For DJs Automatic and Rockwell, spinning on the radio was never a priority.
All they wanted was to move the crowd.
Yet because these humble musicians have real talent, people in the local music industry are starting to take notice. They have gigs all over the city, as well as a show on radio station 97.3 KISS FM.
Merritt Reland, or Automatic, is a former communications and journalism major who graduated from UNM knowing he wanted to spin hip-hop.
He hooked up with another local, DJ Rockwell, or Stephen Garcia, who was been spinning in Santa Fe for years. They formed the crew Vinyl Pushers with two other local DJs and plan to infiltrate the airwaves with talent.
"I felt like for both of us, the radio was the next step," Reland said. "People in Albuquerque say the radio is wack if you are into real hip-hop. But I feel like we need to be the people to take it to the next level."
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On KISS FM, Reland and Garcia have a fair amount of freedom.
"We pick out a lot of the songs," he said. "But not everything we like gets played. It all depends on listeners calling in. Your average listener isn't going to be a college kid who calls in when they hear good stuff on the radio. Without them, it's like us against the corporation."
Reland said Albuquerque radio stations are making progress when it comes to introducing good music.
"We were one of the first stations in the country to play Kanye West," he said.
Reland and Garcia say their versatility is part of the reason they have been so successful.
A lot of DJs are so hardheaded," Garcia said. "They say 'I'm going to play what I want to play.' But there could be 400 people there who don't want to hear what you want to hear. The older I got, the more I realized you have to be well rounded."
Both DJs have spun for years but have only put out a few mix tapes. This is because they are perfectionists, Garcia said.
They plan out their mix tapes down to the last cut, keeping lists of the songs and the order of rotation.
"You definitely have to have a concept or a theme," he said. "You can't just throw down a bunch of songs and call it a mix tape. It's a lot of work."
Reland said creating a mix tape is like telling a personal story.
"I like to make my mix tapes become one body of music that people will listen to forever," he said.
Both Reland's CD, Rookie Card, and Garcia's Mood Swings show the quality of their music. The CDs have smooth transitions from song to song and a well-balanced mix of old-school and new-school hip-hop and soul.
The two say that deejaying isn't just about playing records.
"Every time I put out a record I am putting out a piece of me," Reland said. "If you can move people with your music selection, that makes you a good DJ."
Garcia can't see himself ever doing anything else.
"I will still be deejaying in the club when I am 50," he said.
