Dj AAsh Money is an award winning, Saskatoon based Dj and Remixer with many years of experience. He is known for customizing his mix to the exact audience, selecting songs through his deep knowledge of popular music and multi-genre open format style. For example one night he might be playing current dance music at a club, the next he'll be at a cabaret mixing country tunes for a bunch of rowdy cowboys & cowgirls. With no limits, he has Dj'd thousands of events throughout his career. Beginning in 1999, he started out by djing gravel-pit parties from the front seat of his car with 2 portable cd players and a radio shack mixer. After getting equipped with proper gear shortly after, he began taking on weekly gigs at local bars & nightclubs, developing his Dj skills, gaining experience and building his music library. Throughout the years, AAsH has held numerous residencies at various locations throughout central and western Canada. Along with the bar and club scene, he has also DJ'd hundreds of mobile events such as corporate galas, cabaret's, street festivals, car shows, skateboard competitions, school dances and weddings.
He most recently opened for country music recording artist, Gord Bamford, at a private concert put on by Sony Records during the festivities of the 2012 Canadian Country Music Awards, which were held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. AAsH Money has also been the opening Dj for the LMFAO Party Rock Crew along with hip-hop acts such as Rap Legend Bun B from UGK, House of Pain, Winnipeg’s Most, Kidz in the Hall and Classified.
Aside from live DJing, AAsH is a savvy Remixer. He's very keen in creating "Mashups" and customizing certain songs to be Dj friendly. He has also recorded many different mixtapes that have had over a million plays world-wide on the internet.
In March of 2012, he entered the Saskatoon "So You Think You Can DJ?" competition: an 8-week, 16-DJ elimination tournament. He finished in first place and won the grand prize of a Rane 62z DJ mixer. Currently, DJ AAsh Money is the resident DJ and Program Director at Beily's Ultralounge in Saskatoon...
ALEX J MACPHERSON - VERB NEWS SASKATOON
SASKATOON,SK - "So You Think You Can DJ?" is a mixing competition hosted by Beily's Ultralounge to find their next resident DJ, and Ashley Shatford - who mixes under the name DJ AAsH Money - has tossed his hat in the ring.
"So You Think You Can DJ?" features four preliminary rounds during which competitors will have the opportunity to spin for half an hour. Two of the four DJs will advance to a pair of semifinal rounds, which in turn will lead to a final showdown in April. DJs will be judged on a wide array of criteria, from creativity and scratching to their ability to draw and technical proficiency.
And while Shatford didn't set out to become a DJ, he's now a professional, making money for weekend gigs and taking on "So You Think You Can DJ?".
"I was always the guy in the corner playing the tunes, sitting in front of the CD player" he says. "It went from that to doing parties. I figured out how to rig up a sound system in my car, a house stereo, and run tunes out of there. It just started as a hobby, something I liked to do."
Shatford is remarkably earnest, a music aficionado who likes nothing more than sharing his love with other people. It was after discovering turntables that he started to take his hobby seriously.
"It's not something you can pick up overnight," he says. "It takes a lot of time. You have to get your feet wet, you have to get experience. It's about getting comfortable with the equipment and getting comfortable with your music repitoire and building your music library."
Shatford doesn't know exactly how many songs are in his collection, but his best guess is in the range of 50,000.
"You never know," he laughs. "They're good to have just in case. I have a general idea of what i'm going to play going in - I do it so often - but there are curveballs."
A big library is important because crowds are unpredictable, he says. It's never certain what any given group wants to hear. Newer, top 40 material is always popular, but so are older songs. Pointing to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and the "infamous chant" that accompanies Billy Idol's cut of "Mony Mony," he explains that knowing and anticipating when to play certain songs is critical. And while it varies from year to year, Shatford says lately LMFAO's "I'm Sexy And I Know It" is the most requested song.
"With older songs it just comes from experience," he says. "With new music it's trial and error. It's brand new so you don't know how the sons's going to catch on."
Unlike the inatngible but hugely important feel, the mechanics of DJing aren't particularly complicated, Shatford explains. Like most working DJs he uses a computer program called Serato to store, organize and play songs, along with a pair of turntables synced to his computer.
"All of the songs are run off of the computer; the vinyl is basically a control disc, an interface," he says, meaning that the actual records are tools to acheive the classic DJ effects - scratches, pauses and tempo changes.
"So You Think You Can Dj" is judged by local DJ's Sugar Daddy, Austen Roadz and Anchor. Dave Fogg, a DJ from Las Vegas, will join the panel for the final round.
Shatford, who has never put his skills to the test in a competition, is modest to the extreme.
"I never really see music as a competition," he says. "I See it more as a collaboration, and basically my approach to it was that I had no expectation of winning. I just wanted to come out and play my part and have some fun."
"I'm feeling pretty good about it," he adds of his first round victory. "I wasn't expecting it to go down the way it did. I'm feeling really good, a little overwhelmed."
Catch Shatford in action at the first semifinal on April 1 at Beily's nightclub. The preliminary rounds run every Sunday night through to March 18, with the finals slotted for April 15.
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