Gibsons DJ and music producer Wesley Progano recently returned from a DJ boot camp in Los Angeles where he and other aspiring DJs from all over the U.S. and Europe were shown the inner workings of the Hollywood music scene.
The DJs met with big name producers, lawyers, marketers, social media marketers – people from every aspect of the music industry.
“They just put us in a room with the different people to teach us the marketing end of things, and the legal end – it was really hands on. It was a small group so there was a lot of one on one,” Progano said. “We had time to talk to them all. It was really cool.”
Progano started DJing about three years ago, and after two years he started producing his own music.
“There’s kind of two angles to it,” Progano explained. “There’s the performing end of it, which is DJing, and then there’s the actual creating end of it, which is producing.”
Progano prefers being a producer. He’s performed in front of big crowds a few times as a DJ, but said that it’s something he will have to get more accustomed to.
A few months ago, Progano produced a song and entered it into an online competition. Then, he spread the word around the Coast to go online and vote for him, and he won.
“It was basically everyone on the Coast who helped me win. If it wasn’t for everybody here, I wouldn’t have made it out there,” Progano said. “It’s huge. It’s absolutely amazing to see how many people supported me.”
Winners of the competition were brought to LA to take part in the DJ boot camp held at the LA Recording School.
“It was crazy, I was told at 2 p.m. that I need to be in LA by the next morning at 8 a.m.,” Progano said.
“I had to get travel insurance, I had to run around, get money exchanged, and then I basically flew right from Harbour Air to YVR then to LAX. I landed at 11:30 p.m. and then had to take a 45-minute taxi ride to Hollywood.”
Producer and trance DJ Paul Oakenfold was in charge of selecting the winners and working with them through the boot camp. During the boot camp, Oakenfold heard another of Progano’s songs and decided to help him produce it professionally. Oakenfold is currently looking for a vocalist for the song.
Progano is hopeful about this break in his career, but he’s also realistic.
“It all depends on where this first track goes. I’d like to go back and work with [Oakenfold] on something in the future, but it’s all still in the making,” Progano said. “It’s really early days.”
