By Catherine Reagan
A creative outlet for the musically-inclined, Spinner’s Suite is Macalester’s DJ club.They’re a new org, but have made themselves visible on campus: they mixed the soundtrack for this year’s orientation and have played on Bateman Plaza on nice days.
Spinner’s Suite was founded in the spring of 2006 by Gyo Tominaga ’06.
They first received Financial Advisory Committee funding in October 2006, but the theft of their equipment soon thereafter forced them to stop spinning. Student activity has increased significantly since then.
“This semester is the most active we’ve been,” co-president Dan Liu ’08 said. “Stu [Hudson ’08], the other co-president, was gone last semester and we were trying to recover from the thefts then, too.”
The Suite uses a combination of school-funded mixers and turntables and personal equipment.
According to Liu, there is a common misconception that Spinner’s Suite provides little service to the general Macalester community. Not the case, he said.
Liu estimated that the club has easily paid for its FAC funding twice over. Hiring a DJ costs $150-$200 per hour but Spinner’s Suite provides the same service for free.
Considering the number of dances and events that different clubs throw over the course of the year, the club has the potential to save the school quite a lot of money. In turn, the members get the chance to do what they enjoy most and hone their skills with the added bonus of an audience.
“I’m just really learning it now, since I joined this year,” Francisco Guzman ’09 said. “I’m more into hip-hop but I really like to play electronic music, too. It’s really fun to watch people dance to it.”
Due to the wide variety of musical tastes and identities within the club, Spinner’s Suite is split into two camps, each headed by a co-president who specializes in a respective branch. Hudson spins hip-hop and funk while Liu is known for his skills in trance and electronic music. However, there isn’t any other sort of hierarchy or structure within the club.
“Anyone can join and learn,” Liu said. “We were at the student org fair in September and have an e-mail list to remind people of meetings and events. Our membership now is good because everyone gets the opportunity to practice.”
Meetings are irregular but the club has had regular Tuesday/Friday beat sessions on Bateman Plaza and was also host to Eurobeat, where they played trance and dance music in the Kagin Ballroom.
As the weather has taken a turn toward winter, the beat sessions have been put on hold, but students may still hear music pulsing loudly through campus on surprisingly sunny days. (Macalester’s administration only stipulates that the sessions don’t interfere with ongoing events at the Weyerhauser Chapel or on Bateman Plaza.)
Students’ reception of Spinner’s Suite has been positive, club members said.
Simply put, Spinner’s Suite is another opportunity to widen your creative horizons here at Macalester.
“I’d say it’s definitely added to my Macalester experience because it’s something totally new,” member Henry Cardenas ’11 said.
“A lot of people want to be DJs. With DJ
club you can try out that dream,” Liu said.
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