MY JOURNEY ON RECORD

My love of music comes from my dad. Growing up in Ecuador, music was always playing, in the house, on every road trip, constantly. He went by DJ Skyways in the 80s and his mixtapes were something I looked forward to as a kid.  His taste shaped mine, and that shared obsession with 80s music has stayed with me my entire life — it's the backbone of my collection.

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In 2009, a friend took me and my dad to Plan 9, a record store in Richmond. I walked out with Back in Black by AC/DC, my first record. At that point my dad had zero records. He had sold his entire collection in the 90s when CDs took over. That one afternoon started something neither of us could stop.

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Every record I play comes from my personal collection. Not a working catalog. Not a hard drive. These are records I hunted for, traveled for, and have been collecting my entire adult life. Years of traveling through Spain, Mexico, and Ecuador gave birth to what is now the most extensive Spanish rock collection in Colorado. When someone tells me the music is good, that means everything to me. This collection is personal, and people can feel that. I call it Steady Grooves Vinyl — SG for Suarez Garcia, my two last names.

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Denver's live music scene is dominated by EDM and house music. That's not what I do. I play the music people actually grew up with, classic rock, 80s, alternative, Latin rock, the songs that mean something. There is nothing like hearing a record through an all-analog sound system. You are not hiring just another DJ. You are booking someone whose entire life has been about finding the right songs for the right moment.