Audiences drive freshman JP Hadley’s passion for music. Hadley, a newspaper and online journalism major, expresses that passion through DJing and writing for a music blog.

“I’m honored that in some way I can provide that service to people,” Hadley said. “It could be an audience of one or it could be a lot of people, and it gets to the point where it’s just me and the music. It’s kind of a weird body and soul experience.”

Hadley discovered his interest in DJing when he stumbled across free DJing software online in middle school. After that, he was hooked.

Hadley took up DJing with his friend, Hartel Smith, and the two formed an act in November 2012 called Exp-edm. During their junior year of high school, the duo created a music blog named after their act, exp-edm.com. By the end of the year, the president of Dance Rebels, a popular dance music blog, discovered Hadley and Smith’s blog and invited them to start writing.

For Dance Rebels, Hadley had the opportunity to attend Electric Zoo, Hardwell and Size In The Park concerts for free. He also interviewed artists such as MAKJ, MOTi, Jordy Dazz and Thomas Newson for the blog.

Hadley’s writing and DJing frequently influence each other. He said DJing helps him keep in touch with what is relevant in the music industry.

“I’m very on top of what artists are producing, what kind of music and when it’s coming out,” Hadley said.

Although Hadley is a DJ, his taste in music varies. He doesn’t limit himself to any specific genres.

“(What I’m listening to) doesn’t depend on anything other than what’s going through my head. I feel like I can consider myself more of a fan of music and of art in general if I can get myself immersed in different styles.”

Hadley plans to continue exploring DJing at SU as a passion and to pursue writing as a career.

Published on August 25, 2014 at 12:01 am

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