of career paths. I quit my job as an audio engineer and started studying to work with hearing aids. You know, my way of giving back after producing sounds up to 120db. However, being away from music has caused me to miss it. That being said, I talked to my wife and we decided to invest in everything I needed in order to start a DJ business. Now, that probably seems like it came out of left field but I have spent my entire life curating music. As a kid I would pick the music for my dad’s church services (he’s a pastor), as an angsty teen I would spend hours lying on my bed listening to everything from pop punk to rock to experimental, Over the years I would provide custom curated playlists for any party or event that needed some good jams. Several years ago I bought a DJ controller and started DJ’ing a few events here and there, but mostly I had been DJ’ing in my garage in my spare time. I do have to admit, it didn’t seem like a great life choice with where last year ended up going but this year I have came to the realization that I am doing exactly what I need and want to do.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So many of the DJ’s out there started their career learning to mix, spinning at local clubs, etc. I took the opposite journey. It’s actually a funny story of how I made my start as an audio engineer. I applied for this job at a 4 season camp in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. If I remember right, the position I applied for was multimedia with a side focus in outdoor recreation. Now multimedia to me was video, photography, broadcasting, all of which I had a decent amount of experience with. However, when I made the move to Wisconsin from North Carolina I realized that I was hired as a sound technician for their beautiful venue. The sound system in that building was custom designed for that space. The mixer that I would be using was a Yamaha LS9, which is a digital mixer. Up to that point I had only ever used analog boards. The big difference between the two is the fact that with an analog board everything is right in front of you. There’s a knob/fader for everything. With that specific digital board you had to activate each channel and go through a number of menus for each change you wanted to make. Needless to say, it was quite the learning curve! Over the years I really excelled at engineering. I mixed all kinds of different artists but I always had a passion to play music. Learning to DJ and getting more well known has been a dream I never expected to see come to fruition. Whenever I am hired for a job I make sure that when the day comes I utilize every ounce of experience I have for the event. With my background in engineering, I make sure that the sound has nice crisp highs with warm deep lows. With my experience in curating music, there’s something I like to tell my clients when I am first being considered for the job and that is…I bring the party! Every event is specifically catered to the their music taste. Having a vast amount of experience in production really helps me consider every aspect of the event. People aren’t just hiring a DJ when they hire me or anyone that works for me. They are hiring an industry professional with a background in all aspects of production. As I am getting busier I do have some other DJs that work for me, but I always handle the logistics of each and every event.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Man there are so many cool attractions within a very short distance. First of all, I would hope this would happen in the winter. I’d take them to Glenwood Springs. Lunch at Slope & Hatch. Head over to Iron Mountain for an afternoon soak with some sangria. Hit up the Brewpub for some raspberry wheat beer & chicken enchiladas. Over the next several days we’d have to do a winery tour in Palisade (and get some bomb peaches), drive over the mesa (weather conditions allowing) then head over to Ouray & Telluride for breathtaking views, tasty beers and good food. Then of course we would have to come back to Junction to spend some time enjoying the life we have here. I’m pretty sure we always have live music several days a week here. It’s amazing. For food and drinks we love TacoParty, Monumental Beer Works, Alehouse (of course), Highlands Distillery (a lavender farm/distillery!), Palisade Brewing Company, Kannah Creek Brewing Co., Handlebar, etc. So many good places! But we would also have to take the drive to the Colorado National Monument…an easy 20-30 minute drive!
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife, Brittany. She has always been in my corner. We had our first date at Alehouse in Grand Junction, Colorado. I am a pretty spontaneous dude so after we had a couple beers there I had the idea to walk to a bar downtown to play some pool. After a moment of consideration, she was down for it. That’s what I love about her. While I am quick to act she is quick to think. Sometimes I want to just jump in headfirst to a situation but she is amazing with breaking it down to every single detail. Without her love and support this would be an unattainable dream. We now have a 10 month old baby named Carter and she always takes amazing care of him while I’m out doing shows.
Website: www.djbeardly.com
Instagram: instagram.com/djbeardly
Facebook: facebook.com/djbeardly
Image Credits
Ryan Lehman, Cache Legault.