Meet DJ Spen

We recently connected with DJ Spen and have shared our conversation below.

DJ, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

When I was young my parents would take me to where they were from, which was a rural part of Virginia in the states where they had tobacco farms and during the summer. My uncles were very involved with the tobacco business showing it to myself and my cousins, there was that and both my parents worked. My mum was an occupational therapist and my dad worked at a steel mill in Baltimore. They both worked for 30 years they had me later in their lives so watching how they operated and did things really helped to shape my work ethic. It trickled down to me and my brothers. I had two brothers in the military as well so all of things combined helped to create my work ethic.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a DJ/Producer/Record Label Executive.
Usually on a daily basis I am dealing with things that apply to the record label and production as well as running the label a produce a lot of the records whether it be creating records from the ground up from the songwriting aspect, the composition aspect all the way to a finished product. Sometimes with records that come into the label with a system with mixing and remastering to help get the records to where they are presentable to be listened to by the public. Besides that I am a husband, dad and granddad.
We have just recently released our 500th release on Quantize recordings label with Marc Evans called “Back to your place” which I am extremely happy with.
I have already been touring playing at Southport Weekender in the UK, Miami WInter Conference and upcoming gigs –
17th May – Groove Odyssey, Ibiza
26th May – Nervous Records, Detroit Takeover

18th – 22nd June – SunceBeat
28th June – Soul Camp, Northern California
4th October – Defected Malta
Just to name a few.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

One would be learning how to deal with artists and their intellectual material which is always a challenge as not every artist is created equal. It’s an incredible thing to say that we have 500 records on Quantize, 400 on Unquantize and 50 on Qu3 that’s a lot of different moving parts

Two learning how to manage the day to day aspects of running a record label which is a challenge all to itself. I never really wanted to be a record label owner. Basically I wanted to be an artist/DJ. That was kinda my thing but things happen. I was thrust into the management side of things and it’s interesting for me because there are many, many managers that just didn’t come from an artist/producer standpoint. There are a lot of managers that don’t understand it. I guess I am in a unique position as I started out just creating music and now I am in this management position which is a challenge day by day dealing with things that come along with being a record label owner.

Thirdly the other thing is realising that nothing stays the same, change is a big part of doing what we do. It’s a crazy constant to know and learn how to expect the unexpected as you don’t know what is going to happen. A significant example of this is when the pandemic occurred. We had to rethink and adapt to changes in our workflow, much like water, allowing us to make quick decisions and adjust our operations on a daily basis.

My best advice is it’s easy to think that you know everything, it’s easy to think that you can

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

Taking me to a radio station when I was 13 years old with a mix that i had on a cassette tape and i begged my mum to do it until i broke her down one day that she drove me to the radio station where i dropped off a mixtape to a guy called Randy Dennis and the next day I came home from school and my mix was playing as I turned on the radio it was crazy. So my parents supported me really early

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]