DJ ROBIN MENDOZA THE MIXES

The DJ & the Mixes

Limelight @ VBar 2002

I have been spinning records and making people dance since the late 80’s. I used to be the head DJ of a mobile sound system called “Sensory Assault”. Never learned the craft from anyone; I learned it all by myself. I still remember mixing music using only 2 tape decks and a cheap mixer assembled by a cousin.

DJing for a mobile was just a hobby for me. I never took it seriously, besides, there are other things that I should be busy about.. like studying and finishing college. After I graduated from college, the passion for the music came back, and as fate would have it, I found myself working as a DJ in a music bar somewhere in Greenhills.

After months of being stuck in a small DJ booth, playing music that was programmed, I called it quits. I didn’t want to follow programming because it undermines a DJ’s creativity and talent. Besides, playing music that was requested by people every single night bored me to death.

I shifted career and practiced what I learned from school but again, I got bored. I wanted to try something new, something that will bring out the artist in me. I landed a job in an events company, as a technical assistant, and later on, as a production staff. My role was to design stages and riggings, and take care of sounds and lights requirements, and technical riders for concerts, fashion shows, dj events, product launches, etc. When I wasn’t busy doing production work, I was working at my little home studio creating my own music, arranging samplers, and remixing tracks.

My colleagues noticed this talent, and encouraged me to submit a 3 minute EDM (Electronic Dance Music) sampler of my work to Levis. Levis loved the sampler, and I was commissioned to do a stinger/soundtrack for the launch of their L2 brand. Got paid lots of money to do 3 remixes, and the same stinger was played on every city we toured for the L2 campaign. That was the start of something new, something that would re-awaken my interest.

More events came. More companies noticed my work. And in 1999, the clubbing revolution in Manila began. It actually started a couple of years ago, but it was only in 1999 when big companies took notice of this, and used events to market their products and use the whole events branding thing to their advantage.

Everyone craved for DJ driven events, and since I did events, and have DJ’ed before, why not put myself on the spotlight? And put myself I did. Competition was fierce. There were other DJs that were better than me, and I didn’t have a problem with that. I respected them like brothers and the same respect was given back to me. I ended up playing with them side by side, and what an honor that was.

I landed weekly and monthly residencies at famous clubs and bars in the Makati, Libis and Malate areas (VBar, Wasabi, Pravda, Fridge, Wherelse, etc), and toured the best cities in the Philippines to play for special events. I was the DJ behind the most successful campaign of Jose Cuervo called “Limelight”, a campaign that lasted for almost 2 years. Those were the best days of my life!

I had to give up DJing eventually, cos I got tired of the partying. I had nothing to prove anymore, and that was it. Besides, I got linked and had affairs with lots of women already, my then soon-to-be-wife got suspicious and threatened to cancel the wedding hahaha!

Those were the days. That was my story. This is now, and I still have a few stories to tell. But I’d rather tell these stories thru my music. That’s why I’m sharing all these mixes with you, hoping that u will know me better as a person and as an artist.

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