DJ Mushu, aka fourth year Oliver Wang, is spreading awareness of electronic music to anteaters. Wang first became interested in DJing after receiving a basic unit for Christmas when he was 15-years-old. He would talk to the DJs at his school dances and eventually was hired to become a “roady” or DJ intern. By being a roady Wang was able to learn the ropes of DJing from the different equipment to practicing by playing one hour sets as a guest DJ at certain events.
Wang described how he has been musically influenced in his life explaining, “my dad was in a band and I also did choir. I knew I wanted to do something rhythmic besides drums so I got into DJing.” Wang has been a DJ for Underworld productions, events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and also played at this year’s Aldrich After Dark event. When DJing in college he looked towards another UCI DJ, DJ Gio-D (Gio Del Carmen) as a kind of mentor adding, “I kind of looked up to him in a way and wanted to do all the things he was doing with DJing.” As for musical inspiration, Wang’s favorite DJs are Laidback Luke and Armin Van Buurin.
With his passion for electronic music, Wang desired to start a musical awareness on campus that would go beyond the typical hip-hop songs saying, “I came in as a freshman looking for something where I could share things about DJing and for people to discover and learn to appreciate electronic music.” A similar club was already formed at UCSD so Wang decided to start one of his own only to find that others also wanted an electronic club, so Wang along with fellow students Christian Medero, Kiet Le, and Darlene Vuong formed the Electronic Dance Union (EDU). The three main purposes of the club are: social aspects, sharing a similar interest in music, and teaching points on how to DJ. In addition to playing at fraternity, sorority, and club events, EDU also put on an event last April and is already planning another one for this year.
However, amongst the crazy and high-energy role of DJing, there is also a more compassionate side like when Wang DJed for UCI’s “Step Into the Light” event last year. It was a non-profit art show where students who have been sexually abused were paired with a local artist and expressed their emotions through art. Wang commented on the event saying, “It was a really awesome event and it was nice just to be a part of it.” After graduating Wang says he will continue his pursuit of DJing by attending school for audio engineering and possibly producing to maybe someday playing at Insomniac’s renowned Electric Daisy Carnival.
To see more on DJ Mushu you can visit his Facebook page, www.facebook.com/djmushu