DJ Chad E has been known by a few names now. ‘Chad’ being his first name, and ‘E’ simply being his middle initial. Originally he was a bedroom hobbyist, and music collector, dating back to around 1996-1998. He never dreamed of having his own DJ equipment as a student growing up in center city Allentown, PA; so he simply would take music he had, and throw them together using software such as Soundforge or Goldwave. Back then he was known only by his screen name, ‘Xirphoid’, which still currently is his online screen name. His inspirations came from listening to Freestyle/House/Dance/Club music on the Radio via WIOQ Philadelphia (Q102) on a nightly show called Club 102. He would love listening to the sounds of DJ’s such as Chuck Addis and Robbie Tronco live from places such as Egypt Nightclub, The Warehouse, The Riverdeck Café, and so on.
At some point around 1998 he discovered a website, Dancecity.net, run by DJ008 (Tony Lim) from Toronto, connecting to a few House music lovers such as DJ Strobe. He spent many hours playing video games with them online over the years. With DJ008’s help, Chad discovered a piece of software called “Virtual Turntables”, which worked much better than most of the time, and he started to learn beat matching. He also tried “PC-DJ” v1.0, but was not impressed since he was not yet familiar with the “Classic” Denon DN2000F interface.
Eventually, Chad decided to make new Mix CD’s using “Virtual Turntables” for his own amusement. This was approximately 2001, and he used tracks such as: “Witch Doktor”, “Magic Orgasm”, “Sandstorm”, and “Silence”, and “Toca Boys”. He received much feedback from his longtime friend, DJ Wolf. Not long after, Chad found that his prized machine with his Music collection on it, has crashed, loosing most of his music.
Once he was able to start rebuilding his music collection, he found that his long-favorite website had vanished… He sank in to a bout of depression, so he went on to do other things, and found him self involved in a car club. Slowly he has been trying to rebuild a collection of music, starting with whatever he had left over on CD’s. Eventually, later on in 2004, he decided to make another Mix CD that he can distribute to members of the Car Club. This CD was an attempt to find all the BEST music he could find, and music that would suit driving. So he used songs, with a few nods to Robbie Tronco, such as “Get Ready For The Ride”, and “Oompa Song”, along with music by “Pink Floyd – Brown Acid”, “Tori Amos – Blue Skies”, “U2 – Beautiful Day”, and much more House / Trance tracks such as “Da Hool – Eichelruck”, “Digital Allies”, “Space Frog”, “High Gate”, and “Jonah – Sssst… Listen”. The CD was an instant hit among car club members, gaining a few fans, especially the founder of the car club, Neil. But something happened, Chad sunk into more depression, simply because he didn’t have money or the drive to buy his own equipment, so he gave up for a long time… Until about two years later.
In the summer of 2006, Chad started hanging out with DJ Wolf every week at the Playdrome Rose Bowl (PA) where he was playing every Thursday night. Eventually, he decided that he would give it a try again, and next thing he knew Wolf was letting him play in front of a crowd. Chad’s beat matching and skill level wasn’t ideal, but the crowd responded to the selection of music. He was limited to Urban music, and eventually expanded into Dance music. Next thing Chad knew, he was playing along side DJ Wolf weekly at the Gallery Billiards (PA). Also he made appearances at various places such as Maingate Nightclub (PA), Drinky’s Lounge (PA), Private Events (PA), Dr. B’s (Ocala, FL), and Gem Nightclub (Miami Beach). He has been known as ‘Chico Suave’ for about 2 years until approximately May 2008, when with much deliberation among peers, when deciding to go with “DJ Chad E”. He also has had the pleasure of meeting many internationally known DJ’s, such as Robbie Tronco, Russ Harris, Mike Bordes, Dom Armando, Marcus McBride, and many other local DJ’s. He has also met and seen many others involved in the music industry at the DJ Times Expo (Atlantic City) and Winter Music Conference (Miami Beach).
Come 2009, he was heard on the local Top 40 Clear Channel station, WAEB-FM Allentown (B104) in February, and can also be found at the Allentown Brew Works weekly on Friday nights with DJ Wolf. Currently he plays a mixture of Up-Beat Pop/R&B music, Commercial Dance, House, and some Trance. He also prides himself in playing legitimate copies of music that he has purchased himself, as opposed to countless others in this new generation of like he likes to call “LimeWire DJ’s”. Chad is constantly working to improve his style and skills as a Turntablist and find more venues to play at. He also would like to do some minor production / remixing work one day. To date, he has already made some basic Edits and 2 Mash Ups to use. Time will tell where his long found hobby will take him.
