Events can always be supplemented by the magic of music. Weddings, parties, corporate meetings, fashion shows, bars, and night clubs are all perfect happenings or venues for a disc jockey, more commonly known as a DJ. Pete Sanger is a local who’s been spinning discs for more than 20 years in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties under the moniker DJPJ.
“Everybody calls me DJPJ now,” he said. “Even my family.”
DJPJ’s first foray into the art was in 1990 when he showed up to a dance with some friends, and the scheduled DJ was a no show.
“Everybody looked at me and said, ‘Pete, you’re into music. You always have what’s current. You do it,’” he said.
When he made his way to the DJ booth, he found a cassette player that didn’t have a rewind function and a turntable for vinyl records. After 3 1/2 hours of providing music, he received a standing ovation from the party.
“They said, ‘Dude, you played everything we wanted to hear!’” he recalled, “And I said, ‘Well isn’t that what a DJ is supposed to do?’”
Sanger honed his skills at the same dance hall for several months where he would receive invitations to DJ house parties and weddings. But when he got into the club scene, he explained, he never went back.
“My job is to make sure that everybody has a good time,” he said. “And that’s what my goal is.”
Sanger was resident DJ, club manager, and booking agent for 13 years at Nicholby’s in Ventura before moving to the Bombay Bar and Grill, also in Ventura. While at Nicholby’s, he mastered the art of the nightclub DJ and rubbed shoulders with musical acts like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and No Doubt.
“I did the Hell’s Angels 50th anniversary party,” he said. “Making a 6-foot-9 tall Hell’s Angel get up and dance is pretty awesome.”
It was around this time Sanger became known as DJPJ. A musician friend of his—now lead singer of Sweet—told him DJ Pete didn’t have enough of a “ring” to it and dubbed him DJPJ.
Now the general manager of the Guitar Center in Oxnard, DJPJ can be found performing regularly in Santa Ynez’s Maverick Saloon Fridays and Saturdays.
“When I walked in, there was a country band, everybody was wearing cowboy boots, and there were hay bales all over the place,” he said. “I found the booker and said, ‘Hey man, I do hip-hop,’ and he said, ‘At 11:30, it’s all you.’ When I hit the music, they came running.”
DJPJ spins mostly mainstream hip-hop and pop, including the likes of Usher, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Britney Spears, and others—but he doesn’t deprive the dance floor of some more classic selections.
“[It’s] all the current stuff people like to party to, and then the old school,” he explained. “People like the nostalgic stuff.”
DJPJ believes in quality equipment to go along with quality music. He comes equipped with a Tascam mixing board, a Bose sound system with eight subwoofers, and two Pioneer CDJ 800 CD players.
“I’m not a turntablist,” he said. “I’m a DJ, strictly a DJ. Just plug me in in the corner, and I get the party started.”
But one of the coolest aspects of the DJPJ experience at the Maverick is that it comes with a light show. The room has 15 LED lights installed in the ceiling, as well as a laser and smoke machine. The lights all run to a jumper pack—complete with 12 manual switches—in the DJ booth where DJPJ flips the switches in rhythm with the music.
“The technology has turned it into where almost anybody with a laptop can DJ. They can do it all via computer,” he said. “But me being the old school kind of guy, I like to do it the old-fashioned way.”
DJPJ is available for private gigs, and will even do a wedding if you “twist his arm.” You can reach him at djpjbooking@yahoo.com.
“I love what I do. I wouldn’t give it up,” he said. “It helps me support the family; it’s me, the Lovely Lady Laura, and our five kids.”
More at the Maverick
The Maverick Saloon in Santa Ynez will be host to country band Sean Wiggins and Lone Goat on July 1 at 8:30 p.m., followed by DJPJ at 11:30 p.m. “Concert on the Deck” with Sean Wiggins is July 2 at 3 p.m. Sean Wiggins and Lone Goat perform July 2 at 8:30 p.m., followed by DJPJ at 11:30 p.m. A “Bluegrass/Music Festival” is a benefit for disabled and sick children, featuring guest band Angelomeatcraft from 1 to 4 p.m. on July 3. Tickets are available at talesfromthetavern.com or 688-0383.
Contact Calendar Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 7, 2011.