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Voyage LA | Meet Lee Dyson of Hey Mister DJ

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Dyson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lee. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Originally, I started as a nightclub DJ working in the Midwest, Miami and Los Angeles.

I was fortunate enough to have an amazing mentor that taught me so many fundamentals about how much impact a DJ has on their environment.

People don’t realize, but in a nightclub, the DJs primary goal is to help drive bar revenue. They do this by controlling the flow of the crow and rotating or “flipping” the dance floor about every 30-45 minutes to keep people moving back and forth to buy drinks. This is a very fine art form because you are trying to make subtle changes in the music, tempo or genre so that you move some of the guests off the floor but without killing the floor completely. If you change too radically you can clear the floor which not only makes you look bad but also floods the bar so the perception is that the club has slow service.

Room awareness and instincts are key in order to have exceptional control over your room.

The DJ can also affect the men to woman ration, ethnic mix and style of crowds attending from week to week at a club with their music programming. A good DJ can also sense when too much tension is building in a room and lighten the mood musically to alleviate potential fights from breaking out which results in bad reputation for a venue.

After many years of working for various nightclub companies, I started getting offers to do corporate events, celebrity parties and weddings.

I realized that clients were soliciting my services when I was spinning in a club for their special event because there was a lack of sophisticated Mobile DJs for special events. Many of the mobile DJ company options were perceived as cheesy so I saw a niche in the industry that wasn’t being filled.

In 2007 I launched Hey Mister DJ.

Our slogan was “DJs that please without the cheese.”

The concept was to merge the professionalism, dependability and knowledge of a mobile DJ with the sophistication, music savvy and mixing ability of a club DJ.

We specialize in music curation for clients that are passionate about music, or at the very least, understand how important the DJ is to the overall success of their event.

We have some of the best DJs in LA on staff and are now full service for events by also providing professional MCs, lighting, karaoke and photo booths.

In 2017, Hey Mister DJ won the California Wedding Day’s “Best of Bride” award: http://californiaweddingday.com/best/california-wedding-days-best-2017-winners

Owner Lee Dyson is also the education chair for the Los Angeles chapter of Tuesday’s Together with The Rising Tide Society: www.risingtidesociety.com

I also released first book “How to hire a killer wedding DJ” last year: http://www.amazon.com/How-Hire-Killer-Wedding-DJ/dp/0692584889/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455162986&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=leedyson

You can check out all our DJ mixes here: https://www.mixcloud.com/Hey_Mister_DJ/

Has it been a smooth road?
Overall it’s been pretty smooth and we are grateful for the opportunity to do what we love and affect so many people in a fun & positive way.

The biggest challenge has been figuring out how to manage a healthy work/life balance.

As a business owner/entrepreneur, it’s very easy to stay working constantly and go down the rabbit hole of comparing yourself to others in the industry which can sometimes cause you to lose focus or create a false perception that you aren’t doing enough.

Currently, the challenge is to scale up our business model to meet client demand while still retaining our boutique style and not sacrifice the client experience. The commitment is to growth while never losing sight of our “quality over quantity” mentality.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Hey Mister DJ story. Tell us more about the business.
Our level of room awareness and chameleon-like ability to adjust the music, energy and ambiance is what I believe sets us apart from the pack.

While it’s typical for many events to have a dance floor (and we can seriously rock a dance floor) we also specialize in curating music for non-dance oriented events such as product launches, fashion shows, premiere/wrap parties and high-end cocktail mixers.

People often underestimate how much skill and discipline is required as a DJ to create and maintain a medium level of energy and stay in that pocket for 3-4 hours while balancing between eclectic/obscure tracks to create a background vibe with just enough mainstream selections so it still feels familiar and engaging to guests.

I find that many less experienced DJs mix upward too fast and lose control of their set.

This leads to an energy level that is higher than what the room requires and thus feels abrasive.

So we are proud of our reputation as DJs that you can drop in any room, any situation with any type of crowd and we’ll quickly dial in to create the perfect atmosphere that enhances the event.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Already there has been a big shift because technology has made industries like DJ, sound, photography and video so accessible that it’s become flooded with amateurs. It used to be that there was a high entry barrier because the amount of time & money one needed to invest in order to enter the industry was significant.

That barrier has become diminished which makes it harder and harder for clients to identify a true professional.

However, technology also provides some solutions.

Now more than ever, clients can do research, educate themselves, find reviews and social proof of their DJ before booking to ensure they have secured a solid pro for their wedding or special event.

I think we’ll continue to see more and more music collections becoming cloud-based and eventually your DJ might not actually “own” any of their music.

Some DJs are already spinning by using subscription-based music services.

Pricing:

  • An experienced, professional wedding DJ package is typically in the ballpark of $2000-$4500 depending on date, time. length, experience level and amount of gear required.

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