Geting into mixing music

With a bottle of Crystal in one hand, his girlfriend by his side and thousands of people cheering for him, Mike Love knew he was living his dream. It was last New Year's Eve when Love, known to most as DJ Quikmix, realized that everything he had worked so hard for was finally staring him in the face.\nHis family has pictures of him holding a mic when he was only three. His father was in a band, so having equipment to play music with was never a problem. Love was in the sixth grade when he threw his first party. \n"All I did at this party was sit and play tapes," Love says, "but everyone who came thought I did a really good job, and my classmates started asking me to play at their parties."\nFrom pool parties to middle-school dances, Love did more than 100 shows before he was even in high school. At the age of 17 he got his first set of turntables and learned to spin and mix well enough to play at teen clubs in his hometown of Chicago.\n"One of the turning points in my career was when I was 18 and won a contest for Bad Boy Bill," Love says. "He's one of the biggest DJs in the world right now. People who knew Bill knew me, would get me into some of the big clubs. After winning that contest, everyone knew who I was."\nLove did commercial work for Chicago radio stations like B96 WBBM and made $200-300 a night as a teenager doing weekend gigs. He thought it was easy and cool, and it got him massive attention. Love realized that he wanted to make a career out of his favorite hobby.\nAfter he turned 21, Love was opening up for big name acts like Cypress Hill, Onyx and Digital Underground. Love says a downfall to meeting famous musicians is finding out that it's not as glamorous as it all looks to fans.\n"Sure, meeting these big name acts is cool, but they're just normal people like everyone else," Love says.\nDoing gigs in Indianapolis, like a Fabulous and Jay-Z after-party, isn't what Love remembers most out of his career. One show Love says he'll never forget is opening for DJ Skribble. \n"I found out 10 minutes before I was supposed to open for DJ Skribble that my dad had died," Love says, recalling the painful moment, "but I went ahead and did the show. I knew it's what my dad would have wanted me to do."\nThe loving support of Love's friends and family has helped him make it big in the business. After coming to Bloomington to take classes at IU, Love found a job at local nightclub Axis, where he is currently the house DJ. Being a DJ isn't only about Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Love spends time during the week in his studio listening to new music and working on commercials and whatever other projects he has going on.\n"Any good DJ has to spend a lot of time listening to music," says Will Havens, general manager of Axis. "Mike is really great at beat-matching songs. He's awesome at putting songs together that you never would imagine putting together. Now that's talent."\nAmanda Scott, a junior who works with DJ Quikmix at Axis, says the same.\n"He can play anything," she says. "He can take a rap song and mix it with a house track and make it sound off the hook. Most DJs are specified in one area, but he knows it all."\nScott has also seen Love practice before competitions and says he can scratch under his leg, with his chin and with his feet.\n"He's just really, really good, and people don't realize how good he is," Scott says. "He has to play to the format that this club sets for him. People here don't appreciate hard house, so he can't really show off in a setting like this."\nLove says it's great to throw parties and play music for a living, but like any job, it does have its bad moments. Drunken college students can be some of the worst people to deal with at a club, Love says, especially when they demand a certain song.\n"People complain," he says. "Like the girl who comes up and is all drunk and wants to hear Britney Spears and I've already played it an hour ago. If people ask for Metallica and I say we don't play that kind of music on that night, they get mad. They call you names and flip you off."\nAside from the occasional angry listener, Love is having a great time in the business and doesn't wish he was doing anything different. He's put more than $30,000 into his equipment, but it's paid off, and his advice to beginners is to do the same.\n"Anyone who wants to get into the business should buy the good equipment right now," he says. "Don't waste your time on cheap equipment that you'll just have to replace anyways. Don't ever give up either -- you really have to work your way up the ladder before you can make it big in this business."\nDJ Quikmix has done just that. He's made moving up the ladder of success look easy to anyone on the outside. People can see the enthusiasm and excitement in his eyes when Love talks about his experiences as a DJ. He's living the life of a DJ in Bloomington, and loving every minute of it. Listeners can't help but notice it when they hear him spin.\n"He loves music," Scott says. "He cares about music and that's what makes him a great DJ"