Create Places, an artist-organized economic and workforce development nonprofit, is hosting Open Beats on September 17, 2017, from 11:00am-2:00 pm. The event is held at the Overland Park shade shelter in Fort Collins, CO. Local electronic artist Full Metal, Kind Dub and Two ScoopS will be on hand to guide the crowd through an ultimate digital music experience.
All ages are invited to come and experience the creation of electronic music, learn to scratch like a DJ, and create live hip hop beats. All the equipment will be set up, and the artist will demonstrate techniques. Open Streets shows how important this type of music is in today’s industry. Fort Collins music scene has been invaluable in filling the void for the hip hop and DJ producers.
Diego Felix, AKA Full Metal DJ:
Diego Felix, AKA Full Metal DJ, is a DJ, turntablist, and scratch expert. He battles and competes routines against other DJ’s and is determined to win a championship this year. He started scratching when he wanted to get into music and hadn’t learned a “traditional” instrument. He got a turntable and some vinyl and learned the technique of scratching.
Diego’s mission is to use music to bring the community together. He started an open decks scratch session, Scratch Lab, at the Art Lab in Fort Collins. It is essentially an open mic for DJ’s open to all ages and abilities. It has brought together many turntablist, DJs, and electronic artist by creating this event. Scratch Lab happens the second Monday of every month starting in October. Everyone who wants to touch a turntable and scratch a record gets an opportunity. Look to build friendships, connections partnership, and skills at the Lab.
Full Metal teaches private lessons at the Music District. He and Two Scoops just held a DJ 101 course of 6 weeks teaching the basics of mixing and scratching.
Full Metal DJ first instrument was the turntable. He talks about how he got started:
“Thinking about when I wanted to get into music, feeling like I couldn’t, that I was never going to learn an instrument, that’s where I found my motivation to bring scratching to the community.” ~Full Metal DJ
Cody Kind Dub Marsden :
Cody Marsden of Kind Dub is a guitarist, DJ, and a videographer. His mission is to be a mentor and an example to youth who want to pursue hip hop. He is increasing accessibility to hip hop education.
Cody wants to give kids access to a set of tools to create beats live and start them as early as they have an interest. He seeks to create an environment that is fun and sparks an interest in a child learning music. His band, Kind Dub, hosts an open hip hop session at Colorado room every other Thursday called Colorado Come Up. This event is an all age show for anyone interested in Hip hop. He wants to break down the barriers and preconceived notions of hip hop and demonstrate its versatility in modern music.
Kind Dub is an excellent example of a Musicprenuer. The group performs regularly, supports the community, and has a production company.
Cody shared his views on the digital era of music:
“Live instrumentation or digital instrumentation it doesn’t matter as long as you are having fun creating music and having a good time with it. At the end of the day, it is going to put a smile on your face.” ~Cody Kind Dub Marsden
Mike McTernan, AKA Two ScoopS:
Mike McTernan, AKA Two ScoopS, is a producer and a DJ. He teaches the craft of digital production at the Music District and is involved in the digital music production scene in Northern Colorado. ScoopS values the importance of the technique and the fundamentals. He believes digital music is the foundation of most modern music. He focuses on the live access to digital music and blending genres and analog turntables multiple areas of digital music. He loves that the technology is evolving and combining analog instruments with digital.
Mike wants to give access to anyone interested in becoming a DJ. He wants it to be easy and accessible to the Fort Collins community. He has mastered his craft and wants to show the world that digital music production is the future of music creation.
Two Scoops expresses the beauty of his work:
“The beauty of electronically made music breaks boundaries if you are a band. A big deal is to pull from multiple genres. Different techniques incorporated into the craft of electronic music.” ~Two ScoopS
Two Scoops teaches private lessons at the Music District and is very involved in the electronic music scene across the Front Range. Two ScoopS host and curates a monthly electronic night at The Speakeasy at The Whiskey in Old Town, Fort Collins. It features bigger Colorado acts in an intimate setting. It happens every first Friday. The next show is on October 6th and will feature Chando, Golden Ghost, and 92 degrees.
The three extraordinary musicians will be on hand for demos, assistance and educating the community on their musical arts. There isn’t a more genuine, kind group of artist, that are willing to teach the youth, around. This is the first step to becoming a DJ in the Open Streets.
