Rob: Yeah, it's more like, "Play this because I know you have it." I get people who look around at my laptop and scroll through the list. People will pull out their phones and be like, "I've got it on my phone. Can you just play it out of here?" Everyone's got what they want, and there is no mystery. It used to be when I would do all vinyl people would be like, "Where did you get that record?!" Now they're like, "How many gigs you running? What software are you running?" That's what you're asking me? That's got nothing to do with anything.
April: That's such a relative question.
Rob: It's a bummer.
April: It's a major bummer, but for kids learning to DJ now it's the easiest, most convenient [question].
Rob: I regret most that they don't get the experience that we had. That [we] had to look for these things.
April: And there is no way for them to get that same experience, because it's just the way society is now.
Do you think it loses the thrill? April: Oh yeah. I would find a record and be like, "Who saw this? I need to go buy this right now!"
Rob: It was a big deal to find a record that you needed.
April: There is a lot more emotional attachment.
DJing now, do you think people respond differently when you play vinyl? Rob: I like spinning records because the people who do actually notice that I shut the laptop and see that I'm actually digging in and pulling [records] out, some people are pulled in by that. Some clubs in bigger cities have vinyl nights only. I think that draws in the crowd that does care.
Are there any crazy request stories you'd like to share? Rob: Now that things are digital and you could have anything and everything, people expect you to have everything. They are completely mind blown if you don't. I was DJing and this girl came up to me and she's like, "My friend lost her shoe in the club. Can you mix it up... Wika Wika Wika... find my shoe! Don't stop the music but scratch in 'find my shoe.'"
This wasn't like I'm going to go mess with this DJ. This was she was a little drunk and wanted to find her friend's shoe. She thought I had a sample on my computer that said "find my shoe" and I could mix it in and everyone would start looking for her shoe. (Laughs)
How did having your twins affect your record collecting habits? April: It pretty much dead-stopped mine. Not only because of having twins, but because of having a full time day job as a teacher. I've pretty much dropped out of DJing until this summer. The only reason I can get back into it is because my mom moved to town.
Rob: One of us had to stop. It was my job. April always DJed on her terms, she plays what she wants at the gigs she wants to do. I'm a working DJ. I'll do people's weddings. In the early '90s, I wanted to only do cool parties and I still like to, but it's a job now. For me having the twins [made] me more professional. Before then, if I was doing a very corporate gig, and I had to play something Top 40, it would just kill me inside. All these years of collecting rare records, and now I'm doing this. Then you become a dad, and you're raising a family, and you're like, "You know, big deal. Some people like 'The Electric Slide.'" I'm not going to let that bum me out.
[Writers note: At the end of the interview we asked Lincoln and Radley what there favorite records were.
Lincoln's favorite record is Duran Duran, "Rio."
Radley's favorite record is Boys Don't Cry, "I Wanna Be A Cowboy."
When asked whether they like their music loud or quiet, they both excitedly replied that they prefer their music quiet.
