In 2010, DJ BL3ND (real name withheld) started making videos and posting them to YouTube. At first, no one paid any attention to the teenager jumping around his room to hardcore electronic music. Then, at his parents’ insistence, he put on a mask that looked like a combination of Halloween’s Michael Meyers stitched together with Chuckie from Child’s Play and a 1980s glam rocker.
BL3ND danced hyperactively around his room in the mask to hard beats, but this time, something struck a chord, especially for rebelling teens. Soon, his viral YouTube videos had millions of hits and BL3ND was an in-demand DJ charging outrageous fees and traveling the globe. DJ BL3ND will be performing at ATT Show Box tonight.
“I never intended to be a mysterious person behind a mask,” BL3ND said in an e-mail interview with the Taipei Times.
Photo courtesy of DJ BL3ND
Now that he is known for his many different masks, BL3ND refuses to take them off. “I can express myself better with the mask on. Without a mask I’m just a normal person who you wouldn’t expect to be crazy,” he said.
Even though BL3ND has millions of fans on Facebook and across the globe, he claims he is a normal guy who likes to spend time with his family, dogs and friends when not listening to rock, hip-hop, old school jams and electronic music.
Like DJ Steve Aoki, who mixes two songs together and then hypes up the crowds by spraying champagne or throwing cake at them, DJ BL3ND makes sure that audiences get their money’s worth when they come to his shows by giving them his all. This means sometimes jumping out onto the crowd.
“Yes, I’ve gotten injured before. Not by crowd surfing, but by slipping on water and falling on a bass bottom at a show,” BL3ND said. “I ran back to the stage like nothing had happened, but I was actually just holding on to the pain.”
While BL3ND believes that image and music are both equally important, he knows deep down that anyone can be a viral video or two away from stardom. To the people who want to break into the DJ industry, his advice is: “Push a little harder to things you wouldn’t normally do.”
■ BL3ND performs tonight from 9:30pm to 4am at ATT Show Box, 7F, 12 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路12號7樓). Tickets can be purchased at the door or iBon/FamiPorts for NT$2,000.
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