When I was playing out in the mid-late 90s- early 2000s I had a pretty original DJ name. I gained some success and local notoriety with it and liked it, But one night in 03 my house got robbed and I lost all my Djing equipment and musical gear (Guitars and such). Total Bummer.
That year I was also moving half-way across the country and dealing with some really heavy personal issues.
My DJ career was over.
Cut to almost a decade later; I started Djing again in my bedroom. It was so much fun and I felt like I had back a piece of me that had been missing. I had gotten back what I had lost all those years ago.
I started putting mixes up online under my real name (pretty average). I called my cousin who is deeply involved in LA music scene (Tours with Morgan Page).. he said he liked my mixes but my image needed to be more mysterious. I considered using my old DJ name but thought that that might be moving backwards and that I was a new man anyway so why not a new name. I felt no pressure to come up with a new name because I knew that if I didn’t produce one that I liked, I could just use my old one.
So I’m just listening to music one day , Jay-Z comes on in the intro to “All I Need”, and he opens up with
“F*ck it, I guess I got my Swagger Back”…..
Five Minutes later, my online profile name is changed to DJ SwaggaBack.. There you go.
I like it because it is completely representative of how I feel about myself and my life now.
Would I change it? Well I have to admit that when I heard other people say it, it could sound a little off to me, it’s like hearing your own voice played back to you. But, repetition = truth, so the more I used it, the more comfortable I feel. So no, I won’t be changing it. (Also it’s pretty cool having Jay-Z provide my name drop)
P.S. Datsik turned that sample of jay-z into a whole song pretty recently… Not a big fan of Datsik and I’m not hatin but no I won’t be playing that song in my sets.
Keep it up ya’ll
Thanks!
