Today we’d like to introduce you to Desi Mendez
Hi Desi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started in electronic music back in 2001 as DJ Gimpy, which changed to DJ Morlock in 2002. I was active in DJing and producing through 2007, having my music played in clubs in downtown Portland, OR and streaming on early electronic music sites like Orbital Grooves radio.
Life happened and I had to put my pursuit of a career in music on hold until early 2023 when I met the love of my life, Ivette.
She encouraged me to get back into it, to put my music online and see where it would take me.
In late 2023, I went into music full time as a DJ, eventually dropping DJ and just going by Morlock to not pigeon-hole myself into just being a DJ, but also a producer and artist in my own right.
In the spring of 2024 we started our company, Open Reality Entertainment.
At Open Reality Entertainment we produce music events and pop-ups that promote local artists and businesses to give them a venue and platform to grow and put them in the spotlight.
Doing so has lead us to a life we had only dreamed of, producing events, and playing everywhere from private events, clubs, and on top of mountains across the country to being on stage with Blasterjaxx.
While our company is just starting out, we have a lot of artists and businesses we work with to build a community and help each other grow.
Running a business and being an artist is a full time job that keeps me busy, but I still find time to experience the local music scene, spend time with my family, travel, and relax playing video games or swimming in our pool.
I am proud to be a member of the group, Until Sunset, which encourages sobriety in the rave community and holds family friendly, daytime, sober music events. As a clean and sober DJ and as a father, it is important to me to spread positive messages through music that will inspire future generations and help us all come together for the love of music.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While we have experienced bumps in the road like any business we have been smart about what we do to minimize them as much as possible.
Prior to starting our business, we made sure to do our homework and observe what others were doing in both the local scene and industry as a whole to see what we could do different.
After we started our business and ran a few of our ideas for change, we quickly saw others adopt some of those changes as well.
We didn’t come to play, we came to change the game.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As an electronic music artist and business owner in the industry, I get to experience things from both sides.
This gives me a unique perspective on both on what promotors look for and what artists are actually putting the work in to stand out and be unique.
Being older and more experienced than a lot of the scene in Houston, I have seen trends come and go and have a very good ear for songs that would go together well that aren’t just on the Beatport top 100.
I stand out because I don’t stick to one or two genres or bpm range, but move around a lot through my sets, building energy as I go, with carefully curated crates to take the listener on a journey where they can’t help dancing.
Sometimes I plan the set, but that’s just a loosely based plan. Being in the moment and being able to change the mood of the room as you go is a skill all DJs should have and one I have mastered after years of practice.
Producing music is something I enjoy, but prefer remixing songs as opposed to writing from scratch.
I listen music and think of how I can reshape it. How can I make it more dramatic, build more energy, and what concepts can I embed in it so the listener thinks what I thought when I heard it, before changing it?
I don’t just listen to music, my mind is constantly working on what to do next.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
We took a big risk with our first big event, Interstellar Rave.
I had just tried to get a few DJs together to go in on a venue and production cost and we’d all split anything we made.
I didn’t find a lot of people willing to do this, but I did find one that was willing to throw a show with me and split costs, DJ Circinus.
Budgets ran over, we ended up losing some money, but we learned a lot, had a great show, had great attendance numbers and everyone was already asking when the next one was.
The success of it, and having experience in organizing it gave me us the push we needed to launch our company.
We had great hopes for it and prior to Interstellar Rave even happening, we had already booked the venue for our next big event, End Of Summer Bash on 08/23/2024 at White Swan Live in Houston.
Pricing:
- DJ services $50-150/hr
- Fee to vend at our events $25-100/night
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.djmorlock.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djmorlock
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morlockmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dj-morlock
- Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/morlockmusic
- Other: https://www.openrealityentertainment.com
Image Credits
Alissa Szucs Photography (watermarked)
Ivette Mendez (unwatermarked)
