Dancing disco lights and energetic go-go dancers surrounded the platform where DJ Food Stamp stood at the Halloween Mash Up on Saturday night.
For many students, the event was a fun way to spend Halloween night, dancing to good music. For DJ Food Stamp, the event was another night of mixing some beats and taking multiple song requests for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
DJ Food Stamp, also known as Andre Sirois, a graduate student at the University, arrived a half hour early to set up his equipment on a multi-colored platform in the middle of the EMU Ballroom. The night began at 10 p.m. when students trickled onto the dance floor looking for a good time.
One student, freshman Will Downey, said that he came to the Halloween Mash Up because he “just needed to do some dancing … although I was hoping there would be some more girls here,” Downey lamented.
Others, like senior Rose Katz who came dressed as a fairy, were ready to enjoy the music.
“This music is really fun — stuff I would want to dance to, and the scene reminds me of Club Pink or the ’80s or something,” Katz said.
One aspect of the event that the audience seemed to agree on was the DJ’s music choices. The crowd cheered as Sirois spun the tables to Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams.”
Sirois knew his primary job was keeping the crowd happy and having a good time.
“I try to play stuff that I like, but also stuff I know people like to party to, it’s all about just feeding off of the crowd and seeing what they react to … I’ll mix older stuff in with like a Kanye song and mix it with an old school break,” Sirois said.
After growing up listening to early hip-hop music like Run DMC and The Fat Boys, Sirois began disc jockeying in 1999 during his sophomore year of college at a local radio station. Spending all of his money on records for scratching eventually led to the creation of Sirois’ official name — DJ Food Stamp.
“I spent all my money on records so I had to eat like just ramen noodles and I was like well I should just apply for food stamps — of course they denied me but it became sort of a joke like, ‘Hey, I’m DJ Food Stamp,’” Sirois recalled.
Back in the disco-light infused EMU Ballroom, junior Leah Chan made a song request to DJ Food Stamp. Dressed in a ripped-up outfit curiously similar to the zombies from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, Chan exclaimed she was “here with some friends to perform a dance” before she ran out onto the dance floor. A synchronized performance of Michael Jackson’s infamous “Thriller” dance from the music video followed.
Many students at the Halloween Mash Up would have never guessed that the DJ mixing some hard beats in a white tank top is also a graduate student and Ph.D. candidate in the Communication and Society program at the University’s School of Journalism and Communication.
Sirois said he balances his life as a graduate student and a DJ easily and that he also uses his DJ experiences as inspiration for his dissertation.
“Being a graduate student is definitely a big part of my life as a DJ in that respect, but I don’t want to taint what I do and that part of my life with academic bullshit,” Sirois said.
As the mash in the EMU ballroom continued, more students arrived to check out the event. While the music transitioned from “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa to “Don’t Cha” by the Pussycat Dolls, DJ Food Stamp catered to the audience’s musical tastes.
“I’m not a jukebox you know, most DJ’s in this town are jukeboxes — put a quarter in and you’ll hear it, but I just try to work it in to what I’m already doing,” said Sirois.
The night steadily came to a close around 2 a.m.; the disco lights faded and the go-go dancers slowed their tempo.
After a typical Saturday night of mixing beats and song requests, DJ Food Stamp packed up his turntables and left to resume his life as a graduate student on Monday morning.
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