I’m from a mid-tier city in the middle of America (Omaha, Nebraska). I was the hometown hero in the DJ scene. Won awards, had my own club, did a big NYE send-off party at a theatre before I left.

But in Adelaide, I don’t have a crowd. I didn’t go to high school with anyone. Nobody really cares about all that stuff I did.

And that’s absolutely perfect — I get to do whatever I want, however I want, and whenever I want to — with no expectations.

See, at 41, I’m an elder Millennial. And I have stories.

I’ve taken Ron Trent record hunting. After a flight cancellation, I spent 6 hours of quality time driving Kevin Yost to a gig. I went pizza shop hopping around Brooklyn with Nickodemus before doing a set with him at the late-great Cielo nightclub. Even got to spend a few hours in a room with Frankie Knuckles and shake his hand.

Name-dropping can be fun. But what’s more fun is bringing joy to people on a dance floor. Connecting people through music. Helping them to shake off stress and trauma through movement.

In those moments, it’s not about whom you know, how many TikTok followers you have, or if you have the freshest, most unreleased music. The only thing that matters is … are people having a good time?

At the end of the day, that’s what I’ve spent 24 years of my life doing. And to that end, as long as it remains fun, I’ll keep doing it.