Seattle Weekly: This year marks your 20th anniversary as a DJ, though most people know you from your Thursday night ’80s residency at Neighbours. How long have you played there?
DJ Trent Von: After relocating to Seattle from the Bay Area, I started there around 1995, and have also been at the Fenix Underground on weekends since 1996. They both have a family aspect. A lot of DJs will tell you horror stories about clubs only hiring you for the good times, but even right now when the economy is in a weird spin, I work for nightclubs that back me up.
Pioneer Square has the Girls Gone Wild thing covered. Would you say Neighbours is the male equivalent?
I guess it could be—probably more on the weekends. I don’t really notice it because I have an older, more mature crowd on Thursdays and they party a little different.
Which crowd is more fun to play to?
It’s hard to distinguish. At the Fenix, the girls are more apt to dance to things the guys aren’t—for instance, I can play a hip-hop set there, or straight-up C89 [89.5 FM] dance music, and the guys will stand around while the girls get out there and start vibing. At Neighbours, the guys are usually the first to take the floor and the last to leave. It gets boring to spin to one type of audience, so working with [both] the gay and straight crowds keeps things interesting.
It also puts you in the situation of being hit on by both men and women during your gigs. How does your wife, Brenna, who works the lights for you on Thursdays, deal with that?
She’s understanding, and it’s not such a crazy scene at Neighbours—I see more couples going out there together than I do at other clubs. They value commitment and celebrate relationships as much as anywhere else.
You attend Miami’s Winter Music Conference every year. Does she travel with you?
Yeah, she does. It’s a fun event, but for non-DJs, a bunch of [DJs] getting together can be really boring. We went around asking everyone if they’d been A/V geeks in high school, and most of them had.
What advice would you give to local DJs who want to make it a career?
Better programming—nobody wants to hear Darude’s “Sandstorm,” or hard house, at the beginning of the night. DJ’ing is all about programming, mixing, and looking like you’re having a good time.
The lifestyle is also quite vampirelike—coming alive at night and sleeping all day. Now that the sun’s setting earlier, how will that affect you?
I don’t mind; I prefer the night. There’s no traffic, I don’t have to wear sunglasses, and the grocery store is easy to navigate. The day people are scary! The crazy people you see at night are a different kind of crazy, walking up and down the street and talking to themselves. That’s entertaining!
