You DJ, I DJ, WiiJ
'Wiimote' innovator Jimmy Lesondak - a.k.a. DJ ! - changes the game for digital spinners
It seems like only yesterday that the mainstream was discovering DJ culture, when movies such as Go, Groove, and It's All Gone Pete Tong exposed the world of vinyl-playing rock stars. Fast forward a few years to today and it's hard to find name DJs who even use 12-inch records anymore, let alone CDs. The last two years have upended the accessible world of two turntables and a mixer, adding DVD decks, endless effects gear, and laptop performances to the mix. Even jocks in the diehard hip-hop world are using Traktor DJing software, which allows spinners to control the music with vinyl simulators.
Now there is a growing and rapidly evolving contingent of geeks bent on pushing the boundaries of digital DJing too.
One young man in particular is Modesto, California's Jimmy Lesondak, who's made waves around the digital music performance world with an ingenious hack that could change the game forever: The 26-year-old Cal State Stanislaus music technology student modified his own software code in order to use two Nintendo Wii Remote game controllers to launch, mix, and manipulate music via Traktor software. He's using the set-up to focus on mash-ups, placing otherwise incongruous pop songs atop one another. In a YouTube demonstration introducing what he calls "the art of Wiijing" (pronounced "we-jaying") Lesondak blends rap group Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" with house act Milk & Sugar's "Shut Up." The video has had more than 186,000 views. It shows him "flickstarting" - whipping a Wii Remote at a computer screen to launch one song, then the other - before waving the controller in the air to add stutter effects. He even starts and stops each track to create hip-hop style, "beat juggling" sounds.
While Lesondak, who performs as DJ ! (as in "shift one," derived from a typing keyboard), doesn't exactly move like Justin Timberlake, you can start to imagine the possibilities. The TV-style Wii Remotes, or "wiimotes," as they're often called, can free spinners from being holed up behind their consoles.
"Wireless DJ controlling is the way to go if you want to have the kind of stage presences bands have," Lesondak says.
In fact, as mainstream pop critics descended on dance music in the 1990s, one of their key criticisms of DJ culture was that nothing was happening onstage. Core fans argued that the crowd was the show, and that the music should be felt, not seen, but soon stage-based performers ranging from Underworld to Daft Punk started to wow audiences with rock-style shows, and even DJs such as Sasha, John Digweed, and Tiesto embarked on visually intensive arena tours.
Still, the job of DJing has remained tethered to the console until now. Even laptop DJs, goes the old joke, look like they're checking their email. Lesondak's Wiijing, which he admits others have tried concurrently, allows contemporary DJs to become performers instead of just button-pushers.
"It's a lot more fun to get into it," Lesondak, a videogame fan, says. "The fact that I can dance with the Wii gives it more energy onstage. You're not stuck behind turntables. You can move around and get down with the crowd."
Lesondak, who started out with vinyl and has been DJing on the local bar circuit for nearly six years, now gets offers to perform in Quebec, San Francisco, and L.A., where he'll be Saturday for a show at Safari Sam's. He's bringing his three-man band, Miyamoto, to play a few songs too. He'll trigger tracks with Wii Remotes while friends Nick Yonan plays guitar and Todd Peichote plays keyboard and VJs.
"You can definitely put on a good show with the Wii," Lesondak says. "It's all going to depend on your imagination."
Published: 08/02/2007
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