Daily Inspiration: Meet Jacob Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Smith

Hi Jacob, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well I started listening to electronic music I would say 1993 I was a sophomore in high school and I slowly really was getting into it but I didn’t start DJing it until around 1999.
I started buying vinyl on 1999 and would go over to my friends house who had turntables and it started there trying to learn how to mix and blend vinyl which is a whole Nother monster. I would go to clubs/Bars here in Jacksonville like Club Five ,Milk bar,618 Voodoo lounge, Perdition, Evolutions. I would see local DJs like darrel duke, Michael K, Wes Reid,Larry Banks, Eddie B, Miguel Alvarez and John kenisis. I would start going to local record shops like the record Ben and start buying records But you have to understand there were already other established DJs so they always got the first pick when the order came in so everything I saw had already picked through.. I had to show up every day the records came in for a long time and buy records before I got invited to show up a little bit earlier when they receive the records and open the box so I could see the promos and see the records that they only got one or two copies of and I had a chance to buy them.. Wes Reed a guy who ran a record store out of back of hypnotic which was in Riverside What’s the first person to give you my first gig at a bar club called Fat Cat. That place allows me to really hone in my skill as I always played the early slot and played and maybe one or two people and that’s including the bar staff but he gave me a chance to really work on my mixing in my music selection. Slow but surely I heard my craft in and I started getting later slots and obviously my music taste changed as well And then I started getting other bars and clubs. I always had to start off with the early slots though and work my way up so it was years and years of that grind before I got to play before the headliner. I wouldn’t change anything though for the world because it made me who I am today with my music selection in my Dj it really made me hone in. buying vinyl is expensive as well it’s not like today where you could just buy one track for $1.29 the record was either an import for 1299 or domestic for 1099 and if you only liked one track you still had to buy the whole record. There were times where I missed lunch because I wanted to have that track or those records and I didn’t want to pass up on them so is either the vinyl or lunch and I chose the vinyl. I’ve gotten open up for a lot of big headliners that I’ve rolled through Jacksonville at the Atlantic in Jax Beach and club V and Jax Beach and other smaller venues in the Jacksonville area. Kascade, Ferry Corsten, Launch generals, Walker and Royce, Justin Martin, Christian Martin, joeski, and many more . It’s always been about the party for me making sure the sound sounded right making sure the vibe was right just making sure everybody was having a good time and in my opinion Sound has a huge part to do with that.. don’t want to make the story too long-winded now I have a once a month at Casa Maria in Jacksonville Beach it’s an old-time hotel it’s called Sunset sessions and I do it with my friend Harry Chodorow we think the party is amazing the venue is great we have great sound the lighting decent the sun is setting in front of us. A lot of people seem to enjoy it as well which makes Harry and I very happy.. We just want to throw a party and for everybody to attendant have a good time in here different music but now that they know they like. There’s a lot of people in the electronic scene in Jacksonville now and it’s taking everybody to build it to this point it’s always been a team effort you have the guys in Riverside the rinse and repeat boys that are doing great things they’re killing the game. Just very thankful to be a part of the scenes still and get a little bit of love from people I really love the music.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Paying those dues
Playing super early slots
Having to go record shopping after the music is all been picked through
Having to show up at the record store every time they got an order just so they could see your face just so they knew you were waiting for records it was an old school mentality everybody had to pay their dues and it wasn’t an overnight thing you had to pay your dues for years

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve always been a bartender all my life and I believe that helped me in the Dj game since I was always around people and could promote I would get booked because the promoters knew I worked at a bar and I could tell a bunch of people to come to the party so I usually had a pretty good job of people And I think that helped me out a lot
But I’ve always been in the business my whole life

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
There’s so many and I’m still learning just be humble we’re all one team we’re all striving for the same goal

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jbird904 and @sunsetsessionsjax
• Facebook: Jacob Smith
• Soundcloud: Sunset Sessions Jax