A young and impressionable 12-year-old’s world changed after his dad returned from a “boys’ trip” in Spain with a mixing board.
One day Andres Eddowes, 19, computer science major, saw his dad, a disc jockey, practicing his craft and expressed his excitement for the art.
After the encouragement of his dad, Eddowes tried to put his own spin on it and fell in love. Eddowes said his dad came up with a great idea — to surprise all his friends and deejay his own pool-party. The scene at this 13-year-old’s birthday party was ecstatic.
“It was my birthday party too and our friends were so surprised,” Eddowes’ twin sister, Danika, 19, film major said.
“They thought it was the coolest thing ever and talked about it for weeks,” she added.
Since then, Eddowes has spun for numerous parties and events. It is this talent of mixing that has gotten him noticed and in demand for deejaying parties and events.
“Andrex has come a long way since he started deejaying when he was 12,” Danika said. “His mixes have gotten a lot more flow into them. They aren’t as choppy as they were when he was just 13.”
Eddowes soon realized he wanted to produce his own music.
“Producing is fun but it is a lot of work.” he said.
With confidence in his producing abilities, he entered his first competition, and, with the raw talent and pure passion for his craft, Eddowes was one of top 30 contestants selected out of thousands of competitors.
The competition was “Your Shot USA,” which was powered by Seven-Up and hosted by the world-renowned DJ Tiësto, one of Eddowes’ most respected icons.
“When I was 12, he was the first person I ever listened to.” Eddowes said. Even before this competition he would read about how hard Tiësto worked to become, at the time, the No. 1 DJ in the world, he added.
The “Your Shot USA” included a four-week training course by DJ Jono Fernandez, head trainer at The Academy, the official training site for the 2015 competition, in Los Angeles.
After training concluded, in a downtown club in front of 500 people, the 30 contestants had to compete again, hoping to make the final six and eventually travel to Las Vegas to compete for the final prize. Again with persevering passion and skill, Eddowes made his way to Las Vegas.
“My mom wanted to impose a curfew on me,” Eddowes said. “She said bad things happen after 10 p.m.” Eddowes would be the youngest of the competitors to Dj at the pool party venue in Wet Republic, one of Las Vegas’ lively dayclubs.
“Because Las Vegas is a 21-and-over town, a lot of people don’t want to deal with a 19-year-old kid,” Eddowes said.
“One of the negatives in the competition was the age factor and being treated as the little brother,” he added. As the youngest in the competition, it made him want to win that much more because people discounted his ability.
Unfortunately, Tiësto did not pick Eddowes as the winning DJ. It’s a decision Eddowes is okay, because he knows that a bright future filled with deejaying lies ahead of him. He is still pursuing a degree in sound engineering as a back-up plan.
“What I took away from “Your Shot” was that, even though I didn’t win, I’m young and have more time to develop,” Eddowes said. “For some of the other contestants it was ‘make it or break it’ for them.”
“What’s cool is that I started out at a pool party, and now I just played at Wet Republic, which is a huge pool party,” Eddowes added.
Because of the exposure Eddowes earned at Wet Republic, he will be flying to Peru in November to deejay at the Sukha Bar.
His father will be going with him making this their “boys’ trip.” A trip similar to the one Eddowes father took in Spain before bringing home the beginning of a new life.
Last updated: Oct. 1
