Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Gordon.
Travis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I used to own Restaurants and Bars in my home state of Kentucky, one of the bars we had called Devassa would have DJ’s and bands nightly and as with any bar or restaurant its hard to pack it out every single night so on the slower nights I started DJing to save us some money. Music has always been a big part of my life, and I was blessed that I had parents that exposed me to all kinds of different genres. So, when I started DJing, I became obsessed with it and wanted to get good and get respect from other DJs in the area. I worked as hard at it as I did own my restaurants and started to pick up gigs outside my own establishment. My big break is when my good friend Eric Banks from MTV put me on with a owner of 2 major bars/ clubs in South Padre, which resulted in getting to DJ Spring Break for 25 straight days. From there, I met two great friends in DJ Slim McGraw (formally DJ Dirty) and DJ Silver. Those guys took me under their wing and taught me about the business side of things, along with helping me obtain some bigger gigs that jolted my careers. Unfortunately, under some unforeseen circumstances, my restaurants and bars closed, and from there, I took the jump at doing this full time and never looked back.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not at all, I think I as every DJ wake up every day and fear that the bookings and phone calls stop coming. I will say the biggest challenge for me was moving to Houston. I know how hard it is to break into different markets, and I wanted that challenge, but it came at a sacrifice both personally and professionally. As it should be, Houston has a lot of talented DJs, and they have the city locked up, and it was just hard to get anywhere. I was lucky enough to do multiple events for the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys which I don’t know many that can claim that combination as well as stay pretty busy every weekend but I was traveling to Dallas and Austin a lot and just for some reason couldn’t get a break in Houston consistently.
Before that, I signed with my friend Deejay Silver and his booking agency out of Nashville. We are known for party rocking country bars, clubs, and festivals. We took country music and mashed it up to make it real club-friendly and created something different. It honestly is one of the best things that I do, but with that, I got put into a box as a “Country DJ,” and it was as if people forgot the years and years before that when I was spinning multiple genres as open format DJ. So with that, I had to kind of rebrand myself so to speak and let everyone know I’m an open format DJ who can do country gigs at a high level and not the other way around.
Please tell us about your work.
I’m a club and radio DJ. I specialize in throwing a party every weekend to help people get through their week. I also have a Mixshow in Houston on the weekends on 91.1 The Boss Radio and Podcast.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Two things, I would have picked up an instrument when I was a kid and put down the footballs and basketballs and started my musical journey earlier. I also would have started to learn production years ago or maybe before I even started to learn DJing because I think it makes you understand music and its structure which essentially makes you a better DJ.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thedjtravisty.com
- Phone: 8594477940
- Email: thedjtravisty@gmail.com
- Instagram: @djtravisty
- Facebook: @djtravisty1
- Twitter: @djtraivsty1
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