Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Mark Samuel was exposed to DJ electronic dance music culture on a trip to Europe the summer before his freshman year at SU. He bought a DJ board and started creating his own mixes after returning to the United States and is now the student DJ for Juice Jam this Sunday.

“I’ve always wanted to do a festival like this,” Samuel said. “I always tell all my friends, my dream is to do a big festival like Tomorrowland, Ultra Festival or Coachella.”

Samuel, now a junior, began his DJ career by organizing concerts with his roommate in their freshman dorm. He bought a DJ deck over winter break, giving them the spring to try it out.

“I honestly was not good at DJing at that point, but I enjoyed doing it,” Samuel said. “My friends pretended that I was (good).”

Samuel started DJing at small events in his hometown at graduation and birthday parties before branching off into his own shows. Samuel said that this event will push him out of his comfort zone and force him to expand his music outside of the house, pop and rap that he usually plays.

At one point, Samuel stood behind the DJ booth in an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn, NY, mixing at a party for eight straight hours. At 7 a.m., when the event ended, he collapsed because he couldn’t stand anymore.

Since the beginning of his DJing career, Samuel said he has improved on several fronts. It took him a long time to learn how to mix songs that aren’t close in beats per minute and how to read a crowd.

“The first time you perform, you get really nervous,” Samuel said. “You get locked in on your DJ board, your computer and your music, and you forget to look at the crowd.”

Now, Samuel doesn’t have to prepare an entire set before he goes on. He prefers to plan a song or two to start with then pull from a larger playlist in the moment.

The concert directors for University Union, Camille Rowlands-Rees and Annie Levin, are in a unique position to provide opportunities to student artists. Levin feels grateful to be able to provide those opportunities.

“Something that was really important to Annie and I is having it be like a DJ that could really involve the crowd,” Rowlands-Rees said. “Based on the mix that he sent us, it was a very engaging mix and it was just like, ‘OK, cool, really good blend.’”

Enoca Shin, the marketing director of UU, went to a social event where Samuel was DJing and walked up to the booth to tell him that she loved his mix. He was playing “Atmosphere” by FISHER and Kita Alexander when she walked in. The song was something she hadn’t usually heard at Syracuse.

What made Samuel stand out to Shin was his ability to involve the audience in his mixing. Samuel said his style involves “playing for the crowd,” and that he likes playing what he knows people will dance to.

When UU started internal research into a student DJ, Shin immediately thought of Samuel. She recommended him to the concerts board, and after he submitted a sample mix, he was selected.

As a student organization, UU’s purpose is to cater towards student’s needs and opportunities, Rowlands-Rees said. With a student DJ, their friends come to the show and the event becomes more of a collaborative experience.

Shin said the DJ at a huge show is very important because of their role to hype up the audience and facilitate smooth transitions betweens artists.

“He’s already great at mixing and bringing in what the student body wants, with the crowd and the vibe,” Shin said. “Honestly, I’m really excited to see what he’ll bring to the Juice Jam stage.”

Published on September 20, 2023 at 10:52 pm