Alejandro – The White Collar Project, Vinyl Passion, and Building Community on the Virtual Sessions 9/23/25

Summary

Alejandro, founder of the White Collar Project, joins from Surrey, UK to share his journey of transforming personal struggle into a thriving creative movement. Originally working in a different industry, Alejandro turned to vinyl DJing as an escape from depression during a legal battle. What started as therapy soon evolved into a project blending music, fashion, and art under one brand. His story highlights how resilience and creativity can redefine purpose and connection.

 

Alejandro describes his sound as a fusion of house, Detroit techno, and Latin rhythms, heavily influenced by salsa and his South American heritage. For him, vinyl is more than a medium—it’s a tactile, emotional, and imperfect art form that forces DJs to truly know their music. He contrasts this with modern digital tools, admiring new technology while advocating for authenticity and skill.

 

The conversation also dives into fashion as a vital expression of identity. Alejandro sees clothing and art as extensions of performance, shaping how audiences perceive and connect with the artist. This ethos underpins the White Collar Project’s merchandise, designed to merge minimalism with creativity.

 

Beyond music and fashion, Alejandro is candid about mental health, stressing the importance of openness and community. He emphasizes building safe spaces where people can disconnect from phones, focus on music, and share positive experiences. With his weekly White Collar Party livestream and plans for global expansion, Alejandro is committed to celebrating analog culture while embracing innovation.

 

Topics

0:41 – Origins of the White Collar Project during personal struggles
7:53 – Defining his music through house, techno, and Latin influence
10:13 – Why vinyl creates deeper musical connection
14:30 – Building collections and sourcing second-hand vinyl
18:16 – First records purchased and early inspirations
21:36 – Comparing vinyl imperfection with modern digital tools
24:42 – The rise of vinyl-only parties and analog revival
30:41 – On-stage presence and staying humble as a performer
33:15 – Phones in clubs and policies to enhance live experiences
40:18 – Event vision, influences, and role of fashion in music

Connect with Alejandro

• Website: thewhitecollarproject.com
• Instagram: @thewhitecollarproject
• Explore clothing, art, and upcoming livestreams via the official site

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host Darran and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and coming in all the way from Surrey, UK, we have none other than Alejandro with the White Collar Project. Alejandro, how’s it going today?

Hi Darran, how are you? Pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

I’m doing great. I got to ask you one question, is that a virtual set or is that your real living room? That’s my real set.

Where do you live in large? It looks awesome. Is that an atrium over there or is that your backyard?

[Alejandro]
Yeah, that’s my backyard here.

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got good tech. You know with technology nowadays, you never know if somebody has a virtual set or that’s your real set.

I mean, I’m in my office and stuff. There’s some stuff out in the background, paperwork over here, pictures over there, gun range stuff over there. It’s all fun stuff.

Thank you so much for being here today on the DJ Sessions and having such a wonderful pre-show conversation with me beforehand. I know we covered a lot of ground there. There’s going to be a lot more.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of you on the show coming up. But enough about talking about that stuff because we’re going to talk about you and what you’re up to with the White Collar Project. Can you describe for us and our DJ Sessions fans, what is the White Collar Project all about?

[Alejandro]
So the White Collar Project, it was, it started pretty much by me DJing and trying to escape out of depression. The White Collar Project started, I was in the press for about a year, a year and a half. I was going through a legal case against my company and I just didn’t have the support on the side.

So I started playing vinyls and to be quite honest with you, it felt daunting in the beginning because it was, it’s all new to me. I was in a different industry and yeah, I mean, I started doing that, playing records. And one thing that I love about DJing is just the vinyl side, the touch, the feeling, the motion.

So I started that, things grew out of a sudden. There were times that I was fighting hard to record. Sometimes it’s a bit emotional because obviously, I sit back and I was like, wow, maybe people don’t know at the time, but I was struggling.

Even to wake up and to put something there, it was painful. But something never stopped growing. It was the people, the subscribers.

So the White Collar Project started pretty much me as DJing and then as a way of trying to make some money or coming source of funds coming in, I thought about including arts, fashion. So I started really going into that route of creating something different, a merchandise or something that could identify me and I could identify other people too.

[Darran]
You know, I can definitely relate as we talked a little bit about pre-show about the trials and tribulations and the outward appearance that people think about one and the image you maintain outward in the entertainment industry is not sometimes exactly what’s going on internally.

[Alejandro]
Exactly.

[Darran]
I mean, I have literally had in the past and I must have, I always say this as a joke, I must have been doing a really good job at what I was doing, but people thought I was making a quarter million, half million dollars a year and wasn’t paying people and doing all this stuff when I was literally disabled on food stamps, going to food banks and not knowing how I was going to pay rent next month or for future months on that I might add.

And people were going online and kind of like, oh, he makes a bunch of money and doesn’t pay anyone. And I’m like, and then I turned it into a positive though. And I said, you know what, as long as my business image is maintained, as long as my business is this, I am successful because I am, I mean, I don’t talk or brag or boast.

Like I never said I’m making a half million dollars. Nobody’s business, how much money I make or how much money I lose. But as long as my brand has integrity and it’s solid and I deliver on what I say I’m going to do and build and forge partnerships that are honest and true and strong.

I was never about the money. I want the money so I can pay people and hire people. Yes, but I wasn’t about the money to make millions of dollars and definitely wasn’t making millions of dollars, sometimes nothing at all.

And producing over time, 16 years of doing the show, 2700 plus past episodes. And you got an insight as to where the direction of everything’s going right before the show. So you kind of see this is going through, but still blood, sweat and tears of the business.

We’ve all been there. Congratulations and a sense of making it through. We’re still going through it.

It’s something you do have to deal with. I deal with it all day long. And that’s something that also is not talked a lot about is the mental preparedness or the mental awareness in the electronic music or in any art world, for that matter.

So thank you for bringing and sharing that with us and bringing that to attention. Like I said, I think we could relate a lot on that. If you could describe.

[Alejandro]
Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Jump in.

Go ahead. No, I was going to say like, if I by any chance could help anyone that going through that situation, because a lot of people don’t talk about it or a lot of people. I’m pretty open.

I’m an open filter in that sense. And yeah, I mean, if it helped me, I think it could help another person and going through a bad moment.

[Darran]
That was that was actually the founding reason of not only a my first broadcast television series, which led to podcasting, which led to live streaming, but also my media company, advertising company. I am the I in ITV when we first started, not the same ITV that’s over there. And we didn’t know that existed when we made independent television over here.

But but the I in independent television and the I and I alternative media, everyone wonders what the I stands for when it comes to Steve Jobs and his Apple products. Well, I stands for independent. And I’ve always had a mission of helping out other artists because that’s really what I love to do is because when I started, everyone wanted money from me.

Everybody, you know, you had to guard yourself and it was, oh, come work, come and they’d steal your ideas or take this. And I made a mission statement, said, I don’t want to be like that. I want to share what I know with other people to jumpstart them and get them up and elevate the entire community as a whole.

I can’t just be a resource giving away all my information for free all the time, though. But if somebody needs some help, hey, I if I can get them from here to here by only having to do that much. Yes.

Yeah. You know, helps them out. So totally understand what you mean there.

Thank you so much for sharing that, though. I really appreciate it. Back to the music, though, if you you do a very unique kind of streaming show and what you do, what I say unique is just one of those mediums that while you hear the people raise their hand and say, I remember the old school days, you do a show that is unique in its terms and bringing something back.

Can you tell us a little bit about the live streaming show that you do? And in three words, if you could describe the music. So two part question, the show, and maybe start with the three words of the three genres of music that you like that you could describe your show in.

Start with that first and then talk about your show that you do.

[Alejandro]
So I would say that it’s really dangerous. I always say that I have two legs. One leg is house music and the other one is techno.

I like to combine both genres and I don’t want to stick to one side because some of the times when you stick to only one genre, you’re not talking what you really could talk. And the idea is to mix and know exactly when to play something, when to play a genre and when to do the shift. The reason why I started playing on vinyls is because in my experience, I just enjoy more the motion.

I enjoy more the physicality. And you know what? Sometimes I just use CDJs too, but believe it or not, sometimes even beat matching with CDJs, it’s just like, oh, I need the motion.

And also, it gets you to understand your music better. You could have an MP3 with a thousand songs, but then if you know really good, what I play is just I take my bags of vinyl records and I just, okay, well, I could play this after this. It’s kind of like a battle after a battle after a battle, like beat matching a song after another.

And I just wanted to record that to show people that, you know, like, yes, we are going, technology is advancing every day. Every day we’re going forward with the quality of the song and the audio coming from the vinyl. And that sensation, I just, for me, is priceless.

For me, it’s like, beat matching that, that is something. If I have to say the genres, like, and the influence in my music would be Latin, salsa. I’m a biggest salsa, salsa is in my family as they did DNA.

So salsa, I try to put Latin rhythms, house music and Detroit techno. I think the Detroit techno is for me a pillar. I’ve been growing up listening to Carl Craig, Leslie Cooley, Derek May, you know, it’s been it’s been amazing to combine all these genres and create something like different than these days, because a lot of DJs these days tend to stick to one genre.

And I like to say a lot more about my music.

[Darran]
You know, the one thing I can’t believe I never made this analogy before, and this is so weird, because I’m a foodie, I’ve been in the industry, I’ve been nightclubbing since I was 15 years old. And I never made the analogy that you could look at what you’re doing as like, you’re right, an MP3, I’m not knocking anyone out there. So please don’t flame me or talk crap about me.

But I’m just making an analogy here. So go with me on this. You’re right, the barrier to entry of DJing has gone to nil.

The barrier to get music has gone to nil. When it was vinyl, there was only so many vinyls they could get. And if this got bought up in your store in your local store, you didn’t get it.

Unless you had a connection in another store in another country that can send you copies, you didn’t get it. So but now that those barriers have gone down, DJ going down. I’m just gonna say this, and please don’t murder me for it out there.

But it’s kind of become fast food. Here’s a song today, here’s a song tomorrow. Here’s a song, here’s a song and you can go search for songs and a whole new 100,000 songs.

Okay, 10,000 songs are now new and up on Beatport. Or yeah, over here, over here, every day that’s happening. You know, so you could say that that’s kind of a fast food generation of here today, gone tomorrow, food in food out.

Whereas with vinyl, you’re right. It’s more and this is the analogy I’d like to make. You’re kind of being a chef and making a fine meal that you have to really fine tune because there is no electronics there to help you out.

I can’t believe I never made that food vinyl connection. And that’s being a huge foodie and being in electronic music and interviewing so many DJs from around the world over the years. That Yeah, I could see that definitely I want to.

And you’re right, getting to know your music better. That’s what triggered it for me when you said that is like, you get to know your ingredients better. You get to know exactly how to face it, you get to know exactly how to get that right in the group, rather than letting a machine do it for you.

So when you hear something, you’re like, Oh, yeah, okay, I get why that would mix it. And, and your skill sets going to be that it’s like working with some fine knives in a great kitchen and making a meal. You don’t I mean, again, anyone can get 3000s now and put some mp3s into and go Oh, cool.

And there’s sync button, not knocking the sync button, not knocking technology. But okay, cool. Well, I learned how to beat match.

Oh, okay. And sync button keys. Okay, cool.

But then I see that meme out there that says, you want to see a real DJ, put two of these in front of them. And there’s two technique 1200s. They’re like, now DJ.

Yeah, yeah.

[Alejandro]
I mean, one thing that I could say is that, for instance, as you said it there, you haven’t got any safety nets. So even even imperfection or something that you have to try to put that imperfection as a kind of like a sound effect. I’m trying to play it down in a way that people are that was part of the thing with reality, you’re just trying to improvise with the tools that you are you’re just given.

That’s where I think like, you know, it’s cool. And when you see me, for instance, playing on my on my videos, and some of my sets, you can see me hanging around from one side to another, you know, maybe it’s that that record was going to play better with this. Hold on a minute, let me just maybe that one.

So in a way, the great thing about it is that wall that you see on my back, well, not this one, but in my videos, that wall is pretty much my my brain, my music brain, I know like, okay, in one side, I’ve got Detroit techno and another side for house. I’ve got progressive house here. So sometimes I just go mix from one side to another.

Okay, let me try this. And that is the beauty because you know your music. And you know exactly what you’re counting and your limitations is those limitations, which make it attractive and cool.

[Darran]
Now you do have I’ve seen the picture of your library, extensive library. Awesome. How are you currently getting new albums?

I mean, are you on some websites out there that you could recommend? Or how are you? I mean, I know they have like amoeba records.

I think they thought I know they have amoeba in San Francisco. I mean, you’re in the UK. So do you have a large store that you get to go to over there?

You’re a mail order or something? How are you getting new tracks on vinyl to you?

[Alejandro]
Or are you making them yourself? Well, the thing is, like a lot of my tracks and my music is actually from the 90s. So a lot of the tracks are second hand.

So I do buy a lot of vinyl second hands. I don’t I use disco DS to buy second second hand vinyls. Surprisingly, sometimes the second hand vinyls do cost more than the new ones.

There are some vinyls that only have 100 copies. And if you have one of those, then great. Like, that’s what that’s how I do it.

I just go to this for years in terms of if I want to do buy a new record. I just go and take like three, four hours scrolling, listening one after another what’s new, what’s out there. And if it’s worth the money, because as you know, vinyls are expensive, are very expensive.

So I know probably they you buy from where we want to. And so they use you can see it doesn’t justify me spending all this money for only one track, when I can have an MP3 is, you know, that emotion when you just get the vinyl and you try it and then you hear the clarity. Wow, that is that that’s cool.

I use you know, disco DS and HHB from Germany to buy record vinyls.

[Darran]
Now do you when you get something on vinyl and you bring it home, you unpack it? Do you also go and find that try to find a digital copy of it as well. So just in case you have your whole library organized here, analog and digital.

If something happened, I still got my set and I can still play. Okay, cool. You know, I mean, obviously, going back to the crate theory and having everything manual and people writing on the labels and writing their BPM and the key and all that fun stuff was fun times back in the day.

Now you don’t really have to do much of that, which is awesome. Well, I guess awesome. But at the same point, you know, having that whole thing cataloged and ready to go.

That’s awesome. There. As far as record labels go, and releasing music, I know you’re more in the vinyl, but do you have top five top labels that you know that are that you constantly come back to that are releasing good quality vinyl?

Or is it now it’s more like artist specific releasing vinyl, not just the label, correct?

[Alejandro]
That’s how it is. You know what, you know what, like some of the times, for instance, as I said, a lot of my music comes from the 90s, or from the 80s. So I go to very old sets, DJ sets, like perhaps a set of Mauro Picotto back in 2002, or Joey Beltran.

And then you can hear the music which now these days, and all DJs are trying to accommodate and you can see the BPM and it’s going faster these days. I tend to actually find that tune not related to the label related mainly for this for the for the audio. So when I go to this website, Juno.com or HHB, I always go I don’t really know the producers, I don’t know the label, I just next, next, next. And when I hear something that I don’t know why triggers either the bass or the how groovy it is, how jazzy it is, then that catch my attention. And then I go, Oh, hold on a minute, this is cool. Let me just add it here.

I don’t know the artist, I don’t do a research artist. But some of the times I see an artist and I go, wow, there are two songs that you play very well, that you created very well. Let me see what else you have in there.

[Darran]
Nice. You know, do you remember the first record that you ever purchased? And is it worth mentioning?

Or is it embarrassing? No, no, no.

[Alejandro]
The first record that I play, I purchased, it was Car Crate Angel by Japanese Mix. Yeah, and I still got it. I still got it here.

And then I started going at the time when I was buying, when I started playing vinyl, obviously it’s quite daunting. Like, wow, like a little problem while you’re playing, that’s it, game over. But I started buying more from Dennis Cruz, Technasia.

Going to DJ Sneak was one of my pillars in terms of house. So I do have a lot of time for them. And the one of the second album that I bought is DJ Sneak, Show Me The Way.

[Darran]
Hey, you know, with the advent of technology, have you looked into using, or your thoughts on, like, I believe it’s Serato Scratch is one. And then also there’s the, I think they call it Phase, the little device you can play on.

[Alejandro]
Yeah, the Bluetooth thing, right?

[Darran]
Yeah, it’s like, yeah, it connects with everything. Have you looked into ever using those? And is the feel the same?

Can you get the same control that you can with the vinyl? I mean, you’re still using decks, the techniques to do the spinning, obviously. But as far as the motions go, is it better to have the actual wax on the slip pad?

Okay. I mean, I’m not a DJ, so I’m like, what’s that called again?

[Alejandro]
But one of the things that I noticed as I went and I dive into this world is some of the vinyls are heavier than others. Some of the hard vinyls are bended a little bit. So I’ve been in situations where you have to, you know, speed up, then break, and then break more, and then because it’s just not level.

Yeah, I mean, that’s the beauty of that tire, isn’t it? Like, you know, it has a lot of things going on. And they always keep you kind of like on check.

You always have, by the way, when you see me playing, you know, playing and all those things, inside of me, I’m having a panic attack. Because I’m thinking, oh, my God, this vinyl is about to finish. And I need to, you know, like, I need to do something about it, because I cannot, I cannot loop it.

[Darran]
Now, memories are coming back in my head of being at nightclubs from the age of 15, up until probably the age of the CDJ, which I’d say, well, I mean, really, when they came into play, the 1000s, they were out, there were some things out, but they weren’t club standards at that time. You know, how many times I must have been looked like as an asshole being up in the DJ booth, trying to, this is awesome. We’re talking to you like, get off me, stop bothering me right now.

You know, but most people were really always cool in the booth. I wasn’t like one of those people. But just never realizing, you know, I think DJs get a little bit more time in the back of the booth now, because they can put on track, it’s going, they can go, okay, cool.

I know it’s already time, time, scene, scene, time, time, whereas with vinyl, you might be able to go, what’s up? Yeah, yeah.

[Alejandro]
Yeah, it’s something that is always something changing. You know, you cannot get it 100% every time. Because it’s just physics, one will go a little bit forward than the other.

But you know, those things, the constant checking, the constant, some of the time, the level, the sound levels of one vinyl could be way lower than the other. It has happened to me a lot, where I launch it, and then it’s just like, well, hang on a minute, the quality of this vinyl, you need to turn it up a little bit. So you need to look every single thing.

While perhaps nowadays technology, it makes it easier for you. Sometimes it just makes you, I think that now the DJs, in a way, have more tools to create music and to make people dance. And that’s, that’s positive.

I applaud that. But people, you know, some people like only that, some people are vinyl, or my side, in my side, it’s just the motion and the sound quality, which is what draws me.

[Darran]
Well, you know, you bring up a good point there. And kind of what I was also talking about is back in the day, when I used to go into DJ booths, the DJ booths were up here. They were not on the floor, they were not on the stage, they were up in a corner up in a booth up here that maybe overlooked the floor.

And, you know, unless you were cool, or, or adventurous, like me, I would kind of sneak my way up there and be like, what’s up? You can maybe be friends with the bouncer that was manning the door. So nobody went up there like, hey, can I go up there?

Like, yeah, go ahead, go say hi. All right, cool. And after a few times of doing that and get to know the bouncers, and the DJ not kicking me out of the booth, I was able to walk right up there.

And they’d be like, partying with the DJ up in the booth, looking over the whole crowd. And, you know, I think you’re right with the moving of the, you wouldn’t put that in a dance floor nowadays with a table on the floor, somebody’s gonna obviously bump that, boom, okay, show’s over. Unless you put them in a glass box booth or something, and nobody can get around them or anything, not even somebody throwing something up there, because you know, screw up the show.

With that being said, that’s where, you know, when that transition happened, of moving the DJ out of the DJ booth, to we still call it a DJ booth, but they’re not up in the booth anymore. With all the audio and technical gear of the club and the sound engineering, and, you know, I remember a club I used to go to at the Underground and go see Donald Vlaad play all the time. It was awesome.

And being up at that booth and the whole, all the records that they allowed to keep there, and they were locked down, but they could at least keep like 10 crates of record, maybe even more, probably like 20, 30 crates of records there up in the DJ booth. But now we call it the DJ booth, and it’s not really a booth anymore, because you’re on the DJ stage. But do you go out and listen to other sets of DJs, and particularly other sets?

Is there a vinyl comeback or vinyl events in the UK, or that you see maybe coming up around the world, that people are like, hey, I’d like to get back to these basics. Let’s start doing some shows and doing this. Yeah.

[Alejandro]
I think that there is an appeal to go back to basics, and to go back to what it was before. If you look at the States, for example, here in the UK, it’s getting more trendy to do even parties during the day than during the night. Like people do, people these days are healthier in a way.

They look into like, oh, instead of going to a party at 10pm, I like the parties that start at 3pm and finish at 10pm, and it’s vinyl only. I think that people are especially getting to get more attention and to really show more interest when it’s something that is kind of like back to basics. Like a few weeks ago, I saw a video on Instagram, and it was a DJ that he was DJing with cassettes.

And I was like, wow, the guy literally had the screwdriver, and he was pretty much like tightening it up to make sure that it didn’t match the other. And I was like, that’s art. I think people might be dancing or people might say, I don’t like this song.

What he’s really doing right there, that is something different that perhaps not many people know exactly what’s the technique like, the technicality of it.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. And that is, you know, it’s a lost form to know how to do something like that would be falling almost right into that vinyl category. I mean, I remember I had friends of mine and back in the day when I was doing interviews, we first started the show.

Before CDJs come out, they would take two different computers and they play Winamp on one and Winamp on the other and mix songs in and use a mixer to do that. They’d have their songs digitally on two different computers, bringing it in to kind of get them to match up and play and everything. And I thought that was kind of interesting.

You know, but you got to, in this day and age, what makes a DJ stand out is no longer the selection of tracks or the equipment necessarily or the use of that equipment in the sense of things. You know, you see a lot of shows and it’s now going for the pyrotechnics and the boom, boom, boom rush and they’re on stage and I see, to me, again, not critiquing or knocking anyone in any way, shape or form, but I see them, they’re on stage and they’re not wearing headsets. And we know that shows have to, in a sense, somewhat be pre-recorded because otherwise the technique, all the pyrotechnics and the lights wouldn’t match up with everything.

So they’re up there on stage and it’s like, are they really DJing? You know, and unfortunately that sets a trend with the younger DJs looking at I can DJ without headsets. I can bounce around on stage.

And it’s like, okay, are you learning the art of the DJing? Are you up there just to pose like you’re doing something? And, you know, it’s like we were talking, I think pre-show or maybe it was pre-show or during the show.

I can’t remember. So much stuff going on. But like, you know, I see that meme that comes out and says, hey, you want to say you’re a real, you’re a DJ?

Put two of these in front of them and see if they can really DJ. And it’s two techniques, 1200s, you know, now DJ. I was going to say, no, I get the, I get the old school DJ saying, yeah, we didn’t have these tools back in the day, but like Paul Oakenfold, an interview he just did recently.

And I shared this online was like, hey, you can say, oh, I’m a vinyl DJ or, oh, the new sync button or this book. And he gets that because he comes from that world. But he also says, you got to adapt to the new technology as well.

You got to know the new texture because if you don’t, you’re going to be left in the wayside while everyone goes and goes up with it. And, you know, even Carl Cox, I saw him a few years back at ADE and he kind of made a joke about himself was the fact that, oh yeah, here I go again, reinventing myself. And, you know, he was talking about doing, you know, he was doing, now he does a live mix, a live performance along.

He has one computer and a CDJ was the setup that he was demoing. And so he could play tracks off the CDJ, but he goes, if I do my set like this, you’ll never hear me spend the same set like this ever again, because I’m making it up right here. Oh, plus I can kick this in with a CDJ and the mix and having that organic approach to it.

And I’ve seen him on billing and flyers. I think there’s one coming up last year at Dreamfields in Mexico, which we should be covering this year. Fingers crossed.

He’ll be there. That it said like special mix, or it said his like hybrid mix or something like that. I think that’s what he’s now trying to tout is bringing that new technology into the mix and yeah, creating something right there on the fly.

And it won’t be the same set if I’m on tour, every single thing, which you do kind of see with DJs when they play city to city to city, which I think holds them back a little bit because they could be coming from my world. They could be live streaming these sets and doing pay-per-view and each show they do is pay-per-view in a different city could be a different mix or set, which would be a different show. And the revenue potential on that alone could be huge.

Missing out a lot of low-hanging fruit on there, but more on that business later. Getting back to Alejandro and when you get on camera or when you play out there, do you become a different person when you get on stage or do you become a different person when you’re off stage? Or is there a character or a, this is me and I’m the vinyl king.

And then I’m off and I’m like, I’m just over here chilling, having a beer. Or is Alejandro the same, whether he’s off stage or on stage?

[Alejandro]
Yeah. I mean, I’m the same, to be honest with you. Everything that’s going in my mind is pretty much, okay, find the other tune, find the other track that is going there.

So you can see me quiet. You can see me completely not saying anything or not even dancing, but in reality, all I’m thinking is what can I play next? And I think that I’m a humble guy.

I’m just a DJ playing my vinyls and I just like to, you know, to people to enjoy that music. And it’s just kind of like showing different artists from different eras. It could be salsa or it could be something different, but something that is not really for top 10 kind of thing.

Something that, you know, different. I’m the same person in that sense. I just want to show them what new vinyls I got in my collection kind of thing.

[Darran]
Well, I think that that uniqueness is definitely something that needs to come back because if there’s 1.5 million DJs in the world, that’s a rough count from some numbers that we do because we have a DJ ranking site. I think the thing that we have on our website that kind of shows the world’s top 20,000 DJs, what trends the top 100 are playing in the study was done for 2024 to put it on the site for 2025. But when somebody has access or everybody out there, a million people have access to download one track off beat for it.

And that’s the number one song and 350,000 people go, I want to buy that. Okay. No, now you’re going to hear if they’re top in their market, you know, you’re going to hear this song here, this song here, this song here, this song here.

But what you’re doing, it’s like, where do you even find that? They can’t Shazam it. It may not be out there digitally.

They’re like, what did he just play? Should I have this happen to you in the past? Even if somebody was watching your show, you know, you may be able to put it out there and put it in the list because you know what might be coming up if you know what’s coming up because you’re usually just selecting what feels good.

But if somebody asks, are they trying to Shazam? It’s like, can’t Shazam this set. You know, what is one of your pet peeves when you’re out there playing a gig?

What is one thing that kind of that you see in the environment that a pet peeve when you’re playing a gig, like what’s something that you’re like, I wish this wouldn’t happen when I’m out there on stage? Is there anything that comes to mind?

[Alejandro]
Yeah, I mean, I go back again to basics. A lot of people are these days going out and just with the phone. And it’s just missing out that moment where you kind of like could enjoy the music and disconnect from your phone.

But some people and a lot of people these days use the phone to pretty much record the whole thing. But you’re not enjoying the music. So sometimes when I’m playing, I’m like, oh, man, I’m playing you this vinyl.

Not many people have this record. And you know, everyone is kind of like sometimes on phones. And I think that some clubs here in Europe have opted, I don’t know, they’re in the US where no phone policy kind of thing.

So people could enjoy the experience in a different way. And it’s surprising how much people actually, after going into those events where no phones are allowed, how much the experience changed completely for those people rather than other experiences with phones. It’s one of those things like where, yeah, you’re really like, oh, you know, don’t do it.

Yeah. And also, another thing that I see, sometimes I go to parties and I see more these days, rather than 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, a lot of people press a lot of buttons, loads of buttons. And yeah, I mean, everyone has their own style.

But everyone is kind of like trending the same way. And I think that it’s good to, you know, differentiate yourself. We always are different with each other.

But yeah, you can see that trending way more. And on the other hand, it’s using the new technology. Perhaps I’m not the best new technology guy ever in terms of new things.

[Darran]
But yeah, that’s a bit nice. To speak on both of those, the phone use in the clubs, there is, I can see more and more articles coming out talking about more and bigger nightclubs launching out saying we’re launching a policy of no cell phone use on the dance floor. That was some big club in Ibiza that did that recently.

When I went to Germany last year, I talked about this, you know, they put sticker on the front sticker on the back, lane eight actually has it in their rider, that we’re gonna put stickers on your phones during our shows, you know, and, you know, I wish there would become more universally acceptable on multiple levels, not just from my standpoint that I don’t want somebody standing in front of me and I hate them when they do this.

No, I don’t mind that. But that people would really back away and really, like you said, enjoy the moment, enjoy what’s going on. And, you know, but like I was doing an interview with somebody a few weeks ago, you got kids that are 15 years old that grew up with this in their hand at every point saying I’m doing this.

So they don’t know what it’s even like growing up in a nightclub where we didn’t have that. I mean, the ability to put you weren’t allowed to bring video cameras in the club unless you were media to you weren’t allowed to bring in cameras with a fixed lens into any shows and who really had a good enough recording device. And even if you record it, where was it going to live?

You’re going to listen to it back at home. Okay.

[Alejandro]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And it wasn’t until, you know, even it wasn’t really till the iPhone came out, which was a different platform than any BlackBerry or razor or any of the top world selling phone that then that you had a camera, a recording device, an internet device, you can share all this stuff right there on site. And obviously now they got three 48 megapixel cameras. Okay.

Gigabytes upon gigabyte, probably a terabyte. Now, at least I don’t know the new ones just came out. I’m sure they have two terabyte phones or whatever, or they will.

And but you have the ability to the cloud as well. So even if you got something really big, you can just take it on the phone, throw it into the cloud with 5g and then delete it off your phone. And it’s on your server, wherever you want it to live, you know?

And so, you know, I would hope to see that more nightclubs take that stance, even from a financial standpoint, people listen to this one. If people are doing this in your nightclubs, one, they’re not in the music, but two, they’re not buying drinks.

[Alejandro]
They’re not buying drinks.

[Darran]
They’re filming a show. If you take this out of their hand, I’m dancing. I’m dancing.

I’m thirsty. Let’s go get a drink. Maybe bar sales will go up.

Okay. Take a hint here. Nightclubs around the world take this.

And if they want to make a cell phone area, if they want to go out and do that, have them step outside, come back in. Now they’re in. Those are the bar and the drinks are at anyways.

So now they got to go get a drink and maybe have some fun. Yeah.

[Alejandro]
I could tell you something. The fun that you could have by putting your phone away in one of those nights where a good DJ that you were waiting for, like four or five months ago, I went to see DJ Bone and I literally, same thing, phone, the speaker both sides. My God, it’s just, you experience the music in a different way.

You’re just, you’re not interested into what’s going on on Instagram or put it on a story on Instagram. You’re just there for the music. And that’s, that’s what that, and for instance, on that night, everyone was in the same vibe.

Everyone was like positive. And that’s what it’s all about.

[Darran]
Well, that’s another thing is you aren’t necessarily gonna be looking. I mean, you could still check your social media. You can still post, this is awesome, but you’re not doing this, trying to get the, or you’re not doing this in the middle of the dance tour.

And the new phones, the new phones with the new phone 17 and the new iOS, I think 26, 27, that just came out. You can now film the show, both cameras at the same time. So you film my reaction, but I can be filming the show at the same time.

So I can be like, yeah, yeah. Instead of just, you can film both ways now. So I’m wondering how that’s going to impact filming at shows, you know, and I’m trying to get my moment shot and look at me and my friends in the background.

[Alejandro]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And it’s getting both of them at the same time. Technology. I love it.

I love it though. I love it. Me myself, I would never go to record a performance through my phone like that because I’m in the industry and I know it’s going to sound like shit and it’s going to look like shit.

I would not publish shit being a media professional. Somebody’s like, Darran, what are you doing? I mean, this is like some awesome, something so awesome, but I’d have to know that it was coming up and like, know that I wanted to capture that moment.

But why when there’s 50,000 other people, they’re capturing the same moment. I want other footage. I want the moments that other people don’t get.

Hence why I created a show called the DJ sessions. You know, if you could create an event or host an event and you had a black American express card, budget is non-existent. You don’t have to worry about budget and you can hold it without any limitations.

What five things would you want to have at your event?

[Alejandro]
What five things are, oh Jesus, you put it, you put it difficult. Well, obviously the two turntables will have to be there. Um, uh, I would say, wow, I would say the two turntables to start with a cool, an amazing, um, you know what, actually to reply to your question, the, I would do it in like an easy place and I would have to have like very dim lights, a great sound system, great sound system, um, and loads of alcohol.

Oh, that’s four. Oh Jesus Christ. Oh, um, let me see what else.

You know what? I stick with the four Darran. Okay.

Four.

[Darran]
There it is. Well, I think I’m going to figure out with my next questions that are coming up, I think we’re going to figure out what that number five is here pretty quickly. You know, well, when I, when I go to the question, you’ll know, um, when we get there, cause I still got some other stuff I want to talk to you about, but who has been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as a DJ?

Um, and, and why, and being in this music industry, does there one person that stands out to you the most? It was that person. When I heard that first thing that made me want to do this, or I saw this or, you know, what, what got you into this and what was your, and who, if there’s a person would be that biggest influence on you as far as an DJ goes?

[Alejandro]
I would say the person, the DJ that actually made me go into music. Um, it was actually acid techno at the time. It was a DJ called Chris liberator.

Uh, and Dave, the drama, um, they were, that was 25 years ago, 20 years ago, where, um, wait, how old are you? Like are you like when you were 10 or something? Well, I’m 37.

So I was, I was 17 at the time and he was pretty much, um, yeah, I would say Chris liberation, take the drama, the music, the, the different sound at the time, obviously I’m from South America. So, you know, listening to another different sounds, acid techno, uh, with 144 BPM, it was like, wow, that’s a bit, but it was engaging. So the, and, and by the time they were doing started to do rates and every single day that was fine, they was playing on vinyl.

So that was, that was why I started it. It’s all good. Look inside the turntable and the thing.

Wow. That’s amazing. I would say Chris liberator and Dave, the drummer, Marlowe Picotto as well.

Um, when I started, um, it was round.

[Darran]
So hint, hint, this might be the question that might be your fifth thing. How important is fashion to you?

[Alejandro]
It is very important. I mean, I think that is how you represent yourself, isn’t it? Like some of the times you could, um, but this is where both things like either fashion and art both combined together, because it’s actually colors.

And some of the times there’s artists like Carlos Cruz, which is kinetic art. And it’s pretty much, if you were something visual, people will in a way, either simple, minimalistic or colorful, they will have a judgment about you unconsciously, like because people are drawn into colors and are drawn to organizing their patterns into their ideas. So fashion for me, it’s extremely important.

I tend to, we tend to do now the designs kind of like more artistic, both minimalistic in a way, like I’d go with, we like the minimalistic side, but we want to combine that way with art. But that’s where things are getting a little bit tricky because, you know, what’s, what’s cool for you might not be cool for me. And that’s, and that’s where, you know, like, well, everyone is different.

I was in that sense.

[Darran]
You know, I used to work for a year or for time being, I worked as a, in men’s sportswear for a company called Nordstrom’s and it was my job to dress people, um, basically. And, you know, I kind of came up with themes and mechanisms. I was, I’m big into customer service, had a lot of retail jobs, worked for Nordstrom’s, worked for Apple, you know, in retail side of things and corporate.

But, uh, you know, one of the things you’re right about knowing how to dress well, or just, just knowing how to dress can make a huge impression on, on people. And, you know, so, you know, one of the things I learned though, was not to always judge somebody by the way they’re dressed, especially when you work for a high end fashion store and, you know, you have customers come in and I learned this very quickly, that not in a bad experience, but you know, you’d have somebody come in and they’re wearing beat up tennis shoes. They’re wearing sweat pants or baggy, baggy jeans.

Their shirt wasn’t tucked in. They didn’t, didn’t have a belt on. And you’d walk you, this person would walk in, you’re like, this person isn’t going to be able to afford anything that I’m going to sell them.

And when you start, but I never went in there with the idea of wanting to make money off the customer because you make commission. I just do my normal Nordstrom’s thing and show them what we had, maybe get them in some clothes, get them dressed up, get them look. And they go, wow, next thing you know, they just spent three, $4,000 with you revamping their entire wardrobe.

[Alejandro]
Wow.

[Darran]
You know, and it’s like, and people like, how’d you do that, Darran? I’m like, what are you talking? I’m not selling to make money.

I’m selling because the customer’s here and I’m using my expertise of knowing what our brands are, knowing what our fashion and kind of gauging what their activity in life and what they’re looking to do is and saying, Hey, let’s get you out. And I would take them through the whole store while I might’ve just been in charge of clothing. I would take them over to the shoe department.

I would take them over the tie and belt department. I put a whole ensemble together for them and show them how they could go, Oh, and use this shirt with these two pairs of pants and use this shirt with these two pair of pants. So you’re getting four outfits with four shirts and two pairs of, or, you know, however they manage it.

And here’s a black belt and here’s a brown belt. Here’s some black shoes and brown shoes. Here’s some brown socks and socks here, you know, and mixing that.

And then you can start to add in and start developing your new wardrobe. And I’d have these wives come in and go, Darran, I don’t know what it was, but my husband has confidence. Now people are noticing them.

We got them haircut. It was like, I call it clothing Viagra, you know, and the life has changed.

[Alejandro]
Have you heard the saying, when somebody wear a tie, for example, when you go to a, I mean, I was in business, but I’m still in business, but like, obviously I used to wear every single time a tie. The perception, it just changes completely. It doesn’t matter if you’re broke, but if you wear a tie, for example, to go for a, I don’t know, important interview, the unconsciously, the other person, it just changed like the way they see it.

And that’s just with the clothing, with this, just a fabric thing hanging out of your neck.

[Darran]
Yeah, exactly. Or the biggest one for me is when I see people dressed up in shirt and ties and pants, and what happens is their shirt comes untucked and starts to hang loosely over. I’m like, that’s not what that’s supposed to look like.

Go in the back room, tuck your shirt back in, make it look nice. And then come back out. A friend of mine always comes up to me and I’m constantly, my shirt’s bunched up like this, and she’ll come by and go, and I’ll just, I automatically go like that.

Maybe it’s my passion of loving Star Trek and Jean-Luc Picard in the show. He always brings it, his shirt is always down and straight. Like, you see him get up and he’ll go, all right, now I’m ready to go talk.

And that’s just something I always want to make sure that my clothing is presentable, looking nice, and it’s just subconscious in there to do. But you’re right, fashion is a huge element. And that’s why I was going to say, maybe we touched on that fifth element for the shows.

You probably have some fashion site to one, two, three, four, fashion for five, F for fashion, F for number five. Here we go. You know, outside of all this, when you’re not doing the fashion, the white collar project, and, you know, music and honing your skills, what do you like to do when you’re off the clock?

When you’re not entertaining others, what do you do to entertain yourself?

[Alejandro]
I entertain myself pretty much. Record, like, getting a new vinyl. I really put time right now, for example, now that, for instance, I’ve got a legal case going on and I’m dealing with that, I like to learn a new side of things that I haven’t done.

Like these days with artificial intelligence, there is so many new softwares that before I didn’t know how to do final cut, for example. So I really do spend my time trying to learn and trying to, you know, hey, what can I do? Like, what can I do?

Or what software is there? So I do enjoy my time researching in where the technology is going. What can I implement into the current project that I’m working on?

And I tend to just spend my time like, okay, well, let’s see what else is there. Or I like to go to in East London and see, you know, what’s, where are the vinyl stores and or what people are wearing. Oh, that’s cool.

Maybe we could implement that into one of our designs or something like that. But mainly, it’s scary how everything is, or in my side is all about music right now. Bear in mind that probably three years ago, like music, I stopped music for a while.

That was like completely into that. So now it’s kind of like innovative again. And now obviously we’re working on a new track that finally I’m starting to produce because I’m a producer.

I like to play instruments, play the bass, I play the bongo, the mandolin, whatever. But like, I’m really not a producer. Like, I just like to select the songs.

But some people are these days a great producer and a great DJ. Some people are a great producer, not great as a DJ, and vice versa. I just, everything to do with me right now, it’s music.

Oh, no, no, hold on a minute. There’s one other, art. Believe it or not, I started very like going down into that road.

Art, for me, is something that also helped me. And it has helped me also mentally to diffuse that bad energy sometimes that you are in. Just something so simple as grabbing a canvas and painting, it will do, wow, it will do you a lot.

And you might be surprised, some people pay for a nosebleed, a million pounds in a canvas, a nosebleed in a canvas, a million pounds, and that’s art. But it’s so subjective. It’s exciting that you can show different colors and how you do your designs, your art.

[Darran]
How do you envision your life 10 years from now? Do you have a plan set and say, this is where I want to be? Or do you go, this is where I can see my, do you have like a year one, year two, year three, year five, year 10?

Do you have a plan set out that you want to kind of go along? Or do you just say, this is what I want to be doing in 10 years?

[Alejandro]
To be honest, all of this is so new. When I started it, because when I started this back last year, it’s crazy how, and I’m going to be completely honest with you. I started last year in May and I was bad.

And then it was February this year when I was like, right, that’s it. I need to really go into it. So I really had five months of creating designs, creating the website, pretty much I did all the website coding and all of that side.

And I was like, wow, let me just try to put everything together. But everything really started January, February this year. It wasn’t the last year, the gaps of three months where I was like, ah, it doesn’t matter.

Like people might like the videos, people might not, but like, I’m just on the floor. I kind of pick up myself. And I was like, oh, but play some vinyls.

And it just kept you going. And it helped me that way.

[Darran]
You know, starting up something, even though we have access to the internet and there’s tons of resources out there, you could have somebody say, I want to do something and everything’s right in front of them. They have to have the momentum or they have to have the passion to want to do it. And that really is what separates a lot of people from obviously not doing anything and talking to people that actually do it.

At least if somebody does it and they fail and stop, at least they attempted, but they didn’t just talk about doing it or they talked and they looked into it. And then a lot of this stuff is not, I mean, I’m not a person to really be the best judge of this because I’ve been doing it for 36 years, but since I was a kid, literally six years old playing with video cameras and VCRs and doing this stuff. So, I mean, it’s ingrained in my head this is easy to do.

Some people it’s overwhelming, but what I think is overwhelming, it’s not the technology, it’s how, what’s not taught is how to market yourself, how to run a business, how to understand accounting, how to understand that, yes, you can do everything else out there that everyone does for free, but what are you doing to just put yourself that much higher? And then when you get to that level, what are you doing to put yourself that much higher? And in this business, I hate, I wish it wasn’t this way, but unfortunately money talks, money can open doors.

And it isn’t just about having the best gear in the world. You can have the best gear in the world and have shit for marketing. And like, nobody knows, I’m doing my show, but if you’re not, I mean, I have this conversation a lot with people as if you don’t have, if you aren’t studying how to do PR and putting out press releases or you aren’t releasing something, what is differentiating you from everyone else?

If you say, oh, I’m a house DJ. Okay, great. Or I’m a techno DJ.

I’m a trans DJ. Okay, great. Are you producing any tracks?

Okay, great. How are you releasing those tracks? Are you just throwing them out there and hoping somebody finds your stuff?

Or do you have a PR company that might be sending these out to thousands of people to say, Hey, new track, new track, new track. And people pick it up and go, wow, that’s a new track. Even though you may not be in Beatport and getting up high, but people start downloading that and they can say, get it at Beatport.

And then you start getting some downloads. You’re not making a million dollars off of Beatport or Bandcamp or wherever you choose to distribute, but you’re getting out there and it’s very hard. I mean, you can do all the socials, all you want, unless you do something that’s going to go viral.

Okay. That’s a pipe dream in itself. Unless you’re doing something really, really, and then that you’re viral today, but you’re gone tomorrow.

So you got to keep it up.

[Alejandro]
So that’s why Darran, when I started this, I was like, well, you know what? I’m going to be completely honest with myself, with everyone. There’s probably like two, three million DJs out there.

And what is going to make the difference between me and others? And I was like, well, I spent 10 years, 15 years in business until now. So I was like, well, we do have to create a brand because a brand is something that I could push forward.

I could merchandise. I could be a DJ. Yeah, that’s fine.

I could play music. I could do some programming. And how can I increase this?

And like, how can I move this into a different movement? And that’s when I started creating the brand pretty much out of completely was like business idea. Cause I was like, well, hang on a minute.

Let me just, these are things that perhaps people in the music don’t know. You need to check the trademark. You need to check, Hey, what’s, what’s legally, I mean, obviously after the legal cases, you get to learn so much about the legal side and protect yourself for future events.

But yeah, I mean, it’s interesting everything, how you can put into play, how to play in a way the rules of business into, this is kind of like an experiment to me too, because I’m trying to implement all the knowledge that I got from business and trying to put this brand into the market and also myself as a DJ. It’s kind of like, wow. So, you know, it’s pretty much a chef that can do a pan and then I could fry things.

And then the same, I don’t know much, but I do a little bit of each thing kind of thing.

[Darran]
You know, and on top of that, we’re going to be able to see some of that stuff. One, because we’re going to be getting an exclusive mix from you, which I’ve already received. We’ll get that up and running and get it in rotation.

Thank you for sending that over. But number two, you have a regularly scheduled show that you do online. That’s going to be live streaming.

Tell us a little bit about that and when that airs, what time of day that goes on as well.

[Alejandro]
Yeah. So we are trying to do the white collar, the white collar party. So it’s going to be every Friday, 10 PM UK time.

So what we’re planning to do is to start doing that site and we’re going to go into events site too. So what we want to do is kind of like a screen light. It really teaches that are not known, but my God, they can play.

And that’s where we want to go. Something organic, completely vinyl only, stream live. And they can people, even if they are, you know, different countries, different, they can enjoy that site of analog sound.

[Darran]
I think that’s a really awesome project undertaking. I mean, I’m super excited to get that show. We’ve got some other special things we’ll talk about off camera about that and the development there, but thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Alejandro]
Well, I mean, our plan is to start creating something, a movement, a movement that emphasize the facts basics, emphasize what vinyl is. We are pro technology. We’re pro new things, but yeah, vinyl for us.

If you like vinyls, please watch our channel and visit our website.

[Darran]
Best place people can go to do that at is where?

[Alejandro]
Yeah. I mean, we do have a lot of things going on, music, art, and we just want to grow and want to grow different, different from different countries.

[Darran]
Yeah. Where’s the best place people can go to find out all about that though?

[Alejandro]
Well, if you go to our website, it’s the whitecollarproject.com, you can find any, everything about us, which is clothing, arts, music, everything, every single show. And you will, you will see more, not only about myself or other DJs that are talented and amazing as well.

[Darran]
And also that awesome fashion store that you have there as well.

[Alejandro]
Yes, yes, yes, yes. I’m looking forward to it.

[Darran]
Help support people, help support.

[Alejandro]
Please help me out. Look, this is just a project that I think that it has, when you combine premium quality clothing and something new, I think that people will be identified with that.

[Darran]
Awesome. Thewhitecollarproject.com. Look it up, check them out.

Well, Alejandro, thank you so much for coming on the show today. We’re definitely gonna be talking a lot more. I know that on camera and off camera, moving forward, but thank you for being on The DJ Sessions today.

[Alejandro]
Pleasure, Darran. Thank you so much.

[Darran]
Absolutely. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Check us out, scan that QR code.

If you’re watching your phone, boop, take a shot of that and takes you right to our website. We have over 700 news stories a month. We’ve got exclusive interviews, live interviews, exclusive mixes, and more.

Our new music section, our VR nightclub, our mobile app, come and redesign version 2.0 here soon. Put all that in our socials and more at thedjsessions.com. I’m your host, Darran, and that’s Alejandro coming in from Surrey, UK.

I’m coming in from Seattle, Washington, from the virtual studios, and he’s over there in his awesome backyard house, whatever that place is that I’m gonna come visit one day.

[Alejandro]
You have to, yes.

[Darran]
This is Darran and Alejandro for The DJ Sessions, and remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.