Zachary Marsh, a junior majoring in computer engineering, was ranked among the top 10 college DJs in the nation this April by the entertainment blog “The Campus Socialite.”
The winners are described on the blog as “masters of music” who “keep their listeners dancing until the break of dawn.”
Marsh, who sometimes goes by the name “DJ Dr. Mr.,” explained his passion for music and how he got into DJing.
“[I] always loved electronic music and would always find myself at parties being the guy selecting songs from an iPod or YouTube on someone’s computer,” Marsh said. “My friends at [University at] Albany would throw weekly parties and events in the Albany and New Paltz area, exposing me to the dance-floor oriented side of electronic music. I fell in love with the scene and decided to start spinning.”
He said he was self-taught at his craft.
“I would mess around on my friend’s CDs and vinyl turntables when I visited Albany and last summer purchased my own and taught myself how to beat-match and mix well,” Marsh said.
“The Campus Socialite” pitted Marsh against his ranking peers in an online voting competition for the title of “Best College DJ.” According to Jason Sylvan of “The Campus Socialite,” the nominees were selected based on the number of votes they received on surveys distributed by representatives of the website at schools around the country.
“The Campus Socialite” announced on May 5 that “DJ Hoodr1ch” of the University of Mississippi won the award with 30.2 percent of the vote on the website’s Facebook page.
Marsh said currently most of his DJing takes place at parties, and the amount he does varies from week to week.
“Some weekends I’ll spin Friday and Saturday, some weekends nothing is really going on,” Marsh said. “I play primarily jungle-tech, tropical house, dubstep, future bass, moombahton, hip-hop and original tunes.”
According to Marsh, this eclectic mix of genres reflects his personal style.
“I love music all over the board — anything from hip-hop to jazz, psychedelic ’60s music, indie, soul and basically anything that has soul,” he said. “My favorite artists include Animal Collective, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Modest Mouse.”
When asked about post-college plans, Marsh said he does not intend to make a career out of DJing, but he hopes to combine his love of music and his computing knowledge in the field of work he chooses.
“I want to eventually use my computer engineering background and my love for electronic music production and start a company designing custom synthesizers, or maybe work for a music production software company,” he said.
Marsh was the headliner for the DJ Tent at Saturday’s Spring Fling festivities. His set, however, was moved inside the Old University Union by the post office due to the rain.