DeeJay Mats Rocks the House
Wednesday, February 22, 2012“So we back in the club Get that bodies rockin’ from side to side Thank God the week is done, I feel like a zombie gone back to life...baby tonight the DJ got us falling in love again”
[Usher]
By Flavia Francesquini | Images Brittney-Nitta Lee | Stylist Kini ZamoraWhether you like Usher or not, if you like dancing at all you will have to agree that one of the reasons you choose to go to a particular club is because you like the music. To hang with the gang, to sway a special person or to fly solo, once you have your favorite drink in hand, there is nothing better than feeling the music coming up from the floor, coloring the walls around you and storming through your body like a sexy electric current that will set the night in motion. Dancing is a magic language; it’s how you tell the world how you feel, how much confidence you have, how much fun you are, how seriously you take life, how humorous you can be, and let’s be honest... how well you are going to move once you get naked.
If you are not on the dance floor, you are watching those on it because this is what clubbing is all about, figuring out who’s there for the drinks, who came to score and who will be fun to meet. The power to make it or break it rests with one person, the deejay. No one else in the club has as much control over the general mood inside. Not everyone can pull off a job so intense, but for Kristen Matsuoka, a.k.a. Deejay Mats, knowing how to get the crowd moving comes naturally.
A music lover for as long as she can remember, Kristen took a real interest in deejaying when she was still at Pearl City High School (Honolulu, HI). She started with two CD players at home and slowly taught herself the tricks of the trade. When asked if she had a mentor she tells that although she certainly had people she admired in the business, “deejaying is the type of thing that you either can do it or you can’t, it’s hard to teach someone else how to feel the music, how to transition or how to get in the groove. With all the techniques that continue to become available this is a profession that requires constant practice and a great deal of interest and in order to keep up with what is happening, you have to really love doing it!” and she loves it!
You can check her style out for yourself at Bar 35, where she works the lesbian night on the first Saturday of every month, or catch her at the edge Bar, where she is also a regular at the hit lesbian owned lounge. Kristen is also the owner of Vibe Productions, a mobile audio entertainment business that take the party to wherever you want it. She has done lots of weddings and hopes to help the community celebrate many more upcoming civil unions now that the law is finally in place. I had to wonder if it bothers her to have worked on so many weddings when we as the LGBT community are not allowed to marry, and she displayed the same easy going attitude she seems to have about everything,
“No, I don’t mind it at all, I’m happy for those who can marry and I’m optimistic that civil unions will be a great start for us as well. My girlfriend and I don’t have plans to marry right now, but I’m glad to make other people’s wedding fun!”
As for what she does when she is not rocking the night, she loves fishing, playing an impressive number of instruments and hanging with her friends.
Next time you are in a club and your favorite jam comes on, get on the dance floor, show off your sexy moves and don’t forget to thank the deejay... if you’re lucky, Mats will be the one helping you get your groove on.
Reader Comments (1)
She's not bad at all... heard her spin a few times. Girl can run some mixes.