We had the good fortune of connecting with Kyle Channell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyle, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
This all happened on luck. I never thought this would have turned into a successful business. This is how it all started…..

End of summer 2007, I lost all my baseball scholarships due to tearing my rotator cuff. With Baseball out of the picture, I decided to take a year off and start thinking about what type of job I was hoping to get. I ended up going to Boulder one weekend with a couple of friends and wound up at a house party where there was a DJ playing. I actually thought in order to be a DJ… you had to make your own music. Once I found out that you could just play other people’s music and DJ at college parties, I definitely wanted to give it a try.

A couple of days after that I went and maxed out a Guitar Center credit card buying 2 turntables, 2 speakers, a mixer, then I found some cheap records for sale on craigslist. I had no idea how to even hook up the turntables or speakers so I was completely clueless. I didn’t know one single DJ in the area, so I got on youtube and watched video after video. After about 4-5 months I was approached and asked to play at a local bar. I did a horrible job and was very nervous, but I loved the pressure and was loving this new hobby of mine. Ever since that first gig in 2009, I got hooked and have now been a full-time DJ owning and running my own company for the past 13 years. The right place, the right time, and NEVER giving up is how this was created.

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.
It was really hard in the beginning but I got lucky in the first part of my career. I got into DJing right when all the new Dubstep and EDM songs were coming out. In Fort Collins at the time, there were only about 10 DJs that played regularly, so it was very hard to get your foot in the door. Me being 20 years old at the time and playing at a lot of college house parties around town, I was playing anything and everything and realized people were always liking how I jumped around genres to keep it interesting. I’ve been an open format DJ since day 1. The biggest lesson I learned right away was if you ever got categorized as just a “house DJ” or just a “Hip Hop Dj” and didn’t adapt to playing new music, your options to play different places closed up fast. I quickly found out that my music selection and reading a crowd is what sets me apart from all the others.
Being able to play the right music at the right time brings huge opportunities. I grew my reputation as a versatile open-format DJ capable of playing on any stage. This has aligned me with some of the biggest brands in the industry. Red Bull, Winter X Games, GoPro Mountain Games Foam Wonderland, and Global Dance Festival. I’ve been blessed to play on stages such as Red Rocks, Beta Nightclub, Vinyl Nightclub, The Church, 1stBank Center, City Hall Amphitheater, and many more.
Some of the more popular artists I’ve had the opportunity to share the stage with lately have been The Sugar Hill Gang, Rob Base, Coolio, Afroman, Nappy Roots, Talib Kweli, Devin The Dude, Seckond Chaynce, Chanel West Coast, Obie Trice, and many others.
I would say the biggest challenges were in the beginning. This career path takes it out of you quickly if you let it. Late nights, working every weekend, and traveling a lot. Sometimes you’re booked out for months then all of a sudden no leads are coming in. Had to learn how to budget very well when I first started.
I’m very happy where I am now and learning everything and every part of the business firsthand, by trial and error, that is what has gotten me this far in my business.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was coming into town, I’d make sure he comes out here when its warmer for sure. In Fort Collins, we would definitly go to hoursetooth to do some boating and maybe a little hike over there as well. favorite brunch spots are Silver Grill and Blind Pig. Some of my favorite places to eat at night would be Thai Pepper, Blue Agave, or Jax Fish House. We would have to do a day or two down in loveland. We would go ride stand up Jet Skis with my dad, then over to my moms for a goooood dinner. Denver would be next on the list. There are too many good places to eat down there so we would just wing it for food. If the rockies, nuggets, or Av’s were playing we would go to a game for sure. After that, probably wonder around LoDo. I used to play at a lot of the bars/clubs downtown would have to stop in those and say hello to some old staff friends. Im more of a wing it type of person so making up this itinerarty was little tough to think of!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The first people I have to shout out of course are my parents. They have helped me out over the years numerous times at gigs when no one else was avaible for hire on short notice. They are both life savers! Ben Kagen is the one who taught me all the tricks and correct ways of navigating and self promtoting when we started DJn in the denver scene.
Big BIG shotout to Cory and Cody from Kind Dub. They film and edit all my promo videos. Those two are amazing! I probably get half my gigs off those promo viedos, They have also booked me for some big shows I wanted to be apart of, Big thanks to you both! Two of the most positive and humble people to wowrk with by far.
I know there are many more people I need to shoutout and give thanks to, but this last HUGE shoutout goes to the one who has been making my dreams come true for many years now, and thats my manager Bri Long.

Website: DjChannell.com

Instagram: DjChannell

Image Credits
Sunny Side Production Kind Dub All Digital Photo & Video

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