By Kenn Gold and Shaun Daily
Casey Connor is making her mark as one of the most sought after DJ’s around the country. She just recently finished a 48 city tour with Maxim Magazine as part of their model search in major college cities around the US, and will be a featured DJ for Fox’s 2008 New Year’s Eve Show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Casey has previously been a back up dancer for some of the hottest acts including Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, and Whitney Houston, and has written some of the most popular songs performed by acts such as Backstreet Boys, Jesse McCarthy, and Michelle Branch. Additionally, Casey is an aspiring actress, having recently finished The Brave One with Jodie Foster, and has aspirations for her own reality show. Casey recently took time out of her busy schedule to speak with MediaBlvd Magazine on ShaunOMac’s radio show, about the challenges of being a DJ, and what she wants out of her career.
Kenn> We just read a little intro about you from your bio. If you could just start off and tell our listeners what you do and what your job is, that would be great! It sounds like you have a lot of really fascinating things going on.
Casey> Yeah, I live in Los Angeles so I do a lot of celebrity events. I’m a DJ and a singer/actress so I DJ for a lot of celebrity clientele and just finished working for Britney Spears and Kanye West. I’m about to do a Snoop Dog and 50 Cent party in Vegas so it’s been going really well.
Shaun> Really, I’m in Las Vegas, where’s this party at?
Casey> It’s called the Players Ball, it’s January 12th in Vegas. It’s going to be a lot of fun, about 6,000 people.
Shaun> Wow, I should show up.
Casey> You should show up. It’ll be tons of fun.
Shaun> I’ll bring the peanuts from Jericho with me.
Kenn> Can you get Shaun on the list?
Casey> Only if he’s good looking. If he’s cute.
Shaun> No, no. I don’t know about that. I’m 40 years old and a radio talk show host.
Casey> I’ll be at the door, don’t worry.
Shaun> Ok. You’re an aspiring actress and author. We’re talking about the writers strike. How do you feel? You’re in LA, what’s the atmosphere there about the strike.
Casey> Well, everyone in LA is pretty much an actor or writer so people are obviously a little bit bitter about it. Um, I mean it depends on who you ask and if they are union or non-union, so it’s really affecting a lot of people. It’s been going on for months now and it looks like it’s not ending anytime soon. Which is kind of a shame but I understand what the cause is and what they’re trying to do. It’s also putting a lot of people out of work right now.
Shaun> Yeah, it’s sad. People forget it’s not just the writers it’s the caterers, set designers, up and down, there are thousands and thousands of jobs. People are without money for Christmas over the greed of these production companies.
Casey> Yeah, it’s put a lot of people in unemployment. It’s affecting everyone, even events. I lost six jobs because of it, different television events like Grey’s Anatomy and CSI: Miami, they cancelled all of their holiday parties because of it.
Shaun> That’s too bad, you’d think they could have at least chipped in and had a little Christmas party, for crying out loud!
Casey> You’d think they’d have some of that money in the bank, and could throw some of that money to a DJ (laughs)! But apparently not.
Kenn> How did you get started as a DJ?
Casey> It was about 5 years ago, and I was a singer. Well, I still am a singer. But my manager at the time kind of saw something in me. He put me in touch with Spindarella from Salt & Pepper. He was managing them at the time and Spindarella was pregnant and they needed a DJ, so she trained me about 5 years ago. And my manager basically thought I’d be the right fit and put me on tour with them, and I was basically their DJ for about 3 months. Then I went on my own and became one of the most prominent DJs in New York City, then I moved to LA about a year and a half ago. And my career kind of just took off from there. I’ve been singing and dancing and acting my whole life. But DJing is definitely a part of that. I kind of get to perform while I’m DJing so I don’t miss the other side of the industry.
Kenn> So are you kind of focusing on the DJ side of things now?
Casey> I’m still singing and song writing and sort of working with a lot of different producers now. But DJing has definitely taken off for me. There are not a lot of female DJs who know how to spin and know how to mix. So I take a lot of pride in that. A lot of the female DJs aren’t as involved in the music as a lot of the guys are. So as soon as I walk into a club, people are little bit skeptical as to whether I can actually spin. Then when I prove myself, they’re like, “Oh, OK, she’s one of us,” so it’s kind of bittersweet. It gets kind of annoying walking in and having to prove yourself every night, but I also like the surprise afterwards and the smile on their faces when they can actually see that I know what I’m doing.
Shaun> Do you have any gigs lined up for New Year’s Eve?
Casey> Yeah, I’m part of the Fox New Year’s Eve West Coast Countdown. There will be about 5 thousand people and we’re shutting down part of Hollywood Blvd. And it’s in the Hollywood Highland complex. There’ll be 4 DJ’s and I’ll be one of them. There’ll be live bands like Earth Wind & Fire, Godsmack, and a few others, and a few celebrity hosts. We’re going to be going back and forth between New York and Los Angeles, and it’s going to be a live feed on Fox. So that should definitely be a lot of fun.
Shaun> That’s great with Fox. So you’ve got Dick Clark’s thing which everybody is kind of getting sick of, then you’ve got Fox, and that’s about it.
Casey> Exactly. That’s what they kind of tune into now. Dick Clark has been around for so many years, and now Fox has kind of taken over that whole slot, so I’m honored to be a part of that show.
Shaun> You’re originally from Brooklyn right?
Casey> Yeah, I’m actually in Brooklyn right now as I’m talking to you. I just got off the plane and I called you! I just went through JFK and got off the plane, and I’ll be here the whole week through the holidays.
Shaun> Do you have any plans, or are you just going to kind of kick it with the family?
Casey> Yeah, I haven’t seen my friends and family for a very long time, so I’m really looking forward to getting some quality time in. I have a lot of DJ gigs as well, DJing some clubs in New York and doing some guest spots as well.
Shaun> How’s the DJ business? I’m here in Vegas and I know it’s kind of cut throat here. Is it hard for a woman to break through in a town like Vegas?
Casey> Yeah, it definitely is a hard thing to break through. Like I mentioned earlier, you have to prove yourself. I think a good 95% of DJs are male, and unless you have a name, it’s very very hard getting a resident club gig as a DJ. The way I get my gigs, is if I DJ one night in a club, they usually ask me back. Then you just become one of their resident DJs in rotation. But it’s very hard making a name for yourself, if you can’t get that opportunity to get in there. But I grew up in New York City, so I’ve been in clubs since I was 14, but any scene, whether it’s Vegas or Miami, or New York, or LA, or even in Europe, it’s very hard breaking in. There are so many amazing DJs in those major cities. I did a US 48 city tour with Maxim Magazine for two years, and even in these little cities that you wouldn’t think of, there’s amazing talent. So there’s really only a certain amount of clubs and a certain amount of events, and there are a lot of DJs in this world. So it’s really just a matter of being very good at what you do, and being very professional when you DJ.
Kenn> So what was the Maxim tour about?
Casey> It was basically the national model search for Maxim and Budweiser. Basically, I did it for two years. We went around the country doing after parities for the model search. We had 25 models each night from a different city, and were in major college cities all across the country. We were in about 3 different cities a week. We’d go in and cast the models, then have them come back the next day, and pick the ones that were Maxim worthy. Then we’d have an after party and I would DJ it for 4 hours. We’d have break dancers, and acrobatics, and it was just an amazing show.
Kenn> So were there any cities that were memorable along the way? It sounds like a great opportunity.
Casey> Truthfully it was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to see the whole entire country and I met an amazing amount of people all across the country. The cities that really stuck out… of course I loved DJing in LA and New York City because all of my friends got to see what I did. But believe it or not, I loved Madison, Wisconsin. It was an amazing party town and one of the biggest college towns in the country, so I loved that. The people were just so nice and so receptive to me, and a lot of their resident DJs came to the show. They had me on a radio show there and had me guest DJ in a few of their clubs. I loved Minneapolis as well, and Austin, TX. The list just goes on and on. Just getting the opportunity to travel so much and see each cities music scenes, and what people were listening too, that’ll look great on my resume.
Shaun> How did you manage to juggle music, acting, and running a day care center from your home?
Casey> Well the daycare center was really at the begging of my career. I was a senior in high school, and unfortunate circumstances happened with my family, so I took over my family’s day care center and used that as a day job while I was in the studio singing at night and taking care of my family. It really made me grow up quickly. That was when I was 17. Running the day care center was really a separation from the music industry. I would watch 4 children during the day, their parents would pick them up at 5 o’clock, then I’d be off to the studio, singing and writing songs for the Backstreet Boys, from 10 o’clock til like 6 in the morning, then waking up and watching children again for money. It was definitely a humbling experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world. A good family background definitely helped out with that.
Shaun> When did the acting bug hit you?
Casey> It came as a kid, I actually started out acting before singing, and was like the only one in my family who wanted to act. My big break came when I about 9 years old, and there was this movie called A League of Their Own with Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Hanks. My father saw this audition in the newspaper and it was for kids who could play softball, and I was a huge tom-boy growing up, and I had 3 brothers, so I was always playing sports, so my dad was like “Let’s go to the audition.” It was in Central Park in Manhattan and there were about 2000 girls there and they picked me out and chose me for my baseball playing, then screen tested me. I got the role as the young Gina Davis character. Then I got the other side of the initiation, because in changing the whole entire movie around, they didn’t use the character of Gina Davis as a child. So the role was literally taken away from me. But it never stopped me, I always knew I wanted to be in front of the camera. It was just a passion of mine and I did plays and musicals as a kid. Then I auditioned for La Guardia High School when I was 13, and got in for acting and singing, so that’s where my career started off professionally.
Shaun> Do you look for any role in particular?
Casey> I just finished The Brave One with Jody Foster, which just came out about 4 months ago. I would love to have my own show that would be the best thing that could happen, focusing on my whole entire life, how I raised my family, then focusing on my whole entire career. That’s what I’m really trying to focus on now, having my own show based on my life and the career that I’ve chosen, just following me around on a day to day basis. That would be phenomenal. I love every aspect of entertainment!
Kenn> You list some of your jobs on your resume as a dancer, were those as a backup dancer?
Casey> Yeah, I was a backup dancer for Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Englesias, and Whitney Houston. I did a few shows with each one of them, and that’s where I met my manager. I was doing a music video for Jennifer Lopez, and her manager came up to me and asked if I did it professionally. That’s how I broke into the industry. I never took a dance class in my life, but some of the most amazing dancers in the world never took a class in their life. It was just something that I always loved. My whole family were musicians and I was the crazy little one, dancing around.
Kenn> What are some of the songs you’ve written that our listeners might recognize?
Casey> I wrote a song on the Backstreet Boys album called Poster Girl, and I wrote a song called The One on Michelle Branch’s album. I’m actually working with a few different artists now in LA, and I’m going to try to start working on my album. I wrote a whole album myself that was released two years ago in Europe. So I really just want to get back into song writing. That’s an extreme passion of mine. I love it. I had a song on the Fast and Furious 2 soundtrack called Set Myself Free. But I was touring Europe for 6 months in 2003 with TATU. N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, they were all huge in Europe before they made it over here. I can name countless artists who have done that.
Kenn> Do you have to sing non-disclosures for all of the celebrity parties you do, or can you tell any stories?
Casey> I have a really funny story about a Britney Spear’s photo shoot that I DJed about a month ago. I had a call from my agent, and he was like “Are you sitting down, get to a fax machine as soon as possible, I’m faxing over a non-disclosure agreement.” I got the fax stating that I’d be sued up to $300,000 dollars if I told anyone where I was going, and I didn’t even know what it was til Jive records called me. Then someone from Jive called me and told me I was going to be DJing a Britney Spears photo shoot. I have a lot of friends who love Britney Spears. She’s a pop-idol and I understand the whole thing, but I’ve been with a lot of celebrities, so it doesn’t phase me. I knew that a lot of people in my life would have loved to hear that. All of my friends were calling and texting me asking who is it? Then she walked upstairs to me, and was like “I just want to think you for making my day with all of the music you are playing”. And this was like the day after she got her kids taken away. And here I am playing music trying to put a good mood on her set. She gave me a hug, and told me I was by far the hottest DJ she’d ever seen. I couldn’t take a picture with her, I couldn’t do anything, so that’s the negative side of it. If I tell anyone, I’ll get sued for $300,000. As soon as I got in my car I called everyone I knew.
Don’t forget to check out Casey on the Fox New Year’s Eve Show!
