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Joe Ball (11) sets up for a friend’s birthday party.
TEAMWORK: Quinn Poor and his friend have a professional DJ business.
By Leti Bernard, Features Editor
Most of us have attended a party or dance at least once. However, we often take the key components that make the party, well, a party, for granted: the music and the lights that create the atmosphere. If these factors are taken away, all that is left is a boring room full of people.
Quinn Poor (12) and his friend Joe Ball (11), who attends Martin Luther King Jr. High School, do not take these party essentials for granted; in fact, they are the ones who create the music and lights for parties. Ball is the disc-jockey (DJ) and produces the music, while Poor is the video/visual jockey (VJ). Together, they form a tag team, combining their talents and interests to create the ultimate party experience.
Their budding career began when Ball grew tired of the bad DJs that played at his local church dances; this circumstance ignited his decision to start DJ-ing.
“I’ve always been drawn to music, so I just decided to start. I bought a program and a controller and started to practice,” Ball said.
Poor shared Ball’s displeasure about some of the DJs who performed at the local church dances.
“I agreed with [Ball] and since I’ve always been fascinated by light, I suggested I help with that,” Poor said.
Their first official gig together was performing at a wedding reception for the wedding of a mutual friend’s sister back in March.
“It was small, with a cobbled-together setup, but we made our first 275 dollars,” Ball said.
Nowadays, they usually perform at parties, and wherever else anyone wants music played.
“We can do anything from a few-person birthday party to a several-hundred-person full-on dance,” Poor said.
The main music they play at these parties is Electronic Dance Music (EDM), but they squeeze in the occasional Rock. Ball gets the inspiration to produce this music from his role models in the DJ profession, which include, but are not limited to, Feed Me, Zedd, Deadmau5, Martin Solvieg, Daft Punk and a DJ duo from the Netherlands called Dada Life.
These artists motivate Ball to DJ, but aside from his role-models, Ball continues to produce music because of the energy it creates.
“You get so into the music when you’re in control. You can play with how the crowd reacts by what type of music you play and how you change it. When on stage, I get really into my music and I commonly can be seen dancing like an idiot with one hand on the buttons. It’s a lot of fun, really,” Ball said.
Poor also agrees that the energy is the best part of what he does.
“I personally love being the lights guy since I have a super customizable and interactive program I’ve been working on that responds to the sound being played with changing colors and shapes, and I project it onto the wall/ceiling. It’s a super complicated yet awesome version of the Windows Media Player visualizers. Oh, and the lasers. I love lasers,” Poor stated.
The passion they put into their work does pay off, and Ball sees DJ-ing as more than just something he does “for fun”; he wants this to be his career.
“It pulls in quite a lot of cash, actually. It’s something I devote at least three hours a day to,” Ball said.
However, there is a small downside to their job: the instability of their payment.
“It’s more than your typical high school 12 dollar an hour job, but payday is also somewhat sporadic,” Poor said.
Nevertheless, Poor always enjoys performing at parties and seeing how his light work impacts the partiers.
“The lights have a huge effect on the mood of the party and I love being able to play with the partiers’ feelings and get everyone in the right mood without them realizing it. Slow dance songs require subtler reds/pinks with a slow transition, whereas a heavy techno song needs vibrant greens and rainbow effects with increased speed,” Poor said.
The intricacies of Poor’s work are often overlooked, but the atmosphere he creates with the lights is not easily forgotten. With his visual and video skills, Poor supports Ball’s future goals in the DJ-ing business, expressing that he will be with Ball the “entire way up” in the climb to reach his dreams.
“I want to play at Tomorrowland music festival. That is my final goal in my career. Once that happens, I’ll be content,” Ball said. “It’s a bit of a high goal, but hey, go big or go home, right?”
With the work ethic of this dynamic duo, Ball’s dreams might become a reality. They are a prime example of how talent and passion can be channeled into success by working hard. Who knows? In a couple of years, we could be watching them perform on television for millions across the nation.
Check out some of their work here:
http://errorreport.aurovine.com/
Photo courtesy of Quinn Poor