DJ Spotlight #5 - Vincent

Tana Abeni
Jun 6, 2023
5 min read

Vincent shared his pick for this week's song, and you can listen to it right here!

Shivers - Cover by OSIS

1. How did you first discover West Coast Swing, and what drew you to become a West Coast Swing DJ?

I feel so old when answering this, but I discovered West Coast Swing in 2010 or 2011.

I was at a Rock’n Roll dancing party in Toulouse, and at some point there was a West Coast Swing demo by Nicolas Bourgeais who was a teacher there.

The dance seemed nice and smoother than Rock’n Roll so I decided to give it a try, and I have been hooked ever since.

Fast forward a few years later, Nicolas (still him!) noticed that during the event room parties I liked to take control of the speaker to play some music, so he offered me to become a DJ at his dance studio.

Nicolas already had a huge experience in Djing (playing at Budafest …) so he spent some time to share its experience and know-how with me, he really is the guy that pushed me to become a DJ, so thanks again!

2. Give us a glimpse of your musical library! Which styles influence your taste the most?

The style I like most is definitely acoustic, that you can play during late night, and just feel good and relax while dancing.

However, I noticed that I’m a bit picky, so I don’t have hundreds of them.

Most of my library is composed by kind of cool vibe/pop/contemporary/medium bpm songs with a nice atmosphere, “Shape of you” would be an obvious example of the style I like.

Globally, I’m more a positive-vibe-oriented DJ, although a Billie Eilish song once in a while is fine too :)

3. Can you share a particularly memorable or interesting experience you've had as a West Coast Swing DJ, and how did you handle it?

Let’s start with a challenging experience : Olivier Massart saw me playing at a local event in Strasbourg, and offered to play at the French Open WCS a few weeks later.

It was a huge deal for me, first time in a big event, a bit of pressure, so I came prepared as ever.

My set was scheduled around 23 pm or midnight, so party time, my playlist was composed by high energy and high bpm tracks. However… the air conditioning broke.

The temperature in the room was very high, and I was fighting against the bar (which is a lost battle to be honest), so I had to throw away my entire playlist to adapt to the situation.

On top of that, around the middle of my set the speakers went crazy with a lot of weird noises coming from nowhere. After some moments to investigate, it turned out that someone previously left the mic open, and it was starting to ran out of battery and connecting/disconnecting from the sound system, hence the noises…

So, kind of a hard first time, but definitely a learning experience :)

On a more positive note, DJing for a pro show where Emeline and Jakub performed their classic was a magical experience, the feeling to be part of it was very special for me!

4. What advice would you give to someone who's just starting out as a West Coast Swing DJ?

To be curious and to have fun!

There are a lot of things to learn, and it’s not always easy to find resources to do it, or people to talk to (which is changing thanks to the Westie DJs Guild, such a nice initiative) so you need to be curious, to always question yourself and your choices.

But it needs to be fun, otherwise it’s not worthy.

At the moment, the (lack of) reconnaissance or compensation that DJs have in the West Coast Swing worlds means that if you don’t like it then you will find it hard to motivate yourself for the hours of music searching, analyzing, classifying, selecting, ordering, playing, sharing that is ahead of you.

5. Outside of West Coast Swing DJing, what are some of your other interests or hobbies that help inspire your music selection or style?

That’s a bit weird because I have the feeling that it is quite the other way around : West Coast Swing is influencing on my other interests or music selection :).

I find it hard sometimes to listen to a song that is “not west coast-able”.

Otherwise, I like basketball a lot, which is influenced by US Hip-Hop music, so I like to hear some of it, but I don’t play it a lot in WCS parties, probably because I have a hard time dancing to it myself, being very far from an acceptable solo dancer.

6. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our audience about yourself or your journey as a West Coast Swing DJ?

Being a West Coast Swing DJ comes with a lot of joy (the feeling that you control the atmosphere of the room and that you are able to play with it and steer it in the direction you want is priceless) but also with constraints: it takes efforts, time, money (extra luggage for example), you are missing some room parties during event, your dancing time reduces, you can feel the pressure in big events, etc.

For all those reasons I would like our role to be more recognized. I’m very sad when I’m at an event during which the DJs are not announced, not thanked by the event organizer, quite invisible in the end. I have the feeling (the conviction to be honest) that our role is significant in the quality and the success of an event.

Some progress was already made, we are in the right direction, so let’s keep pushing !

7. Lastly, share with us any upcoming events or projects that you're excited about!

I live in Toulouse, which hosts one of the biggest WCS community in France (I would say third, behind Paris and Lyon, but that’s just a guess don’t be mad at me if I’m wrong).

This community has been built mainly by Paco Mas (Sea sun and swing, Westy Pink City) and Nicolas Bourgeais (West Duck Swing, BIM Masterclass). Over the last years we were lucky enough to have Igor Pitangui moving to Toulouse.

You already know him as a dancer, but he is also the organizer of the Global Grand Prix.

We had a first edition last December, Justin Petersen was the main DJ for competitions while I was the main DJ for social, and I’m very excited about the second edition that will happen in Toulouse next December.

I find it almost unreal to have, so close to where I live, a WSDC event with classic and showcase performance from the top pros worldwide.

Igor tries to bring a very nice atmosphere to the event, open-minded, sharing spirit, high quality show… So I do hope it will be a success and that I will see lot of you there!

Follow Vincent on his Social Media accounts!

Facebook

Spotify

Vincent shared his pick for this week's song, and you can listen to it right here!

1. How did you first discover West Coast Swing, and what drew you to become a West Coast Swing DJ?

I feel so old when answering this, but I discovered West Coast Swing in 2010 or 2011.

I was at a Rock’n Roll dancing party in Toulouse, and at some point there was a West Coast Swing demo by Nicolas Bourgeais who was a teacher there.

The dance seemed nice and smoother than Rock’n Roll so I decided to give it a try, and I have been hooked ever since.

Fast forward a few years later, Nicolas (still him!) noticed that during the event room parties I liked to take control of the speaker to play some music, so he offered me to become a DJ at his dance studio.

Nicolas already had a huge experience in Djing (playing at Budafest …) so he spent some time to share its experience and know-how with me, he really is the guy that pushed me to become a DJ, so thanks again!

2. Give us a glimpse of your musical library! Which styles influence your taste the most?

The style I like most is definitely acoustic, that you can play during late night, and just feel good and relax while dancing.

However, I noticed that I’m a bit picky, so I don’t have hundreds of them.

Most of my library is composed by kind of cool vibe/pop/contemporary/medium bpm songs with a nice atmosphere, “Shape of you” would be an obvious example of the style I like.

Globally, I’m more a positive-vibe-oriented DJ, although a Billie Eilish song once in a while is fine too :)

3. Can you share a particularly memorable or interesting experience you've had as a West Coast Swing DJ, and how did you handle it?

Let’s start with a challenging experience : Olivier Massart saw me playing at a local event in Strasbourg, and offered to play at the French Open WCS a few weeks later.

It was a huge deal for me, first time in a big event, a bit of pressure, so I came prepared as ever.

My set was scheduled around 23 pm or midnight, so party time, my playlist was composed by high energy and high bpm tracks. However… the air conditioning broke.

The temperature in the room was very high, and I was fighting against the bar (which is a lost battle to be honest), so I had to throw away my entire playlist to adapt to the situation.

So, kind of a hard first time, but definitely a learning experience :)

On a more positive note, DJing for a pro show where Emeline and Jakub performed their classic was a magical experience, the feeling to be part of it was very special for me!

4. What advice would you give to someone who's just starting out as a West Coast Swing DJ?

To be curious and to have fun!

There are a lot of things to learn, and it’s not always easy to find resources to do it, or people to talk to (which is changing thanks to the Westie DJs Guild, such a nice initiative) so you need to be curious, to always question yourself and your choices.

But it needs to be fun, otherwise it’s not worthy.

5. Outside of West Coast Swing DJing, what are some of your other interests or hobbies that help inspire your music selection or style?

That’s a bit weird because I have the feeling that it is quite the other way around : West Coast Swing is influencing on my other interests or music selection :).

I find it hard sometimes to listen to a song that is “not west coast-able”.

Otherwise, I like basketball a lot, which is influenced by US Hip-Hop music, so I like to hear some of it, but I don’t play it a lot in WCS parties, probably because I have a hard time dancing to it myself, being very far from an acceptable solo dancer.

6. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our audience about yourself or your journey as a West Coast Swing DJ?

Some progress was already made, we are in the right direction, so let’s keep pushing !

7. Lastly, share with us any upcoming events or projects that you're excited about!

I live in Toulouse, which hosts one of the biggest WCS community in France (I would say third, behind Paris and Lyon, but that’s just a guess don’t be mad at me if I’m wrong).

This community has been built mainly by Paco Mas (Sea sun and swing, Westy Pink City) and Nicolas Bourgeais (West Duck Swing, BIM Masterclass). Over the last years we were lucky enough to have Igor Pitangui moving to Toulouse.

You already know him as a dancer, but he is also the organizer of the Global Grand Prix.

We had a first edition last December, Justin Petersen was the main DJ for competitions while I was the main DJ for social, and I’m very excited about the second edition that will happen in Toulouse next December.

I find it almost unreal to have, so close to where I live, a WSDC event with classic and showcase performance from the top pros worldwide.

Igor tries to bring a very nice atmosphere to the event, open-minded, sharing spirit, high quality show… So I do hope it will be a success and that I will see lot of you there!

Follow Vincent on his Social Media accounts!

Facebook

Spotify

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