At One with DJ Satori

Photo by Sean Flaim

DJ Satori aka Sean Flaim of Bethesda, Maryland.

How did you get into the scene?

My first experience with "electronic music" was during the mid to late 80's during the revival of funk music. I first cut my teeth in the music business working as a gofer at Paisley Park Recording studios just outside Minneapolis, where I had the pleasure of witnessing projects by Prince and Morris Day (of The Time). My first love of the music came from those days in the studio. Later, graduating high school, I spent 4 months of my first year of college in Baltimore, where I discovered underground dance music I never had experienced at that point (the beginnings of Baltimore Club). Cut short of my Baltimore existence, I returned to Minnesota for college. It wasn't until 1992 where a great group of friends (all gay) thought that it would be great to bring the straight boy along to this thing called "the Rave." I walked into an experience that I never could have expected. Music, lights, and the people. Everybody was welcoming, everybody wanted to know your name, why you were there, what you liked. There was some sort of magic in that experience because I've never perceived parties in the same sense since then.

Over the years, the parties changed, people got more distant, the DJ popped up more and more as the centerpiece of the party. But I pride myself on the fact that I didn't change. Shortly after my first rave, I realized that when they were playing tracks, I was always in my head remixing and resorting the tracks. Not content to let that go, I got myself some turntables, and without a single bit of input taught myself how to DJ from the ground up. Experimenting around with every type of music that was coming out, I adopted later on my combination of tech-house with Detroit techno, which was the music which really grabbed my soul. And now, 15 years later, it still does.

What events/crews have you been involved with?

My first parties were thrown in the basement of my house in college in the early 90's where I would use my friends as guinea pigs for my burgeoning avocation. People used to come over for some beers and a couple hours on the decks. Later on, after moving to Ohio, I was involved in parties all throughout the "middle" mid-west, playing as far west as Chicago, as far south as Nashville, and as far east as Philadelphia.

Once moving to the D.C. area, I laid low for a bit to absorb what was going on, then came out strong in 2002-2004, playing frequently at mainstream parties and various undergrounds. As things went a little bit more mainstream, I kept up a solid set of appearances, until in 2006, when Buzzlife shut its doors for good at Nation Nightclub. At that point, I was anything but ready to quit, so not even a week later I held the first of the infamous "Mixed Signals" techno parties, with our first headliner, Detroit Techno Militia. The response was so great, and Mixed Signals continued through December of 2006, bring talent such as Dylan Drazen, Robosonic, Jeff Samuel and Derek Plaslaiko. Sadly, December 2006 was the last regular Mixed Signals party, although we continued with the occasional one-off since then.

Since then, I've randomly been involved in either producing a party, bringing in the talent, or laying down my own style of Detroit techno for this city. One of the things that has made me happiest in the last several months has been not only the acceptance, but also mainstreaming of the Detroit sound in dance culture, after being an outside genre for so many years. I hope we continue with this. One of my first and only priorities as a DJ is to spread the music I love to the world. Not just the music, but the love I share for the music. And I think that's happening right now. Artists like Dubfire (one half of former Deep Dish) have been very influential in this move.

How did you come up with your DJ moniker?

Not a truly foundational story. One day I was thinking about what I intended for my audience to feel at the end of one of my sets. Somebody around me said "Nirvana." I thought, not a bad idea, but let's look into the concept of nirvana a little more. While I was doing so, I ran across "Satori," which for better or worse, translates into a flash, or sudden awareness of understanding. My goal for my music was always to create this sensation, and I couldn't think of a more suitable name for trying to make it so.

How old were you and what inspired you to start DJ’ing? How did you learn to DJ?

I was first inspired during the period from 1992-94 (in my early 20's),where I would walk into a party and hear the music in awe. Then something inside of me clicked, because half the time I was in awe, the second half of the time I was thinking about what I would have done instead. So one day, I laid out some cash and put my money where my mouth was. I didn't have any mentors as I first learned to DJ; I pretty much threw two records down and kept at it until I got the basics. Over the years, I've learned a few things from other DJs, but I'd say the vast majority of my experience was me, two decks, monitors and an occasional cat for an audience.

Who are some DJ’s / producers that you’ve been inspired by?

Originally I didn't concentrate on DJs. However later on, I can say one of the DJs that made the greatest impression on me was John Digweed. We had absolutely no similarity in styles of music, but his happy-go-lucky approach to DJing was what encouraged me to go on. Later, I can say that people like Josh Wink, Ritchie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Marco Corola and Adam Beyer were all big influences, but I can guarantee that no-one will mistake me for copying their approach. I chart my own path and look to them more for encouragement.

What was your first gig?

My basement of course. I used to go out to a big dance club and afterward I'd always invite people back to my place for an "afterparty." Little did they know they were guinea pigs for me as I was developing my skills as a DJ. My first night "playing out" was at a small club in Toledo, Ohio, which has since closed and reopened other another name.

What are some of your most memorable gigs?

The most memorable gig I had was playing at Motor Detroit. One of the most incredible clubs of the late 90's and early twenty-first century and a real groundbreaking club for techno music.

What’s your latest mix and where can it be found online?

My last CD was Emote, done in mid-2006. Unfortunately, it was lost with the rest of my other mixes in a fire early in 2008.

What were you thinking in putting it together and what are you happiest about it now that it’s out?

I keep my conscious thoughts during my sets to an absolute minimum. I like to engross myself in the music and the crowd and let the music itself carry me on a journey. I've never preplanned a set, and let the crowd and the music determine where I go from there. You will never hear the same thing from me twice; each time I start from scratch. Most of my CD's have been done in two passes, one to lay down my track selection, the second concentrating more on the transitions and added effects.

What gigs are you excited about that are coming up?

I've got nothing planned in the near future, but you never know where I'll pop up next. I am currently a resident at Tsunami Tsundays in Dupont Circle.

What are your links? (Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Twitter is DJSatori and MySpace is http://www.myspace.com/djsatori I haven't yet moved much of my musical life over to Facebook.

Anything I forgot to ask?

Probably the most foundational moment in my life was a fire last year which destroyed my family home of over fifty years and took the life of my father. I lost my entire vinyl collection (close to 5,000 records) in the fire and a large amount of my music equipment. On top of that, I met the girl of my dreams (who I am now engaged to) and started law school at Catholic University. I had a musical "mid-life" crisis in the middle of last year, and had to come to a decision about what music meant as part of my life. But the good news is, it's so ingrained in the person I am today that I couldn't imagine stepping away from the turntables. Now, it's become the main focus of my "second life" and I've taken steps to start producing, which is something I've always wanted to move toward. So far, things are looking more and more up.